mickgibbo Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 I have had the Tank running for under a week but made one bad assumption that will possibly kill all my catfish. I bought a running tank on the weekend and got it set up straight away with an already seeded large canister filter. I added my previously used coral media and let the tank run for 3 days.I have now added some catfish as I made an assumption that the living bacteria in the already seeded canister would eliminate the need to cycle the tank. Is there anything that I can do to try and save these catfish as this is the only tank that I have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 Mick, you could try one of the live bacteria products from an aquarium.Water changes always help. And some water conditioners will help bind the nasties better than others (Prime, for one) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickgibbo Posted September 17, 2014 Author Share Posted September 17, 2014 How often should I perform the water changes? and when doing the changes should I leave the gravel alone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FullyYellow Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 Preferably weekly but a water test is what you really need to determine your actual water parameters. Should be free of charge at most LFS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 Weekly water changes are just basic maintenance.If you are trying to get past an issue with ammonia/nitrite spikes you can do changes daily to try to reduce the level of the toxins building up.It slows down the cycle, but it can buy you some time with your fish.So I'd be looking at daily water changes. How big depends on how confident you are putting the new water in. If your tap/tank water is pretty well bang on (ie. just needs chlorine removed and a temp adjustment) you can change a lot of water very quickly. Like in fry tanks where you have loads of feeding and waste building up quickly - you can be confident changing 25% a day to keep things somewhat in check.Incorporating a gravel clean and removing solid waste will help get rid of more waste than just water, but if you are relying on your substrate for some seed bacteria you could slow it down more.Definitely work regular testing in to determine what to do next. I assumed from the first post you'd already identified definite spiking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 Micktest your water for nitrite, nitrate and ammoniathis will give you the answers on how the tank bacteria are going Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickgibbo Posted September 17, 2014 Author Share Posted September 17, 2014 I have run the test and everything was looking quite stable at the moment. The tank is a 4x2x2 and only has catfish fry at the moment. I haven't noticed anything as yet. The water is clear and they seem happy. After reading a few posts I worked out I did it wrong even with a seeded filter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 Mickif the water test the correct parameters then you haven't done anything "wrong"just different wrong is when it all turns to crap and the parameters are all over the place just remember to not over feed and give them a fasting day if you're still worriedalso keeping up the tests for a few more days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickgibbo Posted September 18, 2014 Author Share Posted September 18, 2014 Cheers for the feedback. So far so good... Fingers crossed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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