WHY IS MY CICHLID DIEING?
- Thread starter T-Hbrand
- Start date
First of all, if you are afraid of doing water changes, your fish are dead meat. If you do not understand the basic principles of waste removal, why do you expect your fish to survive? Fish pee in the water all day (Ammonia). Certain bacteria eat it, producing nitrItes. Those bacteria in turn produce more waste, nitrAtes. Now you have to remove those nitrAtes constantly without killing the germs that keep your fish alive. It takes about six weeks to cycle a tank with fish. Supposedly a little less time if you use pure ammonia to kick-start the cycle.
What I have described is called the nitrogen cycle. Pet stores do not know what cycling is. They will tell you to run the tank for a day before adding fish. Then your fish die. THen you buy more fish. It's good for their business.
Google "nitrogen cycle aquarium". Petfish.net also has many good articles on this crucial aspect of fishkeeping.
Now do a little homework to help you and your fish.
And if you use the product called 'Cycle', how are your bacteria ever going to establish themselves? Stop using such products. They starve the germs trying to actually grow on your filter media.
What I have described is called the nitrogen cycle. Pet stores do not know what cycling is. They will tell you to run the tank for a day before adding fish. Then your fish die. THen you buy more fish. It's good for their business.
Google "nitrogen cycle aquarium". Petfish.net also has many good articles on this crucial aspect of fishkeeping.
Now do a little homework to help you and your fish.
And if you use the product called 'Cycle', how are your bacteria ever going to establish themselves? Stop using such products. They starve the germs trying to actually grow on your filter media.
Is there any pointers you can give me about keeping my next spike to a minimum so the same thing does not happen.
Oh, hey. It's tough when you first hear this stuff. I started out with a ten gallon tank. My ammonia was off the charts, too. Constant water changes for almost a month got things in order. Remember to use a water conditioner like prime every time. Anyway, after weeks of constant water changes, I gradually started doing every other day, every third day, twice a week and then once a week. Check those levels every day when it's newly cycled. You'll get the hang of it. Understock and feed lightly for best results. Enjoy!
today 2 days after I did a huge change I tested the water and it was 2.0 already so I'm gonna do another water change.
and tomorow I'll probally do another
but the cool thing is the fish are already looking way more lively.
but the cool thing is the fish are already looking way more lively.
glad to hear it!! Just make sure you change only 25-30 percent once - twice weekly so u dont take out too much of the good stuff that will help the tank...
Once it is stable. The nitrifyers don't live in the water. They're mainly on objects like your filter media. It is true that removing too much waste over long periods will starve them. But don't worry about that until your ammonia is stable at zero.
