# My baby's in trouble!



## Jinster (Mar 6, 2005)

I just woke up yesterday morning and decided that I wanted a pirahna fish tank. So without knowing anything about tank cycling or anything else about fish raising, I spent 250 dollars for this whole setup. Since the tank is just beginning it's cycle, the water is all murky and my rb is just wiggling in the corner not eating anything for whole day. I drop him bloodworms, pellet foods, gold fish and he just will not respond. (he ate a goldfish last night tho) So on to my noob questions - (1) do i have a to have live plants to do the tank cycle? (2) is there any products that help speed up the cycle? (3) why the heck is my fish just staying on one spot?


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## HellBoy (Sep 22, 2004)

Yes there is: SERA Nitrivec 

"Special mixture from different high quality purification bacteria for aquarium water. The bacteria develop a natural micro life and a functioning nitrogen cycle within a short time. sera nitrivec prevents the enrichment of ammonia and nitrite. As the bacteria in sera nitrivec are also affected by chlorine and other disinfectants in the water, the water must be conditioned with sera aqutan approx. 1 hour before using sera nitrivec."

Can you post some pictures
1. You don`t have to have plans for cycling.
2.Yes there is, I used SERA Nitrivec
3.It could be stres, new fish often behave like that.


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## Kilohead36 (Feb 11, 2004)

Jinster said:


> I just woke up yesterday morning and decided that I wanted a pirahna fish tank. So without knowing anything about tank cycling or anything else about fish raising, I spent 250 dollars for this whole setup. Since the tank is just beginning it's cycle, the water is all murky and my rb is just wiggling in the corner not eating anything for whole day. I drop him bloodworms, pellet foods, gold fish and he just will not respond. (he ate a goldfish last night tho) So on to my noob questions - (1) do i have a to have live plants to do the tank cycle? (2) is there any products that help speed up the cycle? (3) why the heck is my fish just staying on one spot?
> [snapback]921909[/snapback]​


First of all Welcome to the board. Perhaps you can tell us a little bit more about your tank and what you did. Being that you are a newbie I'll answer a few of your questions. Live plants arent necessary for cycling a tank. Bio-spira will help speed up cycling your tank. If you have a filter media from a established tank that would help as well. Give your fish some time to adjust and hopefully he should be swimming. However, also remember you didnt properly cycle your tank so thats added stress on the fish. Hope this helps.


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## Mack (Oct 31, 2004)

Bio-Spira. Call all the LFSs, it is hard to find as it must be refrigerated.


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## DominatorRhom (Jan 28, 2005)

i agree with the bio-spira. also remember to only leave the food you put in the tank for about 15 min. if he doesnt eat it, take it out. not sure if you did that or not, but leaving food in overnight isnt a good idea.

i also want to know your set up and post pics if you can


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## benJii (Feb 17, 2005)

Jinster said:


> I just woke up yesterday morning and decided that I wanted a pirahna fish tank. So without knowing anything about tank cycling or anything else about fish raising, I spent 250 dollars for this whole setup.
> [snapback]921909[/snapback]​


i think that u need to do a lil more research before u make an investment(and lemme say that that is a good one







)that big.before i got p's i researched em for a bout a month and had my tank set up fora week.but anyways wellcome, its great to see that this hobby is becoming popular


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## thePACK (Jan 3, 2003)

moved to water fourm


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

I've had to cycle several tanks with fish in them due to unfortunate and unforseen circumstances. From experience and not just product descriptions or sales pitches I can offer you the following advice.

Buy a bottle of ammo-lock and dump a ton in your water. Your ammonia levels will spike, and ammo-lock makes ammonia non toxic to fish.

Put in one tablespoon of table salt. When your nitrite levels rise, the table salt will prevent nitrite poisoning.

I've had to use this on one piranha tank, a cichlid tank, a tetra and gourami tank, and a betta tank (god damn power outage killed all my filters for a few hours and uncycled my tank) and did not lose one single fish, nor had a fish suffer from any ammonia burns or anything.


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## Jinster (Mar 6, 2005)

elTwitcho said:


> I've had to cycle several tanks with fish in them due to unfortunate and unforseen circumstances. From experience and not just product descriptions or sales pitches I can offer you the following advice.
> 
> Buy a bottle of ammo-lock and dump a ton in your water. Your ammonia levels will spike, and ammo-lock makes ammonia non toxic to fish.
> 
> ...


sir Twitcho, your method sounds fun and interesting and i think ill try that tomorrow. mines a 30x12x12 tank, inches. how much ammo-lock should I put in and how much tablesalt after how long? and should I keep the fan running at all times for it? please advise. thanks.


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## Mack (Oct 31, 2004)

Just put in the recommended dose of Ammo-Lock. (It should say on the bottle.)

I'm not sure how often to add the salt, but dissolve it in a glass before adding it.

This will not make the cycle any quicker, it will just protect your fish from the burning and suffocation.


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