saabracer23
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2017
- Messages
- 3
Hello all, new to the forum and newish to fish aquariums. This is going to be long, I'm sorry. Growing up my parents always had a tank and in the first year of my marriage my wife and I had a 30 gallon for a year or so.
About 6 months ago I was given a 75 gallon tank, it came with a Penn-Plax Cascade 1500 filter with 5 media trays. I put in white sand, 9 live plants (ferns, lily pads, etc.) and the pet store suggested 12 feeder goldfish to establish the tank. The store only carried media for the Cascade 1000 which left about a 1/2" gap around the perimeter of the tray as they were too small, but the staff said it would be just fine. The bottom three trays had a simple filter floss, 4th one from the bottom had a charcoal infused pad, and the top another simple floss pad (beginner right?)
So, of the 12 goldfish in there 6 of them survived the tank cycle and once it was set the 6 champions were gifted to my father in-law who was going to put them in his gigantic outdoor pond. Instead he put them in a 55 gallon tank and they are all doing great.
After checking all of the levels in the tank (ammonia, pH, nitrates and nitrites) I started adding fish 4-5 at a time, letting them and the tank settle in for a few weeks and then adding more. I have or had 5 glass cats, 5 cherry barbs, 2 angels, 2 silver dollars, 2 three spot gourami, 2 flame dwarf gourami, 2 dwarf gourami, 2 bala sharks, 2 bleeding heart tetras, 2 blood fin tetras, 2 guppies, and 2 African dwarf frogs. The tank has done well and been running for about 6-8 months with only two fish deaths (which were replaced with the same species), though I have been very neglectful on testing the tank water. I somewhat routinely add API stress zyme and occasionally add API leaf zone to feed the plants, though that may be unnecessary.
I feed a small pinch of Tetra Pro flake food in the morning and frozen bloodworm in the evening. I feed the frozen bloodworm every day, I have read posts where people say that is a bad idea as there could be digestive blockages. The two pet stores I have been to say that it is actually okay. One was Petco (I know, but the girl actually seemed quite knowledgeable) and the other was a truly professional aquarium establishment. I started with 2 frozen bloodworm gumdrops, but moved to 3 as the angel fish and the silver dollars have gotten quite large and figured they would need more food. I used to feed the frogs pellets, but haven't in months as they always prefer the bloodworms. All of the blood worms are consumed in 3-4 minutes. Not sure if I am overfeeding or not. I have not had one fish with digestive issues.
For tank cleaning I will use a battery operated vacuum to clean the sand surface, I tried cleaning into the sand, but its too light and ends up getting sucked up itself and I didn't want to harm them bacteria (there is bacterial growth in the sand right?) That is all the cleaning I have done.
Well the other day I put in some stress zyme and leaf zone, cleaned up some surface poo and went on with my day. About 4-5 hours later my wife said that a guppy was dead. I was bummed and went to fish it out and noticed that all of the fish were quite lethargic. I pulled out the test kit and had an ammonia level of 8 ppm, probably more as the test kit only shows the color to 8 ppm and mine seemed like a darker green. My pH was 6.0, nitrates and nitrites were up as well, but don't remember their numbers.
I started freaking out, put in some API ammo lock and called my father in-law for advice. He told me to remove a third of the water, and the new water along with 3 tablespoons of salt, and that should hold me over till morning when a shop would be open. I had many fish just semi floating, sinking to the bottom and laying there and I thought I was going to loose most of them. After removing a third of the water and adding the 3 tablespoons of salt the fish almost immediately pepped up and started swimming again. I lost the one guppy and two glass cats, which is crazy to me as most of them were laying on the bottom on their side looking like they were gasping for oxygen.
The next morning I immediately went to a local shop in Salem called "The Premium Aquarium", very awesome place by the way with extremely knowledgeable staff. I explained everything, they tested a sample of my water that I brought in and they were amazed at the ammonia levels I had. Even after the work I did the night before it was still right around 8 ppm. I was told to go home and remove half of the water and replace it. They set me up with new media for my filter, so now I have regular filter floss in the bottom two (a much better kind than what was at Petco), next up is a mesh bag filled with charcoal, next another filter floss, and lastly a doubled up layer of ammonia pad. I did leave all but one of the original filter floss pads in there and set the new stuff on top of it as I feared that would remove too much of the bacterial growth in the filter. Not sure if I did the right thing or not. When I removed all of the trays from the filter, the canister was left about 3/4s full of water with a lot of gunk in it which I assumed was a mix of feces and bacteria (like the slimy mother you'd find in apple cider vinegar)
so left it all in there as I didn't want my fish to die off.
The aquarium shop also set me up with Seachem Neutral Regulator to help with the pH, but said it was likely due to the ammonia spike. I also picked up a bottle of Seachem Stability as it has bacteria in it to help establish the bio filter and take care of the ammonia problem.
So after replacing have the water, putting in 3 tablespoons of salt, all the new filter stuff including the ammonia pad, the neutral regulator, the stability, and another dose of ammo lock, the next day I am still between 4 and 8 ppm on my ammonia. The fish all seem to be doing fine, peppy and happily swimming.
What am I doing wrong? Should I have taken the crap out of the filter (all the poop and stuff, but left the water? Am I being too cautious about the bacteria in the filter? Am I supposed to routinely remove the media and wash it? Again I am new at this obviously haha. I just really don't want to lose anymore. Should I continue with a daily water change? If so, continue with 50%? Do I add the anymore of the chemicals after since I removed have the water?
My apologies for the long post, I'm just desperate for answers.
Dan
About 6 months ago I was given a 75 gallon tank, it came with a Penn-Plax Cascade 1500 filter with 5 media trays. I put in white sand, 9 live plants (ferns, lily pads, etc.) and the pet store suggested 12 feeder goldfish to establish the tank. The store only carried media for the Cascade 1000 which left about a 1/2" gap around the perimeter of the tray as they were too small, but the staff said it would be just fine. The bottom three trays had a simple filter floss, 4th one from the bottom had a charcoal infused pad, and the top another simple floss pad (beginner right?)
So, of the 12 goldfish in there 6 of them survived the tank cycle and once it was set the 6 champions were gifted to my father in-law who was going to put them in his gigantic outdoor pond. Instead he put them in a 55 gallon tank and they are all doing great.
After checking all of the levels in the tank (ammonia, pH, nitrates and nitrites) I started adding fish 4-5 at a time, letting them and the tank settle in for a few weeks and then adding more. I have or had 5 glass cats, 5 cherry barbs, 2 angels, 2 silver dollars, 2 three spot gourami, 2 flame dwarf gourami, 2 dwarf gourami, 2 bala sharks, 2 bleeding heart tetras, 2 blood fin tetras, 2 guppies, and 2 African dwarf frogs. The tank has done well and been running for about 6-8 months with only two fish deaths (which were replaced with the same species), though I have been very neglectful on testing the tank water. I somewhat routinely add API stress zyme and occasionally add API leaf zone to feed the plants, though that may be unnecessary.
I feed a small pinch of Tetra Pro flake food in the morning and frozen bloodworm in the evening. I feed the frozen bloodworm every day, I have read posts where people say that is a bad idea as there could be digestive blockages. The two pet stores I have been to say that it is actually okay. One was Petco (I know, but the girl actually seemed quite knowledgeable) and the other was a truly professional aquarium establishment. I started with 2 frozen bloodworm gumdrops, but moved to 3 as the angel fish and the silver dollars have gotten quite large and figured they would need more food. I used to feed the frogs pellets, but haven't in months as they always prefer the bloodworms. All of the blood worms are consumed in 3-4 minutes. Not sure if I am overfeeding or not. I have not had one fish with digestive issues.
For tank cleaning I will use a battery operated vacuum to clean the sand surface, I tried cleaning into the sand, but its too light and ends up getting sucked up itself and I didn't want to harm them bacteria (there is bacterial growth in the sand right?) That is all the cleaning I have done.
Well the other day I put in some stress zyme and leaf zone, cleaned up some surface poo and went on with my day. About 4-5 hours later my wife said that a guppy was dead. I was bummed and went to fish it out and noticed that all of the fish were quite lethargic. I pulled out the test kit and had an ammonia level of 8 ppm, probably more as the test kit only shows the color to 8 ppm and mine seemed like a darker green. My pH was 6.0, nitrates and nitrites were up as well, but don't remember their numbers.
I started freaking out, put in some API ammo lock and called my father in-law for advice. He told me to remove a third of the water, and the new water along with 3 tablespoons of salt, and that should hold me over till morning when a shop would be open. I had many fish just semi floating, sinking to the bottom and laying there and I thought I was going to loose most of them. After removing a third of the water and adding the 3 tablespoons of salt the fish almost immediately pepped up and started swimming again. I lost the one guppy and two glass cats, which is crazy to me as most of them were laying on the bottom on their side looking like they were gasping for oxygen.
The next morning I immediately went to a local shop in Salem called "The Premium Aquarium", very awesome place by the way with extremely knowledgeable staff. I explained everything, they tested a sample of my water that I brought in and they were amazed at the ammonia levels I had. Even after the work I did the night before it was still right around 8 ppm. I was told to go home and remove half of the water and replace it. They set me up with new media for my filter, so now I have regular filter floss in the bottom two (a much better kind than what was at Petco), next up is a mesh bag filled with charcoal, next another filter floss, and lastly a doubled up layer of ammonia pad. I did leave all but one of the original filter floss pads in there and set the new stuff on top of it as I feared that would remove too much of the bacterial growth in the filter. Not sure if I did the right thing or not. When I removed all of the trays from the filter, the canister was left about 3/4s full of water with a lot of gunk in it which I assumed was a mix of feces and bacteria (like the slimy mother you'd find in apple cider vinegar)
so left it all in there as I didn't want my fish to die off.
The aquarium shop also set me up with Seachem Neutral Regulator to help with the pH, but said it was likely due to the ammonia spike. I also picked up a bottle of Seachem Stability as it has bacteria in it to help establish the bio filter and take care of the ammonia problem.
So after replacing have the water, putting in 3 tablespoons of salt, all the new filter stuff including the ammonia pad, the neutral regulator, the stability, and another dose of ammo lock, the next day I am still between 4 and 8 ppm on my ammonia. The fish all seem to be doing fine, peppy and happily swimming.
What am I doing wrong? Should I have taken the crap out of the filter (all the poop and stuff, but left the water? Am I being too cautious about the bacteria in the filter? Am I supposed to routinely remove the media and wash it? Again I am new at this obviously haha. I just really don't want to lose anymore. Should I continue with a daily water change? If so, continue with 50%? Do I add the anymore of the chemicals after since I removed have the water?
My apologies for the long post, I'm just desperate for answers.
Dan
