My journey has started.

[Trin20kau]

Okay, so I have had to move my new fish here before the tank (see my other thread, 1000 litre tank). Thought it might be time to start my journal and put up some photos.

Here is their temporary home, sans fish. I've since put in more fake plants to give them more hiding room. I don't like the sunken ship in there, it takes up a lot of room, but the loaches and tiger barb have rejected their old cave and dived into the ship, so I'm leaving it there for them.



The occupants.












I'll try to put up a picture of the stand tomorrow.

[Trin20kau]

And now for some questions if anyone can help. I'd be very grateful.

So, the fish are here now, in their temporary tank (155 litre) and have been here for a day. I'm running a fluval 205, but the size of the fish themselves mean that it's overstocked in the first place. Plus this canister is not cycled...it only has one chamber of properly cycled media in it as I've had it in storage. I put in as much decorations and rocks from the old tank as I could, but do not have the gravel yet. This is how NOT to move fish, I know. Not the way I would have done it if I could have changed it but anyway, that's where I am now.

Tomorrow I can collect the FX5 they had on their tank, and perhaps the sump too, but I won't be able to run that on my tank. I'm expecting a fair bit of the bacteria in the canister to have died...it's covered in water but there's no oxygen flow. The sump will have plenty of live bacteria though. I'll be able to grab the gravel as well which they are keeping wet for me. Should I grab the bio-balls from the sump and throw them in the tank in a mesh bag? That'll help a bit until the main tank is set back up, am I right?

Background: I use Prime to condition the water and with water changes. I use the API Freshwater Master test kit (liquid).

I have been testing the water every 12 hours since the fish went in. First test was:

Ammonia - .25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10-20

I did a 30% water change with conditioned water. Tested a little while ago (approx 12 hours after water change) and the results were:

Ammonia - just a tinge of green. Nowhere near .25, but not totally yellow.
Nitrite - still 0
Nitrate - 10

The fish are looking fine and as healthy as I would expect given the stress of moving. No gasping at the surface, no flashing, no exaggerated respirations. They are hiding mostly (I've put in plenty of shelters) but are coming out now and then to investigate the tank. I on the other hand, am more stressed lol, and basically looking for advice or encouragement.

Am I doing enough? I plan on doing another water change tomorrow morning, and retesting. I am just praying I don't have a big cycle on my hands here...a mini cycle of a week or two with daily wc I can handle. I know this is probably just guesswork, but with nitrates making an appearance, am I right in thinking that this means that some conversion is going on, I just have to wait for my nitrites to catch up to the ammonia production?

Anything else I should be doing, anything I've overlooked?

I am not feeding them for a few days to reduce the waste, and when I get the gravel, I'll rinse in tank water and put it in a mesh bag in the tank. I plan on cleaning the canister filter well with tank water too and running it on one of my fish buckets for an hour or so after that to make sure anything nasty is flushed out before putting it on the tank they are in (so they'll have two filters going). Will that be enough to clear it out if the bacteria have died? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for your help. This is so not the way I wanted to start keeping fish again. From Saturday on though, it's all under my control and I can get things back to the way they should be.

[chefkeith]

As long as you're not feeding the fish much, and the ammonia doesn't get too high, they should be fine. Prime will detoxify any ammonia or nitrite.

Prime is known to deplete some of the oxygen though, so be sure to keep the oxygen levels up. It helps to have plenty of surface agitation by an air stone or by having the filter outlet breaking the water's surface.

[Trin20kau]

Good stuff. I have the filter outlet a few centimetres above the water line and an air stone is going in along with the the rest of the gear I collect today, so hoping that's enough. Thank you.

[Trin20kau]

The temporary tank seems to have settled...tests give me results of 0 Ammonia, 0 nitrite and 10-15 nitrates, so most of the bacteria in the fx5 must have survived the couple of days with no power. The big tank is home, I need to reseal all the plumbing and buy one new pvc part which was cracked and covered with nearly half a tube of silicone . Figured seeing as its offline for a few days anyway, I might as well do my background and install it now. I'll try to remember to take some pics.

Clowns, dolphins and barb look happy and no signs of illness. Pleco shed a bit of his slime coat on the first day from the netting, but he is back to normal now. Starting to feel better, but won't be breathing easily until the tank is in place, and NOT leaking.

Nearly done.

[Trin20kau]

I would not recommend anyone do what I have done. This tank is becoming more complicated by the minute. Upon breaking down the large tank, I found that there were no bulkheads installed in the overflow box...the high pressure pvc pipes were just screwed on either side of the glass, and stacks of silicone was glued on to keep it water tight. So I am having to clean off enormous amounts of silicone, order new bulkheads, and try to fit this up properly. It is a huge learning curve.

Lesson learned...bargains aren't always bargains, do your homework.