As some of you may have read, due to unforseen circumstances, we had to completely drain, throw away the gravel, and replace the filter media on our 75 gallon tank due to a bacteria infestation. We took our old fish out of the 75 gallon and placed them in a 20 gallon hospital tank which also has completely replaced filter media. In essence, I have two tanks that are uncycled.
I'm still living at home, so I was trying to convince my mother to keep our fish in the 20 gallon and do a fishless cycle in the 75 gallon. She wouldn't hear of it because its "pointless to do a fishless cycle". I asked on here about what to do and members here recommended since the fish are so big and the tank is so small to divide them up between to two tanks. My mother wouldn't hear of that either.
To end the "dispute" I said we could go to our local fish store and ask them since they have always been very knowledgeable about things and everything they've ever suggested to us has always worked. We usually go around lunch time but had to wait to go to closer to dinner time this time. The three people we usually talk to and whose advice we trust weren't there and the only person working was a kid (maybe 20) who must've been fairly new since we'd never seen him before. We asked him and he told us the only way to cycle a tank was by using mature filter media or by putting fish in. He didn't even mention using pure ammonia and looked at me like some pshyco-ding-bat when I was trying to explain a fishless cycle. He offered no mature media that they might have had on hand so my mother decided to buy fish to put in the 75 gal and leave our old fish int he 20 gal for the time being.
Our 20 gallon currently has:
3 Silver Dollars (1 small plate sized, others approx 3-4-inch)
1 Black Skirt Tetra (approx 2-inch)
1 Brown Knife Fish (approx 4-5 inch)
2 Angel Fish (approx 3-inch)
1 Marble Hatchetfish (approx 1 inch)
1 Sailfin Pleco (approx 3 inches)
Our 75 gallon currently has:
5 Zebra Danios
I have some questions about this set-up and fish-in cycling for anyone that might be able to help.
1. I haven't lost a single fish in the 20 gallon yet. They all appear happy and healthy. I'm maintining the water by doing partial water changes on the tank every day. Thus far, I've been able to keep the ammonia in the 0.5 to 1.0 range. I've recorded no nitrite readings. I've been doing good on this tank so far, but how many gallons of water on this tank do you think I should change out per day?
2. I've already lost two Danios out of the 75 gallon. We started with 7. For the past two days I haven't done any water changes in the 75 since the ammonia levels were so low. During the time that I haven't changed the water the ammonia has not increased, but it hasn't decreased either. I haven't recorded any nirtite readings here either. I know cycling can take a long time....but I can't even see any progress in this tank whatsoever. At least in the 20 gal I can see things happinging. What can I do? Is there anything I can do to push it along or am I just impatient?
I'm still living at home, so I was trying to convince my mother to keep our fish in the 20 gallon and do a fishless cycle in the 75 gallon. She wouldn't hear of it because its "pointless to do a fishless cycle". I asked on here about what to do and members here recommended since the fish are so big and the tank is so small to divide them up between to two tanks. My mother wouldn't hear of that either.
To end the "dispute" I said we could go to our local fish store and ask them since they have always been very knowledgeable about things and everything they've ever suggested to us has always worked. We usually go around lunch time but had to wait to go to closer to dinner time this time. The three people we usually talk to and whose advice we trust weren't there and the only person working was a kid (maybe 20) who must've been fairly new since we'd never seen him before. We asked him and he told us the only way to cycle a tank was by using mature filter media or by putting fish in. He didn't even mention using pure ammonia and looked at me like some pshyco-ding-bat when I was trying to explain a fishless cycle. He offered no mature media that they might have had on hand so my mother decided to buy fish to put in the 75 gal and leave our old fish int he 20 gal for the time being.
Our 20 gallon currently has:
3 Silver Dollars (1 small plate sized, others approx 3-4-inch)
1 Black Skirt Tetra (approx 2-inch)
1 Brown Knife Fish (approx 4-5 inch)
2 Angel Fish (approx 3-inch)
1 Marble Hatchetfish (approx 1 inch)
1 Sailfin Pleco (approx 3 inches)
Our 75 gallon currently has:
5 Zebra Danios
I have some questions about this set-up and fish-in cycling for anyone that might be able to help.
1. I haven't lost a single fish in the 20 gallon yet. They all appear happy and healthy. I'm maintining the water by doing partial water changes on the tank every day. Thus far, I've been able to keep the ammonia in the 0.5 to 1.0 range. I've recorded no nitrite readings. I've been doing good on this tank so far, but how many gallons of water on this tank do you think I should change out per day?
2. I've already lost two Danios out of the 75 gallon. We started with 7. For the past two days I haven't done any water changes in the 75 since the ammonia levels were so low. During the time that I haven't changed the water the ammonia has not increased, but it hasn't decreased either. I haven't recorded any nirtite readings here either. I know cycling can take a long time....but I can't even see any progress in this tank whatsoever. At least in the 20 gal I can see things happinging. What can I do? Is there anything I can do to push it along or am I just impatient?
