New Tank, Advice Needed....

[an_iced_heart]

Hi There,

I need some advice on my new tank, its a 200l and after repairs i two thirds filled it with water and let the water sit for about 4-5 days, then i put the sand in, on the same day i took my u3 from my 280l malawi tank, and put it in the new tank along with some new live plants. I also put in a spare power head filter which i pulled out of storage.. I have put a few neons and two congo tetras in.

The question is, because it was an existing filter that was already running, will the new tank have to cycle or can i add the fish straight away? The pump was added on Wed and its now Friday. I have added some fish because i didnt want to leave it totally fishless..

The 280l malawi tank had a new 1400lph external fitted 10 days before i removed the u3 -- hoping that was long enough to establish the new external..

Can anyone offer advice please? The new tank had 100% new water because i didnt want to add the malawi water and my community tanks are too small to spare any for the 200l tank.. i added stress zyme and coat to it to help?

Thanks in advance
Laura

 

[RossC]

The only way of really telling is to monitor the ammonia levels. I assume you have a test kit?

 

[an_iced_heart]

I have a test kit for ph but not ammonia

 

[RossC]

I have a test kit for ph but not ammonia

I would advise you to get one as every cycle is different. Even though you've used an established filter the change in conditions may have effected the bacteria. I'm not an expert in this but I've read a lot and I'm doing my hit to help if you can't get an ammonia tester try doing a variation of the fish-in cycle just to be safe, in otherwords do frequent water changes to keep toxins low.

 

[an_iced_heart]

IS there a way to tell when its ready to put the rest of the fish in without a testing kit? Have fish waiting to go in, but dont want to rush them and then have them die?

 

[the_lock_man]

Hi There,

I need some advice on my new tank, its a 200l and after repairs i two thirds filled it with water and let the water sit for about 4-5 days, then i put the sand in, on the same day i took my u3 from my 280l malawi tank, and put it in the new tank along with some new live plants. I also put in a spare power head filter which i pulled out of storage.. I have put a few neons and two congo tetras in.

The question is, because it was an existing filter that was already running, will the new tank have to cycle or can i add the fish straight away? The pump was added on Wed and its now Friday. I have added some fish because i didnt want to leave it totally fishless..

The 280l malawi tank had a new 1400lph external fitted 10 days before i removed the u3 -- hoping that was long enough to establish the new external..

Can anyone offer advice please? The new tank had 100% new water because i didnt want to add the malawi water and my community tanks are too small to spare any for the 200l tank.. i added stress zyme and coat to it to help?

Thanks in advance
Laura

You don't have to worry about the new 200l tank, as that has a fully mature filter in it.

You DO need to worry about the Malawi tank, there will not be much bacteria in there at all. The normal recommendation from this forum for cycling a filter by running it in tandem with another is 6 weeks. I suggest you take about 15% of the filter media from the old filter (and replace it with brand new media), and put it into the new filter - that should be small enough for the old filter to suffer no detrimental effects, but will hopefully allow the new filter to catch up quickly. I also recommend daily water testing, and potentially water changing, in the Malawi tank, until you see stable levels for a week.

To answer your main question, you need to get it stocked fairly quickly, before you lose the bacteria - they've been used to 280l worth of Cichlids producing tons of ammonia, now they've only got a few little fish, so the colonies will be shrinking. If you stock up quickly, you should be ok - if you leave it much longer, then the colonies will have died off, and you will have to stock gradually, to allow the bacteria to catch up with you.

 

[an_iced_heart]

Apart from testing, how will i know if the Malawis are having a problem? At the moment, everyone is normal and happy.. will do a water change tonight. Its all so darn complicated and everyone has their own ideas, the aquatics said to run it for two weeks with the u3 and then it would be fine to take out.. I've been told that because the 200l is all new water, it might kill the bacteria and cycle again, i've been told that the bacteria can survive only about 4 hours with no fish in the tank and then it dies and starts again.. sigh
I dont mind stocking the 200l slowly as i only have a few fish to put in, two angels, a shrimp, a cory and a hoplo.. and a few gouarmis will be coming soon..

What about if i squeeze a u3 sponge onto one of the sponges in my external??

 

[an_iced_heart]

Just done a water change on them both, added stress coat because my water is wretched at the moment.. coming out cloudy.. dont even want to drink it myself let alone give it to the fish.. not 100% sure about either tank at the moment..

 

[the_lock_man]

Apart from testing, how will i know if the Malawis are having a problem? At the moment, everyone is normal and happy.

Observing their behaviour - clamped fins is a usual symptom of ammonia poisoning.

I've been told that because the 200l is all new water, it might kill the bacteria and cycle again,

Absolute tosh, as long as the water was dechlorinated.

i've been told that the bacteria can survive only about 4 hours with no fish in the tank and then it dies and starts again.. sigh

Again, absolute tosh, they can survive well over 4 hours. If you left it a week or so, you'd have lost all the bacteria, but a day or two, there'd have been a bit of loss, but not the whole colony, IMHO.

What about if i squeeze a u3 sponge onto one of the sponges in my external??

It would help a bit, but not as much as if you put the actual media in. The bacteria cling very tightly to the media, so a squeeze won't get that many to let go of one sponge, and grab hold of another.

At the moment, you've got a filter that has 280l worth of bacteria on it (and if they're Malawis, then you probably had quite a full tank, therefore lots of ammonia, therefore lots of bacteria). It's in a tank that's only 200l - so that's 80l worth of media that is wasted, that's why I said to take about 15% out (and replace it with new stuff) and put it directly in the external. You could take up to a third out, and the bacteria will recolonise the new media within a day or thereabouts, so to only take 15% is not a problem.

 

[an_iced_heart]

Not got any new sponges to hand at the mo otherwise i would do just that, i abhorr paying pet shop prices and theres no way i could get a delivery till tue. Its not a fully stocked malawi tank, their mostly juvies but still way more fish than will be in the other tank..
I have just put the rest of the fish in the 200l tank, added one guppy, one little tetra, one angel, one cory and one shrimp.. thats everything.. ontop of the two congo and the 5 or so neons in there already.. hoping that will be ok.. worried about the malawis now though, its been almost 3 days and no signs of any weird behaviour or distress, did a big water change anyway and added the stress coat... so will keep and eye on them.. how long do you think it will be before i know i'm in the clear if all the fishies are happy and healthy?

 

[the_lock_man]

Not got any new sponges to hand at the mo otherwise i would do just that, i abhorr paying pet shop prices and theres no way i could get a delivery till tue. Its not a fully stocked malawi tank, their mostly juvies but still way more fish than will be in the other tank..
I have just put the rest of the fish in the 200l tank, added one guppy, one little tetra, one angel, one cory and one shrimp.. thats everything.. ontop of the two congo and the 5 or so neons in there already.. hoping that will be ok.. worried about the malawis now though, its been almost 3 days and no signs of any weird behaviour or distress, did a big water change anyway and added the stress coat... so will keep and eye on them.. how long do you think it will be before i know i'm in the clear if all the fishies are happy and healthy?

What have you put in the external?

Have you tested the water in the Malawi tank? That's the only way to really be sure.

 

[an_iced_heart]

The external has ceramic rings, bio balls and a sponge in each level.. Dont have an ammoinia and nitrate testing kit.. really need to get one of those.. but can get one till next week, and have no transport till tue to take some water to the aquatics and get it tested as Husband is away and has the car with him..

 

[the_lock_man]

The external has ceramic rings, bio balls and a sponge in each level.. Dont have an ammoinia and nitrate testing kit.. really need to get one of those.. but can get one till next week, and have no transport till tue to take some water to the aquatics and get it tested as Husband is away and has the car with him..

That's effectively new media, which could be swapped with the mature stuff in the U3.

You deffo need a test kit - I wish they'd include one with every aquarium sold, IMO it is THE most vital piece of kit in the hobby. With the possible exception of water. I would say do a 30% water change daily until you can get yourself ammonia and nitrite tests (liquid ones), then you can see for yourself exactly where you are. THe fact that the fish are looking fine is a positive indicator, but it's not definitive - they may look ok but still be suffering.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Where did you get the "one guppy, one little tetra, one angel, one cory and one shrimp" that you added to the 200l tank?


The new tank with the old filter is fine if you have fish in there now. The old tank with the new filter is the concern. As mentioned above, take a bit of the filter media from the old filter and put it in the new filter. Just don't take more than 1/3. You've now got yourself in a bit of an emergency situation because you should have things to 1) replace the filter media you're borrowing and 2) test your water (with a professional liquid test kit with test tubes) and 3) get enough of all the fish to have shoals of at least 6 per species.


I think with good water changes the old tank with the new filter should be all right until you can get it cycled.

 

[an_iced_heart]

Well after being told to run the pumps together for about two weeks, and thinking back to my tanks cycling from scratch in about 7 days.. and taking into consideration that the u3 was severly under powered for a 280l tank i figured that the external would have pretty much been the main filter for the 10 days it was in there.. and would have been ok to run on its own.. guess logic doesnt come into it when you've been given bum advice..

the fish mentioned were in a 25 and 55l tank, the 55 has been sold pending collection, and has some fish remaining in it which are going with the tank.. the 25l just has one young hoplo in it..