Seachem Matrix biomedia

[Chicklet_lady]

Is this stuff any good? Harmful?

I have a 150 gal African Cichlid tank running for approx 6 weeks. Its cloudy and its not fully cycled yet.

I've been doing 30% water changes routinely every 4 days as by then the nitrate is too high to leave. Yet, I'm being told my water is cloudy as I keep disturbing the bio process. Ugh.. Lost

So, I was encouraged to buy this sachem matrix to avoid as many water changes and this will bring nitrates down. I put it in our wet/dry 200 last night and I've already lost 3 fish!! Before adding it I did a nitrate test and also took to a local aquarium shop to test for me. Nitrate levels were high but not toxic levels so I was told. Then I read today that someone else used this stuff and his fish all died quickly. !!!

Obviously tonight I'll be doing yet another water change but I feel confused. And.. Do I remove this stuff or will it eventually help??

Advice GREATLY appreciated!

[HUKIT]

I've never used it personally but I've read alot of good things about it. Never heard anything about killing fish. Most of what I've read is comparisons to other media like Fluval's Biomax. I highly doubt just adding the media caused any harm to your fish. What were your other water parameters?

[Chicklet_lady]

Yesterday the ammonia and nitrite was 0. I went an extra day without doing a water change and nitrites are creeping up now. I just feel like my tank won't finish it's cycle and these 4 day water changes are getting old. Then ... the tank has been cloudy almost the entire duration (6 wks). I'm trying to be patient but I feel like I'm doing something wrong.

[Chicklet_lady]

Even after water change nitrates are not low. They still hover at 40 and continue to creep up. I was told this stubborn high nitrate is the last stage of the cycle ... But ??

[Chicklet_lady]

Typically by day 4 the levels are: ammonia & nitrite 0 but nitrate is up to 60 or higher.

Tonight the ammonia is 0, nitrate .50 and nitrate is between 40 and 80 (hard for me to read that range) I'm doing 50% WC

[HUKIT]

I think the fish are dying due to them being in the tank during a cycle. How many fish do you have? Besides your sump, what other filtration does the tank have?

[Fishguy2727]

I have never heard of it killing fish at all. I think that is more coincidence.

What test kit were youa dn the LFS using?

I would NOT say that it means less nitrate or that less nitrate=less water changes. It is supposed to allow for denitrification which will lower nitrate but not a lot (lower it by 5 or 10, not 40). This claim is not well supported by hobbyists' experiences and it is hard to say that the people who do believe this has happened in their tank (not most people who use it) are only seeing the normal reduction in nitrate associated with a good filter cleaning. Not to mention that there are many other things that build up andlower water quality that are not tested for. The reason we base water quality on nitrate is because nitrate generally correlates well with these other things.

[Chicklet_lady]

Thank you for the input ! Makes sense, but that is not how the dumb fish store explained it! Grrrr....

I have approx 20-25 fish that are still young (approx 2"). I feel awful cycling with fish now that I read about it. I NEVER realized a tank could b cycled without. I would have preferred to do it that way.

I only have the everclear wet dry 200, a sponge filter in the tank and I added a aquaclear 20/40 power filter in the sump that I had from years ago. I would like to exchange it for a larger penguin biowheel - is that something I can do?? I'm used to the penguins and prefer that but I have a canopy top and no room against wall to use it. We bought the wet dry in mind to hide all the stuff

[cichlidpaul]

A fishless cycle is the way to go if you don't want to loose fish i don't think its anything to do with the media you used it most likely cycling with fish

As you have a large tank what is your LPH turn over i would guess its not 6 to 10 time per hour with the filters you have and thats the recommend amount

I maybe wrong but the cloudy water IMO is a bacteria bloom and as you are doing water changes as often as you are the bloom keeps growing , the faster you change the water the faster the bloom grows basically you have to let it run its course with no water changes but that is going to be hard as you may need too to keep your levels down

Im also on the understanding that high Nitrate will not kill your fish where as Ammonia and Nitrite will hope this has helped in some way good luck its never nice to loose fish