Had To Delay A Water Change,however, Now A Success

[tmiller]

Just needed to get this out, I become attached to my pets no matter how small.

I had no choice but to delay out one of my fish in cycle water changes, up till now been doing great, 0 deaths.
I only delayed by maybe 6-8hrs but I am in that stretch where I am getting Huge spikes of Nitrite seemingly out of nowhere and my delay was fatal for 3 fish.

all the rest were lethargic and sitting on the bottom and having trouble swimming up, although they tried when they saw me and figured feeding time.

A quick 25 gallon change (30 gallon tank) and the remaining fish perked right up.

The moral of this story is in my opinion "Nothing but fish-less cycle from here on out for me as i cant stand to see anything suffer"

This is exactly what is being done on my 2 new tanks, a 75gal and a 55gal, both will be cycled with just maybe plants, and a media donation that was mailed yesterday.

Thanks for letting me cry a bit here

 

[Gilli]

Dont be hard on yourself - we have all been down that road through ignorance and no correct info from the fish shops about cycling tanks! Thank god we now have the internet and kindly souls who are willing to spend their spare time helping others to learn good fish keeping. The main thing is you are doing all you can to put it right

 

[waterdrop]

The really important thing is the learning that goes on once you find a place like this where friends will share things and you can establish habits that will help you provide a much better home for all the fish in your future.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Agree we all been they dont be hard on yourself.

FYI: dont fishless cycle with plants

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, agree with BBA, give yourself a break and hold off on the plants until either near the end of the fishless cycle or even later, depending on the types of fish. Ammonia is fine in a tank without much light but when you add light (which of course is needed on a daily basis for the plants) you may find that algae will be delighted with the new "algae growing soup" you've created!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[tmiller]

Ah, I thought I'd read plants were ok. Guess I should maybe also cover the side that faces other tank too then.
Good thing I hadn't named the poor guys yet

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I'm sorry for your loss. And just like many others said, don't be hard on yourself. We have all done it! Heck, I didn't even know about dechlorinator when I first started. Kiiled quite a few fish with chlorine when I was younger. Just ask questions around here and we will help you with anything. Keep your head up!

 

[OldMan47]

Plants are OK during a cycle Tmiller, as long as you let us know about them when you ask questions or post test results. Without us knowing about your plants we may well give you terrible advice. The plants add a degree of complexity that we do not like but they will not themselves impact your cycle at all.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

I'll respectfully disagree , you can cycle with plants but why complicate it, for a beginner it just going to lead to headache and as tolak recent sticky keeping it as simple as is prob the best way to keep people in the hobby, waterdrop has already givin the basics as to why it can be a bad idea

 

[OldMan47]

That is why I told the poster to let us know about the plants. Some people just can't wait to put something, anything, in their tank.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

this is why we have bog wood in the hobby

 

[tmiller]

I appreciate all the info I can get thank you all. The potential of an unneeded algae out break helped me decide to kill the lighting for now. The plants were moved to the almost cycled tank after a rinse in water from last change.
As it can be done I could have gone either way but chose the less work/complication for now.

 

[tmiller]

One last positive question and ill let this thread sink,

The tank enduring a fish in cycle is now showing after roughly 8-11hrs 0 AMMONIA, 0 NITRITE, But only minimal Nitrate for the last two days.(since I lost the 3 babies my readings have been good but i got an ugly brown film that night)

I have scaled back water changes to maybe 10-20% once a day based on this, however I am expecting a nitrate reading higher than it is...

should I

1. wait a day and read again?
2. expect since I am highly planted and floating a few that were meant for another tank accept that the plants are eating my nitrate?
3. stop daily changes till / if i see a bad reading, if not pop some champagne after a number of days of good readings thus relaxing myself to weekly scheduled maintenance on this tank?


I am inclined to think I've found balance and the plants are reducing Nitrate readings, I do prefer #3 but require reinforcement

P.S. I had no idea what work a fish in would be, I will never do one again.. seed or fishless for this kid from here on out..

 

[manxjason]

Dont worry mate, most of us have done it at some point. Good thing is that you're trying your best during the nightmare of a fish-in cycle.

keep using your prime/ammo lock/purigen - whatever it is you're using

good sign though in terms of the nitrIte spike - shouldnt be long now

 

[tmiller]

Dont worry mate, most of us have done it at some point. Good thing is that you're trying your best during the nightmare of a fish-in cycle.

keep using your prime/ammo lock/purigen - whatever it is you're using

good sign though in terms of the nitrIte spike - shouldnt be long now

Thank you, I am Using prime.. almost 100ml in the weeks since i was introduced to it .. I do however think I'm about to pass the line .
500ml in the mail .. better get here soon as i have 2 new tanks cycling fish-less yeah I have an addictive personality. lol
I am stricken by how different the readings on a fish-less cycle are.. Nitrite in 4 days on the fish-less and nitrate in over 10-14 on a fish in. I test so much i may need a new kit soon