Qucik question

[zao]

Hey people! I have another quick question. Ok here goes, I did a PWC on Wed and after the water change, the water came a little cloudly, which that sometime is normal, but it usually goes away after a day.

When I did my water change I cleaned out my filter box, put a new filter in it and kind of washed off my bio-wheel with cool water cause I had kind of high nitrate. The LFS told me to told that once in a blue moon if I had high nitrate. He told me it helps to cut down on some of the nitrate level. Well it is now Saturday and the water is still a cloudly. Just a few mins ago I tested my water and it came out to be

Ammonia - 0.25ppm
pH - in between 7.0 and 6.8
Nitrite - 0.25ppm
Nitrate - 20ppm

What do you guys think I should do to try and get ride of the cloudly water. Show I try another water change or should I just waint a few more days and see if it clears up any. Cause I didn't know if my 37Gal was in a mini cycle or not.

 

[Guest]

Do you, perhaps, have a lot of algae? My first hunch is the cloudy water represents an algae bloom stimulated by something in the water you add, like phosphates.

Never wash your bio-wheel. Ever.

 

[Wooster]

-well, with any solid reading of ammonia and/or nitrite i would bet it colud be a mini-cycle. i have never really been given advice to rinse my bio wheel, but i think that it was the water rinse pulling out the nitrate and thus possibly taking some bacteria with it.
-as for the cloudy water i would just wait another few days or so. how old is the system? and are there any fish or other life in it?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Never wash your bio-wheel. Ever.

Not so. Wash off your bio-wheel if it stops moving. That should be the only time that it is ever cleaned. Gunk can build up and prevent it from turning properly.

 

[Psyhampster]

did you wash the bio-wheel in old tank water? or tap water? If it was tap water, chances are you killed all the bacteria on it, and that is the cause of the ammonia spike.

 

[zao]

Well a while back, I checked my nitrates and they where pretty high, so I went into my lfs and he told me to do a pwc and wash off the bio-wheel with cool water to cut down on the bio filteration for a while and I did what he said and it worked and I really didn't have any problems. But this time I did it again and it has been cloudly ever since. Which I don't think I will be doing that again. But my tank has been runing for almost a hole year, this april is when everything was cycled and ready to go.

Yes I did wash the bio-wheel off with tap water. Like I did the first time. Nothing happoned the first time. But I am probably going to watch the water prams and if it gets lose to the harmfull level for the fish I am going to do a pwc. I have a fire eel that is my pride and joy and I really don't want to lose him over me being stupid.

 

[Guest]

i dont think your tank is done cycling yet

i mean if you still have Ammonia and NitrItes then its not cycled fully

unless i missed something

im too lazy to read all of the forum

 

[severum mama]

Yes, your tank has been cycled if it has been set up for a year. However, your tank is going through a mini cycle because rinsing the Biowheel in tap water has killed a lot of the bacteria on it. Also, by cleaning the filter box and replacing the media at the same time you rinsed the Biowheel you lost a lot of bacteria. I would say your LFS unfortunately gave you some pretty bad advice about cleaning the Biowheel. Like FF said, the only time you should clean it is if it stops turning, and then you should ONLY clean it in old tankwater, and only enough to get it turning again- don't completely clean it off. I've had Biowheels for over a year and a half that have never been cleaned at all. The way to lower your nitrates is to step up your water changes. That's all you have to do.

If I were you I would do small water changes every couple of days to keep ammonia and nitrates under control, but skip the gravel vacs for a little while. You've lost part of your biological filter but as long as you keep ammonia and nitrites in check it will probably be ok. HTH

 

[zao]

Well thank you all for the posting it really helped. But I really didn't clean the bio-wheel off, I just kind of spinded it under cool water. But like I said before I am never doing that again. I am sure I did kill off alot of bacteria than what I should have. It does make since now.

Tonight when I get home, I am going to check the water again and most likely do a pwc without vac the gravel like what severum mama said. Once again I thank you all for posting, and I will keep you guys update on what is going on!

 

[zao]

Hey I was just thinking of something. Does anyone think I could get some biostart or whatever it is called and add it to the water to try and jump start my bio-wheel again. Cause I can't really do a full water change. My angelfish paired up and layed eggs tonight. I can maybe to a 10% water change. I know perfect timing to spawn. But I am pretty excited!!

 

[Guest]

next time clean it only so much

and i want to get a tank for my sis, can i have 2 filters running at one?(my filter and the Whisper 10?)

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Rudy- You can have as many filters as you want running at the same time. Depending on your fish, it may actually be better to have more than one.

 

[severum mama]

Hey zao, congrats on the angels spawning! Yes, I think BioSpira could help you if you are worried about a cycle again (and if you are showing ammonia and nitrite, then I would probably worry). It's a little on the expensive side, but may be worth it for you. You don't need to do a 100% water change. You can do a 10% change every day or every couple of days to keep your ammonia and nitrites down, and to lower your nitrates to where you want them also. Do not clean your filter or replace any cartridges during this time. I wouldn't gravel vac for a couple weeks either. I hope everything works out in your tank! I guess everyone gets some LFS bad advice every once in a while.

What are your water perameters today? Just curious.

 

[Hooie]

Just for clarification, don't wash your biowheel in tap water. You can wash it in water from a pwc though.

 

[Mazdaman]

Well it seems you've heard what i was going to say but i'll say it again just to make sure.....

Don't use tap water to wash anything in the tank off, ALWAYS use tank. The chemicals in your tap water will kill almost all if not all the bacteria on whatever it is your cleaning. Bio-wheels are called that because the cokkect the bacteria and become your biological filtration. Once you rinsed/cleaned it off you no longer had the biolical filtration you had before which is why your seeing a "mini-cycle"

Keep an eye on the params and do pwc if needed. Good luck

Also I find it better to ask your questions here rather than at the stores. More opinions and experience combined here than any lfs anywhere in the world.

Plus we are #1

 

[zao]

Well I got bad news. This morning when I came downstiars all of the eggs where goin. But I really don't think it was a successful spawing anyway, casue when I went to bed at 2am they looked milkly white and I found the eggs at 10pm. People where saying that in a couple of hours the eggs will look gold. It also probably didn't help that my water is out of wack too. But maybe next time.

Well anyway lastnight when I checked my water the results came the same as before and then I did a small water change. Tonight when I get home from I am gong to check the water again and see if anything really changed and probably do another small water change. I am probably also try and to find BioSpira. But my problem is that I live in a midum sided town and we only have two lfs in town and it can be a little hard to come by that type of stuff. So I most likly be ordering it online.

 

[zao]

Well I checked my water again and as of tonight.

Ammonia -between 0 - 0.25ppm
pH - in between 7.0 and 6.8
Nitrite - between 0 - 0.25ppm


I did another water change tonight and then tomarrow I am going to test the water again and see what it is at. If it is ok, then wait until probably on Wed to do another water chage. How long do you guys think it will take to get everything back to normal and crystal clear again.

 

[zao]

Well I think I am going to order the bio-spira and have a next day ship it, cause it is like what severum mama, I am showing a constent nitrite and ammonia level and I am starting to get scared that it is going to cycle again. Is it safe to add the bio-spira with fish all ready in the water?

 

[severum mama]

Yeah, I think that would be ok. I've never used it myself, but it wouldn't hurt fish I'm sure. I don't think this is something you have to do to keep your fish alive, but I can see why you might want to. If you just do water changes every couple of days until perameters stabilize I bet your fish would make it, but the Biospira should be faster.

 

[dr_girlfriend]

Adding biospira to the water with fish already in it won't hurt them at all. I've use it before. I think you'll like using it in comparison of doing the bucket brigade.