Close to Las Vegas? I know nothing about nevada, but I do know there's at least one member in Las vegas who I'm sure would be glad to come over and try and help out
nice retro bucs avatar! Go Bucs!
Yeah, leave the carbon in the pouch.
Personally, I wouldn't do the rinsing in tap water and prime dip. That might save some bacteria but I am not positive it would save most of it. My philosophy: why risk it? However, since you are running two filters on that tank, even if you killed off some of your bacteria you might not see any ammonia/nitrite spikes (this is just speculation on my part, I haven't tried this and wouldn't recommend it)..... but again why risk it?
I hope all that you've been though doesn't put u off this hobby .
Osage, I just wanted to say one thing. The phrase you used earlier on (like page two or three, I believe) "Burns my behind like electric feather being brushed across it" is the cutest thing I have ever heard. I think I might start using it.
I understand what you're saying, wholeheartedly, regarding the natural substrate in a biosystem, but as far as people's home tanks are concerned...is it normal to see uneven layers and levels of substrate?
With respect too, you have blue gravel, right? That's not very natural in the first place.I disagree a bit, respectfully, with messed up aquascaping looking more natural; I am just a perfectionist with that kind of stuff!
Oh of course! I go out of my way to make sure that's the case! I think it would look "boring" if it were uniformly flat, and indeed it's not something that would be easy to achieve. The fish, especially the bottom feeders like having hills and valleys in the gravel.
With respect too, you have blue gravel, right? That's not very natural in the first place.
I did have a problem with water changes moving the gravel and uncovering my bubble wand, so I just removed the bubble wand!
I my old tank I used to go to great care putting the water in carefully, but now it's 4 foot long the fish tend to wait at one end while I'm doing changes, so I just up end the bucket straight into the tank, quicker that way!
Sorry to hear your going trough hard times. My sincere condolences on your lose.
Osage - you're going to hate me for saying this, but when water quality is in question... PWC.
It's not making it any easier on you that you have goldies (if I remember correctly). If it comes to it, you can "maintain" the tank sans fish by dosing pure ammonia (commonly found at ACE hardware - no fragrances, no surfactants) to keep the bacteria fed and then go back to having fish when you're ready.
Less fish, cleaner fish = smaller bioload = less work to maintain the tank. I have a five gal with three tetras and seven shrimp and some live plants - it is very neglected (it was supposed to come to school with me, it didn't, so it gets cleaned and PWC'd when I go home every few weeks) but everyone is thriving... probably has more nitrates than it should, as some of my plants are having trouble and not growing very well, but it's doing fine and should perk up with TLC.
Give it a think. You might be able to trade at your LFS if the goldies are healthy still.