I used to have Tanks a long time ago but when i moved i got rid of all of them i'm just getting back into it, becauise of my 7 year old he wanted Fish so i'm teaching him right now he has Guppies (Thanks Mike) and Some mollys in a 20 gallon all doing Great, i have Some Cichlids in a 29 high and 30 long to me they just don't look Happy.

Filters:
alot of things have changed i used to use Underground Filters plus a filter in the back and i never had any problems at all back then, now days you can't even find an underground Filter Right now i'm running no under ground and using Whisper filters
Is there something i don't know?

All my Tanks are (old) new (to me) Cleaned they are just things i got off craigslist I use Prime for the Omaha water seems to works the best that i have seen added a little salt (Morton White Crystal) I'm old School thats what i used to do Correct me if i'm wrong, None of my tanks have cycled yet all are less then 2 weeks old how can i get these to cycle a little faster i'm not feeding very much and not changing the water at all but i'm watching the water conditions close Having problem with Ammonia and no problem with Nitrite and Nitrates a friends gave me a bottle of Pond Bacteria i have added to all tanks

Anything else?
I need to get the Hang of all this i want to get some Discus

Thanks
Vern

Hi Vern
welcome to the site. UGF's have become less used but I think they still have their uses on occasion. I run some underneath all that driftwood in the 180 so I don't get dead spots developing but it's not the primary filtration for it. There are two cascade canisters on it, a 1000 and 1500 along with a Mag 350 powering a DIY trickle filter I built underneath. If the cichlids aren't happy, maybe something isn't right with the water or they could be a little crowded possibly. What kind of fish are they and how many in the tanks? Also what are the water parameters as far as Temp, PH, Ammonia, Nitrite & Nitrate?
regards and welcome again
mike

you have Lots of filters:) thanks for the info will look in to it

Ph is at 7.4 Ammonia is at .25ppm Nitrite 0ppm Nitrate 0ppm Water temp is 73.3 running a whisper 40 on a 29 high right now
The fish i have 11 total 2 Metriaclima greshakei (Albino) 5 Copadichromis borleyi, 2 Eletric blue and 2 black

they all start this about 24 hours after i moved them from another tank smaller they all seemed happy in there i have done nothin different with this tank, but i used Pool Sand

I don't see anything on them but they are all freaky out swimming real fast and crazy Scraching the bottom with there sides

I lost your phone number

Hi Vern,
That's a little high for ammonia. You might want to do a water change. It sounds like you moved them from a cycled tank to a newly set-up tank. The pool sand is inert and doesn't affect water chemistry.
regards
mike
p.s. 292-0900

As far as speeding up the cycle goes - there are two products you might consider.

1) Cycle - moderately priced and fairly effective.
2) Spirulina (Pet Land has it) - expensive and much more effective.

The idea behind both is that they contain live (good) bacteria that speeds up the cycle.

Spirulina claims you can add fish to you tank with it and it will "immediately" cycle. I have used it twice in the past - once with fry - and it worked great.

I've used Cycle too - it worked fine but still had ammonia/nitrite spikes...just a bit faster than normal.

You mean biospira, not spirulina. I know that's what you meant but wanted to make sure he didn't add extra food to the tank!!

If possible also, I would add anything that you had in the old tank: decor, substrate, any filter media, etc. I also think you want to do water changes frequently until your parameters are under control. Finally, those cichlids would be much happier in warmer water in my opinion. I like to keep malawis at 80-84, but 80ish is a good number to shoot for.

Good luck with your fish. If you get a chance you should post a couple pics!

Hi Garret,
was on the phone with Vern. All of them except a 10 gallon are not cycled yet so I recommended daily testing and water changes as well as adding some salt gradually to bring the PH up a little. At 7.4 it's a little low.
regards
mike

Yeah, that is low. I didn't even notice that. Hopefully all the fish will be fine. Africans are pretty tough.

I don't promote the use of Cycle (the product). You can go with BIO-Spira. Locally, you can get it at PetLand and Paradise Cove Pets. The cheapest way to go would be to get cycled filter media from someone here (I am volunteering some of mine, if you are interested) that has a cycled tank. Every time I have setup a new tank, I have simply taken some cycled filter media from my oldest tank and put it into the tank that I was setting up. I've never run into problems with that method, and I mostly keep shrimp and crayfish, which are more sensitive to water quality than most of the fish that are kept in the hobby.

The Tank just started cycling Sunday i have been changing about 5 to 10 gallons a day on a 29 gallon High, anyone want a couple electic Blue Cichlids?

I was always told not to change the water during the cycling process, because it's like 1 step forward (lowering the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate) and two steps back (killing off any bacteria that eat it because the food supply is gone.

Just my two cents.

Mack,
You're right in thinking that. In this case, the tank immediately became home to some fish so it was a matter of letting the tank cycle or maybe taking longer on the tank cycle but still doing OK by the fish.
regards
mike

did you happen to say how many fish in each tank you have, and I just missed it? If there's not very many fish in the tanks, wouldn't it be "ok" to let them cycle by themselves.

I mean, of course bio-spira would be super great to go with, but when I bought some lace-rock for my cichlid tank, and there were apparently enough bacteria on them that the tank didn't cycle (or did super quickly...), you might try using that... it might be cheaper, and you get some decor out of it too...

Late in catching up with this topic. How are the tanks doing now ?