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1287 Views 13 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  dafoghorn, 
D
how long does it take for ammonia to kick in once you add fish?
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eyebeatbadgers
Your new fish will start producing ammonia immediately. It will be measurable after a couple days with most test kits, depending on level of concentration.

I'm guessing that's what you mean by "kick in". I think of Chuck Norris when I hear "kick in".
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D
thanks. i added 5 hummingdirds 20 cardnals and a few hariquins today, so now theres about 35 fish in 110g. i think i shoul wait a while till i put in the rest of them ,plus my discus. all seem to be doing good.did a test about 4 hours i put them in and amm. was still 0
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Tdon1md
How heavily is your tank planted? It's customary to cycle a tank using 3-5 sacrificial fish ( hoping they survive) and after your ammonia spike and nitrIte spike and eventual conversion to NitrAte, to start adding fish at a rate of maybe 5-10 per week to gradually build up your BB colonies with fish only tanks. That may be a little on the light side for a planted tank since the plants will bring with them some bacteria and at the same time can use some Ammonia for nutrition. But, if your tank is uncycled, no matter how heavily your tank is planted, I'd be willing to bet you'll loose at least 50% of the fish you stocked your uncycled tank with because of the heavy population you introduced. I cycled my heavily planted tank w/ 10 mollies and lost 3 of them within the first week. The rest died about 2 months after the cycle was complete. I think it was due to the long term effects of Ammonia poisoning because, although mollies are brackish water fish, they should last at least 6 month to a year even in fresh water.
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eyebeatbadgers
dafoghorn said:
thanks. i added 5 hummingdirds 20 cardnals and a few hariquins today, so now theres about 35 fish in 110g. i think i shoul wait a while till i put in the rest of them ,plus my discus. all seem to be doing good.did a test about 4 hours i put them in and amm. was still 0
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With a tank that large, it's going to take a while to see measurable ammonia in the tank. If the tank is planted, at least half full of plants, you shouldn't see a big spike, since plants contain beneficial bacteria (bb in previous post).

You might want to rethink discus if you are still just learning the basics of aquarium keeping. They can be a difficult fish and picky about their water conditions. I have never kept them myself, but most sources that I have read all said the same thing.
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D
i added 2 red eye tetra, an algae eater and 3 hariquins about 10 days ago.all survived. then on tuesday i put in 5 otos. all survived.the tank is full of plants and doing very well.hopefully i wont have as many deaths as you say ,but ill soon find out.do they die quick, or is it the 1 or 2 dead fish a day thing?
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Tdon1md
I hope I'm wrong, I really do. Just passing on my experience.
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D
ive had the discus for at least 6 months in a different tank,ive kept fish for years ,just never tried a planted tank.i cant wait till they get to go to the plant take,im sure they will be much happier,maybe more colorful
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eyebeatbadgers
dafoghorn said:
ive had the discus for at least 6 months in a different tank,ive kept fish for years ,just never tried a planted tank.i cant wait till they get to go to the plant take,im sure they will be much happier,maybe more colorful
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Ah. I wish you well with your planted tank. I just assumed that because you did not seem to have a grasp of how the nitrogen cycle worked, you were new to fish-keeping as well as plant-keeping.
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A
eyebeatbadgers said:
With a tank that large, it's going to take a while to see measurable ammonia in the tank. If the tank is planted, at least half full of plants, you shouldn't see a big spike, since plants contain beneficial bacteria (bb in previous post).

You might want to rethink discus if you are still just learning the basics of aquarium keeping. They can be a difficult fish and picky about their water conditions. I have never kept them myself, but most sources that I have read all said the same thing.
Click to expand...

a few things about discus. long ago (over 5 years ago) discus were incredibly difficult to keep alive. nowadays the shops sell discus for pretty cheap and i've noticed that they're not that hard to keep (maybe the genes are getting stronger?). still more sensitive then angels and still get stressed easily but as far as keeping them alive i had lots of success with little to no experience.
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D
well another day goes by and i dont think any fish died.i dont see any on the floor and the tetras school very nicely so i can count them.still only problem is slight geen tint to the water.amm. still 0
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tazcrash69
IME, a planted tank cycle is not like a Fish only tank cycle.
When I started up my 55 and my 125, I planted heavy (~75% of the footprint covered mostly stems), and then added a decent amount of fish the next day, and never saw a trace of ammonia.
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J
If you really want to be safe use some Bio Spira. Great product if you can afford it for a 125, not to mention find it locally. It's live bacteria to colonize your tank.

EDIT: I thought it was a 125, what size is this tank?
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my tank is 110g.still everything going good i added 10 more cardnails.even the hummingbirds are all doing good and eating frozen worms.i dont know how hardy they are but they r rare so i guess they are not the hardiest.
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