Josh Jennings said:
Weekly 20% water changes using Stress coat to Dechlorinate my tap water & aquarium salt. I start by "stirring" my tank, and then dipping out 12 gallons and replacing it.
Bad advice. A more "proper" way to do maintain your tank would be to get a 5 gallon bucket from home depot or lowes and only use it for your aquarium. Don't put anything in the bucket you wouldn't put in your aquarium. Then get a gravel vacuum siphon. I extended my siphon by removing the clear hard plastic tube and replacing with a long piece of 2"pvc so I can vaccum the substrate without having to get elbow deep. On your 60 gallon tank, you will want something at least 20" long.
Place the pipe end of the siphon in the tank and suck on the hose end until you see water flowing down the tube. Quickly take the end of the hose out of your mouth and put it in the bucket. Let gravity work. You may need to turn off your filters beforehand depending on the amount of water you are removing so that the motors don't run dry. Each bucket-full will be 5 gallons. On a 60 gallon tank you probably have closer to 50 or 55 gallons of water depending on how much substrate or rockwork/decorations you have. You can estimate each bucket to be 5% of the volume of the tank.
When you vacuum the gravel you don't need to remove the gravel or stir the gravel up. Let the substrate stay put. If you stir it up you release mulm, nitrates, and nastyness. Let the gravel be. It is not necessary to stir up or remove. All you need to do is to place the end of the pipe within an inch or half inch of the top of the gravel and any waste will be sucked up.
When you have removed the amount of buckets you desire fill your bucket up with water from your tap with water that is of a similar temperature of your tank. If you are only replacing 5% the temperature of the new water won't make much of a difference. Once the bucket of new water is filled add your salt (API aquarium salt or Morton Ice Cream Salt (what I use in my planted tank) add one tablespoon of salt to each 5 gallon bucket. Only add salt when changing water, not replacing water due to evaporation. Then add 10-20 drops of Seachem Prime
to the bucket.
Side note: It is best not to add chlorinated/untreated water directly to the tank. If you do you need to treat the entire volume of the tank with dechlorinator, not just the water you added. This can get expensive and wasteful, as well as the fact you are exposing your tank and fish to chlorine and chloramines.
Stir with a dowel or long stick you have for aquarium purposes. Pour the bucket full into the tank and repeat to replace the amount of buckets removed. Once you replace all the water you siphoned out and still need to add more water fill another bucket and treat with prime. It is not necessary to add salt (or anything else) to this bucket.
IMO, Seachem Prime is the best and only water conditioner you need. At 2 drops per gallon it lasts forever. It is much cheaper than using stress coat and better. It removes chlorine, chloramine, heavy metals, neutralizes ammonia (which is produced by the removal of chlorine and chloramine) as well as nitrites. It can be used in an emergency to neutralize nitrates. It also has something for the fishs' slime coat, like stress coat claims.
Josh Jennings said:
I then take out the filter sponge, carbon packet, and a packet of what looks like coral balls. I wash all that and replace it. This is what I was told to do by Petsmart.
It sounds like you have an aquaclear filter or something similar with three stages of filtration. The filter sponge is the mechanical stage and filters out large particals. The carbon is the chemical stage and absorbs impurities from the water. The coral balls are most likely the biological stage and harbor the aerobic bacteria that converts the ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. Your filter sponge will harbor the bacteria as well. If your filter doesn't have one, add some fine floss/polishing pad to remove small particals that aren't caught by the coarse sponge.
You don't normally need to do anything to your filter. Especially not with each water change.
When flow through your filter slows, take the sponge and floss out. I would replace the floss and rinse the sponge with old water that is sitting in the 5 gallon bucket before you dump it. Give it a few squeezes underwater and it will be good to go.
The carbon will only work for approximately 2-4 weeks before it maximizes out its absorbtion capabilities and will have to be removed or replaced. If old carbon is left in for a while it will leech phosphates into your tank which contribute to algae problems. Many people do not run carbon. I do in my cichlid tank but I have no chemical filtration at all in my planted tank.
NEVER EVER EVER rinse your ceramic or coral balls. If they absolutely need to be cleaned give them a quick dunk in the bucket of old tank water. Don't ever expose them to chlorinated water. Don't let them dry out. You want the bacteria on these balls to grow and thrive. Cleaning them is the main cause of your problems.
Josh Jennings said:
My Ph is off the chart low, the water is off the chart soft, and the Alkalinity is off the chart low.
Are these the parameters of your tap water? If so, unless you are trying to keep specific plants or fish, such as discuss, you will need to buffer your water. If you have very little alkalinity you have no buffering capacity and your tank will be subject to large pH swings. Simple baking soda can solve this problem.
Experiment by testing your tap water. Increase the kH of your water by adding 1/4-1/2 tsp per 5 gallons of water. 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda will increase your kH by about 2 degrees. Play around until you get the desired results. Then add that amount of baking soda to each 5 gallon bucket of water you replace along with your salt and prime.
Josh Jennings said:
The NO2 has been the problem and I have used Ammo lock to protect my fish. I have never had a NO3 problem.
Your cycle is being interupted and the bacteria needed to convert NO2 to NO3 are being killed before they can become established.
Josh Jennings said:
Currently my fish are ALL at the surface gasping for air. They are all well colored and all eat well.
Sounds like ammonia/nitrite poisoning.
Josh Jennings said:
Again Petsmart told me that when I see this I should make a 6 gallon water change and use stress coat and Ammo lock. Which I do but it only fixes the problem for a while.
Here's what's in my tank...
Lamp Eye Tetra
Red Minor Tetra
Diamond Tetra
Rio Tetra
Blue Rainbows
Neon Tetra
Cory catfish
Buenos Airs
You can change as much or as little water as frequently as you like and is necessary to have a clean tank. 5% a day, a week, or more. I rarely do more than 50% at once, and if you do you need to be careful not to shock your fish with the new water. But a 60 gallon tank, unless you have a dozen of each of the fish you listed, would probably maintain low nitrate levels with weekly 5% or 10% water changes. Once your tank is cycled you won't need the ammo lock, in fact I'm not sure ammo lock protects against nitrite, but only ammonia. It seems like your problem is ammonia, so I don't know that the ammo lock is even doing anything beneficial. It isn't hurting though.
Josh Jennings said:
What am I doing wrong??? What should I do??
Just follow the directions above and you will have a nice, hassel free tank very soon. If you would like to speed up the creation of the biological process buy some Seachem Stability and add it to your tank based on the entire 60 gallons. You can add it directly to the tank. Follow the directions on the bottle, but it only needs to be used until you have Ammonia and Nitrites at 0 and Nitrate production. You won't need it with each water change.
Good luck.
