Questions from Alien Anna's Tank Cycling Article

[lizard]

1. Immediately do a 10-15% water change with dechlorinated water and continue to do this at least once daily until your tank is cycling (i.e. ammonia and nitrite are at zero).

Should I do this only once a day, or would twice a day be better?

2. Test the water daily for ammonia and nitrite until the values are holding at zero for several days running. If levels are high, do an immediate, extra water change.

I'm guessing that my ammonia and/or nitrite levels are going to be high for awhile. By "extra" water change, do you mean in addition to the once or twice day water changes, ore more than 10 or 15%?

4. Keep good aeration in the tank both to help the fish a little and to oxygenate those beneficial bacteria.

Would getting a bubble stone-type thing help keep the tank aerated? Would place one or two of those (depending on size of stone and of tank) be a good idea?

5. Avoid using medications, if at all possible, as many medications kill off beneficial bacteria. Your fish may well get ick, fungus or other infections due to the stress of the ammonia and nitrite but the priority is to get that water quality as good as possible.

I have been treating for ich for <counts> over a week. I *think* the fish are clear of spots (yes, I know the ich lives in the filter, etc. and treatment needs to go on for longer than until the spots are gone), though it's hard to tell 'cause some of my fish are lightly colored. Should I discontinue the ich treatment unless/until I can tell for sure whether or not the suspect fish does have ich?

7. Live plants can directly use ammonia, so if you can, put some cheap aquatic plants in the tank, such as elodea or giant vallis.

I am going in to town today, so I will see if I can find some elodea, or some such plant. I could possibly talk to the biology department here at school on Monday and see if they have an elodea I could have.

8. Don't feed your fish at all if your ammonia readings are high, and only feed bare minimum rations every other day, until the tank cycles. This will cut down on the ammonia the fish produce. Since fish are cold blooded creatures and don't need the calories of a mammal they can go several days without food anyway, and the occasional fast is good for them. Your fish may not be very hungry anyway so do be careful not to feed more than the fish can eat and clean up uneaten food immediately, before it rots and produces even more ammonia.

I'm doing this. What about the ghost shrimp though? Are they okay only getting food bits (I don't feed them anything specific, they just scavenge) every other day?

9. Only clean the gravel superficially, of obvious dirt and uneaten food. You want the bacteria to colonise it and actually start to grow. Also, don't swap out your filter at this point - if it gets blocked, just clean it enough to unblock it, in used tank water.

No problem there. Should I float the filter I'll be putting in the other tank into the already-running (but still cycling) tank for awhile or would I be better off just putting the clean filter into the tank I'm setting up? (In an earlier post, someone recommended setting up my five gallon aquarium ASAP and putting a few of the fish in there to reduce the bio-load on the 10 gallon.)

Lots of questions, lots of questions. I'm very happy I've found this forum though You people have been most helpful and understanding (although probably frustrated at me for doing reading AFTER I got the fish and not before ).

Thank you so much!

Pamela
aka Lizard
aka GoatGirl

 

[Alien Anna]

1. Immediately do a 10-15% water change with dechlorinated water and continue to do this at least once daily until your tank is cycling (i.e. ammonia and nitrite are at zero).

Should I do this only once a day, or would twice a day be better?

It depends on the ammonia or nitrite levels. Initially and when you have ammonia, its necessary to keep your fish alive, but as the nitrite levels fall its not so necessary.

2. Test the water daily for ammonia and nitrite until the values are holding at zero for several days running. If levels are high, do an immediate, extra water change.

I'm guessing that my ammonia and/or nitrite levels are going to be high for awhile. By "extra" water change, do you mean in addition to the once or twice day water changes, ore more than 10 or 15%?

I mean if you have high ammonia or very high nitrite and your fish are suffering, you must do an immediate water change. It depends on the situation - with delicate fish, or fish that are hovering on the surface of the water you may have to do a massive water change just to keep them alive. This could delay the tank cycling and cause long-term problems but needs must.

4. Keep good aeration in the tank both to help the fish a little and to oxygenate those beneficial bacteria.

Would getting a bubble stone-type thing help keep the tank aerated? Would place one or two of those (depending on size of stone and of tank) be a good idea?

An air-stone might help. Then again, the water can only contain so much oxygen.

5. Avoid using medications, if at all possible, as many medications kill off beneficial bacteria. Your fish may well get ick, fungus or other infections due to the stress of the ammonia and nitrite but the priority is to get that water quality as good as possible.

I have been treating for ich for <counts> over a week. I *think* the fish are clear of spots (yes, I know the ich lives in the filter, etc. and treatment needs to go on for longer than until the spots are gone), though it's hard to tell 'cause some of my fish are lightly colored. Should I discontinue the ich treatment unless/until I can tell for sure whether or not the suspect fish does have ich?

I said "if at all possible". If you don't treat ich your fish will die so you don't have a choice. You should always continue ich treatment for at least 10-14 days to kill the parasite in the gravel. Look up the pinned post in the Fish Diseases section on treating ich.

7. Live plants can directly use ammonia, so if you can, put some cheap aquatic plants in the tank, such as elodea or giant vallis.

I am going in to town today, so I will see if I can find some elodea, or some such plant. I could possibly talk to the biology department here at school on Monday and see if they have an elodea I could have.

If the biology department has some elodea they might also lend you some gravel and matured filter floss - even a handful would make a massive difference. Do keep it wet and try not to keep it out of oxygenated water for long.

8. Don't feed your fish at all if your ammonia readings are high, and only feed bare minimum rations every other day, until the tank cycles. This will cut down on the ammonia the fish produce. Since fish are cold blooded creatures and don't need the calories of a mammal they can go several days without food anyway, and the occasional fast is good for them. Your fish may not be very hungry anyway so do be careful not to feed more than the fish can eat and clean up uneaten food immediately, before it rots and produces even more ammonia.

I'm doing this. What about the ghost shrimp though? Are they okay only getting food bits (I don't feed them anything specific, they just scavenge) every other day?

All cold-blooded creatures can cope with long periods of fasting without harm.

9. Only clean the gravel superficially, of obvious dirt and uneaten food. You want the bacteria to colonise it and actually start to grow. Also, don't swap out your filter at this point - if it gets blocked, just clean it enough to unblock it, in used tank water.

No problem there. Should I float the filter I'll be putting in the other tank into the already-running (but still cycling) tank for awhile or would I be better off just putting the clean filter into the tank I'm setting up? (In an earlier post, someone recommended setting up my five gallon aquarium ASAP and putting a few of the fish in there to reduce the bio-load on the 10 gallon.)

The faster you get this tank cycling, the better. However, since this tank has already started you could put a sponge filter or some filter floss into that tank for transfer to your 5 gallon later. That means you'll have a cycled filter quicker than if you simply cycled the second tank with fish.

Good luck!