Recent content by modestvolta

The Fluval pump has carbon, ceramic rings, and a sponge, so I guess I shouldn't as worried about the lack of carbon. Still plan on adding it back, but not as stressed about it. And I added another air pump/stone after all this happened (mainly just dumb luck that I did). Does anyone have a...

I plan on adding the carbon back into the tank tonight - does anyone recommend reusing the old carbon removed, using all new carbon, or mixing the old and the new packs? (the fluval takes 3 packs of carbon) And when rinsing the new carbon out, should I use used aquarium water or is tap water...

mrvincent: I'm guessing neither isn't a possible answer? I'd describe it as a cloudy clear mix. Maybe a yellow tint to it? latest update: another water change done tonight, but I've stopped adding the Melafix and Primafix to the tank based on everything y'all have said so far. I am using Stress...

Well I feel dumb for completely messing up the filter. I guess good to know for next time! Besides the hastily set up hospital tank for the rainbow shark (who's still hanging in there), the 40 gallon tank is all I have. Hopefully the water changes for the next few days help keep everything in...

Venymae: No ammonia test yet (kit ordered from amazon and should be here tomorrow though); that was for the nitrates. And filter rinsed in tap water with all the dechlorination junk added in after rinsing (though the shark wasn't doing so great before the filter rinse anyway). Any...

Update: I did a 35%-ish water change (I just wasn't comfortable taking much more water out). Also cleaned off excess algae from decorations (after taking decorations out of the tank). About 30 minutes after the water change, I did a check on ammonia and, assuming I did the test correctly, the...

I have a Bala shark with what I'm guessing is fin rot. I've been treating with Primafix and Melafix for a week now and he's only gotten worse. His fins are very jagged now and he does a lot of laying on his side. I moved him to a quarantine tank yesterday but I'm hoping to get other suggestions...

If fin rot's not contagious then I may move the shark back over to the main tank (I have very little faith in my backup equipment for the hospital tank). I'll post his symptoms in the sick fish forum as well to see if there's any other possible diseases/sickness going on. He also started...

I don't have time to run out to get a new test kit tonight but I will keep that in mind (or possibly order on Amazon ASAP). Would another water change tonight be a good idea? And should I add carbon back to the filter or keep treating the tank for fin rot (even though the visibly sick fish has...

So the 5 in 1 test str doesn't cover ammonia. However nitrite at 0 and nitrate around 40 to 80 (hard for me to tell on the strip). pH is lower than it should be (6.5 when I'm trying to keep it at 7 to 7.5). And I only rinsed the media - no changing of it.

I have a 40 gallon tank with a Fluval 305 filter. Recently, a fish (Bala Shark) developed what I think is fin rot. I did a partial water change and as I hadn't cleaned the filter in a while I cleaned that out (probably dumb to do, but I tried to avoid washing everything off if that counts...)...

Thanks! I'll check out those Eheims. Is there any other advice on what size heater I should get?

So I've finally had a chance to set up an aquarium I've had sitting around. I think I've found the heater I want to use (Aqueon Pro Submersible Aquarium Heater), but I'm not sure how powerful I need it to be. The tank I have is a hexagon that's somewhere around 45 to 50 gallons (it's a 25 year...