Hey guys. The usual problem is still going on with my tank. Im still having ammonia issues. I recently upgraded to a 75 gallon tank from my 55 gal. I have a large oscar, a small flowerhorn cichlid, jewel cichlid and a silver dollar. I do a 50% water change every day. Recently i noticed that my gravel vac isnt doing a great job so i decided to gravel vac the entire floor then stir up as much junk as i possibly can then dip the entire bucket in the water to take the junk out. I also have been taking half of the rock substrate out each water change and putting it into a bucket full of old tank water to ensure im not losing or killing the good bacteria in there. I started doing all of this once i noticed i had what appeared to be nematodes floating in the water after stirring the gravel.
My main concern is of course my nitrogen cycle. I have not been able to get the cycle going. I had great progress in my 55 gal where I finally started to see nitrites and nitrates but since ive upgraded to my 75 gal i only get a high ph and a high ammonia level around 1.0ppm. I believe somewhere in the transfer i screwed up the bacteria.
I currently have 140 gallons of filtration with a 70 gallon canister filter which is somewhat new (39 days old in water) and a 70 gallon top filter which ive had since ive had the fish. No pads have been changed in a very long time and theyre still in tact not falling apart.
Ive been adding prime and dechlorinator during my water changes and nothing else. Normally when i added prime in my old tank the ph would drop very low to about 6.0 but now since ive been doing it in the new tank it stays around 8.0. Why is that? I know im adding enough prime per the instructions on the bottle (1 cap full). A little bit ago i tried using ammonia removing cubes by pennplax
Can anyone see something im doing wrong in my water changes? This is so difficult to do with fish in the tank but i dont have much choice. I cant move my fish anywhere for over a month or even a week. I understand my tank is overstocked but i upgraded a bit to maybe help and its only gotten worse. The water changes im doing should offset the waste.
Thank you all in advance!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Aquarium Advice mobile app
My main concern is of course my nitrogen cycle. I have not been able to get the cycle going. I had great progress in my 55 gal where I finally started to see nitrites and nitrates but since ive upgraded to my 75 gal i only get a high ph and a high ammonia level around 1.0ppm. I believe somewhere in the transfer i screwed up the bacteria.
I currently have 140 gallons of filtration with a 70 gallon canister filter which is somewhat new (39 days old in water) and a 70 gallon top filter which ive had since ive had the fish. No pads have been changed in a very long time and theyre still in tact not falling apart.
Ive been adding prime and dechlorinator during my water changes and nothing else. Normally when i added prime in my old tank the ph would drop very low to about 6.0 but now since ive been doing it in the new tank it stays around 8.0. Why is that? I know im adding enough prime per the instructions on the bottle (1 cap full). A little bit ago i tried using ammonia removing cubes by pennplax
Can anyone see something im doing wrong in my water changes? This is so difficult to do with fish in the tank but i dont have much choice. I cant move my fish anywhere for over a month or even a week. I understand my tank is overstocked but i upgraded a bit to maybe help and its only gotten worse. The water changes im doing should offset the waste.
Thank you all in advance!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Aquarium Advice mobile app
