So we just got our new fish in today! 2 electric blue jack dempseys, red spotted gold severum, and 6 white tetras, and 6 tiger barbs. Our tank had a few inches of old water from the previous owner and all the old sand(we added the blue) it also had lava rocks in the filter. Our nitrate and ammonia levels were 0. Our ph was 7.5. We put in some drift wood and the rocks and fake plants. We have some more stuff ordered to put in there and will eventually. Howre we looking? We still have a slight haze to the water. We set the tank up yesterday morning. We also wanted to get some more fish, what are our limits and would a few plecos and 6 more tetras be fine? Or could we get a lot more or is that about max? Its a 75 gallon. Very excited!! We probably shouldve cycled the tank more beforehand but the pet store told us we didnt have to if we added some kind of primer when we added more water. Thank you for any help!
Posted by EZGOING486
2 Comments
You’re absolutely correct, you should have cycled the tank more before adding all those fish. You’re going to need to monitor your ammonia levels daily and do frequent water changes for the next several weeks until the cycle has time to establish itself. Do not over feed them, once every other or every two days is plenty. You should also wait to add more fish, give these all time to grow, like a year. I’m sure you were posting here hoping for praise but most hobbyists are primarily concerned about caring for an aquarium property.
Edit to add, Seachem Prime helps to neutralize any chlorine in tap water. If by “primer” you’re referring to starter bacteria, then they basically sold you a bottle of garbage, most quick start beneficial bacteria doesn’t actually jump start your cycle. It just takes time for the BB to grow.
Look up how to do a “Fish In” Nitrogen cycle – that’s your main goal right now so that your current inhabitants don’t die.
The nitrogen cycle is a cycle of bacteria that convert ammonia fish waste which is very dangerous, to nitrites (which are also dangerous) to nitrates (which are not dangerous). The lack of bacteria and thus the cycle in new tanks is very dangerous and leads to fish dying very fast because they suffocate on their own waste in the water.
Typically people “seed” their aquariums with filter media from an aquarium with an established cycle or cycle their aquariums while they are empty by adding some fish food regularly until the bacteria grow.
Unfortunately it’s also common for people to not know about it, and add fish before the cycle is established which is why fish in new tanks die so often and so fast.
The supplement that the pet store recommended is probably just seachem prime, which binds to ammonia for about 24-48 hours to make it non-toxic but does nothing further than that.
Search up how to do “Fish-In Nitrogen Cycling”
The hazy water is either from the sand being disturbed or it’s an unrelated bacterial bloom which is common in new tanks and will go away on its own.
The other problem is the fish you’ve chosen.
The Jack Dempsey cichlids are known for being extremely aggressive – they will eat or kill anything that can’t match their temper.
The Severum is more peaceful, but as with any cichlid there’s a golden rule: if it will fit in its mouth, it will eat it.
Cichlids tanks are quite complicated – they require a specific style of decoration to break up aggression, need to be stocked only with other cichlids with matching temperaments (save for some plecos), and have to be overstocked so that it’s harder for the cichlids to single out a fish to bully to death (which means a stronger filter and more frequent water changes.
You need to make a choice if that’s something you want to commit to. In that case you should return the tetras and barbs.
If not, return the cichlids and get more tetras and other types of fish.
You have a large tank which means you can go pretty high with tetras and other fish. But before that, you need to tackle those two other issues