Drastic Measures....

[Monte20]

I bought a 55 gallon tank 3 days ago. and I have a 20 gallon thats been up and running for a few months. Ive always had a white cloude issue with the 20 gal tank. i believed it to be bacteria bloom. enough backstory. yesterday i noticed that the cloud was way thicker. i tested the water and the ammonia was up a little bit, and the nitrates, nitrites were in the warning. this morning i tested it again and the nitrates, -trites were in the danger and the ammonia was in the danger. the cloud was so thick i couldnt see 3 inches. I think I overreacted here. i tested the water for the 55 gallon and the trates and trites were 0. and the ammonia was up a hair. i know it was way early, but i moved the fish into the 55 gall. as i didnt want them to die in the other tank. should i have done this? i didnt know what to do then. it just seemed to me they had a better chance in the bigger tank than in the 20 gal that was breaking down by the minute. and now that the fish are in the unfinished-cycling tank, is there anything i can do to help them pull through the cycle. i was using 5 danios to help cycle the 55 gal at first. now there are 7 danios, 3 mollies, 1 choc placostumas (spelling??), and 2 bronze corys. i dont understand why the small tank failed so quickly like that. it was weird. I love my fish, especially the mollies, and im prone to panic i guess. advice..? (leave out the "your pretty dumb" part..lol, i know that already. hehe. on a side note, the fish seem much happier in the bigger tank.

 

[toadie]

I seem to remember reading that you can add some 'cultured' gravel to your new tank. I'm no expert, but to me that means add some of the gravel from your old tank to the bigger one. There should be lots of good bacteria living on the older gravel.

What kind of filter do you have? The reason I ask is that I was contemplating moving some of my fish and thought I could take one of the wheels off my biowheel (lots of good bacteria) and put it on the new filter in a new tank to help bypass some of the cycling.

Folks may jump all over my ideas - I'm pretty new (a year) at the fish keeping hobby - so definitely take my advice with some rather large grains of salt.

Hope all your fishies survive the move! You did acclimate them slowly to their new home, right?

 

[SkiFletch]

What do you mean by danger levels? Exact numbers would be useful on the 4 major parameters (pH, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates) for BOTH tanks as current as possible. With such a large tank to such few fish they MAY be able to pull through the cycle IF you do 30% water changes daily (thats 16.5 gallons btw). If your ammonia spikes in the uncycled tank your fish will be in danger, but if it was allready spiking in the 20 gallon its the same situation.

Are you sure that you didnt just have an undiscovered death in the 20 gallon that was decomposing? That could cause cloudiness and an ammonia spike. Or, do you live with kids who might have been kind enough to feed your fish either too much or things they cant eat?

For now leave them in the 55 gallon until you can post current stats on both tanks.

 

[Monte20]

the temp was already up to match the smaller tank. i had already transplanted some of the rocks when i first brought the new tank up. my filter is a whisper 60. no bio wheel though. has 2 new bio bags in it. the one from my small tank was too clogged to try to use as a bacteria boost. it was toast. thanks for the info. appreciate the quick reply.

What do you mean by danger levels? Exact numbers would be useful on the 4 major parameters (pH, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates) for BOTH tanks as current as possible. With such a large tank to such few fish they MAY be able to pull through the cycle IF you do 30% water changes daily (thats 16.5 gallons btw). If your ammonia spikes in the uncycled tank your fish will be in danger, but if it was allready spiking in the 20 gallon its the same situation.

Are you sure that you didnt just have an undiscovered death in the 20 gallon that was decomposing? That could cause cloudiness and an ammonia spike. Or, do you live with kids who might have been kind enough to feed your fish either too much or things they cant eat?

For now leave them in the 55 gallon until you can post current stats on both tanks.

as soon as i get a test that gives exact number readings i will post. what i have now are just color square strips. if you have any recommendations for test brands i would appreciate it. and there were no deaths. and the kids dont feed them. they know better..lol

 

[SkiFletch]

and the kids dont feed them. they know better..lol

Heh, but it'd be easy to blame it on them anyways

j/k

I use a Tetra Test kit, but the brand isnt necessarily of utmost concern. What you are looking for is one that uses liquids (drops and test tubes) to color march. Also, if you can find out how old the kit is either via an expiration date or ask the LFS how long they've had it. If its older than a couple months I wouldnt purchase it.

 

[kimbowee]

I use the AP Master Test Kit. A little more expensive to start then the paper strips but it does last longer.

Does your old filter have floss in it? If so move this over to the new filter. It does sound as though your 20 gal tank was still going through the cycling process but the floss should still contain some beneficial bacteria as it had already been running for a couple of months.

With the new tank you are going to want to check your water stats everyday. If there is any sign of ammonia or nitrites you want to do a 20-30% water change. During the cycling process you want to keep both ammonia & nitrites below .25ppm, preferrably at 0. Anything above that is going to cause stress on the fish. If the ammonia & nitrites are still above that amount you may want to do 2 water changes in the same day.

Also, are you using a dechlorinator when you are adding new water to the tank? If not the chlorine could also be killing your good bacteria. Feed you fish only once a day what the can eat in 2-3 minutes. This will cut down on the amount of waste produced by the fish or any decaying food.

 

[Monte20]

Yeah the old filter had floss. but it was so gunked up that it wouldnt rinse out (yes i used tank water). So i just tossed it. I still have a lot of the rocks and some of the artificial plants from the old tank in the new one. Ive been checking the stats everyday. so far the trites and trates are still 0. i used a nitrite/nitrate nuetralizer right before i had to add the fish. Yes I used declorinator. The water here in san diego is terrible. very chlorinated and hard. woke up this morning to see that the bacteria cloud has formed now. so thats good. fish all seem fine and healthy. well, one of the corys keeps jetting to the surface and down again. up down up down. like hes running from something. dont know what thats about yet. i feed the fish a small amount once a day. im paranoid about over feeding. im set to do the first water change thurday or friday. i started the tank late this past sunday night. fish were added late wed.