Am i cleaning my tank correctly?

[vincentliu89]

Hi guys,

I have a 55 gallon tank with a whisper powerfilter 60.
Currently I have a silver aro( 8 inches) and a datnoid ( 4 inches) in it.
I dont have any substrate, cause i like my bottom clear
Every 5 days i change my water cause for some reason my ammonia gets real high.
I always change about 75-80% water.
I change the carbon inside the bio bags and change bio bags once a month.
I also use a scrubber and scrub my tank for algae.
Then i add the right amount of salt, Stress Coat and Stress Enzyme.

My question is:
Am i cleaning my tank correctly?
Is my filter the right one for my tank?
What do people mean that they have to cycle their water for couple weeks?

Tips, advice, corrections all welcome!

 

[koop171]

Hi guys,

I have a 55 gallon tank with a whisper powerfilter 60.
Currently I have a silver aro( 8 inches) and a datnoid ( 4 inches) in it.
I dont have any substrate, cause i like my bottom clear
Every 5 days i change my water cause for some reason my ammonia gets real high.
I always change about 75-80% water.
I change the carbon inside the bio bags and change bio bags once a month.
I also use a scrubber and scrub my tank for algae.
Then i add the right amount of salt, Stress Coat and Stress Enzyme.

My question is:
Am i cleaning my tank correctly?
Is my filter the right one for my tank?
What do people mean that they have to cycle their water for couple weeks?

Tips, advice, corrections all welcome!

Fisrt off I got to sound like an @$$ but you know neither of those fish will live in a 55 for life right?

Ok that out of the way ......

You are going to need more filtration. Filtration is not labeled correctly IMO. You need different filters for different applications. If the tank is heavily stocked then you need a biger filter. So to have them labeled as 50gal filters is not fair.

So go get another filter. OR do water changes OFTEN. If your amonia spikes in 5 days do waterchanges every three. You can try the amonia removers but water changes are best.
What do you mean by biobag? Are you talking about the mesh bags that media goes into? If so those have little if any bio capacity unless you reuse them forever. A biowheel HOB filter is a beter bet or a AC110 with a bag of biomax.

to clean the algea it's a matter of personal preferance unless you have an acrylic tank then you need something softer so you don't scratch the tank.

Your tank is more then likly glass. I would suggest investing in a mag float algea cleaner. They work great and you don't have to get your hands wet useing them.

As for your dosing with salt stress coat and enzyme.
I don't use salt unless on my livebarer tanks. So it is not nessiasry IMO. You don't really need to use the stress coat all the time either. A good water conditioner is fine. Unless you are adding new fish or have done major redecoration and stressed the fish out. Seachem Prime is widly used but I personally have a LFS that carries there own brand and it works good for me. All you are doing when you add water conditioner is taking out the cholrine and chloranites (sp) b/c they are very detrimantal to your fishes overall health.

when you let a tank cycle you are bsically letting BB grow in you7r filters and substraight (you don't have any but that's ok) and thus making a beter environment for your fish. What you need to have is a good water test kit. I use the API master test kit.

You can cycle a tank a few ways. The way I do it is with fish (there is a fishless cycle but I have not used that method) all you do is add a few gold fish and let them eat feed them normally and they will produce amonia which in turn creates nitrites and then nitrates. This takes about a month sometimes less. but what you are going to look for is 0 amonia 0 nitrites and a reading for the nitrates. once you have nitrates your tank is cycled.




So now the short version.



Get a bigger filter. (penguin350B, emperior400, AC110)
try an amonia remover for the amonia spikes. (but I think your tank it still cycling)
Do water changes 2-3 times a week to keep amonia low.
Do get a good water condioner.
A mag float for your algea is great.
You sound like you're on the right track but just didn't do the right amount of homework first. but that's cool we were all new once.


Hope I could have helped. Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

 

[keykey026]

sounds like great advise, also try ammonia crystals because they soak up ammonia from the water, and bio filter booster because if your bio filter isnt working right than it cant help with you nitrate cycle. I currently have 2-55gal. tanks and each tank has alot of fish in them, but having good fiters and bio filters that work means having to do less water changes and more enjoy tanks.. oh yea almost forgot , the ammonia crytals can be put into a mesh bag and set directly in your tank if your tank spikes for quick clean up.

 

[invisyblegypsey]

Fisrt off I got to sound like an @$$ but you know neither of those fish will live in a 55 for life right?

Ok that out of the way ......

You are going to need more filtration. Filtration is not labeled correctly IMO. You need different filters for different applications. If the tank is heavily stocked then you need a biger filter. So to have them labeled as 50gal filters is not fair.

So go get another filter. OR do water changes OFTEN. If your amonia spikes in 5 days do waterchanges every three. You can try the amonia removers but water changes are best.
What do you mean by biobag? Are you talking about the mesh bags that media goes into? If so those have little if any bio capacity unless you reuse them forever. A biowheel HOB filter is a beter bet or a AC110 with a bag of biomax.

to clean the algea it's a matter of personal preferance unless you have an acrylic tank then you need something softer so you don't scratch the tank.

Your tank is more then likly glass. I would suggest investing in a mag float algea cleaner. They work great and you don't have to get your hands wet useing them.

As for your dosing with salt stress coat and enzyme.
I don't use salt unless on my livebarer tanks. So it is not nessiasry IMO. You don't really need to use the stress coat all the time either. A good water conditioner is fine. Unless you are adding new fish or have done major redecoration and stressed the fish out. Seachem Prime is widly used but I personally have a LFS that carries there own brand and it works good for me. All you are doing when you add water conditioner is taking out the cholrine and chloranites (sp) b/c they are very detrimantal to your fishes overall health.

when you let a tank cycle you are bsically letting BB grow in you7r filters and substraight (you don't have any but that's ok) and thus making a beter environment for your fish. What you need to have is a good water test kit. I use the API master test kit.

You can cycle a tank a few ways. The way I do it is with fish (there is a fishless cycle but I have not used that method) all you do is add a few gold fish and let them eat feed them normally and they will produce amonia which in turn creates nitrites and then nitrates. This takes about a month sometimes less. but what you are going to look for is 0 amonia 0 nitrites and a reading for the nitrates. once you have nitrates your tank is cycled.




So now the short version.



Get a bigger filter. (penguin350B, emperior400, AC110)
try an amonia remover for the amonia spikes. (but I think your tank it still cycling)
Do water changes 2-3 times a week to keep amonia low.
Do get a good water condioner.
A mag float for your algea is great.
You sound like you're on the right track but just didn't do the right amount of homework first. but that's cool we were all new once.


Hope I could have helped. Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ right on

 

[vincentliu89]

Yes i know a 55g wont work for life, but its only for the time being.
Sorry but i still dont really understand what it means to get the tank cycled. What does it mean to make the ammonia into nitrites then nitrate. Is nitrate consider good?

Why isnt my powerfilter 60 not good enough? It's a double filter. This is what i have
http://www.kensfish.com/powerfilters/whisper60.jpg
And what does HOB means?

And i use a API ammonia tester. Some reason its always on the 4-6 mark after 5 days.
I dont over feed my fishes. I always feed them a good amount twice a day. Making sure they eat everything.

So your saying it's not necessary to use stress coat all the time? That i should get a different water conditioner to get the chlorine/chloramine out.

Also my water turns a little cloudy by day 5.

Thanks for all the help btw!

 

[chesterthehero]

koop said it best

if your fish are living though weekly ammonia spikes of 4-6ppm... i dont know how they are still alive but they are not happy.. are you using the liquid test kit or test strips? if you are using the test strips throw them away and get the liquid kit

HOB = Hang On Back (filter)

stop changing your media.. constantly changing it removes all the BB and is keeping your tank in a constant state of cycling.. when they flow rate of your filter slows down rinse your media out in a bucket of tank water.. just to get the major chunks out then put it back in the filter
i would start doing daily tests as well as daily 20-30% water change till your tank gets cycled
stress coat and stress zyme are not needed but with what yer fish are going through keep with it they need all the help they can get.. after your tank gets established you can switch to Prime or keep using the stress coat (the prime is about 100000X cheaper.. 8oz bottle treats 2,500 gallons of water according to the bottle)
as for the cloudy water.. going by everything else thats going on in your tank it sounds like a bacteria (the bad kind) bloom.. its something that says many things but to keep it simple it means get more filtration.. whisper 60 should help.. my personal fav is the AC110.. ( http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=159226 )

 

[vincentliu89]

koop said it best

if your fish are living though weekly ammonia spikes of 4-6ppm... i dont know how they are still alive but they are not happy.. are you using the liquid test kit or test strips? if you are using the test strips throw them away and get the liquid kit

HOB = Hang On Back (filter)

stop changing your media.. constantly changing it removes all the BB and is keeping your tank in a constant state of cycling.. when they flow rate of your filter slows down rinse your media out in a bucket of tank water.. just to get the major chunks out then put it back in the filter
i would start doing daily tests as well as daily 20-30% water change till your tank gets cycled
stress coat and stress zyme are not needed but with what yer fish are going through keep with it they need all the help they can get.. after your tank gets established you can switch to Prime or keep using the stress coat (the prime is about 100000X cheaper.. 8oz bottle treats 2,500 gallons of water according to the bottle)
as for the cloudy water.. going by everything else thats going on in your tank it sounds like a bacteria (the bad kind) bloom.. its something that says many things but to keep it simple it means get more filtration.. whisper 60 should help.. my personal fav is the AC110.. ( http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=159226 )

Im using the API liquid test kit where you take 5ml of tank water and add drops in it.

What does BB mean?

So should i change my filter? Is it not strong enough? How is the AC110 better then my filter? Can you please explain, thanks

 

[koop171]

Im using the API liquid test kit where you take 5ml of tank water and add drops in it.

What does BB mean?

So should i change my filter? Is it not strong enough? How is the AC110 better then my filter? Can you please explain, thanks

Is the API test kit the mast kit with amonia, pH, nitrite, and nitrate? Sonds like it.

BB is benifical bactiria (sp)

It sounds like you should change your filter. The AC110 has a high flow rate of about 400-500GPH (gallons per hour) so if you have a 55 gal aquarium and 500GPH filter that means you water will go through the filter about 9 times an hour that's that much more time the water will see the filter media. For most tanks the more time the water passes through the filter the better.

Also the AC110s have easy cleaning and very popular so they are easy to find filter foam and parts if needed. They aslo have bags of bio media to be place into the filter and that is a very good thing.

You are more then likly working on a filter that's running very low GPH more then likly far less then 200. An AC110 will afford you WAY better filtration and far larger media capcity. thus making a cleaner more happy tank.

 

[vincentliu89]

Do you know how many GPH does my Whisper Power Filter 60 does? I cant seem to find any information on it.

And i only have test kits for the ammonia and PH. Should i go get the nitrites and nitrates?

 

[Rbishop]

A whisper 60...? Despite what it claims it is at best half of that.