Well actually, NEONCORY is a REAL Coryadorus; one of the newly discovered Laser species, that was accidentally crossed with a small child who was an offspring of a couple who were both members of MENSA (look it up).

NEONCORY has to spend a lot of time at the bottom of a large pool (well, that's a duh) and because keyboards don't work under water the words are electronically translated by a program running on a LINUX computer and entered automatically on TFF.

Just thought you should know...

As for my spawns, I'm sad to say that last one was a dud. I don't think any of the eggs were fertilized. It could have been the stress of them being in the hospital tank for 3 weeks. Who knows...

Still trying to get the Ammonian level down. I think it's time for an 80% change cause the 40% ain't cutting it.

As my wife says, "it would be cheaper to buy new fish".

Nice, quiet, soothing, relaxing hobby....ya, right.

What tank are you trying to cycle? Do you not have a tank thats already cycled?

I was a member of MENSA as a young 13yr old - IQ was 177 back then - no idea what went wrong haha!!

It's a 20 gallon long that I've had running now for over 3 weeks. I thought I would try the ammonia drops fishless cycle method but after 2 weeks all I got from that was a crap load of ammonia in the tank and still 0 nitrites. I tried adding water and squeezing out the sponge filter from my 10 gallon fry tank and it started to smell funky but the ammonia didn't budge and 0 nitrite.

The cory spawn forced my hand that's why I have done a lot of water changes and added ammo chips to try to lower it. After a 50% change today it's down to .5 ammonia, nitrite still 0.

I've been toying with the idea of moving the Aqua Cear 20 from the 10 gallon fry tank to the 20 gallon long and just run the existing sponge filter along with a brand new one. There are only 5 juveniles in the tank so it should be ok as long as I keep up the 20% water changes (which I do now anyway). On the 20 is a brand new Eheim 2213. The 3 corys love swimming in the current.

Comments? Suggestions?



The answer might be summed up in 4 letters:

b

e

e

r



Cheers.

Ok, I see. I was trying to figure that out.

The only thing I can think of is maybe trying some Bio Spira. I dont know if you can get that and a lot of people dont like it, but I have used it with success, but I havent used it to fully cycle a tank. I used it along with some existing filter media. Maybe some one local has some filter media you could use?

Thanks for the reply.

I've heard and read of that bacteria but apparantly, as posted on a local forum, that is no longer available; something about bad feed back from people who purchased it. The general concesus was that either they or the lfs who sold it to them had neglected to refridgerate it. <shrugs shoulders>

The other 2 filters I have going, Rena XP3 and Aqua Clear 20 are in use. I don.t want to take bedia from the XP3 as I don't completely trust the water quality in that tank (bacteria/fungus/virus/parasites). Most of the fish seem ok but 1 zebra is wasting away. Old age? Hmmmm. That's why I bought the 20 in the first place.

There is a small sponge filter in the 10 fry tank. Maybe I could move the sponge into the Eheim 2213. In which position shoild it be placed? Just before the bio balls? I'd think that would be the best place. Of course I'd haqve to remove something in order to get the sponge in.

Cheers.

I have used Bio Spira to boost cycling. It seemed to help. I cycled a new 125 with 6 fronties, 6 synos, 5 clown loaches and 3 compressecpt. The ammonia never rose. The nitrite never got high and the tank was stable in a few days. Seeding and water changes are the keys and I use BioSpira or the LOVE one (?).

What did you speeze the sponge juice into? You have fish in the tank now? You have stopped adding ammonia, right? Sorry I have forgotten.

That's why people here are looking for it.

I squeezed the sponge right by the intake tube and saw most of it get sucked up. The 3 adult Corys are in the tank now and seem quite happy although the female is a bit skittish, the males are constantly after her.

Oh, yes, I stopped adding ammonia quite a long time ago. In fact I only added it for 3 days. Since the reading never went down and the nitrite reading was 0 I figured it was useless to continue adding it until I started to get a nitrite reading.

This is where I wish I had a Rena Xp series filter rather than the Eheim. Messing with the media is so much easier with the XP. I've hung a lady's knee high filled with a fist full of ammo chips into the tank to try to drive the ammonia level down but I don't think it's getting enough circulation because it seems the oinly thing that's helping is the water changes. Wth the Xp I'd crack open the filter, pull out the baskets and replace the charcoal level (which I now have full of bio stars) with an ammo pouch. It's more work and messier with the Eheim.

I thought I was pretty good at this ammonia/nitrite/nitrate thing but this is truly a humbling experience.

On top of it all I'f fighting a bad cold so after I did my water changes this morning I hauled my a$$ right back into bed for some more sleep. I'm exhausted. I'm gonna stay here till the morning. I took one of my notebooks with me so during one of my better moments I could check up on the rest of the world.

Cheers.

Hope you feel well soon.

I hope you are feeling better soon!
Let us know how you and your fish are doing...
Amanda

After spending more than my share of frustrating tinkering repeatedly with my Rena and none with my Eheim over the last year or so, I have an entirely different experience than yours. My Eheim always starts immediatly with no priming or fuss. My Rena always requires lots of fuss and frustration. I just spent about 4 hours trying to get my Rena working after having to take it apart to get snails out of the impeller.

The intake tubes are always falling apart in the tank. (Frontosa are bumbling bruisers.) The suction cups don't work well and are always falling loose or off altogether.

As to sponge juice: Everything I have ever read or heard says to add the seeding juice directly to the sponge or whatever the colony growth place is in the new filter. It is not added to the water in the tank but directly to the filter media.

Hope you are feeling better. Thought I might be able to get your blood pressure up.

Oh, you're such a flirt, please don't stop, err, I mean stop.

Which Rena do you have? I have the XP3 and the only problem I'm having with it now (assuming it's filtering properly) is that the return spray bar kept sliding lower (I want it spraying down onto the top of the water, not upwards from under the water). I found a small dense sponge (no, not part of my brain) and placed it under the bar that crosses over the tank ridge. That holds up the whole thing.

Seems that the Eheim hosing problem has settled down. I guess once the hoses 'set in place' problems gone.

Good news! My ammonia count is almost 0; just a barely perceptible tinge of green. After yesterdays 80% water change I got it down to .25. I then took the Aqua Clear 20 from the fry tank and moved it to the 20 gallon AND dropped in a stocking full of ammo chips (along with the sock full already in the tank). Those are all coming out tonight so we'll see what shape the 20 will be in tomorrow morning.

If the count is the same then I'm moving the 7 juveniles from the 2.5 into the 20 with their parents.

As for the cold, I felt a bit better this morning and went on a 2 hour emergency customer call this morning that lasted 8 hours. Dumb move. Needless to say, I'm wiped.

But all this light banter has cheered me up.

Cheers.

I'm sorry to hear that you feel like hammered s**t but this thread has been fantastic reading. Good luck, hope you feel better soon and let us know how it goes.

Yeah the media room is dependent on the size. My Ehiem is a larger size than my Rena. The Rena is an XP1, but the Ehiem is for 100USG. So the Rena only has 2 baskets where the Ehiem has 3. I'm guessing that your situation is reversed.

I like the suction cups on the Ehiem better. The Rena's come apart and slide off too easily. I haven't had any problem with hoses on either, other than getting them on in the beginning. But for some reason the intake tubes on the Rena which are in 4-6 sections are always falling apart. Probably how the snail got in the empeller. One of my last Apple Snails died in the tube after the strainer part fell off. GRR

I always have to pour water into the Rena tube to prime it when I service it. And then wait forever to see if it will really start sraying the water. I never have to prime the Ehiem. It starts right up. I have the Ehiem Pro--I wonder if that is also a difference.

It is good news that the tank is starting to stablize. Frequent small water changes are a big help in keeping the tank readings down when a tank has to be quick cycled.

It is necessary to know how to cycle a tank quickly. Things happen and the fish have to live someplace. Knowing how to seed and maintain the levels on new or recycled or quick set up emergency tanks is really a useful tool.

I will be setting up a new tank Thursday just before a shipment of fish gets here.

I'm glad you feel better, too. Hope you are getting some rest.

This post has been edited by jollysue: May 6 2008, 09:10 AM

And in today's episode of the soap "As the stomach turns" we find our sick, shell shocked Corydoras enthusiast say:

"OMG, they've just laid eggs again and they're eating them!"

Yes folks, the C. napoensis are at it again, for the sole purpose of driving me insane.

The good news this morning was that the 20 gallon was almost at 0 ammonia count AND the nitrite count was up to .25! The tank was cycling. Woo hoo! Nitrates were just a tiny touch above 0. So it was good I took out the Aqua Clear and the ammo chips the night before.

Life was good for about 5 hours then the kids pulled this stunt. I saw 'em at it and one of the males was worrying a leaf on one of the plants. I reached in, checked it and yay and verily there were about 10 eggs!! When I say "worrying" it looked like he was rubbing his tummy on them. Fertilizing them? Hmm. I figured I'd let them harden for a bit, checked on the wording of an email my youngest was writing as a follow up on a sent resume (anyone out there hiring an IT graduate with a Bachelor of Commerce degree?) but when I got back there was 1 flippin egg left! Grrrr. Quickly transfered it to the net set up in the 10 gallon fry tank and kept watching. She deposited another batch on the glass which I too moved to the fry net. drewry and 5teady, you would have been proud of me, I didn't break 1 egg (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

In all I only harvested about 5 eggs out of ... who knows. The adults are all just sitting at the bottom of the tank in a group now, laughing at me. Evil fish....

Stay tuned tomorrow folks for another episode of "As the stomach turns" or "How I decided to get de-stressed by keeping fish and ending up committing suicide".

Glad you are feeling better...
You know... there are peaceful times between the stresses sometimes... lol
Just keep your sense of humor... that will help a lot.
I will be watching for updates.


I am currently waiting on a response on my post in emergency for one of my new corys. It has a bubble looking thing around its eye... I doesn't look like pop eye to me, and I have treated for bacterial infection already. Now I am unsure wheather I need to do another round or move to something else... I hope to hear something from someone soon.

Amanda