Cycling a fish tank with fish in.?
I have been going through the same thing the past couple of months so I know how you feel :( Cycling a tank can take anywhere from 3 weeks to a couple of months, depending on your tank situations. On average, tanks cycle in 4-6 weeks. If possible, get some filter media or gravel from someone who has an established tank. Or ask a local pet store to sell you some...but make sure their tanks are in good condition (no dead fish, fin rot, ich, etc.) This will help speed up the cycling process significantly. Im not sure what your financial status is but if possible, the first thing you need to do is pick up a liquid master test kit. This tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. If you have this, you can test the water yourself and see where your tank stands in the cycle and when to do water changes, without having to rely on incompetent pet store employees. The kit generally costs around $30. Changing 70% of the water daily is a lot, but may be necessary in your tank. However, frequent water changes also stress your fish. I'm not sure what chlorine/chloramine remover you are using but I have had the most success with Seachem's Prime. This product will act as a regular water conditioner but will also detoxify the ammonia and nitrite while leaving it available for the tank to continue cycling. A small bottle of Prime is only around $3. When using your gravel vacuum, make sure to only vacuum a small amount of gravel at a time. Removing all of the debris will get rid of the "food" that the good bacteria need to cycle your tank. Hope I helped... like I said, I am struggling to cycle my tank for the last 5 weeks..so I know how you feel. Hang in there! :) I just wanted to add to make sure you are not overfeeding your fish. Goldfish can survive on one small daily feeding or even every other day. Try feeding some veggies like peas, spinach, or lettuce, rather than your average fish food. This will cut back on ammonia and your fish will love them!
My fish died while trying to cycle a tank help?
SO im a first time fish owner and i had no idea what tank cycling even was. The people at the pet store also felt it wasn't necessary to tell me about it or the fact that you can keep goldfish in a bowl. IN fact, she said 1 gallon was plenty for goldfish! I got home and did a ton of research (really wishing i had done that first) and my poor little herme (black moor) was sick. I quickly upgraded him into a 6 gallon tank (he was just a baby i knew he'd need a 20 gallon soon) He had either a fungus or ich, and i treated him for both. I also had high ammonia levels, so i was doing constant water changes trying to keep the poor guy alive. It was a really rough two weeks with a lot of blood sweat and tears and in the end he passed away yesterday :( RIP HERME. Sad and a bit discouraged, i am still determined to be a successful fish owner. Now that i know about cycling, i was wondering if i could use the 6 gallon tank as is( and just let the filter run with it for a week or two, would it cycle? or would i have to add more ammonia? is it even safe to use a tank that a sick fish was in or would i have to start from scratch and buy pure ammonia? Now that i know how big of a tank goldies need, im thinking about getting a fancy guppy instead. Any advice as to getting a first fish? is it okay to use this tank? if not how do i start a tank cycle without a fish so i dont risj more fatalities? PLEASE HELP, im very sad about herme :(
What is the best way to cycle a 20 gallon gold fish tank?
Honestly, goldfish require at least 30 gallons in order to thrive, so I would actually recommend stocking this tank using different fish. They’re not actually all that great a beginner fish unless you have a large tank or maybe a pond.Goldfish May Be Popular, And They May Be Cheap, But That Doesn't Make Them Easy Aquarium FishAs far as cycling techniques go, WetWebMedia (which is the site I linked you to) has a lot of good advice on how to do it.My personal recommendation is a combination of filter media from an established tank combined with the best brands of biofilter bacteria cultures (BioSpira is pretty good if the store keeps them refrigerated, and I’ve had TetraSafe Start work once). Many cultures don’t work because they contain the wrong species of bacteria—-for decades Nitrobacter species were thought to be the primary nitrifying bactera in fish tanks, but it was later found to be Nitrospira species.The two in combination can work really rapidly.Edit: I originally said Nitrosomonas was the genus of bacterium that is not found in fish tanks, but it actually is the one that coverts ammonia to nitrite. It was Nitrobacter I was thinking of. Basically because Nitrobacter has been known about for longer and it converted nitrite into nitrate, people assumed adding it to fish tanks would help with cycling. But it doesn’t.
Goldfish bowl to tank transfer?
Without an ammonia source (waste), you can't cycle a tank. The bowl is the worst possible place for him, it's not cycled either. Get him into the 10 gallon and do water tests every day. if ammonia or nitrite go above 1ppm while cycling, do daily 50% water changes until it is back down. You will absolutely need to upgrade very soon. One fancy needs at least 30 gallons (long is better) and one common needs 45 gallons plus. They get huge. With 10 gallons, you may have a really hard time cycling. If the bioload is too big, it won't at all. You'll have never ending mini-cyles. The reason they need so much room is not just to swim around. It is to accommodate their massive amounts of waste. A small tank just can't handle it. You even need double to triple filtration as well. Good for you for upgrading him:) You will need another upgrade sooner than later. Start keeping an eye out for good deals/used tanks. Good luck
Why did my goldfish die after one week?
I have a 29 gallon tank. We set it up 2 weeks ago. We filled it with tap water, set up the filter, and conditioned the water 24 hours before we put any fish in it. The next day, we bought a black moor and a goldfish (I'm not sure what kind, but they were in the same tank at petsmart). We put 4 goldfish pellets in every other day. The black moor moved around more, and eventually both started hanging out in a rounded shell on the bottom of the tank. To me, it looked like the black moor was nipping the other fish, and then last Saturday I woke up and the goldfish was just sitting in a plant, dead. I have no idea why. Does anyone have any idea? I did pH and ammonia tests, both seemed normal. Today, I looked at the black moor after we put in a new goldfish, and the black moor has ich. Could this be why the other goldfish died, even though I never saw any white spots on it? And will my black moor die (I started putting rid ich plus (I think that's what it was) in and will continue to do that every day)? And one last question; will the two fish fight each other, because so far I've seen them swim around with each other, and I have seen the black moor dart at the goldfish when it's lying on the bottom of the tank.
If i put my new goldfish straight into a tank with a filter, will the cycling process kill it?
I recently bought my first goldfish (technically my 2nd) which i've had for 3 days and at the moment he's in a 2 gallon bowl (the circular tube kind with straight sides not the spherical kind) with some live plants. i'm doing very regular 20% water changes, everyday at the moment and being careful not to overfeed and remove excess food. The first one i bought looked fine in the shop but didn't move much in the bag on the way home, sank straight to the bottom, didn't swim much and when it did was struggling and on it's side. It promptly died overnight less than 24 hours after leaving the shop despite me following all instructions I could find about new fish quite carefully (using same water temp, floating the bag, dechlorinator, keeping the light off after etc). This has made me very paranoid about the death of the new fish and i'm watching it like a hawk. I know a bowl is not the ideal environment for a goldfish and have done lots of reading up on propper care. I was planning on buying a 2nd hand tank and filter set up off a friend but now her daughter wants a new fish so i can't. i will be getting a new tank in about a month when i can afford it. I'm hoping it will survive in the bowl for the month as long as i keep changing the water. What i'm worried about is that when i get a new tank, if i put the fish right into it the cycling process will kill it. Should I spend weeks running a fish-less cycle even though the fish will have to stay in the bowl during that time or is he better off being in the tank through the cycling process? I've become quite attached to little Basil and don't like the idea of using him as a disposable fish just to cycle a tank. He's a common small Goldfish and only tiny at the moment. I hope you can help! I'm confused, Lots of sites tell me fishbowls are bad and to get a big tank but then suggest using a few cheap fish which will probably die to cycle a tank . How is killing 3 for the life of 1 a good thing? Help! Thanks :)
I have two goldfish in a 7 gallon tank for one year. How long can I expect them to live?
To this I say probably longer than a seasoned Aquarist would imagine.Some years ago our community had a carnival and each child between the ages of 2 and 18 were given a goldfish. Both myself and a dear friend of mine at that time had several little ones and so both of us ended up with 5 goldfish. Completely clueless I sent my oldest son to the lfs and he returned with a 10 gallon tank set up, gravel, food, a couple fake plants and the thing to suction poo out of the gravel. One of the fish died in the jar before he got home,we didn't know about cycling tanks, water conditioners, dechlorinators, stress coat…all that fancy shmancy stuff eluded me. I did water changes about once a month and never changed that little filter bag thingy (just rinsed it off) those 4 fish were with us for 5 years and my friend had hers close to 6.After they died I turned to platys and strictly live plants and I run my ships a little differently as I branched out and as my kids say ‘became the crazy fish lady lol but I often look back at those times and think ‘against all odds so take care of your water baby and you never know how long you'll be enjoying it
How many ryukin goldfish in a 55 gallon?
I'm currently in the process of cycling my new 55 gallon tank. I have two ryukin goldfish right now, hanging out in a 10 gallon...it's horrible, I know. They're too big for it now and I'm constantly working on the 10 gallon to keep the levels ok for them..but don't worry! They are fine :) Anyways...I'm super excited to move my boys to the 55 gallon, but was wondering how many new friends I can get for them. I'm guessing on inches here, but I'd say both goldfish are around 5-6 inches now..and I was thinking I could comfortably get two more ryukins to go in with them. Second question: If both of the exsisting ryukins are 5-6 inches, and I get two more ryukins, do I need to get them around the same size? If I want ryukins over 1 1/2" to 2", I'll need to special order them and pay about $60 a piece. I'm willing to do that if I need to, of course. I'm worried about putting the 1 1/2" to 2" ryukins in with the 5" ryukins because I know that big fish tend to bully smaller ones..thoughts?
What's the best way to cycle a 5 gallon tank?
The best possible way to cycle your tank is to skip the process entirely.Do you know anybody with a larger tank? Take established filter media from their tank and put this into your own filter. You have now literally introduced the bacteria that people go through all the trouble of establishing. Add fish and presto, cycled tank.There was a time I had built up a collection of tanks and cycling was never something I had to worry about, due to this method of transfering bacteria between tanks. Even using just a bit of filter media from another tank will turn weeks of cycling into days of catching up.Good luck