Caligo'sKeeper

Hi,

I need some help. A little background... I'm setting up a new tank (not cycled, I used "used" filters and some pre"seeded" Caribsea gravel which Iv'e never used before, I've had it set up for two days the water is a bit cloudy so I'm waiting for it to settle in order to start the Nitrogen cylce --no fish in there. )and I have a tank that has been running for almost 4 years which is where I got the used filters.


Ok so what happened today is I was doing a partial water change on the 4 year old aquarium with my goldfish in it and I decided instead of wasting the water I'd pump it into the new tank (I figured it might help it cycle, IDK) anyway what happened is after I did the water change my goldfish started acting funny... now I'm affraid some water from the new tank might have gotten into the old aquarium from the syphon I was using b/c it lost suction a few times... So I did about another 25% change on the old aquarium, besides the 25 I took out and put into the new tank... I'm worried about my goldfish how could that affect her? What should I do if new water did get into the tank... would it be a problem or is it maybe something else? My fish just seems kind of listless... still eating though, but kind of stops and floats every so often

Shawnie

was there ammonia or nitrites in the uncycled tank? whats the pH of the two tanks? are the two tanks similar in temps? if there was ammonia or nitrites, or the ph was a big difference, both would hurt the goldie...if the temps were a big difference, that would shock them also....

jdhef

If you aren't adding an ammonia source to the uncycled tank, the bacteria in the seeded material will starve off. So you really need to get some ammonia into the tank.

Other than what Shawnie said above, no harm should come from the water getting into your tank. The bacteria doesn't live in the water, it lives in the filter media and hard surfaces in your tank. So it would really be no different than putting new treated tap water into your goldfish tank.

mathas

Has the water in the newer tank been treated for chlorine/chloramines yet?

Caligo'sKeeper

The water was treated with water conditioners, when I tested for nitrites and nitrates yesterday there were none... I don't know about ammonia b/c I still need to get a test kit for that, I have a seachem ammonia alert wheel in the new tank and it hasn't registered anything yet... (it's white/safe still) I've been adding a bit of food to the new tank in the A.M. trying to cycle it that way. I haven't added any ammonia. Thanks for your replies.

If there is ammonia or nitrates in the new water that got into the goldies tank, would doing a water change help? I already did a 25 after the fact, would more help or whatelse could I do?

OldMan

Doing a water change on a tank with water quality problems is always a good idea but nothing you have said points to water quality problems at all. The bit of food that you have in the new tank has not likely produced high concentrations of ammonia in that tank. Even if you had horribly high ammonia in the new tank, once it was diluted by the water in the goldie tank it would have come to safe levels unless you moved the whole 25% in the wrong direction. My tap water measures about 1 PPM of ammonia and I still do water changes without worry because the tank water dilutes the ammonia and the filter promptly takes care of the resulting low concentration in my tanks.

Caligo'sKeeper

Thanks for your repies, Caligo seems fine this A.M. She's munching her peas and swimming without stopping to float.

Shawnie

im glad things are better for caligo!