[nikkisan]

I recently purchased a 120 gallon freshwater aquarium, along with about 50 fish. The fish tank was very dirty, and infested with smalll snails. I didn't get to save much of the aquarium water, as it was really dirty (Black sludge, at the bottom). I saved some of the original rock/gravel, but had to rinse it really well to get rid of all the snails. The only other thing I kept was the bio-wheels from the filter, which I floated in tank water. The tank is now set up in my home, what can I do to prevent fish loss due to this big move? I know it probably will go through a cycle again, as if it were a new tank!! Should I make small water changes if amonia starts to spike?

 

[SKAustin]

Test daily for ammonia, and nitrite, 15-25% water changes if you notice rising levels of either. Keep the feeding to a minimum and make regular inspections of the inhabitants. watch for any signs of stress, eg abnormal behavior, or disease. As long as you are dechlorinating the water being added to the tank, and monitoring the water params and fish, you should be ok.

 

[nikkisan]

Moving large tank

Thanks for the reply. It was moved yesterday, I only lost one small zebra danio during the move. The fish seem to be doing fine, and the amonia levels are very, very low. I'll test again tomorrow. It might take a couple of days for the amonia levels to start goin up. Would adding more cycle help? I have also added cell pore for beneficial bacteria to grow on in my emperor 400 filter.

 

[Lupin]

Would adding more cycle help?

This sounds more like ammonia instead of cycle. Aim to about 3-4 ppm of ammonia. It will then be converted into nitrites in a few days.

 

[SKAustin]

Would adding more cycle help?

This sounds more like ammonia instead of cycle. Aim to about 3-4 ppm of ammonia. It will then be converted into nitrites in a few days.

Not if there are fish already in the tank.

Cycle products are overrated, most products that are comercially available are nearly useless. Most of these products have the improper bacterias for the job. While the nacteria Nitrosomas is responsible for the conversion of Ammonia to Nitrite, the bacteria Nitrobacter, which is alledgedly packaged in these cycling additives, is not the correct bacteria that would be found in a naturally occurring environment. The proper bacteria for the conversion of Nitrites to Nitrates has been identified as Nitrospira. To my knowledge, BioSpira is the only commercially available product that contains this bacteria.

Which brings us to a second problem. In the time it takes for the the Nitrosomas to create ample supply of food (nitrite) for the Nitrospira, the nitrospira have since died off.

 

[SKAustin]

If you have an established tank in operation, squeeze the dirty filter material out into the filter for the new tank. Do this once a day for a few days and the tank will cycle in no time with out adding unnecessary additives.

 

[nikkisan]

Moving a large tank

Hey, why didn't I think of that, I have 3 other tanks.....! Fish look great this morning, no deaths, or swimming funny. I'll test amonia again in a little while. Thanks for the help.