75 Gallon Struggle

[Rush81]

Ok so here it goes I will apologize now for the novel. I'm new to this whole thing and not use to having many ppl to talk to about fish related things. So i'm excited to get some feed back on whats currently going on..

it all started fine Over a month time frame I aquired these fish:
2 male mollies
4 female mollies
10 danios
2 alge eaters
1 high fin pleco
All was good until I added the bottom feeders....with in a couple of days my tank clouded up, i thought fine maybe its mini cycling i can handle this...Then my ammonia spiked to the 4.0's + my Ph as Ive mentioned below dropped to 6.0 etc. Then my mollies started having babies,at one point i had 2 larger babies and several (10+) small babies. Depsite pwc's and pump media changes and even just waiting it out nothing helped. luckly none of my fish seemed to be panicing until Just recently (4weeks later) they have started to get sick(surprise surprise) First i thought it was Ick I saw them flashing around and rubbing on items in the tank, however saw no other signs of Ick like suger granule spots etc, so i moved to proto velvet early fungus thoughts...Melafixed and Primafix twice, added coppersafe and it started to look like things were improving, but now my pleco looks flushed like he has a fungus coating in spots IDK. I have had to flush both males and 3 females(mollies) and at least 6 +babies(also mollies). mela/prima fix not helping now.the dainos and the too algae eaters seem okay noone at this point is breathing rapidly or rubbing against things but .... idk suggestions if you have made it this far thanks for your interest in helping me
Api Master test Kit:
Ammonia: 0.50 ---(yesterday 0.25 was like this for a week)prior 3wks 4.0 or higher
P.h: 6.4--- (yesterday 6.6) for weeks it was 6.0

Ni's never anything major same for nitrates

I broke down after weeks of pwc's and did a 50% + wc and thats when i got the 0-0.50 Ammonia etc has lasted this way for a lilttle over a week but i cant get my p.h up dispite the currently acceptable ammoina readings....
I use Prime/Stability for bio/ Claritiy for cloudiness......
Fluval 405 pump
UV Sterilizer
super luft air pump
heater(duh) figured i go ahead and list it all
Any Suggestions?????

 

[Rush81]

Oh yea i checked my tap water readings just to dot i's and cross t's
A-0.50
P.H.-high range 7.8
both n02 and 3 are 0
hope this helps

 

[Homedog98]

Use crushed coral or aragonite sand to buffer Ph. If it an energency, a little bit of baking soda will help too. You're having a Ph crash, and it's stalling your cycle. Also, did you flush the mollies while they were living, or were they dead already?

 

[Homedog98]

Oh yea i checked my tap water readings just to dot i's and cross t's
A-0.50
P.H.-high range 7.8
both n02 and 3 are 0
hope this helps

Yikes... You've started a whole new cycle!

 

[jcolon]

Keep at the PWC's ... As Homedog98 said .. sounds like a pH crash stalling your cycle = ammo spikes. The ammo buildup stressed the fish ... making them susceptible to illnesses.

 

[Rush81]

@ Homedog98...... About the mollies, well i want to say they were dead they were basically dead and i was trying to prevent them from causing any more ammonia increase then already currently going thru. I have a feeling I shouldn't flush not completely ded fish etc i haven't been faced with flushing a living /semi living fish before. Hopefully that wasnt a bad idea i wondered but figured they have to make it thru a water plant first right? Was that a bad move?

 

[Rush81]

i have never heard of using baking soda before for Ph problems whats the ratio? At this point im pretty desperate

 

[Rush81]

I f i added an undergravel filter would that help at all? I have always felt they were over rated but if im wrong lemme know Starting to rethink my set up?
On a scale of 1 to 10 what would my tank setup be to you?
Fluval 405 pump
Super Luft air pump (several bubbles)
Uv sterilizer
River stone gravel medium mixed with almost sand like gravel
Medium in pump biomax/zeolite/clearmax

 

[Homedog98]

i have never heard of using baking soda before for Ph problems whats the ratio? At this point im pretty desperate

Well, half a teaspoon took my 29 gallon tank from 6.4 to 7.4. So I'd start with maybe a teaspoon, and then go up in 1/4th teaspoon increments. Just remember, this is for EMERGENCIES only. Crushed coral or aragonite sand works loads better. And ya... For future reference, don't flush living fish. Put them in clove oil, wait 5 minutes, and add pure grain alcohol to do the job painlessly.

 

[Mogurako]

Adding another 405/305 in the future may help, get more water turn over.

 

[Rush81]

@ Homedog98 I didnt know to do that. I will in the future tho if it comes to that again. I hated doing it I just didnt know what else to do

 

[Homedog98]

@ Homedog98 I didnt know to do that. I will in the future tho if it comes to that again. I hated doing it I just didnt know what else to do

It's alright! we all make mistakes.

 

[Rush81]

Ok s o i went to my fav lfs and gor some lime stone and some crushed coral for my fluval filter and some KENT carbon. I'm fixing to start my pwc and add this stuff to my filter/tank. Wish me luck ill send out readings and pic's after i get it all done. I'm not crazy about having to turn off my uv sterilizer but i think my pleco has columnaris (i think) its the best fit. Using Maracyn plus to fix that I usually use Mela/primafix and it does the job but this time after two rounds it only puts dents in the problem doesny fix. Anyhow here I go if this doesnt work i might just cry

 

[severum mama]

Ok so here it goes I will apologize now for the novel. I'm new to this whole thing and not use to having many ppl to talk to about fish related things. So i'm excited to get some feed back on whats currently going on..

it all started fine Over a month time frame I aquired these fish:
2 male mollies
4 female mollies
10 danios
2 alge eaters
1 high fin pleco
All was good until I added the bottom feeders....with in a couple of days my tank clouded up, i thought fine maybe its mini cycling i can handle this...Then my ammonia spiked to the 4.0's + my Ph as Ive mentioned below dropped to 6.0 etc. Then my mollies started having babies,at one point i had 2 larger babies and several (10+) small babies. Depsite pwc's and pump media changes and even just waiting it out nothing helped. luckly none of my fish seemed to be panicing until Just recently (4weeks later) they have started to get sick(surprise surprise) First i thought it was Ick I saw them flashing around and rubbing on items in the tank, however saw no other signs of Ick like suger granule spots etc, so i moved to proto velvet early fungus thoughts...Melafixed and Primafix twice, added coppersafe and it started to look like things were improving, but now my pleco looks flushed like he has a fungus coating in spots IDK. I have had to flush both males and 3 females(mollies) and at least 6 +babies(also mollies). mela/prima fix not helping now.the dainos and the too algae eaters seem okay noone at this point is breathing rapidly or rubbing against things but .... idk suggestions if you have made it this far thanks for your interest in helping me
Api Master test Kit:
Ammonia: 0.50 ---(yesterday 0.25 was like this for a week)prior 3wks 4.0 or higher
P.h: 6.4--- (yesterday 6.6) for weeks it was 6.0

Ni's never anything major same for nitrates

I broke down after weeks of pwc's and did a 50% + wc and thats when i got the 0-0.50 Ammonia etc has lasted this way for a lilttle over a week but i cant get my p.h up dispite the currently acceptable ammoina readings....
I use Prime/Stability for bio/ Claritiy for cloudiness......
Fluval 405 pump
UV Sterilizer
super luft air pump
heater(duh) figured i go ahead and list it all
Any Suggestions?????

Guys... I really don't think pH is the issue here. Changing filter media has a far greater impact on cycling than pH. There's nothing wrong with adding a bag of CC to the filter, but don't expect it to work miracles when changing the media means tossing out a good bit of your cycling progress with every change.

My first recommendation would be to stop changing the filter media. In fact, I wouldn't mess with it at all until the tank cycles. Second, stop adding chemicals. This includes Stability. The only chemical you need to add is Prime. I'd do daily water changes to get the ammonia level down, and continue with that on through the nitrite spike as well.

Adding another 405/305 in the future may help, get more water turn over.

It will get you more flow, but a Fluval 405 is a powerful canister and, once the tank has cycled, should have no problem keeping up with the bioload on its own. HN1 and I run a 75 gallon discus tank with a 405, no issues.

 

[Kat1103]

Check out this link it will help u in the long run with your tank
I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?!

 

[Kat1103]

Severum mama is right, do not change your filter during cycling! In fact don't change it until it's falling apart. You want to keep all the good bacteria that grow on it. If it gets kinda gunky just rinse it off with old tank water.

 

[huma-huma]

I agree with severum_mama, if you are changing your filter media, you are pretty much wiping up a HUGE chunk of the necessary stabilizing bacteria in your tank, these stabilixing bacteria also happen to feed on ammo. which being that you replaced your filter media, means there's nowhere near the same amount of bacteria chewing up your ammo..giving you the ammo spike.

 

[Rush81]

I see what your all saying but i just wented to clearify that I only changed the media when i felt like i had done everything else. trust me thats my least fac thing to do so I will always do that last.lol But before I realized you all had posted input I had already done what i had planned on doing. Just for info purposes in case it means anything In my Fluval I have 4 levels each level split into 2 compartments (im sure your all saying duh about now) never the less my first two levels have biomax packed in (that I always leave in tank water i know better then to rinse those out, my 3 level is fnow full of kent carbon, and my 4 level is full of crushed coral. I didint touch the water in the pump nor did i touch the filter pads i simply took out the zeolite that was not helping. Hopefully i didnt mess it up too bad. I added the lime stones to the tank and at this point I will just have to sit it out and wait. Currently at .25 - .50 ammonia which after what ive been thru is great to me, my Ph is at 6.6ish im trying to be paient LOL and of course my n02 and no3's are 0 because my tank is in a nevewr ending cycle. i have at this point lost almost all my baby mollies which i figured I would anyways bc it was really bad timing that the females had them all anyways and i'm not down to 1 adult female from 4 females and 2 males. all my danios are fine this whole time its like they havent skipped a beat. my algae eaters seem fine as well but my poor pleco is not thrilled much hoping the maracyn plus works. Sry for another novel i guess im bad about that

 

[huma-huma]

im pretty sure that you would be better off replacing the kent carbon with either more biomax or something else... but wait for a second confirmation on that one..removing the carbon from the canister is what ive pretty much seen being told thru different threads on here

 

[severum mama]

The Maracyn isn't helping matters either IMO. I know that packaging says that it won't affect the biofilter, but that has not been my experience with it. Still, sometimes it is necessary.