Death during Cycling
- Thread starter JEAE21
- Start date
Depends on so many things
How many fish, how big is the tank, when do you add them, what filters do you have, how much do you feed. So the is no ONE answer.
The idea of water changes is to get rid of excess Nitrate that builds up in the tank. While the tank is cycling there wont be high nitrate levels, so you shouldn't have to do water changes. Once the tank is cycled you will see nitrate levels starting to rise, then you should start doing water changes to keep nitrate levels low.
The only time you SHOULD do water changes during cycling is if the ammonia or nitrite get too high and starts to harm your fish. That means you added too many fish too fast, but big water changes can save them.
You dont have to overthink things here.. Keep it simple. Add a few fish, wait a few weeks, do some water tests, add some more fish.. repeat untill tank is cycled and fully stocked. If you spread this out over 6 or 8 weeks it will work fine.
Trying to rush things and get a tank full of monster fish set up in a week is where people have problems. Take it slow, watch the dozen guppys swim around in the big tank for a couple of weeks, let the filters cycle and you will be fine.
Cheers
Ian
Hey J, I didn't realize you had fish in your tank. You really do need a test kit. I'm not a big fan of the strips. You don't get an exact reading on your levels. A good kit will give you exactly where you are. That way you will know how often to do water changes. Just watch the ammonia. If it starts getting too high, do a change. Don't forget to watch the Nitrites too. Once the ammonia has spiked the nitrites will spike soon after. This is a good thing. It will establish your bb. If either level starts to get to high, do a change. It will just take a little longer to get fully cycled.
JEAE21;1245670; said:
All of the fish you named are likely to get sick or die during cycling. Knifefish ESPECIALLY would be a very very bad choice, ID sharks might make it but would likely end up with ich or worse, and where would you put these fish once they hit a very large size? Silver dollars, again, would probably end up with ich or worse and oscars are prone to HITH (Hole In The Head) disease whose likelyhood is increased by poor water quality, not to mention ich and other problems.
Best fish to cycle with would be danios.
50% weekly isn't guaranteed to show a noticeable increase in the time it takes to cycle your tank. I've cycled tanks with fairly large fishloads by doing several water changes per day and that will definately increase the time it takes you to cycle by a couple of weeks anyway.
That said, you don't automatically do 50% per week. You need to test and do water changes accordingly or else you can remove too much ammonia.
The problem would be convincing yourself NOT to stock the tank heavily. If you're trying to cycle with a very large fish load, only 50% per week is going to be hazardous for even the toughest fish.
Just a few (as in 3) danios should be enough to cycle all but large tanks with no fish deaths. If you try to cycle with a lot of fish you are NOT going to like your maintanence schedule.
The problem with fishy cycling is that you either have to add a lot of fish and do lots of water changes thus prolonging the cycle, however you end up with the tank cycled for that many fish. Or you have to cycle with just a few fish (that would be the easiest) and then add fish slowly to keep the ammonia from spiking.
Your best bet is just to do a fishless cycle and add the correct amount of ammonia yourself. Your tank will be bare for awhile but it will be ready for you to stock however many fish you're planning on right away once it's done.
red eye tetras are pretty diesel when cycling a fwt tank...the cycling process comes and goes in 2 steps...after the first 2 weeks it gets couldy (generally) and then goes away, and 2 weeks later it appears again and goes away. The previously mentioned comments were right, cycling is important to be left alone, unless in times of emergency. The key is to buy fish that are cheap and will just serve as food for the larger stock later, hence the recommendation of any healthy. stocky and fairly "large" tetra. Let the biological filtration set itself up and then you will be golden...
hey jeae21--like ziggy 2 stated, test strips are not really reliable and can give false readings because every time you open that little container, moisture can get in there.. and it eventually damages those strips.. if i were you, id get on drfostersand smith website.. they have a good freshwater test kit (i just bought one) for like 20 bucks.. it was half the cost of petland. it tests ammonia, nitItes, nitrAtes, and ph levels.. a good little kit.. while you are cycling you need to test at least those first three everyday (or, i do because im compulsive like that haha).
regular filter floss itself will not remove any ammonia--ammonia over time SHOULD go away--there is a really good sticky on the nitrogen cycle that maybe you should read--it explains how a tank cycles (and what steps happen).
i think that during the cycle, you should be most worried about ammonia levels--fish are really really sensitive to ANY ammonia in the tank and thats what kills them. like previous posters have stated, if that ammonia is too high.. then do a waterchange --otherwise, i always let the tank just cycle itself..
regular filter floss itself will not remove any ammonia--ammonia over time SHOULD go away--there is a really good sticky on the nitrogen cycle that maybe you should read--it explains how a tank cycles (and what steps happen).
i think that during the cycle, you should be most worried about ammonia levels--fish are really really sensitive to ANY ammonia in the tank and thats what kills them. like previous posters have stated, if that ammonia is too high.. then do a waterchange --otherwise, i always let the tank just cycle itself..
thanks shadow..you cleared it up.
but i don't have any other open tanks that are fully cycled that i can place the babies in...
well my dad's but..my fish would be snack.
so during cycling, no water changes..unless the fish act wierd.
if they do act wierd can i do up to a 50% water change?
hey and how does ammonia affect fish. i read that chlorine BURNS fish gills but what kind of damage does ammonia do?
but i don't have any other open tanks that are fully cycled that i can place the babies in...
well my dad's but..my fish would be snack.
so during cycling, no water changes..unless the fish act wierd.
if they do act wierd can i do up to a 50% water change?
hey and how does ammonia affect fish. i read that chlorine BURNS fish gills but what kind of damage does ammonia do?
a few years ago, i overcleaned a tank (changed the canister media AND suctioned the gravel too well) and had an ammonia spike-a few of my fish died- their eyes fogged over, they were gasping at the bottom, and a few had redness at the base of their fins and tail (those died).. the rest of the fish recovered with alot of waterchanges..
if its too bad, yes you can do a 50 percent waterchange but i would only do that if you have fish dying or are extremely stressed like mine were..
if its too bad, yes you can do a 50 percent waterchange but i would only do that if you have fish dying or are extremely stressed like mine were..
