[B. Rodgers]

OK...1 Fish Dead, Another Almost...Time To Start Over. All Fish Moved To A Safe "Cycled" Tank, At Least I Think It's Cycled...I Need To Know How To Cycle My Tank. I'm Cleaning All Of The Play Sand That's In My 75 Gallon Tank Right Now, I Should Have Done That Before Hand. (I'm An Idiot) But I'm Learning. So Basically What I Get From These Forums Is To Make Sure Substrate Is Clean And Not Full Of Dirt And Other Misc. Crap...Fill With Water And Chlorene Treatment...Wait Like A Week, Then Add Fish Slowly? One At A Time? Is This Correct? I Have A Water Test Kit Too Weee!!! So Tell Me What To Do Guys..Ya'll Are The Experts...I'm Just A Newb Trying To Keep Hoplias Malabaricus Alive!!!

 

[mori0174]

thats not right. You need to clean the sand and add dechlorinated water as you said, but you dont just let it sit there. You need to add an ammonia source, and ideally add bio media from an established tank. For the ammonia source, you could do the fishless cycle, or you could add goldfish or other hardy tropical fish. For the bio media, you could get media from someone you know and put it in your filter, or maybe a fish store buy you will sell or give you some. You will need to let the cycle go through before it is safe to put your important fish in there. This means an ammonia spike and drop to zero, a nitrite spike and drop to zero, and all you are left with is nitrites.

 

[RhomZilla]

Moved to Water Chemistry.

 

[B. Rodgers]

ok, so as a source...ummm. I put like a blue filter pad from one of my other tanks in my Aqua-Tech 30-60? cuz it's sand and not gravel like all of my other tanks, so i can't get it from gravel, i need to get it somewhere else..where would a good source be? Could I jack the Ceramic Rings From my Filstar XP3 and Put it in my Aqua-Tech 30-60? Over night? Would That Be Enough To Do It?...If Not What Could I Use From My Filstar XP3 To Put In There To Get It Going?

 

[Supa Samoan]

thats not right. You need to clean the sand and add dechlorinated water as you said, but you dont just let it sit there. You need to add an ammonia source, and ideally add bio media from an established tank. For the ammonia source, you could do the fishless cycle, or you could add goldfish or other hardy tropical fish. For the bio media, you could get media from someone you know and put it in your filter, or maybe a fish store buy you will sell or give you some. You will need to let the cycle go through before it is safe to put your important fish in there. This means an ammonia spike and drop to zero, a nitrite spike and drop to zero, and all you are left with is nitrites.

[snapback]877400[/snapback]​

Yes yes yes this man knows his business

 

[B. Rodgers]

What Would Be Bio Media From Another Tank Be? I Can't Use Gravel, Cuz My 75 Gallon Is Sand Now. As Far As Ammonia? Gosh I'm A Newb, Just Tell Me What To Use Please!!

 

[mori0174]

i posted in another thread you created, but yes, the ceramic rings will work. The filter pad would work as well. As mentioned before, you need an ammonia source. This wont come from your filter. You need to add goldfish or other hardy tropical fish, and feed them so they create ammonia in your tank. The ammonia will be attacked by the bacteria in your bio media that you add, and changed to nitrite. Then other bacteria will change it into nitrate, which you need to remove through regular water changes.