New 55 gallon African cichlid build. Plus a question on my fish transfer disaster...

Hello all! It's been awhile since I have posted anything. I figure it was time to share something new. I started out a little over a year ago with a 20 gallon and everything was great with that tank. I ran up to petco and stumbled on their dollar per gallon sale and decided to pick up a 55 gallon tank since I have always wanted to build one dedicated to African Cichlids. So here I am with my build! Its not done yet, I still need to do some finishing touches on it. I am hoping to wrap it up soon. Right when I finished the stand I brought it inside and got the tank setup. I seeded the tank with TSS and I also added some bio media from my 20 gallon into the canister filter. I let the tank run for 24 hours and checked the water parameters on both my 20 and 55. Parameters were very close on both tanks:
Temp - 79 degrees
Ph - 7.6
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate on 20 gallon was about 10
Nitrate on 55 gallon was 0
Ammonia on 20 gallon was 0
Ammonia on 55 was between .25 and .50

So I thought to myself it would be OK to transfer a few fish over. I added 2 mdoka flametails and a electric yellow lab cichlid. I acclimated the fish by floating them for about 30 minutes then put them in. They seemed fine for approximately 3 hours then went downhill from there. I ended up losing all 3 fish. This is my first time upgrading tanks and transferring fish so where did I go wrong, what should I do to prevent future loss? Would love to get everyone's thoughts!! Thanks in advance!

 

The tank may not be cycled fully.
For fish in cycle, cheaper fish, like Zebra Danios who are hardy make good starters.
On my African Cichlid 55, I did much same as you to promote cycle....still took almost 2 weeks with 5 Danios in tank.

 

What are your thoughts on fishless cycling using fish flakes?

 

Never done it. Probably won't, I'm not that patient. Fyi, my 5 Danios have now cycled 3 tanks in past 8 months , they are pros (originally there were 7 of them, 2 died).
I'm in no way opposed to fishless, just not for me. They live in 20 gallon QT normally. Very hardy.

And yes, I leave them in QT when new arrivals are quarantined. I only buy from 2 breeder/sellers I trust.

 

I am sorry to hear about your fish. It looks like you did most everything the way I would have done it. Well, other than adding the bottled bacteria. I would rather depend on bacteria from my own cycled tank than anything in a bottle.

It sounds like there must have been a big difference other than just nitrates and low amount of ammonia between the water the fish were in and the new water in the bigger tank. If you just temp acclimated that difference may have been what caused the deaths.

How often were you doing water changes on the 20? How much were you changing each time? There are things that build up in our tanks we don't normally test for. The fish in the tank get used to them as they gradually rise. If the fish are pulled from their tank and dropped into fresh water we see things like this happening.

This also happens when we add new fish. Our original fish are fine but every other fish added ends up dying. This is one of the reasons I am a stickler for weekly water changes. If they are done on a regular basis the water in the tank stays pretty close to the same as the water from the tap. If they are done regularly on all tanks we can move fish from tank to tank without having to acclimate them to new water.

 

Side-note: I'd double or triple the rocks for Mbuna.

 

I am sorry to hear about your fish. It looks like you did most everything the way I would have done it. Well, other than adding the bottled bacteria. I would rather depend on bacteria from my own cycled tank than anything in a bottle.

It sounds like there must have been a big difference other than just nitrates and low amount of ammonia between the water the fish were in and the new water in the bigger tank. If you just temp acclimated that difference may have been what caused the deaths.

How often were you doing water changes on the 20? How much were you changing each time? There are things that build up in our tanks we don't normally test for. The fish in the tank get used to them as they gradually rise. If the fish are pulled from their tank and dropped into fresh water we see things like this happening.

This also happens when we add new fish. Our original fish are fine but every other fish added ends up dying. This is one of the reasons I am a stickler for weekly water changes. If they are done on a regular basis the water in the tank stays pretty close to the same as the water from the tap. If they are done regularly on all tanks we can move fish from tank to tank without having to acclimate them to new water.

On the 20, I would do weekly water changes for the most part. every now and then 2 weeks. I would change about 40% each time. I used prime for every water change.

I would have never thought about other things in the tank that we don't test or account for.

 

On the 20, I would do weekly water changes for the most part. every now and then 2 weeks. I would change about 40% each time. I used prime for every water change.

In that case the water in both tanks should have been close to the same. Since you said you moved the fish over to this tank I am assuming you had these fish in your 20 gallon. Weekly water changes should have kept the water in the 20 close to the same as what you put in the 55 so we can probably discount water difference as the reason for the loss.

Did you clean the 55 before you set it up? I am wondering if something could have been in it from the store. Was it an unboxed tank?

I would have never thought about other things in the tank that we don't test or account for.

There are minerals in our tap water, ferts and conditioners and some things in the food we feed our fish. Some get used, some just keep building up until we do a water change to dilute them. I don't know exactly what those things are. I am just aware that it happens. There really is more to water changes other than just keeping the nitrates down.

 

In that case the water in both tanks should have been close to the same. Since you said you moved the fish over to this tank I am assuming you had these fish in your 20 gallon. Weekly water changes should have kept the water in the 20 close to the same as what you put in the 55 so we can probably discount water difference as the reason for the loss.

Did you clean the 55 before you set it up? I am wondering if something could have been in it from the store. Was it an unboxed tank?

There are minerals in our tap water, ferts and conditioners and some things in the food we feed our fish. Some get used, some just keep building up until we do a water change to dilute them. I don't know exactly what those things are. I am just aware that it happens. There really is more to water changes other than just keeping the nitrates down.

Yup, the fish were originally in my 20. For the 55 gallon, i purchased it, brought it home and immediately filled it to perform a leak test for 24 hours. I then drained, rinsed and wiped it down really well. no soap or any other chemicals were used. It was an unboxed tank.

 

Yup, the fish were originally in my 20. For the 55 gallon, i purchased it, brought it home and immediately filled it to perform a leak test for 24 hours. I then drained, rinsed and wiped it down really well. no soap or any other chemicals were used. It was an unboxed tank.

Well shoot. I am all out of ideas as to why your fish didn't make it This is probably a dumb questions but are you sure all the rocks and substrate you used were cleaned really well before putting them in the tank?

 

I did rinse the rock really well. thorough rinse and wipedown. the substrate I rinsed but didn't spend a ton of time on it since it seemed fairly clean meaning when i was rinsing it the water was fairly clear. I couldn't tell you why either! I greatly appreciate your thoughts it did provide some other insights to think about!

 

One other thing came to mind. I have to wonder if the tank had been in the store for a while if someone may have cleaned it with something that shouldn't have been used on it. Before I put any more fish in there I would do several 100% or as much as I could get out, water changes. If some kind of cleaning agent was used hopefully several water change will dilute it down so safe levels.

It does look to me like you did everything just right and your fish should have transitioned well. Since they died so quickly I have to think there was something in the tank before you got it that caused it. You would think by rinsing it well you would have removed what ever it might be but we can't know what it might be.

I might even go so far as draining the tank and washing it with dawn dish soap. It doesn't leave a residue if it is rinsed really well and should remove anything that might be in there.

 

I tested the water again last night and this morning. here are the results of the test.

Ph - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0

I also picked up a few giant danios last night. I temp and dripped acclimated them for about 45 minutes before putting them in. no issues at all. they are still alive and very active in the tank. Then again I hear that they are pretty bulletproof.