Tank cycling problems

[Don90]

Hi all, my 2ft tank has been cycling for about 2 weeks now.

I used to have 2 guppies, 9 cardinal tetras, 1 oto and 4 emperor tetras.

But most of my bioload has been wiped out by Ich. I didn't use medicine because I heard otocinclus are quite sensitive, but now I'm only left with 2 guppies, 1 emperor tetra and 1 oto!

So if my bioload gets completely wiped out, how do I cycle my tank now?

How long can the Ich parasite live without a host?

Can I use fish flakes to cycle? because I think my tank is halfway through cycling, and I don't want to kill anymore fishes.

[Simon]

can't remember the lifespan, should be around 2-3 weeks (need to reconfirm). Previously when I had them, I add salt and raise temperature to 30 degree, after 2 weeks do a 50% water change, however it will depend on the type of plants, echinodorus that I have are hardy to parameter change compared to stemmed plants or crypts.

you might want to test your water parameter to see if your tank have completed its cycle

[torque6]

cycling 2 weeks ? most of us cycle for 6-12 weeks... you are probably just going through what i did previously, most of my fauna died within the 5th week by the way..

[Aquaculture]

cycling 2 weeks ? most of us cycle for 6-12 weeks... you are probably just going through what i did previously, most of my fauna died within the 5th week by the way..

Simon is referring to the lifespan of ick as being 2 weeks. During the initial stage of cycling the tank, I would add feeder fish or bottled bacteria to accelerate the process.

[Don90]

Hi all, an update.

All thats left now is a single otocinclus.

Strangely, the oto is the only fish thats not affected by white spots.

So is it safe to say that the tank is free of white spots?

And I used a bit of nutrafin cycle. Is it really good? or is it too good to be true?

[torque6]

sorry to hear your loss. When i did cycled my tank and dump fishes in as well, only a couple survived. When you indicated not affected by white spots is mainly due to it being stronger than the rest. But white spots sometimes lay dormant in fishes and will reappear when its immune system is down.