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nukeonekitty

Knowledge talks while wisdom listens.
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Today my friend noticed his tank had a crack and was leaking so very slowly well some how while trying to fix it or look at it or whatever he made it worse and the tank drained very quickly, he had 4 cichlids in the tank, 2 red zebras and 2 electric blues... I have a 55 that many of you know has been cycling about a week. We put the cichlids in my tank and now I am worried if they will be affected by their own amonia levels... Please keep in mind my tank was half filled with gravel straight from a colonized 20 gal and some of the water was also added. They have been in the tank about 8 hours and the amonia level is still at zero (which I would expect) and seems to be well. I have put rock in for them. They are also rather small... no bigger than 2" a piece.... are they going to be okay? I don't really have another option for them... sad.gif
 
I think you'll be okay. The bacteria from the mature tank should adjust well to the relatively small bioload of 4 cichlids. Just make sure you keep an eye on ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. A couple filter cartridges from a mature tank cycled my tank quickly. I put one in front of the pump in the sump and the other on the drip plate in the wet/dry filter.

Just keep an eye on the levels and make sure you don't overfeed them. Good Luck!!!
 
grab some of the media out of your friends filter and stick it in yours to instantly cycle your tank
 
Oh alright! I will make sure to get his filter pads asap, thanks guys!
 
And if the levels start to rise, then be prepared to do plenty of regular water changes to keep on top of it.

When my tank went through a mini cycle i was changing about 30-40% twice a day at one point, but I was fully stocked at the time.

This will scupper your fishless cycle though cos you'll effectively be cycling with fish now - you'll need to add any further fish slowly over a period of time and not fully stock as you normally would at the end of a fishless cycle.
 

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