Miscellaneous Topics
Index:
1 - "Cycling" a New Freshwater Aquarium
2 - Treating a Tank for Ich
3 - Aquarium Houseplant Holders
4 - Fish tuberculosis in hobbyists
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I wrote the following article for use at a LFS. You do have my permission to use this article if it's helpful to you, as long as you credit me as the author (include the credit lines at the end of the article), and email me telling me where you are going to use it.
“Cycling” A New Freshwater Aquarium
One of the most common questions asked at fish stores is “I just bought an aquarium, and now what?”. For most people just starting an aquarium, the “…now what?” means “what fish can I put in my aquarium today?”. The correct answer is “none today”, and is generally not what the customer wants to hear. Following this advice will result in a much more satisfactory result, however. This process of starting the aquarium is often referred to as “cycling”, which is the introduction into an aquarium of various types of bacteria which utilize the ammonia and nitrite (both toxic to fish) produced by fish waste. This process is accomplished by reducing ammonia and nitrite to nitrate, which is not toxic to fish. This process (cycling) takes an average of 30 days after the introduction of the fish. It can take as little as 21 days, or as long as 60 days without any apparent reason for the differences. There are live bacterial cultures on the market, which can help “cycle” an aquarium faster. These products do work when the bacterial cultures are viable, but fish should still be added very slowly. The following steps are recommendations on how to start a new aquarium while minimizing the hassles and problems:
1) Decide on the size and type of aquarium you want to have.
2) Decide on the type of filtration you’re going to use. You can choose from under-gravel filters, hang-on-the-back filters, canister filters, overflow filters, or some combinations of these types of filtration. Ask your pet store associate to help you decide which type of filtration is most appropriate for your aquarium.
3) Set up the aquarium with all of the equipment and add the water. This will include rinsing the gravel, installing the filtration, and setting the heater to the appropriate temperature. Goldfish and other cold-water fish do well at room temperature, while tropical fish need temperatures around 78-80°F.
4) Run the aquarium for 2-4 days before adding any fish.
5) Use starter fish to begin the “cycling” process. Some excellent starter fish include danios, black tetras, and white clouds. Some other recommendations could include platies, other tetras, or some barbs. Do not use too many fish during this “cycling” process. Invariably beginners ask if it’s all right to start with angelfish, catfish, plecostomus, or other inappropriate fish. Resist the temptation to do this, and you will save yourself a lot of grief and disappointment during the first few months of operation.
6) When you get your starter fish home, float the bag in the aquarium for 15-20 minutes to equalize the water temperature. This is very important, as fish are very sensitive to temperature changes. After equalizing the temperature, you can add about ¼ cup of water to the bag every 15 minutes for 1-2 hours. The fish can then be released into the aquarium. If at all possible, net the fish out of the bag into the aquarium, rather than dumping the water from the bag into your tank.
7) Be very cautious when feeding your fish, especially until the “cycling” is complete. Overfeeding is the most common mistake made with new aquariums. A fish’s stomach is probably about the size of its eye, so feed very sparingly. Your fish should eat everything you feed them within 3 minutes. If not, you probably fed too much. Just reduce the amount the next time you feed. Fish only need to be fed once a day.
8) After about 14 days, you can bring in a water sample to be tested for ammonia and nitrite. This will tell whether the tank has begun “cycling”. It can also tell you when it’s safe to start adding more fish. It is not a good idea to introduce additional fish once the aquarium has started to “cycle”. The ammonia and nitrite levels will typically rise to toxic levels during this process. Because you started with hardy fish, they will often survive these toxic levels. Because the increase happens so slowly, they are able to adapt with no adverse effects. To introduce new fish during this process can be very stressful to the new fish, since they haven’t had time to slowly acclimate to the elevated levels of ammonia and nitrite. Unfortunately, they often don’t survive this trauma.
9) Once the test on your aquarium water determines that your tank is safe, you can begin adding additional fish. Your pet store associate can help you determine which fish are compatible in terms of size and temperament for your aquarium. Add new fish in stages. It’s not a good idea to add a lot of new fish all at one time.
10) Do not be disturbed if your aquarium becomes cloudy of hazy during the first several months of operation. This is normal, and usually disappears naturally after 2-3 months.
11) Routine tank maintenance should begin after the “cycling” process has been successful. Water changes of 20-25% should be performed every 2-4 weeks. Fish do not respond well to significant chemical changes in their water. They do much better with small water changes done more frequently, than with massive water changes done infrequently. Adding water to the aquarium to replace water that has evaporated is not a water change. Again, be very sensitive to water temperature when doing water changes.
Denny Rogers
www.dennysfishroom.com
10/05/2004
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This is the best method I've seen for the treatment of Ich in the aquarium.
Treating A Tank for Ich
Probably the most common disease that aquarist run into in their aquariums is Ich. This is recognizable by small white spots which appear on the fish and it's fins. Good water quality usually controls this problem, but when your fish do develop this disease, the treatment I've found to be the most effective is a 3 part approach to a cure. Ich is probably always present in aquariums, and as long as the fish are not stressed, causes little or no problem.
The first step would be to raise the temperature of the tank to 84-85˚ F. This temperature prevents the organism responsible for Ich from reproducing. After 7-10 days the temperature can be returned to normal.
Step 2 would be to add 1 level tablespoon of non-iodized salt per 10 gallons to the aquarium. Routine water changes will dilute this chemical over time.
Step 3 would be to add one of the Ich cure medicines available. Follow package directions, and remove the charcoal from your filter. After the treatment advised in the directions, you can put the charcoal back in your filter, and the medication will be filtered out.
I've found that the combination of all 3 of these cures/treatments works better than any one of them individually, and is my treatment of choice to cure Ich.
Denny Rogers
www.dennysfishroom.com
2/18/2005
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This was an experiment I ran with incomplete, although encouraging results.
Aquarium Houseplant Holder
On the stock list page, there is a listing for Aquarium Houseplant Holders. This is a brand new item with many possibilities for decorating and starting new house plants. The Aquarium Houseplant Holder is a container uniquely designed to fit between the glass top on your aquarium, and the back frame. This area is currently filled/covered using a plastic strip that may be cut to fit around the aquarium accessories. The Aquarium Houseplant Holder is designed to replace this plastic strip with a container to grow house plants. It's purpose is to provide a container for starting roots from plant cuttings, allow house plants to grow on the top of your aquarium, and to provide a means of controlling/eliminating ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in your aquarium.
The original idea developed as I watched the fad involving growing peace lilies above a vase containing a betta, and reading and experimentation I had done with various house plants growing in aquarium water. The Aquarium Houseplant Holder is the final result of this thought process and experimentation.
The vase containing a betta and a peace lily is really an interesting and attractive decoration for the home. While I would question the idea that you don't have to feed your betta because he would eat the roots of the peace lily, it also seemed to be a good opportunity to get new people coming into the pet stores to start keeping fish, albeit on a very small scale. As the roots on the peace lily grew in the water, they formed an attractive setting for the betta to swim around and through.
The second part of my thought process involved the concept of using emergent plants (roots in the water, leaves in the air) in a sump as a filter for the fish waste. The cycling of an aquarium involves encouraging bacteria to grow in your aquarium which converts the ammonia waste (toxic to fish) first to nitrite (still toxic to fish), and then into nitrate which is not toxic to fish. The only problem with this scenario is that we have to continuously replace a percentage of the water in order to constantly dilute the nitrate that is building up, since nitrate is a plant fertilizer, and algae is a plant. While this explanation may be somewhat simplified, this is a crude way of explaining what is happening in your aquarium. The theory is that the use of emergent plants in the aquarium sump would eliminate the continuous buildup of nitrate, since these plants would utilize this waste product themselves, and prevent this chemical from building up in the aquarium and providing a source of nutrients for algae. Since most people don't have a sump for their tanks, the idea of the Aquarium Houseplant Holder developed for use by the majority of the hobbyists who may only have one or two tanks, but still may want to effect the water quality of their individual tanks. This method would also provide an attractive backdrop of plant roots in the aquarium, and an attractive display of house plants on top of the aquarium.
The Aquarium Houseplant Holder comes in lengths of 3 inches and 6 inches, with each length available in 1.5 inch and 2.0 inch depths. Either take a cutting of your house plant, or a bog type plant from the aquarium, and cut a cross in the bottom of the Aquarium Houseplant Holder. Push the stem or roots through this hole and then fill the container with large aquarium gravel. The Aquarium Houseplant Holder is then put in placed in the space formerly filled by the piece of plastic. The stem or roots should be in the aquarium water. Don't be too impatient for the roots to start growing, but you will have to watch the water level in your aquarium to make sure it doesn't fall below the level of the roots or stems.
Between now and the end of the year, I am hoping to experiment to see what effect this system might have on the initial cycling of an aquarium. As results become available, I'll post them in this section of my webpage.
Update:
I did set up an experiment this Fall to measure ammonia and nitrite levels on 2 identical tanks being cycled side-by-side. For the first 2 weeks, it was evident the tanks were going through the ammonia portion of the cycling process. Each tank did register ammonia levels increasing, and then decreasing over this period of time. The tank without the plant recorded levels as high as 4.0 on the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kit. The tank with the plant (Peace Lily) showed increased levels of ammonia, but only went above 1.0 (1.5) on one day. It also dropped 2 days sooner than the tank without the plant. As the level of ammonia dropped in the tanks, I did start to get a reading on the nitrite test kit, but it wasn't a color that compared to the test control colors, so I was unable to complete the cycling experiment. I believe that because we are on a well, the test results were compromised for nitrite by the presence of some other chemical. I did send a sample of my water to Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, but they took no interest in my explanation of the problem, and therefore were unable to provide any solution.
The results are encouraging, but not ready for publication at this time. I will try again when I can be sure of getting test results for the nitrite portion of the test.
Denny Rogers
www.dennysfishroom.com
2/18/2005
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Fish Tuberculosis in Hobbyists
More than six months ago I was doing some cleaning of my sponge filters when i felt a sharp pain in my middle finger. It turned out that a fish had died in that aquarium, and several of the bones had ended up in the sponge filter. As I had squeezed the filter to clean it, my finger was punctured by the bone. This had happened before, so I didn't think too much about it. After several months, however, I began to notice that the last joint in the middle finger on my right hand was beginning to swell and was tender to the touch. After about a month of this condition, I finally went to the doctor for examination. We tried antibiotics and when no improvement was observed, an x-ray was taken. It appeared that there may have been a small fragment in the finger, so I was sent to a hand specialist. He looked at the x-rays and felt that was nothing in relation to my symptoms. We again tried antibiotics as well as steroids for the swelling. After being on the steroids for about a month, the joint was just about back to normal when I noticed the middle joint on the same finger starting to swell and get red. At this time, I ran across an article dealing with an infection of Mycobacterium marinea. The symptoms included swelling often of the major hand with redness and not a lot of pain. There can be a lesion or an infection of the bone. When I presented this article to the doctor, he sent me to an infection specialist. Samples were sent to the lab for culturing, and they came back negative for both aerobic bacteria and for Mycobacterium marinea. I was put on long term treatment with Doxycycline and am about 2/3 through the initial 3 month treatment. It is looking slightly better, but it wouldn't surprise me if I have to stay in treatment for more than 3 months. Fortunately there is not a lot of pain involved unless I hit it with something or try to put my hand in my pocket. At it's peak it was really ugly and swollen. If you start to see these symptoms, you may want to talk to your doctor about the possibility of this particular infection. I would suspect it's not a common occurrence, and your doctor may not familiar with this particular organism.