Fluval Cycle

[brothergc]

well poo , all fish except one otto done for , changed again all the water about 80 % , got rid of some plants that were not doing well . Added carbon to clear up meds , ich has gone but I must have gotten to it too late . Just as a preventive mesure added some aquarium salt , 1 tablespoon per 5 gallon .
i went and got some more rams , 3 GBR , one high fin pleco , 4 cherry barbs , 2 male , 2 female , and one male betta . been 24 hrs and I changed the water again , vaced the gravel .
All seem healthy , the GBR swin with the barbs , . The GBR all seem to get along with each other . The Beta thinks he is king , tryes to chase the others but he is way too slow .
Realy like the pleco , he is constantly busy cleaning up , I had alge growing , but no more . Cool looking fish all black speckled with white spots , ( no not ich spots . everyone eating like little piggies ! 1st time I have seen GBR , a three some act like buddies . I am fully stocked done I hope
Rechecked all water tests , ammonia .25 nitrites zero , nitrates 1ppm
I still have extra meds if needed stowed away watching these guys REAL close .

 

[Ceej]

Haven't checked this in a couple days. How's your tank this weekend? Are the fish lively and doing well?

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[brothergc]

Haven't checked this in a couple days. How's your tank this weekend? Are the fish lively and doing well?

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fish seem frisky , eating real good , one German ran has 3 spots of ICH
all the rest show no sighns so I am retreating the tank again . But before I did I vaccumed the gravel real good and changed 70 % water . I am getting NO nitrites or ammonia so that is a plus .
But like you said before probaly brought home ICH from petsmart but I am not too concerned , have good meds on hand and only one fish is affected , even then just 3 spots , the meds worked before so on with the show !
How is your tank ? did the seachem work for you ?

 

[Ceej]

3 spots isn't too horrible. Did you turn up the heat? It's pretty iffy getting fish from there.

My tank is kinda strange. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates.

My fishless tank is getting rid of ammonia in 24 hours. The nitrites are still super high with no conversion to nitrates.

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[brothergc]

3 spots isn't too horrible. Did you turn up the heat? It's pretty iffy getting fish from there.

My tank is kinda strange. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates.

My fishless tank is getting rid of ammonia in 24 hours. The nitrites are still super high with no conversion to nitrates.

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yes I know getting fish from petsmart is iffy but limited where I can buy , tried " The Reef" on keystone wow their tanks looked badly neglected and dirty . I do have Petco but probaly same boat as petsmart .
As turning up the heat , no , directions on meds says it is not necessary but I will add some salt later . All that should do the trick , going to let the meds stand for a few days
as for your tank yep , I had the same issue stability fixed me right up !

 

[Stacey W.]

Following.
Brothergc you need to keep your temp up for at least 2 weeks before decreasing and sorry to say. You need to wait at least a week after the last spots of ich are gone before introducing anymore fish to the tank. Also having a quarantine tank is the safest measures against introducing any parasites to your main tank.

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[Ceej]

Haven't been to The Reef since I lived in Indy. Back then (2011-2012) they looked decent. The surrounding neighborhood is a different story lol.

Like I asked and like Stacey mentioned, turn up the heat. I know you don't have a QT tank, neither do I, but they are important.

Kosher Salt works and its cheaper than aquarium salt. If it has the Jewish Star on it, you know you have the right stuff.

I think I'm going to my LFS today and I'll look for Stability.

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[brothergc]

I apreciate all the help , I did raise the temp , changed 50% water and vacumed again , added another treatment per instructions on the package ( they said do 25% water change , but seeing my nitrates were high, I upped it ) Added fresh salt .
I am seeing a reduction in the GBR spots , down to 1 spot on the tail .
Do you guys think I should repete the above process in 24 hrs ?
Myself I am thinking yes , could not hurt .
All fish eating well and very active so that is a plus

 

[Ceej]

I can't say for sure what you should do since I've never really gone through this situation. If it was me, I think I would repeat the process in 24 hours.

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[Stacey W.]

3 years ago I had an ich outbreak. It took longer to treat but I used 1/2 the dose for approximately 1 week (when all the spots were gone) and performed a wc after every treatment. I also kept the temp at 85 degrees fahrenheit during the treatment and for a week after the treatment and turned my lights on only long enough to feed(only with treatments with malachite green). Then SLOWLY decreased the temp after 1 week.

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[brothergc]

I can't say for sure what you should do since I've never really gone through this situation. If it was me, I think I would repeat the process in 24 hours.

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3 years ago I had an ich outbreak. It took longer to treat but I used 1/2 the dose for approximately 1 week (when all the spots were gone) and performed a wc after every treatment. I also kept the temp at 85 degrees fahrenheit during the treatment and for a week after the treatment and turned my lights on only long enough to feed(only with treatments with malachite green). Then SLOWLY decreased the temp after 1 week.

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thanks , I have repeated the procedure in my previous post , retreated , changed water , added meds . All fish are in good health , no losses !
hanging in their rough because work called overtime I am tired
Ceej, yes the reef used to be My favorite place to go , they realy changed the layout , you would not know it these days .
I also use to go to Uncle bills on west 38th street , they used to have all kinds of fish , now it is just a shadow of its former self hardly any fresh water fish probaly only a dozen tanks

 

[Ceej]

Glad things are looking up for you! I went to the Uncle Bill's in Greenwood. That was a nice place, but I think they make more money off of their dogs and cats, so I'm sure their fish room has diminished.

I picked up a 40g breeder and a 20g long at Petsmart for $40 and $20. I've never caught their $1 per gallon sale before, but finally caught it today! I need a QT tank and may use the 20 or go back and get a 10g. Your Petsmart may have the same deal.

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[brothergc]

been a few days since my last post so I thought I would catch up.
I been having a mystery , my ammonia and nitrites always stay low but my nitrates always seem high . I would just normaly just do a water change and that would correct it but on this tank in 12 hours , it is as if I did nothing because the level of nitrites will return where they were before . I am scratching my head here as to why . I have , just today , bought a air pump and one good size air stone to increase O2 , I have started using more lighting to get my plants and grow more alge to eat up the nitrates ( I am thinking correctly ? ) I added some narrow leaf java fern ( no not from a tank but the kind you buy prepackaged at petsmart no critters that way )
On a guess I got rid of some anubis growing on lava rock that was not doing well , had holes in the leaves .
I always vac the bottom and feed fish sparingly
The lighting , as I said I have increased now using my coralife 30" HO with 2 new 6700K bulbs AND my finnex 24/7 at max bright ( fish wearing sunglasses LOL )
any thoughts ? suggestions ? comments ?

 

[Ceej]

I'm not sure how much growing algae will help clear up nitrates, but you can try. It may just give you a huge algae bloom that won't be fun getting rid of. Plants don't do too well without Co2, so even though its definitely possible to have healthy plants, I'm not surprised the plants had holes in them. Too much light and not enough Co2 isn't good.

If nitrites keep showing up, it sounds like you don't have a good bacteria colony.

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[brothergc]

I'm not sure how much growing algae will help clear up nitrates, but you can try. It may just give you a huge algae bloom that won't be fun getting rid of. Plants don't do too well without Co2, so even though its definitely possible to have healthy plants, I'm not surprised the plants had holes in them. Too much light and not enough Co2 isn't good.

If nitrites keep showing up, it sounds like you don't have a good bacteria colony.

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my bio filter is good no ammonia , no nitrite is zero , it is my nitrate that keeps popping back up
The way I understand it is ( correct me if I am wrong ) ammonia converts to Nitrite, then Nitrite converts to Nitrate . Plants and alge can consume Nitrate
her is my info source
Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle
it is nitrate that is got me scratching my head how in 12 hrs can it go up so quickly ? something is amiss
edit: starting to wonder if my substraight is leaching NO3

 

[Ceej]

Ammonia to nitrites to nitrates. The way to lower nitrates is through water changes. What is your nitrate at in ppm?

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[Ceej]

In my other post I said if nitrites keep showing up then you don't have a good bio load. Sorry, I misread that.

Since your nitrates shoot up within 12 hours, I'm wondering if your bio load is too much? There is a such thing has having too big of a bio load. Let me know what your nitrates are at. If they're under 50ppm, you're fine. You want to shoot for 20ppm, but 20-50 is okay. Anything higher than 50ppm will start hurting the internal organs of the fish.

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[brothergc]

In my other post I said if nitrites keep showing up then you don't have a good bio load. Sorry, I misread that.

Since your nitrates shoot up within 12 hours, I'm wondering if your bio load is too much? There is a such thing has having too big of a bio load. Let me know what your nitrates are at. If they're under 50ppm, you're fine. You want to shoot for 20ppm, but 20-50 is okay. Anything higher than 50ppm will start hurting the internal organs of the fish.

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I am thinking it must be this substraight , it is crib sea floramax is what I have in it now . suspect it is leaching into the water ( real tired of changing water everyday), seeing that I have low tech plants like java fern and anubias which realy need no special substraight ,( they will grow on logs , rocks ect) I am just going to tear down the tank and use standard pea gravel . Not real fond of the floramax anyway . Stuff is dirty when vacuming the tank , I consistanty get fine black silt . Added benifit would be zero chance of any Ich in the substraight . only drawback is reduction in my biofilter , BUT my wet dry part in my HOB filters should carry me thru . I also as a preventive mesure plan on diping all the fish in seachems para gaurd while proforming this oeration . ( take that ich ! lol ) along with the plants and decorations . How is that for a complete fix ?

 

[Ceej]

That's pretty extreme and not what I would do, but if you want to go through all that trouble then that's your call. You could cap your substrate with sand. Lots of people do that. Again, what is your nitrate reading?

When using oea gravel or any gravel, you have to vacuum even more. Food particles will wiggle their way down and start decaying and that in turn will give you more headaches. You literally have to suck up every square inch of gravel (not on the same day) to get all the poop and food up. Vacuum one side one week and the other side the next week, or every 3-5 days. Capping off your substrate with sand is what I would do. That makes vacuuming a lot easier. Pool filter sand is awesome. That's what I use.

Keep everything in your filter wet or else all your BB will die and then you are back to square one. Also, check at Pet smart for a little bigger tank. 10-40g tanks are $1 per gallon right now (at least in my area.) I would get a little bigger tank and use that one as a QT tank in case your tank is having issues like this again or in case your fish get sick.

Patience is key to this hobby. Do not rush ANYTHING!

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[brothergc]

That's pretty extreme and not what I would do, but if you want to go through all that trouble then that's your call. You could cap your substrate with sand. Lots of people do that. Again, what is your nitrate reading?

When using oea gravel or any gravel, you have to vacuum even more. Food particles will wiggle their way down and start decaying and that in turn will give you more headaches. You literally have to suck up every square inch of gravel (not on the same day) to get all the poop and food up. Vacuum one side one week and the other side the next week, or every 3-5 days. Capping off your substrate with sand is what I would do. That makes vacuuming a lot easier. Pool filter sand is awesome. That's what I use.

Keep everything in your filter wet or else all your BB will die and then you are back to square one. Also, check at Pet smart for a little bigger tank. 10-40g tanks are $1 per gallon right now (at least in my area.) I would get a little bigger tank and use that one as a QT tank in case your tank is having issues like this again or in case your fish get sick.

Patience is key to this hobby. Do not rush ANYTHING!

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sand ? no thanks read too many posts about burned out pump motors
nitrates were 40ppm
sorry but patience I have had , tired of being a slave to water changes that do no good , their has to be a reason and to just hold on doing the same old same old and expecting different results is insane ( the defination of insanity lol ) I mean no disrespect and I apreciate the thoughts
In any case I just completed the task and I am glad I did . The old gravel was a mess , the water at the end of the water change was black as coal . I went with a lighter color pea sized gravel at petsmart
Top Fin® Polished Premium Aquarium Gravel | Gravel & Sand | PetSmart
nice ! I got 20lb . I like it easy to see the dirt
Fish survived the seachen para dip just fine
And please remember I also wanted to do this because of the ich outbreak IMO kinda killing 2 birds with one stone
Anywho , so how is your tank going would like to here it