problems cycling with feeders
- Thread starter Tilapia Buttikoferi
- Start date
Dustonthecabnit;3518865; said:
I live in Utah now for college, my other tanks are bank home in california over the careful watch of my parents and friend aaron. I have to start from scratch up here..
Tilapia Buttikoferi;3515852; said:So safe start or stability? which should I use?
Which ever you want they both work. Although i have had problems with stability.
Stability has to be added everyday for a certain amount of days. And i can speak from experience that if you miss a day. Or your second addittion of stability is say 36hrs after the first. Then it will not work very good. IMO
I had trace (.25-.5ppm) nitrite for 2 weeks when i cycled with stability. Which is allright for most fish. Just not the payara I had at the time.
With safestart you add your complete stock list and pour the entire bottle in at once and forget about. Your done.
If you have a ammonia reading present at the time you add the safestart. You will notice that the ammonia (tested up to 5PPM) will be gone in 18-24hrs and you will have a small amount of nitrites .25-.5ppm for another day or 2 max.
In the past year I have cycled 2 125g's a 75g and a 2g nano all with safestart and i have had mirror image results with all 4 tanks.
I think it is important to have a good ammonia source while using etheir product as well. If you have a 1ppm per day ammonia source and add some safe start bacteria that can handle 5ppm. Then alot of that bacteria will starve and die off very quickly.
Then if you go and add a bunch of fish a few days or a week later and exceed what bio bacteria is still alive then you have a cycle all over again.
If you can not afford to buy atleast 60-75% of your complete stock list, then i would suggest etheir adding liquid ammonia on a daily basis along with what ever live ammonia source you have bought. Or buying cheap feeder fish to make up for lack of tank stock. Or add fish one at a time every 2-3 weeks after the initial cycle has completed. As to not shock the bio filter.
wow people are going through a whole start-over just for ich ? is it really necessary ? when i've had ich before i bumped up the temp and salted and that got rid of it . please explain why that isn't good enough . i thought the high temp killed em .
papawoody;3519174; said:
high temp kills ick?
not at all.
The purpose of raising the temp is to speed up the life cycle of the ick. And the salt is to irratate the fish's skin so that it will produce a larger slime coat which is its natural protection against ick.
The only way to kill ick is to starve them or kill with chemicals.
Temp and salt treatment are for starvation.
sure
if the parasite does not have a host to feed on they starve and die.
You might read up on ick lifespan but I beleive it is something like 14days from cyst to adult. So if you let the tank set for say 4-6 weeks then they would have all died out by then. That time would take care of any juvi ick that was in the tank or new cyst that had not hatched out yet. Plus a week or so for good measure.
If it were me though I couldn"t wait that long. So i would go and get some ick meds and triple dose the tank and let that cycle thru the filters and all for a week and then drain and redo.
if the parasite does not have a host to feed on they starve and die.
You might read up on ick lifespan but I beleive it is something like 14days from cyst to adult. So if you let the tank set for say 4-6 weeks then they would have all died out by then. That time would take care of any juvi ick that was in the tank or new cyst that had not hatched out yet. Plus a week or so for good measure.
If it were me though I couldn"t wait that long. So i would go and get some ick meds and triple dose the tank and let that cycle thru the filters and all for a week and then drain and redo.
Start over, 100% water change, CLEAN THAT GRAVEL then take 1/2 of your gravel to your old tank trade it out...
If u don't want to mix the 2, invest/find a piece of plastic thats around 4 inches high from bottom of tank. Put between new and old substrate so you can change back after everything is up and running strong. looks something like
_____________
l--------------l
l--------------l
l_____l_______l
I am Cycling my 125 currently... New Water. New Filter and Media. 2/3 old Sand/Rocks 1/3 new stuff.
At the END of
Week 1 added 2 mollies --Just to see if anything would live)
Week 2 adding 10 Dainos -- Doing great so far
Week 3 adding 1 Oscar --Next Wed.
If u don't want to mix the 2, invest/find a piece of plastic thats around 4 inches high from bottom of tank. Put between new and old substrate so you can change back after everything is up and running strong. looks something like
_____________
l--------------l
l--------------l
l_____l_______l
I am Cycling my 125 currently... New Water. New Filter and Media. 2/3 old Sand/Rocks 1/3 new stuff.
At the END of
Week 1 added 2 mollies --Just to see if anything would live)
Week 2 adding 10 Dainos -- Doing great so far
Week 3 adding 1 Oscar --Next Wed.
