Cycling with fish

[marty2905]

I am very new to aquariums and have had a tanks for 2 weeks now. The store I purchased my stuff at did not tell me that fish tanks need to be cycled and I bought a bunch of fish. I have lost 7 fish in one tank, 1 in another and 0 in another. I am getting high ammonia levels and have been doing 25% water changes most days to lower to ammonia concentration. My question is, is it possible to salvage my other fish ( have about 20 of them in 3 tanks). Should I keep doing partial water changes?

[ZeroSystem]

Welcome to FTF Marty2905!

Cycling with fish is always difficult and stressful on the fish. You're probably doing a good thing with the partial water changes. Although not commonly done while cycling, they could help keep your fish alive while the tank cycles. I've heard that aquarium salt can also help relieve some of the stress from cycling.

[Uptown193]

Hi, interesting post. I just got my tank last Friday and I have added fish the next day and they are all still alive. I just used the water conditioner and Proper PH 7.0 which automatically sets the Ph level to 7.0. I have 5 fish and a African Dwarf Frog and so far they are all still alive and its been 5 days. I do not know what you did wrong. That is weird that your fish died.

[ZeroSystem]

Welcome to FTF Uptown193!

Cycling a tank is a very important first step in setting up any new aquarium. The Nitrogen Cycle, as it's officially called, is a process that happens in every aquarium and is basically what allows people to keep fish successfully. "Good" bacteria are responsible for this. Their job is to 'eat' the ammonia, which is produced by fish as part of their waste, and change it into chemicals that are far less toxic than the original ammonia. It generally takes around 4 to 6 weeks for a freshwater aquarium to fully grow enough of this "good" bacteria to properly take care of fish. Any time before then and the fish are going to be exposed to harmful and potentially fatal chemicals like ammonia and nitrItes. This is why cycling without fish is the more preferred method these days, as it produces great results without any harm to fish. After a long day of work I'm finding it a bit tricky to cover this topic very accurately, so here's a link to the video tutorials that will certainly help you understand the Nitrogen Cycle better than my ramblings.

http://www.fishtankforums.com/16-sit...tutorials.html