rotten fish tank water???
by Aquaboy on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 | 6 Comments
alright well i just set up a 5.5 gallon marine tank yesterday with live sand saltwater and 2 red sea nano filters, well today i decided to trow a dead yellow tail damsel in the tank with a bunch of fish food to start the ammonia cycling, and well now the tank smells rotten, is this normal? if so how long until the tank cycles so i could put a coral banded shrimp in??? yes i know they are sometimes aggressive, and i know tht a 5.5 gallon tank is very small so dont tell me that just answer my question
I would take the dead fish out.
Rotting food is enought to start your cycle.
A dead fish is kinda overkill and looks gross.
First of all, how did you kill a damselfish?
They are practically invinsable! Anyways, do a test. It’s time to remove the dead fish. And maybe change out half a gallon of the water.
Also, a 5.5 gallon tank will be just fine for a shrimp, If I were you, I would put in some hermit crabs, snails and corals. Just don’t put in any fish. Live or dead.
The best way to determine when it’s okay to add live animals is by testing your water’s parameters. When they all read zero the tank has cycled. The NitrAtes can be elevated a little, but the ammonia needs to read zero.
The best way to test is with the liquid test kit that checks PH, NitrItes, NitrAtes, and Ammonia. The test strips are actually more expensive and less effecient.
I agree with the other person, remove the dead fish. If you want to speed up the cycling, feeding the tank, using already cycled water from a friends tank helps and purchasing a small bottle of “Good Bacteria” from Petco will help too.
Additional reply:
I have maintained two 5 gal fw tanks and one 2 gal fw tank and a one 1 gal fw tank just fine. They are a little more work, more often, but only if you over stock them.
My 5 gallon tanks run just fine, (once they cycled,) and I was doing a weekly 1/3 water change whether it was needed or not. A 5.5 mini or nano reef will be a lot of fun.
This method of cycling a tank is “old school” it does work if you can stand the smell LOL.Take the fish out but don’t do a water change yet you will be defeating the purpose.Just leave it alone.Give it a week then have your water tested.Try to use RO water or bottle water if possible this will keep phosphates down and hinder excessive algae growth.I would hold off on adding inverts. at this time as your tank is still new and will be stress full for inverts.Add some live rock this helps the maturation process too.Check out this site it is awesome “Talking Reef .com”these people are master reefers and can help you with any thing,best of all it’s free.I’ve been a member for about a year.Good Luck and Happy Reefing!
It’s normal that a rotting fish will smell. It isn’t really how you cycle– by using rotting fish. I’d take the live rock out, clean it out and start over so you won’t get stunk out of your house.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5796_set-saltwater-aquarium.html
The time it takes to cycle depends completely on how much ammonia you’re feeding to how many bacteria. You can’t speed it up by adding lots of ammonia. The ammonia-eating bacteria grow faster than the nitrite building bacteria.If you have gravel from an established tank that will help. Or if you can swish your filter media from an established tank in the new tank. I’d plan on it taking several weeks. The problem with it being a small tank (I know you think you know) is that the balance can be thrown off really easily. An extra pinch of fish food left uneaten, a shrimp or snail dying in some hidden place, or you’re late on a water change, and the parameters are all thrown off, and it can happen over and over again.
Your live sand is dieing off. NO you cannot add the shrimp. It smells because of the amount of things dieing. Too much isn’t good either. Either keep the dead fish and clean out the food. or keep the food and toss the fish. Your tank isn’t going to CYCLE any faster. It is going to be a few weeks before the shrimp can go in the tank.