Posted by kelly on March 10, 2003 at 13:00:24:
In Reply to: kelly or othe rpeople!!! posted by groovygangsta on March 08, 2003 at 01:11:13:
re: cycling- whether you change the water more than once a day is dictated by how high the ammonia levels are getting. So use your test kits :)
re: the platy- it may have died from stress of cycling- it also may have come in with a problem. In any case this is why most people cycle tanks with cheap fish like feeder goldies or minnows. If your betta is the most important to you, you can always take him out until the ammonia and nitrite levels stabilize (read zero for each).
Also, when you added the new fish (or at any time) you didn't change the filter media did you? Just a question... I used to change the media with each water change, which would inadvertently cause my tank to "crash" again. Now I know that the beneficial bacteria live in the filter media (among other places, but that's the most important one), and changing it removes so much that the cycle practically starts over again.
