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Yesterday, a friend of mine surprised me and bought me new fish. My friend didnt know any thing about aquariums. My tank is full and I could not add the new fish to it or it would have been overstacked. So.....I had to get out an empty tank I had to out the fish in. I took water, some gravel, some plants and the filter out of my cycled tank (its been set up for about 2 yrs) and put it all in the empty tank along with fresh water, of course, that had chlorine in it. Last night when I finally got a chance, I went and bought Cycle and ammonia eliminator which I have put in the tank. So I have 3 male guppies, 2 black pregnant mollies and a male molly. Its black and white spotted. Anyway, I added extra salt for the black mollies but Im afraid this all wont be enough to save all these "gift" fish. Any advice on how I might can save them????

I think that you did all you could. Hopefully they'll survive & you can enjoy them.


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Now I get an idea why the guppy in your other thread died.

Here is my theory, I hope I am off:

I went and bought Cycle and ammonia eliminator which I have put in the tank

What does cycle actually do? It tries to support the establishment of beneficial bacteria that live of nitrite and, get this, ammonia. And what does the ammonia eliminator do? It binds ammonia to larger chunks that sink to the gravel or are sucked into the filter. And the food source for the bacteria is gone and they die. Now the fish produce new ammonia and here you go - you are in full cycle gear.

What are your latest ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate values?

How much did you dose of each, only one time or each day?

Ingo

EDIT: I actually have none of these products and I just try to reason why your fish died.

Last edited by LITTLE_FISH at 24-Oct-2005 14:52

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Ok. I think I see your point about the cycle and ammonia eliminator. I put them both in for 2 days. Didnt put any in today. My LFS sold me cycled water today and I added a little bit of it. Havent got new test kits yet. The only master test kit you can buy here is $40. Im bidding on two from EBAY that are just now at $10 shipping included.

My LFS sold me cycled water

That won´t do you much good since the bacteria lives on surfaces. The amount of beneficial bacteria in free water would be close to neglectible.

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So here I am once more...

I added Cycle. The fish are fine.

The beneficial bacteria you need for converting ammonia to nitrite and then nitrite to nitrate does not live in the water, it lives on surfaces...in the gravel, on decorations etc. It is, in large part, what you siphon out during a gravel vacuuming, the gunk in the gravel. The water merely supports the ammonia that the bacteria needs, which comes from the fish waste, uneaten food, etc. I would never put water from a lfs into any tank. You just don't know what is in it. Better not to use ammonia eliminator, instead use a water conditioner that will remove chlorine and chloramine. Good luck

Last edited by divertran at 26-Oct-2005 11:50

I did use a water cond. Fish still fine and veryyyy active.

it sounds like you should be ok. the addition of the gravel from the cycled tank was very smart and the plants should help out until your bacteria bulds up. you may want to take a peice of your filter material from the cycled tank and add it to the filter to the new tank. anyway, good luck


chris

i did that. fish are all still fine. one molly had about 30 babies that I know of. only found 3 dead. the other still hasnt popped yet. these fish are active and seem okay.

you should be allright just watch your fish and if they seem to be in distress, do a water change, that is the only thing you can do.

chris