Waste problem in 29 gallon fish tank

[Pleco1415]

Recently I have been having some issues with fish dying in my 29 gallon tank. The tank has been set up for 5 years but for some reason recently things have not been well. When ever I do a water change I am taking out a lot more waste then I normally do. For filtration I have a Eheim 2213 canister filter and an aquaclear 50 H.O.B. I do regular water changes once every week and I take out 25% of the water. I will list my stock in the comments bellow.

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[Pleco1415]

My fish are 1 vampire pleco, 6 platys, 1 guppy, 1 gold gourami, 2 upside down catfish, and 2 albino bushy nose plecos. Please note all these fish with exception of the vampire pleco and 1 albino BN pleco are all under 2 inches long. I have 3 different tanks so if I have to move some fish around it's not a problem.


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[Pleco1415]

I forgot to mention that my fish started dying after they got ICK last week. After I treated them they were fine but I still had fish dying.


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[Pleco1415]

Bump



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[PNWaquarist]

What type of substrate do you have? How do you clean it? How often do you clean out your filters? What are your current nitrate levels?

 

[Pleco1415]

What type of substrate do you have? How do you clean it? How often do you clean out your filters? What are your current nitrate levels?

I have plain black gravel. I clean with a python gravel vacuum all I do is clean it the normal way you usually would with a gravel vacuum I don't know if that makes any sense. For a more detailed answer I stick the gravel vacuum in the gravel wait a few second and than pull up. I do the same thing over and over again tell I've covered the whole tank. I clean the filters once every month and I always clean them in the fish tank water with the exception of changing the filter floss in the Eheim and the charcoal in the aquaclear. I have not checked my nitrate levels I recently ran out of testers so I will have to go out and get some.


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[dodo]

Try checking your filters to make sure they are not blocked with debris. I know with my Aquaclear, the plastic cage that holds the sponge and charcoal that the bottom will get blocked with green algae like substances, so I rinse that part off.

 

[CoronaBlue]

When you treated for ick did you pull your filters? Ick can be tricky, it might look like it went away only to have moved to gill areas. The charcoal in the filters prevents medicine from flowing through tank.

 

[gilpi]

You could be overfeeding, scoop or vacuum the gravel real well. Change water more offer, check temperature.

 

[n7plus1]

I have the same size tank and same canister filter. Is the additional HOB filter needed with our setup??

 

[Pleco1415]

When you treated for ick did you pull your filters? Ick can be tricky, it might look like it went away only to have moved to gill areas. The charcoal in the filters prevents medicine from flowing through tank.

I only took out the activated charcoal I still had the filter material in the canister and the H.O.B.


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[Pleco1415]

I have the same size tank and same canister filter. Is the additional HOB filter needed with our setup??

It's not needed unless you don't have the spray bar hooked up. My tank has a Marineland LED hood so the spray bar cannot fit. The reason I have the H.O.B. Is because the canister filter without the spray bar does not produce enough surface agitation and does not evenly circulate the tank. I have the canister on 1 side and the Aquaclear on the other.


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[Pleco1415]

You could be overfeeding, scoop or vacuum the gravel real well. Change water more offer, check temperature.

I feed once every other day (1 pinch), the tank temp is 75 F and I know I clean it properly because I've been doing it the same way for years on my other 2 tanks and I only have a problem with the 29G. That was a big sentence sorry.


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[n7plus1]

It's not needed unless you don't have the spray bar hooked up. My tank has a Marineland LED hood so the spray bar cannot fit. The reason I have the H.O.B. Is because the canister filter without the spray bar does not produce enough surface agitation and does not evenly circulate the tank. I have the canister on 1 side and the Aquaclear on the other.

gotcha. I have my spray bar under water but I'm using 2 airstones as well, is that enough surface agitation?

I feed once every other day (1 pinch), the tank temp is 75 F and I know I clean it properly because I've been doing it the same way for years on my other 2 tanks and I only have a problem with the 29G. That was a big sentence sorry.

wow...maybe Im over-doing-it? I feed twice a day, morning and night. a few pinches of sinking .5mm pellets for 8 fish. Even then, they are feeding off of the bottom and decor when the food sinks and rests there throughout the day...

 

[Pleco1415]

gotcha. I have my spray bar under water but I'm using 2 airstones as well, is that enough surface agitation?







wow...maybe Im over-doing-it? I feed twice a day, morning and night. a few pinches of sinking .5mm pellets for 8 fish. Even then, they are feeding off of the bottom and decor when the food sinks and rests there throughout the day...

Oh yah that's enough. I have a question for you since I know we have the same filters. What filter material do you use in yours?


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[Pleco1415]

gotcha. I have my spray bar under water but I'm using 2 airstones as well, is that enough surface agitation?







wow...maybe Im over-doing-it? I feed twice a day, morning and night. a few pinches of sinking .5mm pellets for 8 fish. Even then, they are feeding off of the bottom and decor when the food sinks and rests there throughout the day...

It really depends on how many fish you have and what kind. My fish don't need much as most of them are smaller though let me tell you the catfish just don't stop eating.


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[Pleco1415]

I need someone's opinion. I posted another thread in the hardware and equipment section but none has posted yet so I might as well ask the question here as more people view this section. What do you thing is a better filter Aquaclear 50 or Marineland bio wheel 200. I have the Marineland bio wheel from the kit that came with the tank but I don't know if it's better than what I have on there now.


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[Toad]

If your plecos are still growing then they're going to start producing more waste, my one bn and a clown plec poop quite a bit in my thirty.


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[n7plus1]

Oh yah that's enough. I have a question for you since I know we have the same filters. What filter material do you use in yours?


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I just use what it came with.

 

[CoronaBlue]

Pleco I have both of those filters, just bigger models. I like the aquaclear better. The bio wheels don't work very well after a few months. It's a good concept but fails to follow thru. On my 25 gallon I have a penguin and an aqua clear 70. I know it's over kill for a small tank but I have a larger penguin and a new canister on my 55 gallon so moved the aqua 70 to small tank and reduced the volume.