A Big Change

[DippyNikki]

Hi guys,

after much forum surfing I decided to register to the forum.
Its apparent that a lot of people need support with the transfer between tanks with the whole water cycle issue, however there aren't a great deal of forums that discuss the issue of tanks that to do with a cloudy tank and the mini cycles that follow after particle water changes.

Over 3 years ago I bought a pretty tiny tank about 5 - 10 litres, for 5 danios. It cycled for 4 weeks before the danios were added and i had no issues. Then i upgraded the tank to a 20litre tank, cycled for 4 weeks and added the danios. no problems. I then added a bristle nosed pleco and it died other night. i took it back to the pet shop and it turned out the pleco was sick already, so they gave me a new one, i added it to the tank and rambo has been living happily with the danios for about 2 years now.

From day one I've had live plants in the tank, which in turn as lead to 3 and a half years of uncontrollable snails.
I've cleaned and boiled that tank to the point of destruction but the snails with not go away. So i bought a new 60 litre tank, cycled it for 4 weeks, tested every week and transferred the fish into the new tank in the 3rd week.
There are a few major differences with the new tank. Its bigger, its tropical and it has fake plants.
This proved too much for one of my danios and sadly one died in the transfer. This i concluded was due to the temp being warmer than they were used to.
so i turned down the temp and progressively increased it again over the course of a week. Now my danios and pleco are happy and have been for over a week now.
from the second day of cycling the tank went cloudy and has stayed cloudy all the way through. I thought this was bacterial bloom, but it shows now sign of fading. so about a week ago, i took out about 25% of it and replaced it with some water from thee original, well established tank, that the danios come from. This did nothing.
I've tested the water all the way through and the ammonia and nirites peaked in week 3 then fell to 0, yet stayed cloudy. after applying the water from the old tank, nothing happened to the ammonia, nirites or nirates, yet still it stayed cloudy.

i went to the pet store and they told me it would still be safe to add new fish, so i added :

4 harlequin rasboras
2 red honey gouramis

its been a week and a half now and the tank has stayed cloudy and the tank appears to be starting a mini cycle as I'm getting:

ph 7.2
ammonia 0.50
nirites 0
nirates 0

the danio's seem fine as do the pleco and gouramis, yet i lost one of the rasboras 2 days ago and it apears the others are (in my opinion) acting strange. they are grouped together amoungt the fake plants, bobbing almost vertically.

so here's my dilemma, do i do a 50% water change to get rid of the cloudiness or do i keep the water in there throughout this mini cycle? or am i missing something here? do rasboras normally act like that?

any help you offer would be great as I'm at my wits end trying to figure this one out. To make things even more annoying, there appears to be some sort of "egg-like" substance on the fake plants, which leads me to believe that the water from the old tank, may have contained an unwanted guest.

 

[phoenixgsd]

your ammonia reading suggests you should do a massive water change ASAP, i'm no expert but am a little surprised at your choice of stocking in such a tiny tank, are they zebra danios? they need loads of room as they are fast swimmers, what sex are your gourami? males can be territorial and they can grow up to 2inches, is it possible for you go bigger again or return the gourami
hopefully someone with more experience on these fish will advise you better

 

[DippyNikki]

your ammonia reading suggests you should do a massive water change ASAP, i'm no expert but am a little surprised at your choice of stocking in such a tiny tank, are they zebra danios? they need loads of room as they are fast swimmers, what sex are your gourami? males can be territorial and they can grow up to 2inches, is it possible for you go bigger again or return the gourami
hopefully someone with more experience on these fish will advise you better

they are all currently in a 60 litre tank, which is more thank double the size of their last tank. the danios did well in the last tank for 3 years with no problems.
the gouramis are dwarfy gourami's and are both females.
i have 2 leopard longfin danios and 2 rosie red minows (starfire's)


i'll do a water change right now

thanks for the help

 

[DippyNikki]

i've done a %50 water change.

the water is a lot clearer now and the fish are ridiculously happy and active now.
i had a long think about things and considered that maybe the tank needed more circulation to prevent the water staying cloudy. so i've added a bubble pump and will run it for a few days.

i'll test the water tomorrow and let you know the results. i'm hoping the fish will be in....i'm really sad and worried about them

 

[slimeneo]

Make sure ammonia is 0... always. I would definitely NOT add any more fish until you're 100% cycled.

 

[lolobunnz]

The live plants the you used to have were helping your fish to transition to other thanks for they can use the toxic fish waste. That may be why the one didnt make itt when they were lasty move with fake plants. Just my opinion.

Anytime something is screwy it usually good practice to do a larger water change like the 50% you did.

It seems that you are cycling or mini cycling to which you should just do frequent large water changes. If ammonia is reading on the test do a large water change. Glad they pepped up after your wc! That is always nice.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Take your Red Honey Gouramis back to your helpfull fish store and tell them you can't have them until you can prove your cycle is complete and showing a complete '0'...it's the best scenario for them, you and your tank and any good, honest fish store will help you out in this issue.
As was said, keep up daily, if not twice daily, water changes...good luck

Terry.

 

[Tuxyu3]

The live plants the you used to have were helping your fish to transition to other thanks for they can use the toxic fish waste. That may be why the one didnt make itt when they were lasty move with fake plants. Just my opinion.

Anytime something is screwy it usually good practice to do a larger water change like the 50% you did.

It seems that you are cycling or mini cycling to which you should just do frequent large water changes. If ammonia is reading on the test do a large water change. Glad they pepped up after your wc! That is always nice.

If the danio died pretty quickly after being put in completely new water i wouldnt imagine it was ammonia poisoning but rather shock.

Also, if i read this correctly did you not use mature filter media in the new tank? That would have really sped things up, or could have even pretty much insta-cycled it! Something to bear in mind for the future.