cycling 82 gallon tank

[ickyfishywishy]

i bought an 82 gallon tank ( my 1st ) and i got my self 4 gold fish 4 guppies and 2 platies... of course i know im gona have a coule get tired at the 1st month but i realy dont get why my poor little platy died!? i test the water every day and no sign of nitrates or nitrites and i wish i could find out whats the prob... my fish got some popeye but im treating them and its gettin a bit better now... what other things could suddenly kill a platy??

[twoluvcats]

OH boy...first off goldfish and tropical fish to not belong together. Goldfish like cooler water and they are really really dirty. Actually goldfish should have 10 gallons per fish to themselves.

Your tank is really overstocked for cycling. Most of those fish will probably die. Are you testing for ammonia? What kind of test are you using...liquid or dip strips? What kind of filter do you have?

You need to be doing 25-30% water changes every other day with those fish in there to keep them alive. Popeye and the platy dying are signs that your water quality is poor. Feed them sparingly, get rid of the goldfish and step up your water changes. A cycle of a tank with fish in it can take 2-3 months, it does not take "like a week" like the people in the fish store always seem to say. Fishless cycling is faster.

[ickyfishywishy]

eeeeeeek! and eveything i read online wasnt true!!! i read that u need fish to cycle a tank :S i guess im in a little trouble! i do change the water every day but a little bit at a time and i use dip strips for testing... r they bad :S im trying to find another type of test but the stores here are limited to me :S should i get rid of the gold fish only or is it ok to give back the guppies???

[twoluvcats]

the less fish you have in the tank while its cycling the better. If you are willing to get rid of the guppies, do it. They could start breeding and then you'd have MORE fish to deal with. I also cycled with a fully stocked tank...it was hard work, but i got my fish thru it. There is a TON of bad information out there, but you are taking steps to find the good info. You're doing fine. The biggest thing is don't buy ANY more fish until you get your tanks under control.

The common practice is to cycle with fish, but it takes a LOOOOOOOONG time. Once you have a cycled tank (and your ten gallon is probably not cycled yet either) you can take media from the established tank and use it to speed up the cycle on a new tank. Most fishkeepers have only had to cycle a tank once so they often forget how long it takes and how hard it is on the fish. Any diseases that your fish get now are caused by the stress of poor water conditions while the biological filter builds up in a new tank.

I will recommend again http://www.myfishtank.net...go there, read posts on cycling (and really, anything the people there are amazing!). There are articles there on the cycle and why its so important too. Plus a GREAT fish profiles section.

oh, and bigalsonline.com and Drsfostersmith.com both have a great selection of fish stuff and they are pretty cheap. The closest fish store to me is 80 miles. I either have to make do with what walmart has or order it online.

[ickyfishywishy]

thanx a lot for the info and the encouragement! i keep staring at them n worring about their poor litle bodies,,, i'll see if some1 will take the guppies cause ur right! i think their pregnant n im gona be in BIIIIIG fish poopoo if i dont get rid of um.... thanx for the early warning guys BTW,,, what 10 gallon tank are u talking about?? loool maybe u copied n pasted thats all i could figure out thaaaaaaaaaanx aaaa looooooot
ciao ciao for nooooow

[ickyfishywishy]

i was woundering!!! how would plants affect a new cycling tank? good bad?? i wanted to go with plastic cuz of that crazy snail plague our old tank got a long time ago n i hated plants ever since! and i dont mean 3 or 30 snails.... were talking about 300 snails :S so how could i prevent snails n anything else that might harm my fish from plants??

[twoluvcats]

i would be leery of getting plants just yet. I chose to focus on fish first and left out the live plants. If well taken care of, they can add benefit to a cycling tank, but they can also really foul things up. I feel like its enough to worry about with just the fish at first.


I'm sorry about the 10 gallon reference. I got you mied up with another poster that said they had a 10 gallon tank. Ignore that part LOL

[ickyfishywishy]

looool its ok luv kities i thought maybe some1 else asked the same n u just copied n pasted with a few changes lool yeah i thought plants would be a little eeky right now so its good i asked first thanx luv kitties ;D

[ickyfishywishy]

ok.... now the issue is with this crazy PH! its way too high! its about 7,8!!! :S is that realy bad? and my KH is extreamly LOW! about 3* dKH :S so i read somewhere that raising the KH is better than lowering and raising KH is as simple as adding 1/2 teaspoon to 100 Liters.... so is this true or do i have to go get a bunch of 100! chemichals and a chemestry book and some gogles or what??

[twoluvcats]

no, you don't need to change the PH or the KH. The most important thing is to keep them stable. My ph is 8 in all my tanks...my fish are fine. Turning your tank into chemical soup is never a good idea. You watch PH and KH to make sure that there are no drastic, sudden swings...but what ever number it stays at on its own is usually fine. There are instances like breeding where you need a specific PH, but for most causual hobbyists leave your ph at what it comes out of the tap as.

The important ones you need to watch right now are ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

[ickyfishywishy]

thats great to hear cuz after i posted i searched and found a gazillion things about changing PH and KH and they werent pretty :S everything said something different and they all included the thing about the PH "suddenly" raising or falling which i know is bad to fish! i realy apreciate all the help luv kitties thaank uu sooo much!!!!!!

i know i sound like a waaaay to beginner but theres tooo much info out there that are all different its great i found HB! thanx every1 for the help

[ickyfishywishy]

well u can congradulate me! my tank finaly is starting to cycle!!!!!! it took abt a month! :S and now its at the nitrites igh level but the nitrates are getting up there too!!!!! YIIIPPPEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeee ... booooooooooo im happy n sad for the poor fish that are going through this cycle!... but the goldies seem to be doing great!! their as healthy as can be and im allready looking for some new additions to add to my tank when it cycles... or is it better to wait a while after the tank cycles before i add more fish?? i have my eye on some pretty gold gouramies and some electric yellow cichlids.... i know cichlids need to be with their own kind but i read somewhere that its ok to put yellow labs with other larger comunity fish? is that true?

[twoluvcats]

Again, goldfish do not belong with tropicals. There are food and temp differences that make them incompatible, You need to either find a home for them or bring them back to the store if you want a tropical tank.

After your cycle you can add 1 or 2 fish at a time, that way your bactiera can keep up with your fish additions...add a whole bunch of fish at one time and you'll end up with ammonia and nitrite spikes. Your cycle is not done until your nitrites read 0...and that can take the longest. It took near 4 weeks for my nitirites alone to drop in my 29.

[amanichen]

In addition to what twoluvcats said, gouramis and african cichlids, and goldfish require totally different types of water chemistry.

Labidochromi, while not the most aggressive of cichlids, don't really belong in a 28 gallon tank with gouramis and/or goldfish.

[ickyfishywishy]

lool i forgot to mention that i will take out the gold fish and only put tropicals ;D hehe abt the the cichlids it was wierd when i read that some1 kept a yellow labs with tropical fish... that was wierd so its good i asked.... even the store has a couple of green terrors with huge bala sharks and a red tailed shark thanx for the warning guys !