Help!

[slammed500]

I am relatively new to fishkeeping; my brother got a 45gal and decided to do saltwater, so he gave me his entire setup; a 29gal all glass, filter, heaters, decor, substrate, fish, etc. anyways; I got that setup and the Oscar he gave me got big enough that he needed to be in a bigger aquarium, so I was on the hunt. I bought a Tetra 30-60 filter and put it in the 29gal for the time being, eventually found a 55gal. Moved everything over to the 55, and got it going. It has been cloudy most of the time it's been running, and I tested the water; here are my results:

12/17 7:15pm
pH: 6.2
high pH: 7.8
Ammonia: 1.0ppm
Nitrite: .125ppm
Nitrate: 20ppm

What am I doing wrong? I don't think it is cycling again as the 30-60 was up and running just fine in the 29gal for nearly a month.

 

[Masha]

Did you transfer the filter media from the old filter to the new?

 

[slammed500]

Yes I used a seeded bio sponge from the old filter into the new for 3 weeks

 

[Masha]

What fish do you have in there - just out of curiosity?

If there is ammonia, it does seem the tank is cycling again. Did the substrate get stirred up a lot? I think if the substrate was very dirty, that might be enough to start a mini cycle? To be safe, you should probably be treating this as though you have a fish-in cycle going on, and do water changes to keep that ammonia and nitrite down.

 

[slammed500]

I have a moderately sized Tiger Oscar (~7") 2 Demosani Cichlids (~1") a Yellow Lab Cichlid (~3") and a Blue Crayfish.

 

[josh7]

It sounds like a mini cycle to me keep doing 50 percent water changes at least every 3 days.

I know this isn't what your asking about but I highly reccomend moving out all the African Cichlids who will cause problems with your Oscar in the future. Or rehome the Oscar since in a 55 gallon you really can't have anything else besides the Oscar.

 

[flitabout]

By the looks of it you pH is getting really low. I would get that pH up to at least over 6.5. bb starts to slow down at 6.5 and completely stops and starts to die at 6. I think this could be your issue with why you are going through a mini.

 

[slammed500]

I think the Ammo was up because my crayfish killed some plants in the back and I didn't catch on. I read that somewhere. Anyways thanks for the info everyone!