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125 gallon pacu tank.

Spectabilis73,
your post somehow got locked! I cant reply to it..strange.

The best way to quickly "seed" a new tank with bacteria is to simply move over some of the media from the old filter..

if you are simply moving the 2 fish from the old tank to the new tank, and not putting anything new in the old tank, then simply move the filter over! problem solved instantly..

but, if like most people, you are still keeping the old tank in use for other fish, you need to split up the media..
what kind of filter is on the current tank?? is the media something you can cut in half? like floss or the like?

this is what I would do..set up the new 125 gal, fill it up, but with no fish..(wait 24 hours for chlorine to dispell from the new water) put HALF the gravel in the new tank, then take the other half from the old tank, the one still contaning the fish..this old gravel will be VERY well seeded with bacteria, that will pretty much take care of everything there..then take some old media from the old filter and add it to the new filter..
basically you are taking half of the bacteria from the old tank and adding it to the new tank, half the filter media and half the gravel..this will still leave enough in the old tank for the fish, (the bacteria will rebound to 100% in days) and will have enough to start the new bacteria colony in the new tank..the fish could be safely moved over right then! instant cycling!
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if you want to be sure there is enough, add some ammonia and test to see that it all gets "eaten" in one day!
I will post some links on fishless cycling below..

as for other fish to add with 2 pacus?? my answer would be NONE!
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2 pacus are more than enough for a 125..I would consider it full! actually only one pacu is more than enough, 2 is pushing it IMO..

here is some info on a great idea called "fishless cycling"...it gets the bacteria colony all set up and ready for a full tank of fish WITHOUT submitting any actual living fish to high ammonia levels! its a great idea...

http://herne.tripod.com/cycling.html

http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycling.html
http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycle2.html

if you want to find more, just type in "fishless cycling" into google, you will gets tons of links!

here is my personal experience setting up my discus tank..it took that tank 5 weeks to get fully cycled! but thats because I didnt really seed it..if you take tons of bacteria from the old tank, you could easily do it in 2 weeks, maybe even instantly!!
one thing though..if you move over your bacteria but DONT move the fish for 2 weeks, you will need to feed the bacteria or they will die! they eat pure ammonia..

http://www.geocities.com/scottychaos/discuspage.htm

oh yeah, dont even bother with that "starter bacteria in a bottle" stuff..its crap, worthless..and you dont even need it! your first tank is a goldmine of bacteria! all you will ever need right there..

Scot
 
your old one was moved to the fish forum.. as is this one
 
ah..thanks Tony,
I didnt know there WAS a fish forum!
that explains why I couldnt reply..

but..when you move a thread, why dont you just *Delete* it from the original forum??
that would avoid this kind of problem..

thanks,
Scot
 
Sorry must have hit the wrong option.  It is supposed to take you to the new forum with the thread still going if you click on the original post.  Deleting it from the original forum is generally bad because the person posting it goes to there first looking for it and if it is totally gone they don't have any idea where it is.  Hope that clarifies.
T

O yeah.. technically it is not the fish forum. But it is the only animal forum and I have seen posts on fish here so figured it fit in best.
 
ok, got it now..
thanks for the clarification!
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scot
 
Thanks for all of the info! I am not going to use tap water, the tap water here is wwwaaayyy to hard, I'm using distilled.
I have 2 filters in the old tank, I'm moving the aquaclear 500 to the new trank, and leaving the other filter (I think it's aquaclear 300) in the old tank. I am going to grow cichlids in the 30 gallon. (covict cichlids)
 
dont use distilled!!!!!
very bad for fish.
it has NOTHING in it but pure water, and that is actually very bad, because fish (and all animals, humans too) need those trace minerals in the water..
with distilled you can also get "PH crash"..which means the PH can suddenly drop to very acidic levels, because there are no minerals in the water to "buffer" the PH and keep it stable..
distilled is very very bad for aquarium use...tap water is much better..
plus, you need to do water changes too..at least 10% a week (25% a week is better) so thats about $100 a month for water! very bad idea IMO...
almost all fish can take tap water, they get acclimated to it..
are Pacus south american??
I have 4 discus, which are from the amazon..Discus supposidely "require" very soft water..people buy RO units and all that for discus, and mix the RO with tap...but here is the thing, discus only need soft water if you are going to try to breed them, the eggs require soft water to get fertilized and hatch...but the fish themselves dont need soft water..
my discus have been "breeding" once a month for years, they lay eggs all the time, however the eggs will never hatch because im using hard Rochester city tap water...my discus have been thriving in tap water for years..not a problem at all.
I also have angelfish and tetras..fish that are also from the "soft water" amazon..tap water is fine for them..I actually have one glo-light tetra going on 4 years old, might be a record for a tetra!
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what are you keeping the pacus in now? have you been using tap water?? if so dumping them into distilled would be a major shock, could kill them..the water would be far too different.


if you are going to MIX the distilled with tap, say 50/50, well thats a totally different matter, and would be perfectly fine..although again totally totally unnecessary IMO..
also, *stability* of the water is just as important as the hardness/softness of the water...which means if you start keeping your fish in a 50/50 mix of distilled and tap, EVERY time you do a water change you have to add back in that 50/50 mix, so the water paramaters stay the same...that means buying and hauling many gallons of distilled every week...and for no real gain..its just a waste of money and effort..much easier to keep your water stable by adding only tap..the fish will appreciate that stability.

of course there ARE fish that really do require water conditions that are far different than tap, like rift lake cichlids, and a discus hatchery...in those cases is IS necessary to alter tap water if your tap is not suitable..
but for most people, tap works...

scot

scot
 
when i first moved here, i used tap water, but for the last couple of months, they've been getting distilled..... explains why the pacus don't eat much after I change the water! Thanks for the advice, but would it put them into shock to move them from distilled to tap?
 
are they in pure distilled?? or a mix?

how often do you water changes? and how much water each time?
the ratio of distilled to tap could be slowly changed over a few weeks time, until they are in all tap..

or, if they are in a mix of tap and distilled, you could just keep doing it that way if you want, there is no reason *not* to do that, other than the expense and getting the distilled..
as long as you keep the ratio constant, they will be fine in a mix..

im not saying you *should* switch to 100% tap!
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it just seems much easier to me than using pure distilled, or a mix.
im just letting you know there is no real reason to *not* use pure tap..unless maybe you have SUPER hard tap water, but most people dont..
as a general rule, for probably 90% of freshwater aquarium fish species, "if you can drink it, its fine for your fish"

scot
 
  • #10
mostly distilled. I now have my 125 gallon tank full of water, and I'm gonna add some of the water from the 30 gallon, maybe one gallon, and i'll add the clear tetra into the 125, it'll think it's in the wild!!!
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I do water changes every 2 weeks in a way, cause every 2 weeks I change the 2 filsters, each one holds 1 gallon of water, and I last did a gravel cleaning in January, I don't do them often, the pacus get very, very stressed every time i do one. I usually take out 20% in the gravel cleanings
 
  • #11
hmmm..ok.
I would just recommend doing water changes more frequently..try for 10% a week (and many would say thats not nearly enough&#33
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but thats realistic..pick a day, I do Sundays, siphon out 15 gallons and add back in 15 new gallons, that alone will keep your tank very stable and be very good for the fish..
as for the fish being stressed when doing watre changes, they will be much *more* stressed if changes arent done enough!
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they just wont wont show it a physical way..
regular water changes will keep them UN stressed and very happy!
and..you dont have to clean the gravel each time you do a water change..I clean gravel once a month, but do water changes once a week..(twice a week for the Discus)
just stick the hose in the top of the tank, the fish will get used to it and soon realise its nothing out of the ordinary...my Discus used to run and hide whenenver I did a water change, now they get in my way! its like "hey! what are you doing? that hose again?? BORING! wheres our food?"
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IMO frequent and regular water changes are the SINGLE most important thing to keep fish happy and healthy...and its the thing most people dont even think about..
but..sounds like you pretty much know what you are doing..so other than saying "more water changes!" I will stop preaching!
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scot
 
  • #12
I moved the pacus in their new tank, they seemed dead for an hour, and found out why... the ph in the old tank: 6.5 the ph in the new tank: 7.5-8.0!  
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I added some ph leveler or somethin like that, it lowers the ph, and one hour after i did that, the big one is now swimming around!!! the little one is hiding in the plants, getting used to her new environment.  
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PS.: thanks so much for all of your help!!!
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