Odd...

[poopsydrew]

Plenty of tropicals, as listed, and 3 calico ryukans.

I went out an bought bloodworms for the elephant noses, they're happy now, I also bought a test kit.

TEST KIT RESULTS:

PH 6.8
Ammonia very low (almost same color as 0)
NitrItes very low (almost same color as 0)
NitrAtes 5

I also did a 50% water change(tested before it), plan on doing it once a day until cycled. I am now dosing with ich medicine, feeding algea discs to plecs and loach (everyone else loves them too. XD), and bought better fish food. I also made a cave for the elephant noses to hide in.

I went to a different shop, owner was MUCH better informed of fish, even gave me a discount ad the bloodworms for free. He pointed out a few things I needed (Bacteria, bacteria blocks, better food), and just gave me a few pointers, and said if I do enough water changes I should be fine.

I'm feeling much more hopeful about my fish's apparently inevitable doom.

Sorry I was asking nathaniel what fish...

 

[vinylman]

I've never heard of bacteria blocks, but by the sound of them they don't SUPPLY bacteria. Filter sponges are where the bacteria live, but you haven't got any bacteria yet, that's the problem.

 

[rdd1952]

Bacteria blocks are basically ceramic type media. Their fine for building the bacteria when you remove the sponges so that the tank can cycle. If you can find someone near you that could give you some media from an established tank, that would give you a good jump start on getting your tank cycled. You probably want to wait until after you get rid of the ich though as a lot of the medications will kill off the bacteria colony anyway.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

I plan on buying a few plants from my LFS when ich is gone, and I've heard that the bacteria like to live on plants.

I only but the blocks in because the owner said they would encourage bacteria growth.

 

[vinylman]

Aah, ceramic rings.

 

[rdd1952]

Actually, the rings (or blocks) are what you need in your filter. The vast majority of the bacteria colony will be on your filter media, not on the plants or other things in the tank. Don't take them out. The plants will help with the ammonia though as they will use it before it can be processed. You could actually plant the tank fairly heavily now and almost eliminate the ammonia issue. Hadn't really thought of that option. They won't have any adverse effect on the medication and the higher temperatures required to kill ich won't hurt the plants.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

That's good to kn ow, thanks. My LFS is having a sale on plants, so I'll just replace my replicas with real ones, which shouldn't be hard, as I have pretty common and cheap plants.

Should I gradually use less zeonite in my filter, to allow the bacteria to slowly build up? I don't want to shock the cycle.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

I have plans of action right now, can anyone give me advice?

1.) Set up new and larger tank when I get it, fishless cycle and keep current tank crammed with zeonite. When cycled, add fish to the new one.

2.) Slowly reduce zeonite amounts so bacteria can slowly grow into a full colony.