Absolute Beginner And Noob Questions

[Hobbit]

I've decided to come out and ask the questions that have floated around, because i'm really interested in moving up with tank size. Im probably going to 75, and the biggest i've ever had before is 20. First of all.. About cycling. Shame on me, but i've never cycled a tank before. One of my 10 gallons that houses the guppies supplying the protein for my cichlids has been going on for probably 4 months. and i never did cycle it. I filled it up with water and added probably 10 guppies on the same night. None never did die until last week. Im not so sure as to how it died either.And my 20 gallon was treated the same way. fish added when water was. It was taken out of the box and had fish in probably with 1 hr of eachother. I've never had a fish die from this batch either. I've got 6 cichlids in there, which im well awarwe of is way too much, but im taking some of them and some of my con juvies form another tank in for some instore credit the cichlids arent full grown and i've got an awesome cement/tunnell sytem/background that really helps a lot. I've got 2 kenyi, and labs, and two cherry red's. S can anyone tell me why no consequences resulted of these mistakes? This is the first question.

My second is what exactly does a pump do? From what i've read, i sucks water into another (smaller) tank or tub which can be filled with an assortment of things, and seconds as a filter? is that all it does?

Umm.. more questions....

I've also never checked parameters either. Why do all my fish live? I've got convicts, and africans in tabn water (diff. tanks) and they've all lived for a few monthes now. I understand that they cant be kept together because they require diff water conditions, and they arent kept with eachother, but they are kept in the same type of water. its never been treated. so why am i so lucky?

I dont mean to sound so dumb or cruel or anything, i just didnt research like i should have when i bought.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi hobbit, don't worry we all make mistakes, your here and researching now and that's the main thing!

the consequences of not cycling your tank can be hard to put your finger on sometimes as each scenario is gonna be different.

for the first few weeks the fish will have been exposed to dangerously high levels of ammonia and nitrite. now this may have settled now and thankfully you didn't loose any fish in the process. however these fish may well have been weakened, they may be more susceptible to disease, live a much shorter life or have respiritory problems throughout life. an example is I cycled my first tank with platys (fishless cycling just didn't exist back then) they lived 3 years with no problems.... then one developed tb from nowhere when there had been no change in water conditions, so new introductions to the tank, in short no discernible cause for it, but she died and the others died shortly after. now i can't prove that this was because she cycled my tank, but i believe that's the case.

a pump quite simply pump's water...... it can perform a number of functions in an aquarium it really depends on the set up what it is doing. the most common use is as part of your filter, it sucks water in and through the filter medium then pumps it back out to give good water circulation.

the simple fact is many fish will *survive* in any conditions... for a short period of time, however they will be much more prone to infections and disease, sooner or later something will trigger and illness and because they are not on top form they will be unable to fight it. If you want your fish to *thrive* you should check your water conditioons and adjust them to their requirements.