Am I doing it right?

[WrxAnt]

Guys,

I just put my new fish in my new breeding / growing out tank.

The tank is a bare bottom tank with a heater an air stone and an air driven sponge. The tank has been up and running for a week with chlorine and chloramine neutralised.

When I picked up my fish today the dealer was telling me I'm doing it all wrong.

He was telling me I need a cycled tank and that frequent water changes will harm my fish....

Considering I intend to do 25% water changes every 2nd day I believe he might be wrong saying that I need a cycled tank. And sure frequent water changes can't be anything but good.

Now my local water is very soft and has a pretty neutral pH of 7.0 approx. I de-chlorinate and de-chloramine the water and heat and airrate it before adding it to any of my tanks.

So am I doing it right? Or is my dealer correct.

His english isn't the best so my explanation of what I was doing and his explanation of what I should be doing could be quite different...

BTW my new babies are 2 x Blue Diamonds and 2 x Red Fine Lined Snakeskins

Cheers
Antony

hey,
No, if anything you should be doing MORE waterchanges. Especially if your tank is not yet cycled. Then I would do 75% or even 100%. Check on your ammonia and nitrite levels frequently and as soon as they start to rise waterchange the bejesus out of them. Just keep on top of things.

Brad

[WrxAnt]

Brad,

I put in 10% water from my cycled tank to help kick the new tank along.

The new tank has been running for a week or two with the sponge going but no fish. There was the bacterial scum that grows on the glass on the tank.

I've tested the water.

pH 6.8
Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.0

Yet to test hardness.

The fish are all hiding in the corner of the tank.... mmmm ... not good...

They might just be skittish from the move... not sure yet...

At the moment I'm not too keen on adding the fish to my main tank but will do so if things don't improve...

Antony

[Carol_Roberts]

Hi Antony:

The filter is where the "good" bacteria grow. The good bacteria "eat" ammonia produced by fish. It takes time to grow a bed of good bacteria in a new filter. The week you had the tank running with no fish in it not one single "good" bacteria grew because there was no ammonia to eat. That is why your test kit registered zero for ammonia and nitrite.

Now you have discus in your tank. Test your water every day for ammonia and nitrite. Do water changes until the amount reads zero. Your filter will cycle in time. You should plan on daily 25% water changes for baby discus even after your filter is fully cycled.

Adding used water from another tank helps very little if at all. Do you have two (or more) sponge filters in the other tank? If yes put one in the new tank and the new sponge in the old tank. Both tanks will then have cycled filters. (be sure to check the old tank for ammonia for a couple of weeks until the new filter is fully seeded)

Carol :heart1:

[WrxAnt]

Carol,

My 2 other tanks unfortunately both run cannisters!

But one of my tanks has two cannisters...

I might move one over for a little while.

Silly question but if I am doing daily -> bi-daily 50% water changes won't that remove most of the ammonia and nitrates meaning the filter won't get a real chance to cycle?

I assumed, and obviously made an a$$ of myself in the process that you wouldn't need to cycle a BB tank due to the massive water changes that are done...

You live and you learn I just hope this isn't an expensive exercise!!!!

Cheers
Antony

[Carol_Roberts]

Antony, you are correct - if you make big enough water changes everyday you do not need a filter.

I think you may have under estimated the amount of water you need to change each day to keep ammonia at zero with an uncycled filter.

You have not told me the size of your tank or the size of your 4 discus. If you have 4 three inch discus in a 20 gallon tank a 25% WC every other day is not enough. If, on the other hand you have 4 three inch discus in a 100 gallon tank, it may work. You would be removing the ammonia by water changes for a couple of weeks until your filter is able to remove it for you.

BUT you have an extra cycled filter, so you can ignore all of the above! Put that on the new tank for several weeks and run the sponge too. Then you can safely remove the cannister filter.

Will one sponge be enough? How big is the tank?
Carol :heart1:

[WrxAnt]

Carol,

The tank is a 30" x 14"x 18" 118L (US 31Gal)

There are 4 discus.

They are all small. Around 1" (not inc tail) would be my guesstimate. Very young fish yet to really start showing colors.

The cannister I would be moving over I think would cause a whirlpool affect in a tank that size. Its a fluval 204.

I might put in on for a while and get a smaller filter and cycle that on my main tank and swap it over in a week or two...

Would adding the new Hagen Cycle product help? It supposedly adds beneficial bacteria to reduce the cycle time of the tank.

Thanks for the replies Carol.
Antony

[Carol_Roberts]

I used to run a Fluval 204 on a 29 gallon tank. Put a fine pore sponge over the intake stem. This will keep feces and uneaten food from entering the cannister. Position the out flow just under the water. It will work just fine. This is a good sized tank for babies and your discus should settle in nicely. I use 29 gallons for adult breeding pairs too.

With baby discus you will want to feed them at least three times a day. Morning, as soon as you get home from work and an hour before you go to bed. Several small meals are better than one or two large ones.

I've not heard of much success with cycle or other bottled bacteria products.
Carol :heart1:

[DavidAJ]

Antony ,

If you are looking for a good "cycler", I have used Bacter-plus by aquatronics in the past with very good results and have cycled a tank in as little as two weeks after having to completely start a tank over from scratch. I don't know if its available to you but you can always find it online.

Hope this helps,

David

Anthony,
You could take some of the filter media from one of the canisters (bio-balls, lava rock, ceramic, etc.) and move it onto whatever filter you have in your new tank right now (hang on back, sponge, etc.) and that will jumpstart your filter. I've used as little as 5-10 pieces of gravel from a tank to jumpstart a filter before and in a week and a half the new filter was fully cycled.