Major Problem with my new 125 gallon tank

[Savino]

This is my first post so go easy on me.

Did plenty of research ahead of time regarding the tank I wanted to get and decided to go with a 125 gallon freshwater tank. I have a Eheim Pro 3 2075 model filter along with gravel, live plants, and driftwood. Eheim Heater set at 78 degrees.

I waited for the tank to cycle about a week with the aid of biosupport, conditioner, etc. Cloudy water became crystal clear so I went and bought 6 cloudy minnows and 6 feeder goldfish to check that the tank was healthy.

All of my readings were fine and double checked by both Big Als and Pj's Pets. Asked the workers at both places if it was now safe to transfer my 6 4" goldfish from my 10 gallon along with my two minnows (creek) and crayfish (creek) that my son and I got out of our river since last spring.

Within 48 hrs I noticed a slight spike in ammonia and lost some of my small feeder goldfish and two cloudy minnows. Did a PWC and things were good again.

The tank had been running since boxing week and everything looked good. Lots of healthy plants, upgraded light and addition of a pwerhead.

Then I made the mistake of adding about 12 minnows I had left over from ice fishing since my son wanted to put them in our new aquarium. I climatized them but within 48 hrs 6 of them died or got "eaten". I removed the remaining 6 and looked for any scraps of the "missing eaten" ones.

The fish started gasping, my pleco died, my red tail black shark died, more of my cloudy minnows, and 4 of the 12 Danios I had added died. I researched on many sites including this and all recommended a partial water change twice a day which improved conditions drastically but only for about 12 hours. The water started to smell. I searched in the plants and under the rocks and driftwood and ornaments and found 3 decomposed decayed ice fishing minnows along with my crayfish that was also decaying. Lost more fish so I did a 50% water change and continued to add new conditioner and biosupport. I did not touch my filter at all since I was told not to by about everyone.

I am now 100% sure that there is no more decay in the tank as far as decomposing fish. The problem is I am still having to do a PWC evenings and mornings because I notice the ammonia at 0.5 and the fish gasping. As of today I have the following in the tank fish wise:

8 Danios, 3 Golden barbs, 5 red tiger tetras, 1 5 inch pleco, 6 4" goldfish, 5 Opaline Gouramis, 2 malaysian catfish, 2 loaches and 2 cory's. Except for the goldfish the other fish are all small so I dont see a problem in a 125 gallon tank. The water is still crystal clear but smelly and fish continue to gasp 12 hr after a water change.

Here are the questions I need answers to:

1. Why is the water still smelling like decayed fish? I have also scrubbed the driftwood and rocks with regular water, dried them and have them out of the tank still. Vacuumed the gravel fully during every water change.
2. Can I add carbon or something else to the Eheim filter to deal with the smell and help with the water conditions?
3. Should I give my filter pads only a quick rinse in case there is any decayed stuff?
4. I could not find ammolock anywhere I live. Any other suggestions? Tried the tablets and Crystal Clear (disaster because it gunked up my ornaments and driftwood which have now been scrubbed) and dried.

Obviously I have learned my lesson of not adding minnows and checking thoroughly for dead minnows but I feel that I can not get the water quality back under control. I have seen and been told mixed opinions on doing 50% daily water changes. One even suggested I do a 90% water change if I need to.

I would appreciate any help you can offer.

Take Care
Nick

 

[Hubert90]

Hey nick, may I know what filter medium u have in your canister? If u don't have zeolites and carbon try adding those and I would also recommend u to check your filter medium for any odors.. And Thou ur tank have a huge capacity.. I don't think ur filter has the ability to house so many occupants let alone your 4" goldfishes. ( I keep goldfishes and they produce a lot of wastes) and also it's not such a good idea to house goldfish with Tropicals as they tend to fight. Lastly ill advice getting an air pump. They are good water agitator ( in other words more oxygen gets dissolves into the water). Can u also tell me the flow rate of ur pump?

 

[Hubert90]

And a caution to u if u do decide to use zeolites and carbon.. They are super beneficial if maintained properly. They last about 4 to 6 weeks if I'm not wrong. If u don't change them, over time they release all the chemical that they absorbed back into ur tank in large concentration!

I hope these helps..

 

[Hubert90]

Argh.. From my experience with goldfish. When they gasp for air, it's either ur ammonia is too high and/or lack in oxygen.. And I think both are present in ur condition! Goldfish are ammonia producer machines!! Hahah

 

[Hubert90]

It's me again.. All these ideas are coming to me! Another think u can do is add sea salt!! DONT USE COOKING SALT!! They contain iodine!! Only use SEA SALT!! 1 table spoon (about 17 grams)for every 5US gallons!! This helps the fish breaths better and also reduces stress.. I do it for my goldfish, they work pretty nicely!

Try to dissolve as much sea salt as u can in hot/bowled water. (not all the sea salt will dissolve but thats fine) Then add it to ur tank. Just don't burn ur fish!

please let me know if my advice helped.

 

[spoonman]

Your biggest problem is that you are killing your fish. You have a combination of warm water and cold water fish. You have put in wild fish that bring with them God knows what diseases. You are just managing to pollute your tank. Please research the fish and dont mix them. You have probably introduced something from the wild that is killing the other fish.

Also, the tank didnt cycle in a week, so you probably have an ammonia problem too.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I don't believe that you would want to use sea salt (like you would for a SW aquarium) you need to use aquarium salt, they sell it in cartons that look like the old milk cartons. I believe it is identical to Espon salts. Again you have to know the side effects, most live plants won't tolerate salt.

 

[Hubert90]

I don't believe that you would want to use sea salt (like you would for a SW aquarium) you need to use aquarium salt, they sell it in cartons that look like the old milk cartons. I believe it is identical to Espon salts. Again you have to know the side effects, most live plants won't tolerate salt.

Ahh I thou they were the same thing.. Coz I brought mine in old milk cartons and they are called sea salt. Hahaha thanks anyways. And regarding the plants, I think it should be fine as long as u don't overdose.. Coz I use salt for my tank and everything seems fine..

 

[ejaramillo01]

Back to basics

Sorry to hear what happened. I don't know what you mean "running since boxing weekend".

A lot of good suggestions, my opinion is to go back to the basics, don't over react:

1.- Test all your water parameters: Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates. And keep testing everyday until things get better.

2.- Your tank for whatever reason is not cycled, and you are seeing ammonia spikes. So you will need to do PWC as needed, daily or twice a day to reduce ammonia and nitrites. You don't need to add ammolock or any other "magical" chemical. These products make things even worst, and in my experience add bad aromas to the tank. As long as you use a de-chlorinator like PRIME every time that you do PWC you should be fine.

3.- The gold fish are really messy, but also hardy fish, you can move it out temporaly to a small tank with no heater and in a short term will be fine.

To me the most important part is to mainatin good water quality, if not the fish will become suceptible to infections, and that will be big problem. Focus on the readings, PWC as needed, and not introduction of any new fish, check the pads on your filter if that makes you be sure that there is not decay material there (Im not familiar with the filter that you have), but don't washed.

Good luck

 

[Laurence]

I also have an Eheim Pro 3 2075 on my 187-gallon tank and it works fine, although it will not filter out cloudy water or microscopic alge (for that I bought a Vortex diatom filter, which I run once a week.) Also, 78 degrees is much too warm for cold-water fish like goldfish and minnows. Did you give your tank sufficient time to completely cycle? Adding fish to a tank too soon is a sure way to kill them. Suggest you let the tank sit for a week or two, and then add fish a small number at a time. Also, lower the temperature if you are going to stock cold-water species.

 

[Savino]

Thanks to all that replied even you Spoonman I didn't mean to offend the pros by my actions lol! Anyway, I trusted the clowns "experts" at both Big Al's and PJ Pets who specifically told me that once the cloudy water cleared up and my readings were at zero for all three Ammo, Nitrites and Nitrates that I could begin to add fish. I added the cloudy minnows first and then the goldfish two days after and had no problem. I then transferred the bigger goldfish after I was told they could survive up to 78 in such a big tank with the filter I have which is good up to 180 gallon. I also have a powerhead to help move the water around. Anyway I could not just dump the goldfish out or kill them when we raised them so well in a 10 gallon aquarium with no issues. The initial problem was already starting when I used the biowaste remover from big al's which I was told to do. Add all three solutions after every water change to "stabilize" what was removed.

Please understand that after reading so many websites and forums I really did not get a constant endorsement of any one thing to do to improve the situation. The problem had already started before I added the minnows. Should I go and purchase an air pump to add oxygen? I dont understand how oxygen is being added to the aquarium now since both the intake and outake pipes are in the middle of the aquarium? You said there were no dumb questions lol! How does oxygen get introduced back into the tank without an air filter or filter that drops the water in to the tank?

Hubert I appreciate your efforts will hold off on the salt for now since I dont know what I am doing exactly with it.

The two major questions I have is still is:

1. Can I add these zeolite (is that carbon) to the filter since all I have is substrate and mech bio in my four trays. I did add a pack of ammonia remover the other day on the top tray below the filter based on an article I had read.

2. The water still smells! Is there any harm with daily 50% water changes? I can't start over unless I have no choice since I have no where to move my fish to besides my 10 gallon. I have the water conditioner but I am using "python" hose for my water changes again being assured I did not have to leave water sitting in buckets in such a large tank.

Take Care
Nick

 

[ejaramillo01]

You can do both with no problem, if you want add the zeolite, and the 50% water changes will be fine.
My recommendation is to keep the water changes as often as needed based on the ammonia readings, more than 0.25ppm and you can do a water change, 50% if you want, no harm, just don't forget the dechlorinator.

 

[spoonman]

Sorry Savino. I didnt mean to come off that way. I realize the wording was kind of harsh. My point was that you cant mix fish from the wild with domesticated fish. Both come from different environments and carry different diseases that each other dont have the exposure to. This means that some things that dont effect wild will effect domestic, and vice versa. Again, sorry.

 

[mudraker]

A+ on water changes daily. They will only help your fish and the water quality.

Also, do you have your own liquid drop test kit or are the LFS doing it for you? I couldn't tell by your posts.

 

[Hubert90]

Nick, zeolite and carbon are two different Thing. Try adding both.. As zeolites absorbs ammonia, toxins, odors and heavy metals while activated carbon absorbs odors and water discoloration! So these can help u to deal with your lvl of ammonia and the odor present in your water. U need to change these two every 4 to 6 weeks coz after a period, instead of removing heavy metal and chemicals from ur tank, it releases them back in high concentration. So they can be quite costly
Also do u have ceramic bio rings? They are good for canister filter! It helps maximize the development of beneficial bacteria!

 

[Savino]

Problem Solved

Hi Guys again the fish were gasping when I got home and all test levels were at zero which could only mean one last thing as far as I was concerned! Not enough oxygen in the water. I went to Big Al's and asked if I had set up the cannister wrong. Both sales guys there told me I have a top of the line cannister Eheim Pro 3 and that it should be filtering fine. I asked I know it filters fine but how does oxygen get into the water. They said "it does by the filtering process". Furthermore they had told me to put the intake and outake beside each other in the tank in the corner. I told them I had a power head on the other side to circulate the water. They told me to put it half way down so the water circulates. Again I asked if I could place it near the top so it would cause some distrubance near the top of the water but they said it would affect the fish.

So I went with my gut (again I am new to all of this but common sense told me it had to be an oxygen thing since they were gasping near the top of the tank. I am a hardcore fisherman and see this when fish in the livewell or minnows are low on oxygen. So I bought a Rena 400 Air Filter another 70.00 plus hoses and a 18" double sided airstone. I also bought a large jar of zeolite and a 18"x18" carbon pad.

I rushed home and prayed that I would be able to solve the issue. Immediately after hooking up the Air Filter and airstone the fish came back to life. The Danios started swimming back and forth again and the Gouramis also became active. Within 30 mins the fish were normal again. Then this morning I cut out a proper carbon pad and added the zeolite in two sacks. Water looks great and fish seem very happy again.

Now I would like to know from you if I set it up correctly. I changes the spray bar outtake horizontally along the top. I added the zeolite right above the substrate pellets then I put the carbon pad above the zeolite and then I put the white filter pad above the carbon pad and put the pump head back on.

I really appreciate all the help you have all offered and I learn quick so I wont be adding anymore fishing minnows or catch to my tank.

Spoonman no need to apologize sir I was not offended I appreciate the frankness. All the best and thanks!

Take Care
Nick

 

[BillD]

Aquarium salt is nothing but unidozied salt, like Kosher salt. It is not similar to Epsom salts; it is straight Sodium Chloride, the same as common table salt.

 

[Hubert90]

Good to know everything is good now. Just make sure u change ur carbon and zeolite!

 

[tallchik77]

one more thing....you said that when you were doing your twice daily water changes that you were also vaccuuming the gravel. I wouldn't do that right now until you actually have a lot of debris in there. you will cause your tank to do a mini cycle everytime you take out the bacteria that is trying to grow in there. you can just hold the vaccuum in the water to do your water changes. good luck. hope everything works out okay!

 

[Savino]

Thanks Tall I just had to vacuum the gravel because of the decayed fish that I found three days later. Smell has gone and I hope things stay ok. I need to get rid of these six 4" goldfish since they are eating and uprooting my plants but I dont have the heart to dump them. I may put them in a local kid pond or a pond at my inlaws in the spring.

Take Care
Nick