small tank probs, big time

iv menationed my 8.9gal guppy tank. its been up and running a few weeks i used a new filter soaked in established water. and filled the tank with established water, i had to put all the fish in though thast were in the previous tank coz i had no other room.

up tillnow its had eye cload and interal deseases and iv lost 5 guppies and mollies.

iv sinced put the live bearers im my big tank and my 40+ fry in a hosp tank with the plecs.

Iv cleaned the whole tank and replaced the water with 75% established water, 25% tap water, and have set up the fluval 1 plus and UGF. im just leaving it too cycle. i was plannig to slowly add plants, then fish at time, will ths work coz my fish just keep dying.


thanks

amy. x

 

hard to say! best you can do is hope not, if you gave it a good cleaning you might just not.

 

mmmmmmmmm, its so sad, my pragnant guppy mum came down with the desease this morn, im trying to treat her but the treatments crap!!!

 

i told you about the primafix right? that stuff i think is sapposed to be better. and that would suck if your fry or mom came down with that.

 

i know coz my fry are so juicy now

 

lol mine are so cute. they are mini versions of their moms. its a good thing because all my fry's parents died. :cry: :cry:

 

its looking that way for me guppy fry too

 

yup, it looks so cute. its ammusin to watch them swim. lol.

 

Water contains very little bacteria so if you're just using water from an established tank, it's not going to do much. You'd be better off doing a full fishless cycle (adding some filter media or gravel from an established tank will help speed it up).

-Chelle

 

May I suggest adding lots more live plants? Live plants eat up ammonia and nitrate so if you are trying to cycle with fish it really makes the cycle a lot easier on them; not quite so many toxic things floating around. Also how about adding some gravel from an established tank or some filter media?

Or am I totally reading your post wrong? :?

 

i agree with tina the more plants the better

 

well yuo said lots of plants so i went out and baught 20 vales. There all in now and although i couldnt use other filter media i used bactozyme and some matured gravel mixed with current gravel in there.

how long till i should add a few fish?
how many?
just aguppy at atime?

thanks

 

Since you added the established gravel, that should help speed up the cycle.

If you're doing a fishless cycle, you will have to add 5ppm ammonia every day and monitor your water parameters. When you can add 5ppm ammonia one day and the next day have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrIte, and some amount of nitrAte, do a water change and add all your fish at once.

If you're going to cycle it with fish (not recommended because the high ammonia & nitrIte associated with cycling a tank might kill them), I'd add one or 2 at a time spaced a couple weeks apart. But you'll really have to monitor your water parameters and do water changes to keep everything as close to 0 as you can.

Here is a very good article on cycling:
http://www.flippersandfins.net/cycling.htm

-Chelle

 

im not sure how id add the ammonia so id go for adding small amounts of fish over a log peroid. i have amonia, nitrate, ph and oxygen tests so ill have to do my best with what iv got.

 

what does 'fry' mean? i never heard of that....

 

Its a baby fish. Just like we'd call baby dogs or cats puppies or kittens

 

Fry are baby fish.

-Chelle

 

Doesn't make sense does it. You would think fry meant that they were pan size. lol

 

OneWolfsDream what kinda fry do you have? I mean like wat type of fish?

 

LOL. My dad is always joking about my oscars being "eatin' size". And the other day I was at Walmart and in the meat dept. they had tilapia that where smaller than my oscars.

-Chelle