FishQueen55

I'm treating my molly right now of parasites....I'm planning on moving her back to the main tank and then moving my fry into that tank. How should I prepare the tank for the fry seeing how my sick molly was in there

Beeker

I would put some carbon in the filter and do a couple of large water changes over the course of a few days. But see what some other people say. I never used a recently used hospital tank for my fry before.

Shawnie

I would completely clean the tank and start it over ....most meds will kill a cycle anyhoo...cut some filter media off your healthy tank if its established, and put in some of the gravel..and go from there....

cerianthus

Clean (Rinse it several time ) Filters and tank. Run cleaned filter(S) (w/ new media) on main tank for few days. When ready to transfer, use water from main tank provided that water is good and hook up the filter. May add some substrate from the main tank which will be beneficial in stablizing baby tank. Add some cory cats to help w/ leftovers.
Check your water(mostly NH3, NO2) daily, if not every other day, to insure good water for fry. Do partial water changes w/ main tank water in case of emergency rather than tap until tank is well established.

Shawnie

id go with clean water ...water from the other tank wont do much as the beneficial bacteria isnt in the water floating..

Red1313

New media needs at least 2 weeks to mature but some mature gravel is a good idea.

cerianthus

Will not have problem provided all the water for fry tank came from Main Tank. Main Tank Water itself is source for bio-activities along with gravels from main tank.

Shawnie

main tank is where the sick fish came from....very little beneficial bacteria is in the water..not enough to sustain a good cycle...

FishQueen55

The main tank is where I my sick molly came from....no other fish seem to be infected. My pH is 7.5 and my alkalinity is a lil high, according to my test strips. My nitrates are high and I'm getting rid of them with 25 percent water changes. As I stated in another post about tranferring my fry, do you think they will be fine in the net breeder until they are old enough?

Oh and for a update on my molly, she seems to be doing better moving about. She is still not eating. I treated her with Parasite Guard by Jungle for external parasites (that's the only thing at my pet shop they had and the owner said it would work for both)
If anyone has any has any contradicting thoughts on the above. I would love to hear them

cerianthus

Tank water is source of beneficial nitrifying bacteria, Maybe Inactive until attached to medium. Why have the fish exposed to totally different water (even cleaner water) when they were doing fine in the tank. And new tank may have to go thru so called "mini-cycle", which can be fatal to fry if not kept under control.

Why go thru all trouble risking the fry to exposure to NH3, NO2, when you can avoid it by using water from main tank and some medium and Sponge filter that was in operation in main tank, even for 2 days. They don't need to have 2weeks of time to establish in well established tank.
Only when you are starting new tank it will take 2-3 weeks to establish enough bacteria to see a drop in NH3. Bacteria can establish in new filter in one day in well established tank, just not enough. Enough colony will develop as it matures when using water from well established tank.

Been doing for over 40 years when transferring frys from breeders to rearing tank and moving breeding pair to breeding tank from main tank.

Take a look at my s/w 20 G & 10G Tank which were set up when I brought fish from ocean.
Used water and some substrate from Ocean to set up w/ sponge filter that was NOT seeded at all. Add live rock which were kept dry for about 6 months. No problem w/ NH3, NO2 when preperly fed and maintain. Have not done water changes since last Memorial Day, the first day of the year I take my children to ocean to catch samll fish, seahorses, pipefish, flounders, etc. I've doing it since my childrens were able to walk. Will give away fish that gets too big or return them to where came from. I have hooked up protein skimmer on labor day when I was able to find O-ring to repair the skimmer. Believe me when I say nitrifying bacteria are in the water, just not active until anchored to medium.

Net breeder is just fine as long as fry do not get trapped in the corners of net.

cerianthus

10G Seahorse ( male is incubating since week before Thanksgiving) and 20 G Tank of local S/W fish

Attached Images

	My Tanks 001.jpg (75.9 KB, 6 views)
	My Tanks 003.jpg (81.5 KB, 4 views)
	My Tanks 005.jpg (77.0 KB, 4 views)
	My Tanks 006.jpg (78.3 KB, 3 views)
	My Tanks 007.jpg (79.1 KB, 4 views)

Lucy

I have to respectfully disagree.

I agree with Shawnie, very little bacteria is in the water, not enough to cycle a tank.
The bacteria is not free flowing, it establishes it's self to the gravel, decorations and more importantly, the filter media.

Beautiful tank, btw.

cerianthus

For curiosity sake, where did first bactria came from in the tank when one start out new tank w/ tap. Water is medium how bacteria got to filters, gravel, even glass of the tank. Once they are attached to any surface area where conditions are aerobic, they do their thing. Water is medium where even pathogenic bacteria move around, active or inactive until favorable conditions are met and find weak host to cause a problem. just like many different bacteria are always present around us.
Bacteria are constantly dying off and reproducing in the water. it's just matter of time until their preferable conditions are met where they will perform their thing wether pathogenic or beneficial.

Lucy

I think the difference we're talking about here is used water vs used filter media.

We're not saying water has no bacteria in it, just not enough to cycle a tank quickly. It also contains nitrates the by product of waste. Why put that in a freshly established tank?
And in the case of the OP, why subject her fry to water that had a sick fish and meds in it?

Whereas used filter media from an established tank has a healthy bed of bacteria just waiting to be fed.

cerianthus

IMHO, fry being more sensitive to changes to their environment, why exposed them to new cycling process. They may have been exposed to NO3, and meds. High nitrates can be easily controlled via small partial water changes. So called healthy colony of beneficial bacteria are from same tank. Fry tanks are usually overfed than show tank since fed more often w/ small particled foods. Good amount of food gets trapped b/n the substrate which can foul up water causing massive problem, if not all, overnight.
Too much gravels in fry tank will get in the way of removing uneaten food. Can put small amount of gravel in the net bag and put over the sponge filter. Use air line tubing to remove excess food particles.
Possible exposure to NO3 is better than to expose fry to NH3 and/or NO2 and/or totally different water even though it may be cleaner , IMHO.

FishQueen55

Okay I got lost at the whole bacteria thing, but I think I'm going to just leave my fry in the main tank. They seem to be doing fine, and it makes since not to change their water conditions since they were born and raised in it. They're getting sooo big I actually have a rather high Ph level which is normal in my area, somebody told me that my high Ph was caused by alot of ammonia. I ran a test kit a few days ago and everything is normal. I'm going to do a partial water change tomorrow, let that filter through, then test again.