Cleaned My Whole Tank Not Knowing About Beneficial Bacteria

[guppyman1]

I recently cleaned my whole tank and after doing research I found out about the process of cycling, and the importance of the build up of beneficial bacteria. So now I am back to day 1. My tank has been up and running for 4 days now and I actually added 1 female guppy which had no other home. the temperature is set to 78 and I have added water conditioner which makes tap water safe for fish. So now I want some advice on what to do in order to maintain the proper levels of ammonia, PH, and etc in my aquarium and have a health tank. Just for information the main purpose of my tank is to breed as many guppies as soon as possible starting off with 5 (2 males and 3 females). It is a 25 gallon tank. After explaining my situation, the staff at Pet Smart told me to come back on Friday which will be 8 days in total that the tank has been running for to buy the guppies and get my water tested.

I do happen to own a PH test kit and nitrate and nitrite test kit so tell me when to test and what levels are good for a guppy tank and what to do in order to increase or decrease the level. At this point I do not think that doing a 25% water change would help since there is only one guppy in there.

This was a community tank before and I followed what the lady at Wallmart said and just started the brand-new tank after 48 hr of fish-less cycling and added fish which survived. So another question is why didn't those fish at the time die.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi guppyman1 and welcome to the beginners section!

You are currently in what we call a Fish-In Cycling situation. Given your somewhat unusual goal (of just raising guppy fry rather than having a family display tank) and the fact that guppies are not particularly good fish to use for Fish-In cycling (they get gill damage pretty easily and are more sensitive than some other types), I would strongly suggest that you make it a project to re-home that single female guppy somewhere. Ideally it would be nice if your same LFS where you plan to buy all these guppies would take her back with the understanding that you will come back later and get her and buy a bunch of other guppies. Or perhaps there is a friend who would take her.

This would allow you to finally get a chance to really learn the core aspects of the hobby that can continue to be helpful throughout your time in the hobby. The preparation of a working "biofilter" -prior- to exposing the fish is a key skill and our forum section is an ideal place to learn it. Its called a Fishless Cycle and we have articles on both the "Nitrogen Cycle" and the "Fishless Cycle" in our Beginners Resource Center. All of this is much more "real" hobby information than the incorrect things you've been told in your store visits.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Gilli]

Read the cycling a tank article on this forum which will tell you what to do - heres a link for you

cycling a tank

 

[GuppyGoddess]

You really need to take the guppy back if possible because they're too delicate to survive cycling. Believe me, I tried and tried and tried. ALL of my guppies died (and I had to cull the majority b/c they looked sick, but wouldn't die on their own.)! Generally, guppies have been overbreed and no longer live up to their reputation of being hardy fish that breed like little bunnies! Also, many fish that arrive at pet stores are sickly!

Also - a single guppy isn't going to produce enough ammonia to cycle the tank. You may want to try a fish-less cycling or go with other fish. . .possibly danios (but be sure to have a plan of what to do with them once the tank is cycled!)

 

[fishyfeet]

This was a community tank before and I followed what the lady at Wallmart said and just started the brand-new tank after 48 hr of fish-less cycling and added fish which survived. So another question is why didn't those fish at the time die.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
[/quote]

the fish wont necessarily die some will live for years, they are just damaged inside, their internal organs scared and not working properily, when they become ill some months you will do everything to no avail as they were ill all along, they dont show it as other fish will pick on them. You could keep the guppy in a small tank or container by doing daily water changes, your tank should be ready in a few weeks. di