Sorry for pouring so many questions on this Forum. I have a 45 Gallon tank, due to a fungal infection fish started dying, i cleaned up the tank, have put the fish in another tank. Now coming back to the old tank (45 gallon), i went thru the Tank cycle thread, but I have few questions: 1 - I've put tap water, added PRIME, Dechlorinator, Live bacteria liquid to it. Do i need to wait for few weeks before adding fish? 2 - Since this is a 3 week old tank, do i need to start from scratch? in terms of cycling and waiting for it to mature? 3 - When should I add back the fish? thanks in advance
You can't add prime and bb at same time , prime kills bottled bacteria. Add prime the 24 hours later add bb. It depends on whether or not you added cycled media to your filter or just new stuff and bottled bacteria WHEN your readings are ammonia 0/ nitrite 0/ nitrate between 5 and 40 max
Got it for #1 #2 - I had to wash the filter media as i suspected infection spread across the tank..i do have an Old filter media from a pet shop..which i can use. and some old lava rocks i have #3 unfortunately I just have ammonia tester
Ok so for #2 I would add it as long as it's been being kept alive and as for the lava rock same applies. As for #3 you should day get an api fresh water master test kit or any type like it, if heard MIXED reviews on the tetra strips but that would be better then nothing, once you can test for all three components stated above and they read as stated above, you can then add fish back
I'd seen anywhere from a week to several months, all depends on stocking, or ammonia source, and also what was used such as tss or stability, it is really all in the luck of the draw
I will be honest here..im out of money to buy the entire testing kit..i believe some degree of risk has to be taken
Ok well until you can get it, which I'd been there no worries, just do water changes every day to every other day and test what you have which if I remember correctly is for ammonia. Test that before water changing, So, if you see ammonia then change water, If you don't, wait til next day to do water change, I'm sure if you wait then nitrates will build, I can't remember if it's fishless or not, but if you have fish fallow my steps, of it's fishless don't worry about it and do water changes once a week or more
Thanks, thanks again for your time. Its a fishless tank..this morning reading was pale yellow on the API test for ammonia
So that means 0 to .25, but more likely 0. So don't water change today. Then test again tm, WHEN u see ammonia change some water. What are you using for ammonia source again? Edit to add: your welcome, I'm more than happy to help in any way I can, if it wasn't for ppl helping me, I wouldn't have a clue what I was doing lol
Three more died..looks like its some sort of outbreak..heading to a pet store to get fee gallons of used water and used media..also planning to get a canister filter (which was in pipeline for a while)
I'm confused, thought it was fishless.....? Edit: if there are fish then scratch what I said and do daily to every other day water changes religiously til your sure your cycled 2 edit: oh your the one who had the fungal infection.. so in the other tank fish are dieing?
Sorry to hear about your troubles! Your 45 gallon tank needs an ammonia source in order to cycle. This is the nitrogen cycle in a nutshell. Your fish poop and produce ammonia. Ammonia is very toxic to fish. One species of beneficial bacteria (bb) convert ammonia to nitrite. Nitrite is also very toxic to fish. A second species of bb convert nitrite to nitrate. Nitrate is not harmful to fish as long as the concentration is below 40 ppm. Many people try to keep nitrate below 20 ppm. Regular weekly partial water changes keep nitrate levels from getting too high. If you just treat your tank with Prime (a very good dechlorinator) and add bottled bacteria but have no ammonia source, you will not be able to grow your colony of bb on your filter media. Some people add pure ammonia or fish food to provide an ammonia source. But you would need a Freshwater Master Test Kit to monitor your levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate to do a fishless cycle with ammonia (or fish food). How long has your 45 gallon tank been without fish? Your filter may still have some bb but they will die off without an ammonia source, which is their food. Another option is to do a fish in cycle using Tetra Safe Start plus (TSS+). To use this, you wait at least 24 hours after adding any Prime to your tank, then add a full bottle of TSS+ and add several fish. Do nothing for 2 weeks except feed lightly. No water changes, no testing water for 2 weeks. Then you can start doing regular water changes and you should be cycled. Others may have more ideas given your troubles with illness with your fish. Hope this helps!!
Sorry for replying late, had to actually run around a lot to fix this issue. GOOD NEWS is..no deaths since 48 hours. Here is what i did..saw a tetra bieng ill...rushed to the pet shop guy who is around 25 miles away...packed 25 litres of water from one of his old aquariums. Transfered all my fish to the main tank which was recently cleaned..with some plants..and viola!!! They seem happy. Now very very cautiously i am adding half a bucket of tap water which is treated with prime and dechlorinator, every day. Thanks guys...it was quite a run..but im happy they r alive
