Tank moved, help!

[becca22]

Hi i recently moved my 8 month old 75 gallon african tank, with a fx6 (400)gal canister filter, but my nitrates are 80 or a bit above. How often should I change the water? It has been moved for about 3 weeks. I have 50 cichlids in there, they all were doing fine before we moved, now some have died. How often and how much water should I change? Im worried the nitrites would spike, they did right after we moved in.

Thank you!
Becca

 

[mambee]

How long was your move? Did the beneficial bacteria die during the move?

 

[Hunter73]

Do a couple of back to back 50% water changes and retest your nitrates.


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[becca22]

How long of a wait between 50% changes?

And I had a professional fish friend help me move so very little bacteria died

 

[ktomminello]

How far away did you move? I would suggest testing your tap water parameters to make sure there isn't something else going on that's causing it, other than the stress of just a move

 

[becca22]

Only a 30 minute drive. The tap water tests fine. I am using sponge as a bio media, should I change it to matrix slowly every month when I change the water. For such a big filter I do have a lot of issues with nitrates, but I'm afraid to change the water too often.

 

[ktomminello]

I'm guilty of changing my water too much until everything tests in spec. So long as your biological filtration hasn't been compromised you should be all set, just make sure to condition water during changes.

I use nothing but floss, ceramic rings and sponges in my ph neutral and African rift set ups- I use aragonite sand, crushed coral and holey rock as buffers so I don't know much about chemical filtration- hopefully others do.


Best of luck

 

[becca22]

okay so I don't need to change the sponges? I want to change the water but my other tank is discus and saltwater so I'm used to just once a week. So 50% water change 2x a week until the nitrates are low?

 

[mikem691]

50% will or should drop the trates to 40. Wait a at least an hour or 2 then another 50% which should have you at 20. all good. Then monitor until everything stabilizes. When I'm growing out large central American cichlids I do 70% water changes every other day to maximize growth.

 

[becca22]

wow really 100% water change all in one day?

 

[ktomminello]

My overstocked terror tanks require 50% or more changes a day to stay in spec!! I, honestly, never replace my sponges until they fall apart in my hands- and even then I keep them stored in storage bins with sterile water to seed other tanks with

 

[becca22]

I'm doing 60% tonight and see how that goes tomorrow. I have a lot of cichlid babies (
of course) so I hope they live. I love my babies :3

 

[ktomminello]

Awe!! I love cichlid babies!! I've been breeding nw dwarves and my heart goes pitter pat with nerves with any abnormal readings in my water chemistry so my heart goes out to you!! Hopefully things will be happier in the morning for you!!

 

[mikem691]

wow really 100% water change all in one day?

Technically only a 75%

 

[becca22]

Can I do another 50% today? Nitrates are around 80, I changed 50% last night.

 

[becca22]

Here is said tank :3
http://i64.tinypic.com/zlwy8l.jpg

 

[Hunter73]

Can I do another 50% today? Nitrates are around 80, I changed 50% last night.

Yes.


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[becca22]

My nitrites are .25 and were 0 before the water change. The tap water tests fine

 

[becca22]

After about 3 water changes nitrates are around 60 >.< getting better, no stress on the fish that I can tell. Can I change 50% twice in one day to speed things up?

 

[Hunter73]

After about 3 water changes nitrates are around 60 >.< getting better, no stress on the fish that I can tell. Can I change 50% twice in one day to speed things up?

Yes. Just wait a couple of hours between changes.


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