FishProfiles.com Message Forums

It looks like your tank is going through a mini-cycle. If dead fish were in there, even one, it can cause an ammonia spike and cause more losses due to toxicity. What may follow an ammonia spike is a nitrite spike, and you have that now.

Don't clean too much and just do your water change without touching gravel. Don't touch filter media.

Is the crab the only thing still in there? Have you any freshwater aquarium salt in there? If not, use the rock type (Doc Wellfish) and use dosing info for 10 gal. Put it in a disposable container, like glad, poke holes and sink it. The salt will slowly dissolve. For fish, the salt inhibits nitrite uptake into the gills, and I would imagine it would help crabs the same way.

Are you sure you didn't miss somebody and there's still a rotting corpse or two?

New and Improved Cycle is good for the nitrite phase.

Did you change filter media or any thing where substantial bacteria may have been accumulating?

How much food is crabby getting? Maybe it is too much right now. Feed him minimally until this is done.

Or, have you added fish now? If so, that too could explain the mini-cycle. Once the population died off, a huge ammonia source went away. The bacteria dies off in response to the food loss. When fish are added again, more ammonia is added to the tank, but the bacteria grow very, very slowly so it takes time to catch up.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 10-Jan-2005 20:08

I use that in my replacement water - it's pretty good stuff. It can cause false positive readings for ammonia, so just be aware of that. You would probably see your ammonia skyrocket off the charts while the fish are looking at you like, "what's wrong - it's fine in here."

5ppm sounds good. And, you had no ammonia or nitrites.

I know this is kind of late to be asking and maybe it was asked already. Any chance the crab was snacking on fish while they were sleeping? The crab would be predatory I would think.

mabey but the crab is still living,i wont add this stuff till i do water changes,right?what about starter fish

Starter fish? The tank has already started and has a crab that is continually adding the needed ammonia to keep it cycled.

What kind of fish are you interested in? Did you say this was a 55g? If so, how about rainbows?

Last edited by Cory_Di at 05-Jan-2005 11:39

im going to the local fish store today and look around,ill report later on the types of fish i would like to have in my tank.them mabey youll let me know if their compatible?be back around 530 california time,thanks

ok tested today again,nitrates are at 40ppm,test tube red in color.already did a water change a couple of days ago,still only the crab is in the tank.any suggestions am i doing something wrong with the filter,i still have the activated carbon filter in the hob filter.

The best way to get nitrates down is with a couple of water changes, back to back, if needed. I would not add other fish in there, until this tank is stable at around 5. It seems odd that a crab would produce enough ammonia to drive nitrates up that high, that quickly. Not unless the tank is in need of a good gravel vac to pull out stuff that may be rotting.

Were all of the dead fish pulled out promptly? If not, it may have produced an abundance of ammonia, ultimately converting it to nitrate.

no the dead fish were pulled out about 2 days after they died,i did a 10percent water change today and did a pretty good gravel vac also,that was about 9 this morning ,just ran another nitrate test and it came back between 20 and 40 ppm,?the color is inbetween the two,any thoughts?

ok tested the water today and it goes as follows
ph:good
nitrite:5.0
ammonia:0.50.
what else can go wrong,rrrrr

also got this stuff called prime

it says that it removes chlorine,chloramine,ammonia,

detoxifies nitrates and nitrates,do i need this stuff?

after reading the last post cory di,i checked the tank again for any left over dead friendsand found nothing.i havent added any fish for a long time,just the crab,he's a fighter.i will change the chrarcol in the hob,and do another water change tonight and retest in the morning,any thing else

Don't change the activated carbon if it is in a biobag type of thing. It is carrying live bacteria. This is why I said not to change any media. You need all you can get and once it is stable you can play with changing the media. Hopefully, I've caught you before it is too late.

If you have pulled it and then read this, don't put it back in unless you know for sure the garbage hasn't tainted it and it has not dried out. Rinse it gently in some tank water (outside the tank) and return.

During cycling, including mini-cycles, you want to respect all areas on which bacteria grow. I wouldn't even bother washing the inside glass while ammonia or nitrite are present. That slimey coating IS the good bacteria.

Make sure crabby has some freshwater aquarium salt for the reason I mentioned above. Nitrite causes brown blood disease in fish and I don't know if the same happens with crabs. Salt inhibits this condition. It is like a diver getting the bends. Nitrite gets into the bloodstream and alters blood chemistry. That is what kills fish.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 10-Jan-2005 21:51

cory,i have not removed any filters.tomorrow i will get the freshwater salt,i hope im doing this stuff right?cause this is not what i thought it would be like.

ok checked the water out today,noticed these little i mean little white worms,i also found two small cnails crawling around on the bottom,does this indicate that the water quality is getting any better or worse?

The little white worms would likely be planaria. They are in most tanks and usually remain unseen during the daytime. At night, and when the tank is overloaded with detritus (an abundance of food), their numbers swell and they can be seen during the day. They are harmless.

Usually reduced feeding and stepped up gravel vacs get their numbers under control. It's a catch-22 as to whether to gravel vac in your situation (mini-cycle). On the one hand, it there is alot of crap and rotting food (even in some nooks), it can make matters worse. On the other hand, overcleaning while a tank is cycling can give rise to more ammonia because it destroys bacteria.

If anything, study your tank and where you have things that haven't been moved (that are moveable), do 1/4 tank real good by removing items, wait a few days and do another 1/4 of the tank. Go right to the glass.

You may be shocked at what comes up and it may help end this minicycle if something under an object is feeding it.

Anyway, just a thought.

hey cory di not meaning to change the subject but what kinda fish is that in your avitar its cool looking i want it for a future tank

there are to good ways to get the nitrogen cycle on it's way.

ask your lfs for some used filter medium. leave that in the tank for a couple of week than remove it.

grab a few cheap fish like guppies (no offence to the livebearing fans) these will also help.

hope all goes well.
c ya

Great news, fin! Here it is even cheaper at That Fish Place:

http://www.thatpetplace.com

Aww nuts! The link doesn't work right. Choose "Fish", then choose "Testing" from the list, followed by that Master Test kit - you should recognize it on appearance. It is only 14.99 at this store. I think they are based in PA, so if you live there you would have to pay taxes, otherwise it is just shipping.

I should add that if you request it from these places, they will send you their catalogs. These are like magazines with all kinds of informative stuff and they often send them monthly. You won't need to request a catalog from the place you take your order from as they will send it to you automatically. I suggest getting catalogs from both sources.

All you have to do to complete the kit Frank was talking about is to buy the gH and kH kits separately by the same maker. Excellent stuff to have on hand. It's the same testers I keep and I can tell you I have to throw them out after one year because you can do so much testing with them. It's good to replace yearly as stuff gets weakened and more unreliable with time.

I still think they use to sell this with the gH and kH kits, but I could be wrong.


Last edited by Cory_Di at 03-Jan-2005 10:24

nitraits and nitrites were up

if you tank is cycled, nitrite should be 0
so i think the reason for dead fish is that your tank is
not cycled yet. wait for couple more weeks or days for your
tank to proper cycle and then you can add some new fish

i just need to invest in a master test kit!i think im going to empty the tank clean it out real good and start over,the gravel that i have in it know has turned real brown despite alot of gravel vacuming and 1 20 gall water change.id love to have live plants in the tank,how does everyone keep the water so clean and clear with live plants?