New tank new fish question

[Jeditaz]

I got a 75 gallon tank with marine land emperor 400 rated for a 80 gal tank moving 400 gallons per hour. I have two extra media spots with small bags of carbon media for better filtration. I bought the tank on Black Friday 6 days ago and it was full of water on Saturday. I learned about nitrogen cycles more throughly yesterday but ordered 6 juvenile (1.5") cynotilapia afra cobue that are arriving today. Yesterday I put a medium sized rock decoration from my older 29 gallon tank that I am hoping will have beneficial bacteria it will give to the new tank. I will be adding 1 yellow lab, 1 demasoni , 1 melanochromis johanni, and one red zebra over time. They are currently in my older tank. I haven't tested water specifics yet I just wanted your opinions on ammonia spikes on a newer tank that I don't think has cycled. Thanks

 

[tlindsey]

I got a 75 gallon tank with marine land emperor 400 rated for a 80 gal tank moving 400 gallons per hour. I have two extra media spots with small bags of carbon media for better filtration. I bought the tank on Black Friday 6 days ago and it was full of water on Saturday. I learned about nitrogen cycles more throughly yesterday but ordered 6 juvenile (1.5") cynotilapia afra cobue that are arriving today. Yesterday I put a medium sized rock decoration from my older 29 gallon tank that I am hoping will have beneficial bacteria it will give to the new tank. I will be adding 1 yellow lab, 1 demasoni , 1 melanochromis johanni, and one red zebra over time. They are currently in my older tank. I haven't tested water specifics yet I just wanted your opinions on ammonia spikes on a newer tank that I don't think has cycled. Thanks

I would suggest if possible adding a small bit of your bio media from your filter on the 29 gallon. Also suggest not adding all the fish at one time and testing your parameters weekly until stabilized. Did you use dechlorinator prior to setup of the 75 gallon ? Please be patient and allow cycle to complete.

 

[tlindsey]

I would suggest if possible adding a small bit of your bio media from your filter on the 29 gallon. Also suggest not adding all the fish at one time and testing your parameters weekly until stabilized. Did you use dechlorinator prior to setup of the 75 gallon ? Please be patient and allow cycle to complete.

Just reread your thread I personally would not risk adding the new 1.5 cynotilapia but older fish from the 29 gallon.

 

[Jeditaz]

I would suggest if possible adding a small bit of your bio media from your filter on the 29 gallon. Also suggest not adding all the fish at one time and testing your parameters weekly until stabilized. Did you use dechlorinator prior to setup of the 75 gallon ? Please be patient and allow cycle to complete.

We did use tap water conditioner and I put in prime as well a couple of days ago. I've read that you can cycle the tank with fish but it needs water changes every other day as well as prime once a day. Also I heard with fish cycling is dangerous for the fish. But I've also heard with a bigger tank the ammonia and nitrites and nitrates are more spread out because there is more volume in the tank?

Just reread your thread I personally would not risk adding the new 1.5 cynotilapia but older fish from the 29 gallon.

i was thinking the same thing too, about putting the old fish into the 75 gallon and putting to 6 cynotilapia into the 29 gallon. We didn't cycle the 29 gallon when we got it, but we did buy it used but we also cleaned off a lot of the leftover decorations that we used in our tank. We used a brand new filter as well. So the four old fish we have should go to the new tank first and the 6 new ones should go to the 29 once the old 4 are removed? All of the old 4 are juveniles also. Biggest being the johanni at maybe 2-2.5".

Thank you for replying Tlindsey

 

[PYRU]

I would get some instant cycle in this case. You put the cart before the horse on this one. Get a water test kit of some kind. You need to really figure out what your water parameters are.

 

[Jeditaz]

I would get some instant cycle in this case. You put the cart before the horse on this one. Get a water test kit of some kind. You need to really figure out what your water parameters are.

I agree, I plan on getting the API freshwater test kit with the Vials so that I can get accurate readings. I have the tetra strips, but when I bought them I didn't realize how cheap they are. I should have done more research I admit but I got excited because cynotilapia afra cobue are pretty rare in my area. No stores nearby sell any cynotilapia afra. I will reply once I get more reliable stats for you guys.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Go and buy some Dr. Tim's freshwater bacteria in a bottle. There may be more products out there that work, but be warned that there are far more that don't do what they claim. The Dr. Tim's is the real deal, anything you find on the shelf in petsmart and non-refrigerated is junk.
If you can't find that in your area, put ALL of the filter media from your 29 (assuming it was properly cycled and is still running) in the filter for the 75 at the same time as you put the fish in.
Fish-in cycling is often deadly for the fish. You can do every-other day small water changes, but this does prolong the time it takes to cycle. Much better off jump starting with established bacteria. The decorations don't have enough of it to cycle the tank, you need to seed the filter.
Best of luck

 

[skjl47]

decoration from my older 29 gallon tank

currently in my older tank

Hello; That you have an older established tank can save the day. A few choices open to you. First is to rob solid surfaces from the old tank. The beneficial bacteria (bb) form a film on surfaces. Many seem to think only of the filter media as places where the bb colonize, but my take is they will be on many surfaces. Maybe a bit more concentrated in and around a filter due to regular water flow. The bb should be on all surfaces of a filter at any rate. You should be able to transfer most or all the filter media from the old tank into the new setup.
Replace the media in the old filter with new stuff. The bb in and on the surfaces of the old filter will seed the new media and should get the old tank back up to balance soon.

Another way open to you is to rob several hard surfaces from the old tank. Gravel, additional décor and such. These surfaces should have bb on them.

can cycle the tank with fish but it needs water changes every other day as well as prime once a day

Hello; I do not see why a fish-in cycle is needed for you. You have the old tank and can jump start the cycle process or at least speed it up.
The issue with fish-in cycling is the water changes. To protect the fish from ammonia WC are done to keep the ammonia levels low. Low ammonia levels do not promote the growth of the bb so the process is slowed down unless you are willing to allow the fish to suffer.

cynotilapia afra cobue are pretty rare in my area

Hello; You have the old tank. You can hold the new fish to it for a time. This way fish can be to the new setup one at a time. This way the bb populations can be allowed to increase gradually.

Another option is to move the fish from the old tank into the new and add the new cynotilapia afra to the old tank.

Anyway you may not have a big problem. Having an old setup and robbing bb from it is the way I set up a new tank.

One more point to consider. You say you moved the décor into the new tank without fish in it. The fish are to arrive later. The décor or other material from the old tank should not be added to the new tank until you have fish to add at near the same time. The bb need the ammonia and nitrites to thrive. They will not die off for a few days but may go dormant without their needed nutrients. Rob the stuff from the old tank at near the time you plan to add fish.

Good luck

 

[duanes]

I agree with skjl47, since the old tank is set up and running, add the filter and as much of the gravel, rocks and anything else when the new fish arrive.
No need to cycle with all that stuff
Then add all the fish at once, if they are all nearly equal in size, this will allow for a new territorial hierarchy to develop (hopefully) without too much lethal aggression.
One rock won't carry enough beneficial bacteria, and i assume the 29 is being phased out anyway because its too small, but would make a good hospital/quarantine tank.
And yes..... just a thought, the quarantining of the new fish..... the 29 for the new ones would probably be the smart thing to do.
You never know what they may carry, or what your old fish have built an immunity to, that the new fish haven't.

 

[Jeditaz]

Thank you all for replying and showing genuine concern. I apologize for not replying in a while. My results of my API freshwater master kit test were very positive and I was relieved. PH is 8.2, Ammonia is 0ppm, nitrite is 0ppm and nitrate is at 5 ppm. The way I introduced the fish was a little unorthodox but I used prime and did 50% water changes twice a week.

I put in the 6 cynotilapia into the big tank first (risky I know) I used strips before I put them into the big tank so I knew where my perameters were, I kept a close eye on them and used strips often. Within about 2 or 3 days I started integrating my old 4 fish into the new tank, checking with strips my level daily making sure levels didn't get out of hand. Once all fish were in the big tank I took the filter out of the small tank and added it to the big tank. Now I have an emperor 400 and a penguin 200, both with ammo-carb carbon media in all of the slots that can hold it. I left the filter cartridge in the penguin 200 of course for BB.

Current stock is 6 cynotilapia afra cobue, 2 melanochromis johanni, 2 labidochromus caerulius, 2 maylandia esthrae (red zebra), and 1 demasoni. Note I added one johanni, yellow lab and red zebra. They were all small and I was trying to get at least pairs. I haven't found a healthy demasoni to add yet. I was going to add 6 metriaclima callainos (pearl zebra) within a couple of days because of the positive test results. I've decided I'm not going to be selling or distributing any fry so that I don't need to worry about cross breeding with the yellow labs and red zebras and maybe pearl zebras.

Anyone have any advice or info on pearl zebras with this current stocking? I've done a lot of research and it seems like the johanni and demasoni might be my main aggressive issues. Also I'm finally ordering my first bucket of NLS fish food from Big Als. I read some old posts and I was excited to feed it to my fish!