My Tank Update @ 1 Month

[190MPH]

Hey all, it's been a while, work has been crazy. I thought I would post a 1 month update on my tank (72g) and how things have been going to hear some of your thoughts.

First, the parameters. I have well water, no chlorine or chloramines. I fishless cycled(took about 6 weeks). Since the cycle, I have tested the water many times. Ammonia and Nitrite have remained at 0. Nitrate has been 10-20 at WC time. KH has remained at 70-80 ppm, GH at 160ppm. pH is ~8. No live plants, just fake deco. Water changes have been weekly, about 25-30% and I add API stress coat. Temp is kept at around 77. I have noticed the brown diatoms showing up on all of the fake decos. I cleaned some of it off with todays WC.
Filtration consists of a Cascade 1200 cannister, penguin 350 biowheel and an AC30 to be used for a 10g QT tank.

Next, the initial stocking, over 2 days due to the FL cycle.
10 Zebra Danios
6 Panda Cories
6 Sterbai Cories
4 Bleeding Heart Tetras
3 Bosemani Rainbows
2 Pineapple Swordtails (1m/1f)

Five days after stocking, one of the rainbows died. He did not seem right from the start, pale and segregating himself from the others, so I might attribute this to being already sick, or stress. The folowing week, I saw the dreaded ich show up. After much reading, I went with salt and heat treatment. It worked well and the outbreak was gone in 2 weeks. A week and a half ago, I lost one danio quickly, and noticed that a 3 others were acting strange. I moved those 3 to an 8g biorb with 3 existing danios. I have dosed it with melafix because 1 seemed to have a red belly. 5 of the 6 seem to be doing OK, 1 is still iffy. Yesterday, I lost one of the panda cories, but I think he had swim bladder problems. I noticed him spiraling down from his gulps of air once or twice. On a brighter, but expected note, the swordtail had given birth, and I had caught a glimpse of 2 fry before work 2 days ago. Unfortunately, she had them at night, and I'm sure the majority were eaten then. I have not seen the other two either since that morning. I've noticed a couple of the cories seemed to be sluggish, so I'll be keeping an eye on that.

Feeding has been varied. Frozen bloodworms or tubifex once per week. Color flake, micro pellet/wafers, sinking wafers, and shrimp pellets fill the menu. I have been feeding twice a day, but I think I'm going to cut that to once a day.

I think my first question regards the deaths. I have heard that there will be a certain level of mortality with a new tank. Do you agree with this and could I attribute my deaths to that? Otherwise, any other suggestions or comments about anything? Does any of this sound like your start in the hobby?

Sorry to be long winded, but I love to learn and hear of everyone elses experience.

 

[Craster]

There are certainly fish that ideally want a tank that's been around a while to ensure it is fully settled. These tend to be the more delicate fish that are sticklers for water quality. Rainbows and Panda Cories certainly fall in that category.

I'm surprised about the danios. They tend to be pretty tough fish, which is often why they are the recommended choice for fish-in cycling.

 

[Gilli]

Panda Corys are not tolerant to salt which is why you might have lost them. They also prefer cooler water temperatures so raising it wouldnt have done them much good either. Please bear in mind they are among the "scaleless fishes", so this needs to be considered when adding medication to the tank.

Also you may be overfeeding. Your water stats may be ok but the water quality may be suffering. Cut your feeding to once a day and make sure you do a thorough vac and 30% water change once a week.

 

[190MPH]

Thanks for the replies.

Craster, other than the one danio I did lose, the others seem to be bouncing back in a different tank with a small dose of melafix.

Gilli, of the many places I read about treating ich with cories, alot of people said they had good success with the salt/heat method. The risk of greater problems with the commercially available meds is also part of the reason I went the other way.
Funny you mention the feeding. After thinking about it yesterday, I did decide yesterday that I am now only going to feed once daily because of the potential to have water quality issues by over-feeding. My water changes are 25% minimum, but I am going to start doing slightly more.

 

[Gilli]

Corys should be ok with meds for whitespot if you use just half the dosage for your tank, I did this with mine and they were fine and it cleared up with just one treatment.

Regarding the feeding and water quality - I found this out through experience. My water stat readings were fine but I was having problems with all kinds of sickness. Turns out my gravel syphon was rubbish! Only found this out when I got a bigger tank and bought a new gravel syphoner for a larger tank - the gunk that came out compared to the other was scarey and that was with the same amount of fish!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

the rainbows and panda cory I wouldn't be too surprised about, both can be a touch on the sensitive side and consequently can be ones that go for no real reason in a newly cycled tank.

the danio's are on the whole a hardy species, however they are overbred commerically and because they are considered such a cheap fish often they are not great quality. I've seen whole batches of danio's on sale that I just wouldn't touch, all too skinny and generally looking rather unwell. It could be that they were just a weak batch, providing the rest recover I don't think you have anything serious to contend with, they may just need a little TLC to get them up to full health.

definately cut back feeding to once a day, I never feed more than once a day and give them a starve day roughly once a week. It's much worse to overfeed than undereed so if you're not sure then give them a bit less!

 

[190MPH]

Thank you. The danios that I moved to the other tank seem to be doing well. I put them in with 3 others that were in there already and dosed with pimafix once. The main tank seems to be OK for now. My sword had babies last week(none survived because it happened at night, I saw 2 fry in the morning), and now it looks like one of the danios is about to spawn also.