Fish tank woes

[NutBucket]

What a pain. I would toss my tank if I had to switch to RO.

 

[cvrefugee]

First...calm the fuck down. NOTHING good happens in an aquarium quickly.

Cycling an aquarium usually takes 4-6 weeks if done correctly, but can be done in 2-3 weeks if you're diligent and do everything just right..

The tank won't even start to cycle without some source of ammonia. Some people use ammonia from a bottle, others use live fish...I prefer to toss in a small piece of shrimp and let it rot...yes, it will stink for a while, but that goes away.

Every time you take out the rocks and "wash" them, you basically end the cycle...and it will have to start all over again.

Patience, young jedi...patience.

Here's a decent site for basic aquarium knowledge:

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/

One of the best in the biz...Robert Fenner offers this:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/fwestcycling.htm

I'm much calmer now! My first tank (the 10-gallon) was perfect. The water was super clear and tested perfect on all the tests. However, the water came from the tap in my old city of Corona, which probably explains everything. When I moved to Riverside in August last year I noticed the water is very hard and reeks of chlorine. I'm guessing this is partly why I'm having issues and the bad reaction to the Proper pH 7.5. Thank you for the links, I will check them out. I sucked at chemistry but I'll do my best to understand it all.

You might not understand what cycling a tank is. You actually need to have fish in there to cycle. If you put just plain water there and expected things to stabilize that would be your main problem.

The idea is to throw fish you dont care about into the tank, and feed and care for them normally and not have to worry about if the fish die from poor water quality. Usually you would use a hardy species so they probably wont die even with poor water quality. Eventually the tank will accumulate all the necessary bacteria and then it will be ready for the fish that you do care about.

If you just have goldfish then you probably dont need to cycle the tank at all since they are usually quite hardy unless you have some fancy super inbred goldfish...

I do understand what cycling is. I am an idiot, however, for not disclosing that I was using a NutraFin Cycle to create the good bacterial colonies as NutBucket describes below. If I would have listened to my instincts and not the idiot Petco guy we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Or you can cheat and use starter bacteria in a bottle. Definitely a wide range of opinions on this but it worked fine for my tank.

http://www.tetra-fish.com/sites/tetrafish/catalog/Detail.aspx?id=4224

 

[cvrefugee]

And here's what my old tank looks like today (need to clean up the algae)

 

[cvrefugee]

Since there are so many different approaches I can take, I still don't know which is the best course to go. This is what I am thinking:

1. Drain the tank
2. Completely replace the gravel
3. Wash the plants and castle with a 3% vinegar solution
4. Add new water
5. Let water stand for 24 hours
6. Add water conditioner
7. Let water stand for another 24 hours
8. Place plants, castle, and pump (with new filter) back in tank
9. Start pump, add biological agent for next three days (NutraFin Cycle)
10. Test water

If I'm doing something wrong, out of order, or unnecessary - let me know!

 

[Schmide]

I personally think you're going way overboard. It's just fungus not the plague. I've keep fish for 30 years. Had fuzzies, algae blooms, weird water bugs that looked like termites. (came from a plant). Some Ick but never enough that major chemicals were needed. Just clean and it got better. Very few deaths other than a few escapes (jump outs), food chain (eaten), and old age.

The worst thing was, I went on a 3 week vacation and asked a friend to take care of my fish. She was a stoner, messed up my timers and left the lights on for like 2 weeks. I came back and she was like I don't know why it got all green. I laughed. Cleaned it. No deaths.

1) Wash the rock and other stuff with hot water no need to get all fancy with chemicals.

2) Take dirty water from your current setup, put in new setup. Take an item with algae on it as well.

3) Fill rest of water add water conditioner.

4) If you want it to start faster, put in sunlight.

5) Maybe get a below ground filter. Keeping poo off the bottom goes a long way to keeping water healthy.

That's my opinion.

 

[cvrefugee]

How much water from my old tank would be sufficient? It's a 10-gallon, would 1 or 2 gallons be sufficient?

 

[rsutoratosu]

You might not understand what cycling a tank is. You actually need to have fish in there to cycle. If you put just plain water there and expected things to stabilize that would be your main problem.

The idea is to throw fish you dont care about into the tank, and feed and care for them normally and not have to worry about if the fish die from poor water quality. Usually you would use a hardy species so they probably wont die even with poor water quality. Eventually the tank will accumulate all the necessary bacteria and then it will be ready for the fish that you do care about.

If you just have goldfish then you probably dont need to cycle the tank at all since they are usually quite hardy unless you have some fancy super inbred goldfish...

Fishless cycle using ammonia or shrimp, you dont need to use fish to cycle a tank, not everyone has an old tank with cycled material handy.

 

[Rubycon]

Oh if you're using OPFs I'd get rid of the pad filters and go with a sponge instead. You can squeeze water out of the sponge and use that to cycle new systems too.