Cycling 5 gallon and 10 gallon tanks

[callistra]

Depends on how hardy the fish is. Also fish can build up a slight of immunity to nitrates so that they can take on more, if it stats low and raises with them in the tank... depending on how hardy they are. But if you drop a fish in that's never seen nitrates into a large amount they can die from the shock. Some fish can take more than others. More hardy ones can take up to 40ppm, again if it rises with them in the tank. Dropping a fish coming from no nitrates to 40ppm can kill them. 20 is much safer. Start as low as possible for new fish.

The federal legal limit in our drinking water is 10 and even that much has been shown to cause series illness in babies so..

[Roemgie]

Originally Posted by callistra

Depends on how hardy the fish is. Also fish can build up a slight of immunity to nitrates so that they can take on more, if it stats low and raises with them in the tank... depending on how hardy they are. But if you drop a fish in that's never seen nitrates into a large amount they can die from the shock. Some fish can take more than others. More hardy ones can take up to 40ppm, again if it rises with them in the tank. Dropping a fish coming from no nitrates to 40ppm can kill them. 20 is much safer. Start as low as possible for new fish.

The federal legal limit in our drinking water is 10 and even that much has been shown to cause series illness in babies so..

Ok so my ammonia level so far hasn't gone past .50 but I just tested it again so we'll see. And when I go I'll see the condition she is in and determined whether or not if I should take her now or later

[Roemgie]

Ok so I tested my water when I got back, it was around 1.0-2.0 so I added more and this morning its reading .5 so I'm guessing either my tank is cycled OR my test isn't reading correctly.

ALSO I decided to go ahead to Petland to go check to see if they still had the girl I wanted. Well when I got there I found this
She was being eaten by not only the frogs and other fish in her tank but also the other betas.

AND since they told me she was probably going to pass away I went ahead and adopted the other one as planned. Since I only had one heater I put them in a 5 gallon tank and split it with some filter thing (I hope it is safe).

This morning before class she was fine or at least swimming around but when I got back she had passed away. My second one looked a lot healthier than the first one obviously but I noticed some ichy stuff on her. So now I'm worried



I would like to say that I find it disrespectful to take pictures of those who have passed away but I am only doing so to help protect my new female and healthy male

[AyalaCookiejar]

That looks like culomnaris. The tank they were in was likely infected... And the girl in the first picture almost looks like she had the 'mystery' disease (well, its not a mystery anymore, but...)

Whatever tank and supplies she came into contact with will need to be disinfected thoroughly. I will recommend that you don't get another female from that same place.

[Roemgie]

Originally Posted by AyalaCookiejar

That looks like culomnaris. The tank they were in was likely infected... And the girl in the first picture almost looks like she had the 'mystery' disease (well, its not a mystery anymore, but...)

Whatever tank and supplies she came into contact with will need to be disinfected thoroughly. I will recommend that you don't get another female from that same place.

Yeah I just posted her picture and someone said the exact same thing. The girl who is half and half is still alive as of right now so I'm keeping a watch on her and I moved my friends male to her room to keep him as far away from her as possible.

I read that bleach isn't the answer but lysol is. I'm not much of a cleaning supply person so do you recommend anything else? I usually always bleach my tanks before using them again and I usually bleach, let dry, rinse, let dry, rinse, let dry until I'm sure they're safe to use again.

And also supposedly the females came from someone who just dropped them off. Should I contact the local petstore and tell them? Or just at least let them know that my girls were infected with something and they should watch out?

[Roemgie]

Hey! So I did the test this morning and my ammonia levels are still at 0-.25 (they went back down) my nitrite levels are 0 (but could potentially be .1) and my nitrate levels are about 40-80 (I guess since I accidentally added too much ammonia).

I'm going to go ahead and do the water change but I might go to 80%, just for being scared that something may go wrong or what not. I also won't have a few until at least Monday. But I'm not sure if I'm going to take on anyone for a while so should I do a huge water change now or just wait a little bit and feed my tank?

The 10 gallon though (although I didn't get a change to add ammonia because they weren't in their rooms until late) is waiting for Umi. Should i go ahead with the big water change and see what the results come out to be or should I do the ammonia test and then see? Because I cycled both tanks the same way

[AyalaCookiejar]

Your nitrates are too high.
If it happens to be that mycobacteria crud, I would warn the store to protect the employees but they may just ignore you, anyways.

[Roemgie]

Originally Posted by AyalaCookiejar

Your nitrates are too high.
If it happens to be that mycobacteria crud, I would warn the store to protect the employees but they may just ignore you, anyways.

Ok so I will go ahead and do a 90% water change? Here's some pictures from my 5 and my friends 10


5 gallon




Here's from the 10 gallon




I was planning on telling them but they're not exactly fish people and they would either laugh at me or think I'm trying to say that they don't know what they're doing

[AyalaCookiejar]

Like I said, they may not heed your advice but that mycobacteria crud could get humans sick possibly. You'll need to do a water change before you add fish... Not necessary until you do. I'd QT any fish before adding them to those tanks because you wouldn't want the tanks infected.

[Roemgie]

Originally Posted by AyalaCookiejar

Like I said, they may not heed your advice but that mycobacteria crud could get humans sick possibly. You'll need to do a water change before you add fish... Not necessary until you do. I'd QT any fish before adding them to those tanks because you wouldn't want the tanks infected.

I may sound like a bad person but I'm not 100% worried about the people as much as I am about the animals. My friend actually went there today and all the fish in that tank looked fine to her. So I wonder if she was getting picked on and then something took advantage of that and infected her. But I do plan on trying to call tomorrow and letting them know or at least driving by.

And I'll do a big water change tomorrow before I head home and go from there. Is there any change that it could ruin the cycling process or the bacteria should be fine?