Did my tank crash?

[michaelg210]

A while back, my Penguin Bio filter died, i replaced it with another brand, an Aqueon Quiet Flow. I had a polyfill stuffed stocking ball inside the penquin, so i left it free floating in the tank for a biological filter for several weeks.

Long story short, my betta died several days ago. He had been dead for an obvious several hours, so i did an 30 % water change. Two days later, water perameters showed ammonia .25 / 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates.

I added ammo lock and two days later, did another 30% water change. Checked the ammonia level after the water change and it was between .25 ppm and .50 ppm. I added ammo lock again, and also added nutrifin cycle.

Any ideas as to why my bio-filter disappeared? Did my tank crash? What could have caused this?

Thanks

mjg

 

[jlk]

Did you move all of the media from the old filter to the new filter? If you didnt, you lost most of your good bacteria that was keeping your tank cycled. Floating the polyfill sock would not have been sufficient- it would need to be placed in the filter to keep the bacteria well oxygenated. Until your tank re-establishes itself, you will need to test the tank daily & do water changes anytime your ammonia and/or nitrite hit .25ppm or higher. Basically, you are now in a fish-in cycle so stay on top of your testing & water changes to keep your fish healthy. Heres a link with more info:

I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?!

 

[michaelg210]

RE: did my tank crash

Did you move all of the media from the old filter to the new filter? If you didnt, you lost most of your good bacteria that was keeping your tank cycled. Floating the polyfill sock would not have been sufficient- it would need to be placed in the filter to keep the bacteria well oxygenated. Until your tank re-establishes itself, you will need to test the tank daily & do water changes anytime your ammonia and/or nitrite hit .25ppm or higher. Basically, you are now in a fish-in cycle so stay on top of your testing & water changes to keep your fish healthy. Heres a link with more info:

I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?!

Well, that explains it, I never knew about the oxygenation part, was always told bio-bac live all over tank, substrate, deco's walls, etc. That would make sense then.

Yeah, I should have gotten the same dang filter, just didn't like the marineland only lasted about 1 year. If i had I would have swapped the bio wheel and filters.

I was afraid I am cycling again. First time I cycled tank i was at 40 - 50 % water changes twice daily to keep ammonia down. hate to go thru that again.

How effective is API Ammo Lock. Been using it, ammonia is way up, did a 30 percent water change and still it is at around 3 ppm. Mfg specs say good to up to 3 PPM fish cell protection.

Wondering if I should put the dwarf pleco in a bowl and cycle without fish. I could keep the bowl at small daily water changes. Also another question, not that i have a lot of faith in liquid bio bac, i.e. nutrifin cycle, or stress zyme, but is it worth using?

 

[jetajockey]

I would not depend on nutrafin cycle to do anything at all. You need to do much bigger water changes to get the toxin levels down. Ammo lock and other ammonia neutralizing products do work, but their use is limited and only temporary, so as soon as its wears off your fish are being exposed to toxic levels. The best course of action is to do as many water changes as needed to get the levels down to nil, and then stay on top of them as needed.

 

[michaelg210]

puzzling water perameters

i have been doing very large water changes, about 70 - 80 percent 2x daily to keep amonia down.

only the dwarf pleco in there and some plants.

have been keeping the ammonia between less than .25 ppm and .50 ppm, and using API ammo lock.

it has been a good four to five weeks and still not cycled.

today i tested all 3 bio bac water peramaters with results as follows:

ammonia: between .25 and .50
nitrite: 0
nitrate ~10 ppm

do i leave it alone for a few days or keep doing water changes? is it perhaps finally begining to cycle?

any help appreciated

 

[jlk]

Have you tested your tap water for ammonia, nitrite & nitrate? With this many big wcs, I would expect to see your numbers lower unless this is a very small tank or you have amm present in your tap source.

Do you know anyone with healthy cycled tank? Getting some cycled media will be the fastest to speed up your cycle. Another option would be to consider purchasing an 'active' filter from Angelsplus- they sell cycled ('active') filters that have helped quite a few members cycle their tanks. If this link doesn't work, just do search on here for Angelsplus.

http://www.angelsplus.com/FiltersSponge.htm

 

[Andy Sager]

i have been doing very large water changes, about 70 - 80 percent 2x daily to keep amonia down.

only the dwarf pleco in there and some plants.

have been keeping the ammonia between less than .25 ppm and .50 ppm, and using API ammo lock.

it has been a good four to five weeks and still not cycled.

today i tested all 3 bio bac water peramaters with results as follows:

ammonia: between .25 and .50
nitrite: 0
nitrate ~10 ppm

do i leave it alone for a few days or keep doing water changes? is it perhaps finally begining to cycle?

any help appreciated

Sounds like there is something else going on. Maybe your testing reagents have gone bad? If you only have 1 fish in a tank (assuming that the tank is 5 gals or larger) there should not be an ammonia producing source (of any quantity) unless you have decaying material in your gravel bed. You might be over feeding or need to do some serious gravel cleaning (Carefully tho as you don't want to disturb a large portion of whatever filter bed you do have in the tank.) My bet is on bad reagents.
In a new tank, with fish and feeding them, you usually don't see ammonia levels for about 5-7 days. If you are having any ammonia readings after 2-80% water changes daily, something doesn't sound right. I'd take a sample of your water to a LFS and ask them to test it to confirm your reading. Bring your test kit to do a side by side comparison.
I think that will change this to this

Hope this helps...

 

[jetajockey]

I agree to check the test kit, sometimes the API ammonia kit can be off, try testing some bottled water or something.

 

[Shanny]

i have been doing very large water changes, about 70 - 80 percent 2x daily to keep amonia down.

only the dwarf pleco in there and some plants.

have been keeping the ammonia between less than .25 ppm and .50 ppm, and using API ammo lock.

it has been a good four to five weeks and still not cycled.

today i tested all 3 bio bac water peramaters with results as follows:

ammonia: between .25 and .50
nitrite: 0
nitrate ~10 ppm

do i leave it alone for a few days or keep doing water changes? is it perhaps finally begining to cycle?

any help appreciated

I've been working on a fish in cycle for 9 weeks now and it has just started to cycle. I noticed my ammonia kept getting harder to control right before it finally started to show nitrites. Maybe this is what's happening to you?

I also switched to prime right before it started cycling and I think I read another post saying that switching to prime is what got theirs to cycle.

Good luck!

 

[michaelg210]

Thank you all, it is a 10 gallon tank. Only one dwarf pleco. I do have plants but they appear not to be doing so well right now.

Yes, was wondering about the test kit possibility. Will check that out... was also thinking about getting some gravel from lfs, but any time in the past i put something in the tank from another tank (i.e. plants, another fish, etc), it always seemed i got an outbreak of ick, cloudy eye or something.

Will also check into active filter, had never heard of that.

Will report back asap.

thanks again

 

[michaelg210]

thanks for all the advice, update, and what kind of fish is this?

OK, JLK, Andy, Jetajockey, and shanny, thanks for all the advice.

bottom line report, test kit is fine, got some gravel from a seeded tank, added an airstone and lowered the temp and my tank cycled then in 4 days.

I added 3 fish, 2 are some type of barb, male is kinda red, named him dynamite.

and the other i don't recall, LFS said it is a "type" of cichlid, whatever that means. i have a pic of him but not sure how to post it.

anyway, it is kind of a bottom dweller. i fed some granule flakes to the newbies and the two barbs scarfed it right up. My unknown fish, remained at the bottom and would not even go top side for the food. Then he grabbed a morsel that fell by and spit it out, so i do not know what to feed this thing, (or how for that matter).

Other than that tank is fine, feeding minimal and watching the ammonia and nitrates closely, but so far so good. Was worried about the bio load due to added fish, so i didn't feed them the first day and a half.

i can post a pic if someone can tell me how

 

[michaelg210]

I added an album to user cp and uploaded two photos

you may have to turn them sideways, i used an i phone and windows turned the pics 90 degrees, i can turn them to view but can't save that way.

anyway, if anyone can advise it would be great....

 

[jlk]

If your posting a pic on a thread from your computer, hit the 'go advanced reply' button below and a new page will pop up. At the top of the pg, theres some symbols- one is a 'paperclip'. If you click the paperclip, you can browse your computer for pics to upload. Not positive on an iphone but I believe theres a thread in the tech section on how to post pics from iphone.

Hopefully, someone else will chime in on your fish id's and how/what to feed because Im afraid my experience is limited to coldwater fish.

 

[Andy Sager]

OK, JLK, Andy, Jetajockey, and shanny, thanks for all the advice.


and the other i don't recall, LFS said it is a "type" of cichlid, whatever that means. i have a pic of him but not sure how to post it.

anyway, it is kind of a bottom dweller. i fed some granule flakes to the newbies and the two barbs scarfed it right up. My unknown fish, remained at the bottom and would not even go top side for the food. Then he grabbed a morsel that fell by and spit it out, so i do not know what to feed this thing, (or how for that matter).

Don't hold me to it but the head and tail suggest a type of Geophagus however the lack of color probably means a juvenile so I can't tell for sure which one. (It looks like 2 possible fish from my atlas.) The fact that he stays close to the bottom also leans towards Geophagus. If it is fact one, you are going to need to feed him worms, shrimps and food that will sink (possibly sinking pellets) to the bottom. They are bottom feeders.
Maybe someone with more experience with Geos can help identify?

Hope this helps

 

[michaelg210]

Don't hold me to it but the head and tail suggest a type of Geophagus however the lack of color probably means a juvenile so I can't tell for sure which one. (It looks like 2 possible fish from my atlas.) The fact that he stays close to the bottom also leans towards Geophagus. If it is fact one, you are going to need to feed him worms, shrimps and food that will sink (possibly sinking pellets) to the bottom. They are bottom feeders.
Maybe someone with more experience with Geos can help identify?

Hope this helps

yes on the money... so i need to find out what to feed him then. I will have to look for sinking pellets.... otherwise something that sinks, prefer something dry i can keep here at home... wife would not like anything in the freezer with the food, the thought would gross her out....

appreciate your advice.

thanks
mjg

 

[Andy Sager]

yes on the money... so i need to find out what to feed him then. I will have to look for sinking pellets.... otherwise something that sinks, prefer something dry i can keep here at home... wife would not like anything in the freezer with the food, the thought would gross her out....

appreciate your advice.

thanks
mjg

Hey, not bad coming from a book that's over 25 years old In fact, the only "microgeophagus" in the book is the common ram or what everybody now is calling the German Blue Ram. Not many fish were coming from Bolivia back then.
As I explained in my post, you'll need to get foods that will sink to the bottom. If it has to be pellets or sticks then so be it as long as the fish eats them. Since it is a small fish (I am assuming) brine shrimp should work as well. You would have to either raise them yourself (in a separate container from the tank) or buy them from your LFS. If they don't carry them, you'd need to go the frozen route.
Now, I understand your wife's position on the food in the freezer and I went through it myself. The Mrs. was not happy I had so much fish food in the freezer (but she liked my fish so she had to grin and bear it )The way I got a compromise was to get a tupperware type sealed container with a lid that I kept the frozen food in. There was no smell in the freezer this way and the fishfood was out of site. You might want to try that route
Good luck with the fish and I was glad I could help