Bought Test Kit, Need Guidance

marty402000 · 11-13-2006, 08:46 PM

I have a 30 gallon tall with about 16 Tiger Barbs. I made the mistake of putting fish in the tank before the tank was done cycling. Then I got more fish from a friend who had a cycled tank. He gave me some gravel, water, and an addative. I bought a test kit today and tested the ammonia first, it was 2.0. This is in a 4 day old tank with 16 small Barbs in it. Wanted to know what to do next. Should I do more tests, and if so which ones, or should i just do a water change asap? Please help!

f1oored · 11-13-2006, 10:44 PM

Check the nitrates and nitrites before the water change to see if you have the bacteria you need.

Jay · 11-13-2006, 10:44 PM

I would try to talk my friend into taking my fish in while the tank cycles.

You had posted before that you could see that you were going to have a problem keeping the fish alive and you are.

Quote:

I have been reading and clearly see the error of my ways. Should i expect that these fish will die?

More testing is not going to help out here. A water change will reduce the concentration of ammonia but not the toxic effects. The next spike will be nitrites which are much more toxic than ammonia. I think you have gotten yourself into a no win situation here

Sixteen tiger barbs in a 30 gallon un-cycled tank is going to cause you some grief. Please be prepared for some fish loss!

We counseled that you read the articles on Cycling a tank, I thought you had and understood where this was headed.

Regards,
Jay

Loman · 11-13-2006, 10:49 PM

Marty,

You have a challenge ahead.

If I could get the fish (even some of them) temporarily housed in another tank (a friend, the LFS where you trade whatever) I would do that. The rapid stocking is not something that IME should be recommended.

Assuming you still have some fish I would do significant 30% plus water changes every couple days and keep testing the the ammonia and nitrites and nitrates. Every time they start up I would try to lower them via a water change. That is probably a loosing battle but I would give it a go. You might try some of the quick cure products such as amequel plus to help knock off the spike of ammonia that is going to build. I do not like to suggest this typically because it slows the cycle down and can even kill off the bacteria but it is probably a reasonable risk with this many fish.

With all of that said the gravel and all from the friends aquarium should speed things along so maybe you will get lucky. I do not want to be negative here but you probably should expect to loose some fish in this while the tank cycles but try to keep it to as few as possible.

f1oored · 11-13-2006, 11:04 PM

I was going to say that if you already have nitrites and nitrates you might ask your friend to house your fish for a while as those would be a sign of the cycle at least nearing its end.

However if you don't have nitrites or nitrates then you could be looking at a much longer period of time, in which case I would try taking the fish back to the store. I wouldn't want to dump off 16 barbs on a friend just to crowd his tank with a bunch of fin nippers for the next month and a half.

So maybe more testing might help you out here. Chances are that your cycle is a long way from completion so I would probably go with the "return the fish option".

Tuffcents · 11-14-2006, 10:00 AM

One quick things about the barbs, They are very hardy and IMO most would probraly live through the cycling, but they would definetly show stress marks for the rest of there life and wouldn't live the full 4-5 years.