Baby Biorb Cycling Help.

[benmcmc]

I bought a baby biorb around about 6 weeks ago not knowing a lot about fish keeping. When I bought the tank the shop assistant sold me it with about 6 fish. Four of these died the next day as I did not know about cycling a fish tank. Since then I have tried to educate myself and also have been back to the fish shop multiple times to give them a sample of my water, I have been using Stress Zyme bacteria for the past two weeks as this is what they have recommended and have just come back from the shop a minute ago to give them my third water sample. This has still come up with very night levels of nitrate and have recommended i buy another bottle of stress zyme and this is what I have done. At the moment I have a neon tetra and a black red fin shark in my baby biorb (15L) which seem pretty healthy, but am confused why it is taking so long for the tank to cycle!

Cheers

Ben

 

[fluttermoth]

Your tank may well be cycled by now.

We really need to know what the readings for ammonia and nitrIte are. Even a fully cycled filter won't get rid of nitrAte; you have to do water changes to get rid of that.

You're going to have to re-home your shark asap; they get to around 6 inches long and are much too big for your tank. As the biorb so small, you should really be having only 4 or 5 very small fish in there.

Sorry about the bad advice you've been given; happens all the time I'm afraid

 

[benmcmc]

Well I brought in a sample to the fish shop today and the colour of the test water was a strong purple colour so clearly was not fully cycled? Do you think by carrying on using this positive bacteria it should be ok? I've been told to bring back a sample on friday!

 

[fluttermoth]

Oh, I have to say, I don't like the sound of that...Are you sure it wasn't nitrIte that was high, rather than nitrAte? There is a difference; nitrIte is highly toxic to fish, nitrAte is only toxic in quite high concentrations.

I only ask because the most commonly used test kit is the API one, and that goes purple for nitrIte and red for nitrAte.

If it is nitrite, you need to be doing some water changes, right now; take as much out as you can without leaving the fish actually flapping on the gravel and fill up again with warm, dechlorinated water (I really hope you have some dechlorinater; it'll be called something like 'tap water conditioner' or 'aqua safe' or something like that; I don't know if stress zyme removes chlorine; have a look on the bottle...)

P.S; I would have thought your filter would be at least partly cycled after 6 weeks though...Do you use a dechlorinater for your water changes? I don't know what kind of filter the biorbs have but are you washing it out in tap water, or replacing the sponges or whatever they have in them with new ones at all? As that would be killing off the good bacteria you need to keep your ammonia and nitrite levels down.

 

[benmcmc]

Ermm well from the three samples I have taken in, two were done on a strip of paper which were bright pink/red (this was instant). The one today was done by pouring some of my water sample in with some normal water and then it turned from light blue to purple in around about 5 minutes. I was a bit sceptical of this test as I did not actually see him do the test, he went into a back room to do it.

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, going from light blue to purple sounds like a nitrite test. Test strips are notoriously inaccurate and I've never used them so I can't comment on those results.

Do a water change; a big one, now. If you don't have dechlorinater, you can boil some water and let it cool; just give it a really good agitation to re-oygenate it before you put it back in the tank; pouring from one container into another a few times will do it.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum benmcmc.
I am afraid that a purple nitrite test is not slightly high, it is in the dangerous zone of over 0.5 ppm of nitrites. The particular shade of purple would tell us more but, no matter what, it is time to do a 13 litre water change on your tank. The fish will somehow find a way to swim in the slight amount of water that is left behind and will behave much better ri8ght after that water change. They will become more active and stop hanging out near the top of the tank.
Water change technique is simple but important. You unplug the filter and heater before you start on such a big change. You drain the water using a siphon and try to clean the sand/gravel while removing the water. Even an air line hose will work as a siphon on such a small tank. Once you have removed most of the water, catch a small sample in a glass or other small container. The sample is used while you are filling your bucket to add water back into the tank. You check the temperature of the new water to see if it is the same as the sample and try to get a close match. I use Prime as my dechlorinator but almost any tank will have come with a sample of some kind of water conditioner/dechlorinator. Use that as you start to fill the water change bucket and by the time the bucket is full the dechlorinator will have done its job. You can add that temperature matched and dechlorinated water right back into the tank with no problems but I like to set up a board across the top of my tank and slowly siphon the water back in. It is hard to describe but here is mine. It looks like this in use.

Once you have the tank full enough, don't forget to plug in the heater and filter again.

 

[Assaye]

Others have given some good advice.

Please, please read the information here on cycling, setting up a new tank and tank maintainence. It is very important information for all fish keepers and it is information that shops often do NOT tell you.

Your tank is still cycling - the purple on the liquid test tells you that you have high nitrite, which is very toxic. In order to combat this, you need to be doing some large water changes. When I am cycling a tank with fish, I do 75% (or more) water changes twice a day. This gets rid of the excess chemicals but does leave just enough to keep the tank cycling. As you do not have your own test kits, you need to work on a "worst case scenario" basis until the water comes back with 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. Do not worry about nitrate that this stage (note the 'a' instead of a second 'i'). Get yourself your own test kit for ammonia and nitrite ASAP - use a liquid test kit like you saw in the shop. Once you have that, test and change some water twice a day until you get some good results.

You only have two fish now - that's not great, but it does mean there are not very many fish polluting the tank. Unfortunately, both the fish are not suitable for the tank. The shark will reach 6-8 inches long and needs a 200 litre tank, and the neon needs both a slightly bigger tank (30 litres upwards) and a group of friends.

I would take the shark back to the shop and explain that they were highly irresponsible for selling a fish that will get big and aggressive into your little tank. I would also take the neon back as neons are well known for not surviving fish-in cycles and at 1.5 inch adult size, they'll feel really squished in your tank. If you rehome both the fish, you can complete the cycle in the fishless manner. Your tiny tank is only suitable for really, really fish. Some good options would be endlers, male guppies (only 3, though), ember tetra, chilli rasbora or celestial pearl danios. If going for the tiny danios, tetras or rasboras, get 6 and leave it at that. If guppies, go for 3 males. If endlers, go for 4-5 males. That is literally all your tank is big enough for.

I'm so sorry that the shop has been so irresponsible. They don't seem to care about your pets as long as they get a sale. That Stress Zyme is basically useless. It essentially contains dead bacteria (because the bacteria don't get fed) and other dead organic matter. It may even be making the cycle longer and polluting the water. What you need is water changes!

 

[waterdrop]

Hi benmcmc and welcome to our beginners section!

Your case serves as a good example of why we so readily recommend a good liquid-reagent based test kit to newcomers here. Understanding the parameters of good fishkeeping water in a hands-on way is one of the most basic skills we hope our beginners will come away with. While we all eventually become able to judge the ultimate results based on our known habits and the fish behavior we observe, we gain a more accurate level of skill at this, I feel, if we've had at least a period using a master test set than if we have not.

You have a number of issues that are tricky. As others have pointed out, the shark will need to be re-homed fairly soon. The neon, being a shoaling tetra, will be under stress (simply by definition of being alone) because for little shoaling tetras, being within a minimum 6 or so shoal is almost like a living part of their body - without the shoalmates, the fish constantly interprets that death is near and stays in an abnormal state of stress.

The other tricky thing, in my opinion, is that getting the biorb filtration system up and running can be touch and go. It operates partly on an undergravel principle I believe and also depends on zeolite, which can give different feedback in the different stages of its useful life. The biorb system actually adds to the need for testing.

You've found the right place for help though, the members here are great!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[JoshuaA]

I like to set up a board across the top of my tank and slowly siphon the water back in. It is hard to describe but here is mine. It looks like this in use.

I've never had the male anatomy spare to trust my tank to take the weight of a full bucket on the top. I do wonder how you stop the hose falling out? I usually just put the bucket on a table next to my tank though the hose usually somehow finds its way out of the bucket and then falls to the floor reversing the flow and emptying what I had just put into the tank onto the floor. This happened to me once with nearly the entire tank going onto the floor whilst I went to make a cup of tea lol.

 

[waterdrop]

 

[JoshuaA]