Tank cycle Journal. Need your help and suggestions.

[Kashif314]

Update: I added 14 cichlids at once as I had no option but to buy them or else they would have been sold out and that store would not book them for me as I am not there regular customer. I added seached stability after adding fish and also added some prime. 4 days have passed since I added new fish in tank.

Did a water test today. Below are the results.

Amonia: I took it as 0 but not sure if its 0 or 0.25. Please have a look. Most probably its 0 but I am not sure. 0 and 0.25 is confusing to me so please let me know if its 0 or 0.25



Nitrites are 0



Nitrates are 5 ppm



So looks like everything is great if the amonia is indeed 0. It means the seeded media is working as nitrates are starting to register. Please advise if everything is going fine. Thanks.

 

[neutrino]

Not certain on my screen but looks like 0 to me. Nitrate showing up means your bacteria are working.

 

[tlindsey]

I suggest feeding lightly and keep monitoring your parameters You may get a spike in ammonia or nitrite.

 

[esoxlucius]

If you added those fish 4 days ago, and those are your parameters now, then I think you've come out of it well. Your young colony of bacteria have done a steller job. If you were going to get an ammonia spike after adding 14 fish i'd have thought you'd have got it pretty quick. That's what I found when it happened to me anyway. But like Tom said, don't go mad on the feeding and keep monitoring for a while.

I love that dolphin cichlid by the way, that shade of blue is stunning.

 

[Kashif314]

Not certain on my screen but looks like 0 to me. Nitrate showing up means your bacteria are working.

I suggest feeding lightly and keep monitoring your parameters You may get a spike in ammonia or nitrite.

Thanks. Yes I will keep my water parameters in check.

If you added those fish 4 days ago, and those are your parameters now, then I think you've come out of it well. Your young colony of bacteria have done a steller job. If you were going to get an ammonia spike after adding 14 fish i'd have thought you'd have got it pretty quick. That's what I found when it happened to me anyway. But like Tom said, don't go mad on the feeding and keep monitoring for a while.

I love that dolphin cichlid by the way, that shade of blue is stunning.

Thanks. Yes I will keep my water parameters checked. I hope no amonia or nitrite spikes. I got two huge sponges from the sump filter lfs has. The sump had extreme bio load as the tanks were having oscars and flower horns. So I thought the bb must have been in abundance to those filter medias. Glad I managed to get so much media. I made sure and checked the tanks there were clean from any visible infections or something. That's the best I could do.

Oh yes I love this dolphin. His colors are very vivid. Becomes more dark blue during feeding time. Thanks for liking this guy. He or she is my favourite in this tank.

 

[Kashif314]

Update: Today I find a dead fish in tank. Her body didn't look like she died recently. I watched the tank like 2 hours ago and everything was fine. After two hours I found a mutilated body on substrate and other cichlids were feasting on it.

I checked the water parameters and its not good news.

Amonia is 0.50 ppm or 1 ppm I am not sure. But most like 0.50 ppm



Nitrites are zero:



Nitrates are 10 or 20 ppm (Its impossible to differentiate between 10 and 20)



I added prime 10 ml. Will also add some stability after few hours. I can't do a water change today because I am unwell. Maybe tomorrow I can do a water change.

Please advise what other steps I need to do. I am worried about this amonia spike. Maybe this fish was dead inside for long and stuck somewhere but I am not sure. I didn't find any dead fish in tank and after two hours found a dead fish whose body doesn't look recent or maybe it died recently and others fish nibble on it and made it look like in very bad condition.

 

[The Morning]

Cichlids can decimate a body fairly quickly. If there were still remains I imagine it had not been dead all that long.

 

[esoxlucius]

As I mentioned in my post No14, if you were going to get an ammonia spike, then i'd have thought it would have happened pretty quick after adding 14 fish. For one reason or another, maybe the size of your fish or your feeding rate, the ammonia has come on more slowly than anticipated.

Time for immediate action now. The fact that you aren't well and can't do a water change is critical here. Adding prime will help your situation but water changes are key at this time. Water changes, add prime, no feeding and scoop out anymore dead fish immediately. And check your parameters daily.

Good luck.

 

[Kashif314]

Cichlids can decimate a body fairly quickly. If there were still remains I imagine it had not been dead all that long.

Thanks.

As I mentioned in my post No14, if you were going to get an ammonia spike, then i'd have thought it would have happened pretty quick after adding 14 fish. For one reason or another, maybe the size of your fish or your feeding rate, the ammonia has come on more slowly than anticipated.

Time for immediate action now. The fact that you aren't well and can't do a water change is critical here. Adding prime will help your situation but water changes are key at this time. Water changes, add prime, no feeding and scoop out anymore dead fish immediately. And check your parameters daily.

Good luck.

Thanks. Glad no more deaths. I added prime immediately after the water test. Fish are fine and active and hungry. I didn't feed them yesterday because of obvious reasons. I will do a water change today hopefully and will test water.

I think it didn't happen because of adding too many fish. I strongly believe its because of food. My wife likes to feed the "poor fishies" a large meal. I tried my best to educate her but she always says me look the fish are still hungry as they coming near glass and asking for food. Today I am gonna show her some videos about ammonia causes and its harm.

Also the most most important thing here is that I was feeding the "hikari discus bio gold" to my african cichlids because I had a bag quarter of food left from my previous discus tank. That food doesn't make any mess at all. They are like small bits and fish just gulp it but in case of hikari gold which I am feeding now, even though they are said to be mini, they aren't so mini. Fish crush them in their mouths and produce a lot of small particles in water. Too much actually. Even if I reduce the quantity of food it will still make a mess because of the process how fish crushing it. One pellet they take and while they crush it it comes out like a mist of little red food. I only got this food because as far as I read that these cichlids should be fed a more veggie diet and not too much protein or else they may have the famous "Malawi Bloat" or other health issues because their digestive tracts are small too.

So I wanna change the food I am giving to them. Is it ok to feed them "hikari discus bio gold" ? These are the ingredients listed:

Krill meal, whole crushed silkworm pupae, fish meal, cuttlefish meal, dried seaweed meal, brewers dried yeast, potato starch, spirulina, carotene, lecithin, DL-methionine, astaxanthin, garlic, choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (stabilized vitamin C), inositol, d-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, vitamin A supplement, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, niacin, folic acid, vitamin D3 supplement, biotin, silicon dioxide, ferrous sulfate, magnesium sulfate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, red 3 (artificial color).

And below is the nutritional chart:



What I love about this food that it never turns into pieces. It becomes a sponge like when becomes in contact with water. Please advise if its ok to feed to African cichlids? Thanks.

 

[RD.]

It is ok to feed that food, but that formula is high protein, high fat, high energy food. You need to feed VERY sparingly because of this. Not all African cichlids are herbivores, most of yours are not. But for now feed very little, your bio-filtration is still in its infancy and needs to become more established. This can take months. Tell your wife that she is killing your fish with kindness every time that she does that.