mantis
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I'm at my wits end....... I put up a 39 gal tank with a Penguin 170 biowheel filter. I've had nothing but problems with nitrates spiking everytime I turn around. The so called "experts" here have me so frustrated that I really don't care to have the tank anymore. I just spent $60 on more stuff to "fix" the problem but I think it made it worse. I came home from work last nite to find 2 more fish dead. That was it I went tothe store had them check the water...nitreates through the roof. I bougt a pump and a air bubble strip for more oxygen. I guess he was just as frustrated because he then told me the pump is not big enough and that was my problem. He suggested an underground filter and a Tetra deep pump model dw18. I asked if putting the bubble strip would help and he said yes. I felt I could get better prices at petsmart so I bought the bubble strip, tubing and pump from him. Then I preceded to go "look" at the stuff at petsmart. Well I ended up buying a underground filter and another pump (topfin). This pump was smaller than the other and it was suggested to put the bubbles on this one and use my tetra deep for the undergravel filter.
Well........... after a trip back to get the right size filter... I decided to just put the bubbles in for now until the weekend because thats going to be a major pain. I did a 50% water change and placed the bubble strip in. 8O Afterabout an hour of running the bubbles the house smelt like sewer!!! I smelt the tank and it was coming from it. I didn't know what to do so I did nothing thinking that it would correct itself. WEll...its 3:00 am and I turned my lite on in the tank and the fish were stressed!!! I checked the nitrates ...they weren't bad or the ammonia. So I'm sitting here frustrated and wondering ...Where do I go from here? I'm sure I'll prolly loose the fish unless a miracle happens. HELP! If the fish die so does the tank! Thanks. Mantis
Well........... after a trip back to get the right size filter... I decided to just put the bubbles in for now until the weekend because thats going to be a major pain. I did a 50% water change and placed the bubble strip in. 8O Afterabout an hour of running the bubbles the house smelt like sewer!!! I smelt the tank and it was coming from it. I didn't know what to do so I did nothing thinking that it would correct itself. WEll...its 3:00 am and I turned my lite on in the tank and the fish were stressed!!! I checked the nitrates ...they weren't bad or the ammonia. So I'm sitting here frustrated and wondering ...Where do I go from here? I'm sure I'll prolly loose the fish unless a miracle happens. HELP! If the fish die so does the tank! Thanks. Mantis