Nearly Giving Up: Planted & Neons Lover

[Merduka]

Hi guys,

This is my long long story.

Bought a 2nd hand already cycled tank with sucstrate ( I don't know what it is) with some nana.

I changed the OHF to Cannoster eheim 2212 that I got working (change biohome and media - new ones - disinfectec all with super hot water).

I also have a 55W light. After 2 weeks added 3 danio and 2 angles but all fishes kepy comin to surface. After weekly change there seems to be a thin yellow oily/sludgy sunstance and plant dieded - all the while no CO2.

Then 1 dano and 1 angel fish died.

Last week I cleaned up all the gravel and used Diamond water plus anti chlorine and transfered fishes out to small container - they were fine. Transfered back fishes to to the 2ft tank and they rise to surfsce to breathe.

I had removed all plants and also use basic Dolphin OHG now...

I know want to replant and have some fishes but they don't look good gulping for air at the surface.

Please this is like my 4 th time re-cleaning. Did not have issues when I used my 1ft tank.

Desperate.

Cheers
Kenneth

[eviltrain]

err, did you move the media from the OHF into your canister? or everything single thing is new in the canister?

when plants dies, they rot and will release ammonia into the water. Since your canister is filled with new media, there is no BB presence to break the ammonia down.

its best to cycle your tank ( water , soil , medias ) before your add any life stocks in.

[Merduka]

Hi bro,

Can adv how to cycle the tank and pls be detailed?
Many thanks.

KL

[eviltrain]

hmmm, basically just cycle the whole tank for a month for BB to establish in the canister.

[bryan]

Its like setting up a computer. You can't just flick the off button halfway through everytime. This time you've added the fish too soon and killed off the BB in the filter media repeatedly. The tank will never establish this way.

Do the necessary setups.Anti chlorine/chloromine. Add BB from the LFS, add some fish food to feed the BB.Let it run. And wait. Yes wait. 3-4 weeks. No Fish!

When time comes, go easy on fish stocking. Don't add the entire fleet at one go.

[Wolfgangs246]

Merduka, you should read through some of the other threads in the forum on how to setup a fish tank and cycle it. Basically when you first setup the tank, you should let the filter system run for 3-4 weeks without any fish to allow the filter media to grow bacteria which will become your tanks waste management system. If you introduce fish too soon or if you keep cleaning your filter media, you are basically forcing the fish to swim in their own waste which isn't being broken down because the bacteria in your filter media keeps getting cleaned and is destroyed.

If you want to setup your tank properly you should fill it with substrate/water and leave your filter on for 3-4 weeks like what Bryan said. You should also invest in test kits that will help detect ammonia,nitrate and nitrite in the water to see how far your bacteria is growing in the filter system. When you register 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate and 0 nitrite. Then it's safe to add fish to the system. Since your tank is only 2 ft, you should only add 3-4 fish at a time. and only add fish every 2 weeks or so. This is to allow your filter media to grow more bacteria to manage the waste that your fish are producing.

[Merduka]

Hi guys,

Doing that now. What kind of BB I get form. anyone can help me out? I will add media to filter and also the BB when I get some adv.

BTW, what easy plants should I add? Pllanig to add some fert substrate. Anyone care to recommend?

Thanks
Kenneth

[ole]

the part that you mention your fishes rise to surface to breathe... well, sounds a bit like not enough air in tank. unless the fish themselves have some routine habits(oto like to dash to surface for a glup of air... my tetra like to gather at surface whenever they see me move towards the tank coz they assume feeding time), maybe there's a chance that not enough oxygen in tank. weather been really hot. solubility of oxygen in water should decrease. not sure if that's the problem. unless like the rest suggest that you get test kits and test for the individual problems, its hard to isolate the cause. but if its the oxygen problem, i think a bubbler will help.

for plants, i think you need to decide how you want to maintain the tank. how much effort you gonna put into maintaining the plants and the water parameter for the tank. are you going to do strong lighting, CO2 injection, fertilize a lot, low temperature or whatever then find the group of plants most suitable.

i'm trying to go for No CO2 injection, no chiller/fan for the tank with low fertilizer requirements. high regular lighting pretty much since the tank's on my table and i'll be turning on my lights and looking at fish while at table (which is all the time since i'm at table always). based on my research, Christmas Moss and Dwarf Chain Sword suit my 2ft tank though i'm doing CO2 injection with fertilizers at current stage whereby i need the plants to grow vigourously to fill the tank first.

my brother dun wanna do all the troublesome stuff for his his tank with his gold fishes inside. so i told him to get java ferns since low lighting + low CO2 needs + low fertilizer needs + high temperature compatible + goldfish don't like to eat.

so i guess u need to figure out exactly what you want then read up before setting up the stuff.

by the way for cycling, i think you can speed up the process by using those "stress zyme" etc whereby they contain bacteria inside already.

i think general idea is that there must be appropriate bacteria present. i cycled my new tank/filter only for 1 day. but i took the filter media from my previous filter and put in my new filter with new media. supposedly the bacteria from the old media will spread to the new media and speed up cycling while you still have a certain quantity of bacteria to do all nitrite-nitrate stuff meanwhile. i also added quite some stress zyme and used old water from my old tank to speed the whole thing up. not sure if i did it right but fishes did well during transition.

for my brother's tank, i did the fish food cycling. but i threw in literally tons of fish food hourly basis until the whole fish tank floor covered with rotting fish food after 4-5days. i also had 1x long gau yu living inside the tank.(tons of waste to feed and grow bacteria) 1 week later, we removed all the rotting fish food, did 50% water change(since nitrate level sure super high). next day did another 20% water change before putting in 3x gold fish. not saying i did the right thing, but his fishes look happy to me.

[Aquanoob]

Merduka, I think you can try doing the following which works for my 2ft tank. Firstly, it is essential that you cycle your tank for at least 2 weeks. If it is meant to be a planted, then you need to plant heavily from the beginning. Plant as many species that you want and let them cycle together with the tank for 2 weeks. One thing that I read and done is to use distilled water during the cycling and I have done this way twice and the 2nd time, I even cycled the tank for only 1 week without changing the filter material and there is no fatality. Another thing you can do is to add activated carbon to the filter for a few months before changing to other materials like lava rocks etc. Take note that the carbon will absorb any fertiliser and medications should you put it into the tank too. All the above works for my 2ft and you can try it out.