I'm a noob with lots of fish!

by **tekneb** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 11:33 pm

The cycling process can be a bit daunting at first, but once you see it all laid out, its actually rather simple.
All animals produce ammonia as a waste product, usually its referred to as "pee" lol. Ammonia is extremely toxic and since fish live in the same area they pee in, some process has to occur to get rid of that ammonia. This is what we call "cycling your tank". First, your fish produce ammonia. Then, bacteria that occurs naturally in the wild starts to grow that eats the ammonia. Those bacteria turn the ammonia into nitrite (with an I) which is less dangerous then ammonia but still pretty toxic. Luckily, once your nitrite level goes up, a second bacteria starts to grow that eats that, and turns it into nitrate (with an A) which is still a toxic substance but far less potent then ammonia or nitrite. Nitrate levels are controlled through regular water changes, and can also be curbed by growing live plants.

Now, as for your driftwood, getting it to sink is very easy. You either soak it in a bucket of water till it sinks, or tie a rock to it, lol. One thing you should know about driftwood though (if you havent read about it already) is that it can turn your water a murky brown "tea" color. This happens when the natural tannins in the wood start leaking out. This will in no way harm your fish, but it just looks kinda nasty lol. You can avoid this by soaking the wood until it stops staining the water, or if the peice is small enough, boiling it for awhile. Hope this all helped :)

by **yasherkoach** » Sat Oct 23, 2010 10:12 am

tekneb said it very well...just want to add that with water changes and liquid test kits for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph, the cycling process will be complete

the only problem you will most likely have is, too many fish equals disaster because you do not have enough good bacteria to keep up with all the poop, in other words, the good bacteria that will feed off or turn from ammonia to nitrite to nitrate will be overwhelmed

the reason the pond was fine is it was probably well established, so it could handle the overload

if I was you, I'd put back all the fish but 2, and then you'd be in good shape...after the tank is cycled, then add 2 fish a week until all the fish are in the tank

let us know what you decide to do, we'll go from there

by **natalie265** » Sat Oct 23, 2010 7:07 pm

Chris, i'm not sure why you think 50% water changes are too much. The more the better. I don't think 20% water changes are going to cut it in this situation.

I just want to point out that even two 55 gallon tanks is not enough to hold all these fish once full grown. I believe what you have is a bunch of comet goldfish. These reach an adult size of about 12 inches. They really are pond fish.

by **christofrontosa** » Sat Oct 23, 2010 7:24 pm

There are no hard and fast rules about how often a water change should be carried out, or how much water should be changed - every tank setup is different. There are, however, some sensible guidelines which can be followed to keep fish and plants healthy.
It is usually better to change a smaller amount more frequently, rather than change a very large amount less often. This minimises changes in the water chemistry and hence reduces stress on fish. Some species are sensitive to large scale water changes: an example is Tanganyikan cichlids, where a more sensible regime might be 15-20% every week.
Remember that the larger the percentage water change carried out, the more important it is to match the temperature and water chemistry of the new water to that in the tank. A particular danger here is when alkaline water is added to a neutral or acidic tank. The rise in pH to alkaline values will mean that more of the total ammonium compounds present will be in the toxic form of ammonia (NH3).
Larger water changes will also increase the importance of using a dechlorinator if tap water is used.
However, if the water is not well matched, then the constant swings in temperature, pH, etc caused by frequent large changes are likely to do more harm than good. This is why frequent small changes are ideal.

by **Stampede** » Sat Oct 23, 2010 7:47 pm

I really appreciate all of the insight folks! The issue with the pond is....I drained it already :( The way the thing was constructed was atrocious. It had absolutely no filtration, no water flow, and was horribly overrun with debris.

My original plan was to actually re-dig this thing, build a waterfall, and basically start from scratch to keep the fish going. After learning more about the tank and what I really should be doing to keep them inside, this might not be a bad solution. The problem is that currently I don"t really have the money or time to dive head first into the project.

I think that the main goal now is to keep these fish alive for as long as possible until we can figure out what to do with them. I have been contemplating just taking them up to the pet store and leaving them on the doorstep, but that's not really my nature.

At this point I will buy as many tanks as I need to house these little guys, it's just going to take some time. I guess I'm really just at a loss.....re-dig a pond correctly with proper water run-off and filtration methods....or buy several large tanks to seperate this population and keep them thriving. I guess I could always clean all of the poo out of the pond and refill it to put the fish back in....but that will be just in time for winter so they will have to basically go back to catatonic state for a while until we figure out what to do.

What a freaking mess......

In the short term I think I'll just keep going as I am. I'll have the water tested, eventually buy a test kit, keep with the water changes every so often....the ammount maybe will vary depending on the amounts of ammonia and nitrites found in the water per test.

I really am not pleased with the prospect of having to fix this cursed pond....but maybe that really is the best bet. That or just get rid of the fish. Either way I am still intrigued by these dilemma's and the new found excitement that came with taking care of fish. I do think that this hobby will stick.

Thanks again everyone....I'll keep posting on a regular basis to let you know whats happening!

by **tekneb** » Sat Oct 23, 2010 9:24 pm

You know Stampede, if money is a little short, and you want to save up to redo the pond, you don't neccesarily have to keep buying tanks to hold all the fish. My dads friend was in a similar situation to yours, and he bought a bunch of 55 gallon drums and filters on ebay to keep everybody alive while he saved up. Not the most attractive thing in the world but it'll certainly cut costs.

by **dream2reef** » Sun Oct 24, 2010 7:06 am

I think the smaller more frequent water changes are more sensible. It would cut down on the spikes during cycling. As far as your problem with the pond I'd do 20% water changes every few days. Go online to walmart.com get an 18 dollar test kit to knock down the water changes as often. Meaning with the testkit you'd know when to make a water change. I mean everyone's freaking out making you freak out about tank size and whatnot. The thing with that is you're not planning on keeping them there forever and growing them up. They would be fine in there til you got that thing done. Unless you really slack on it and it takes a year. I've done some crazy things with fish and switching them around and temp housing them here and there in all sorts of things. You'd be surprised at just how resilient goldfish are. And as for your project rocks are free if you know where any farms are. lol farmers would laugh at you while your taking their rocks they had get out of their fields. Pond pumps are a dime a dozen on craigslist. Idk I'm just throwing ideas out there. I would just say oh well they are just goldfish but those are actually kinda high priced fish. Having said that the LFS would LOVE it if you did put them on their doorstep lol. Congrats on the new house and fish I'm sure everything will work out. You now have some knowledge from the site you just have to hack it out with the wife good luck with that lol.

by **yasherkoach** » Sun Oct 24, 2010 8:07 am

25-30% water per week (what I've done always was on Thursday I'd take out 8 gallons then on Sunday I'd take another 8 gallons equaling about 25% water change)...just a routine like taking a shower or shaving or getting ready for work, no more than 5-10 minutes is all that is needed

by **yasherkoach** » Sun Oct 24, 2010 8:10 am

on the huge water change, only if several fish die at once or within a couple days or ammonia shoots up to 4.0 ppm or any other drastic change, then a 50% to 75% water change is okay...but on a regular basis, no reason to do huge water changes

by **Stampede** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 2:02 pm

Well, I talked to the wife last night and we've decided to go for it with the pond. I think I was just being lazy and not wanting to go dig up my yard to fix the dang thing. It's a little intimidating too. The money issues really won't be that bad, I just tend to be a tight wad when it comes to something that I'm not really excited about. I did some good research on pond construction when I was all gung-ho about this, so I'm pretty sure it will be ok.

I'll go ahead and get the test kit and keep up with the water changes when needed. I'm thinking that the pond project will take a couple of months to complete....so the fish should be ok for a while.

I guess I'm going to be busy for a while, lol.

I'm a noob with lots of fish!

35 posts • Page 2 of 4

I'm a noob with lots of fish!

35 posts • Page 2 of 4