I am sorry..I must have imagined you r PH, which you did not state..amonia is not toxic at low PH's anyway. starts being toxic at 7 and toxicity increases exponentially from there on...
Bacteria in established filter
- Thread starter nukeman
- Start date
People, people, back to the OP here. I am the one who gave nukeman the sponge filter. We did not use a cycling method because I was planning on giving him a sponge that I use on my 55g. I took it out, squeezed a little bit of the water out, and put it in a ziploc bag. He bought fish... I think it was a couple of days later, and put them in. Originally it was 3-4 neon tets, 1 oto, and the two blue rams... Since, the oto died, and 2-3 of the neons died as well. He replaced the neons with zebra danios, bc they are a little hardier, and a little more active. I tested the water a week or so later, and the amm was sitting at .5ppm or so. I knew right away that the sponge bacteria died, or something went wrong, so I gave him another sponge. This time from my canister filter running on my 125g. A week later Amm still climbing, at 4ppm. I told him to do small 25%ish water changes every couple of days, and he has cut back on feedings. Now we're just gonna have to ride out the cycle.
My question is... Why did the bacteria die so quickly? My 55g, and 125g are stocked fairly heavy, and I thought there would have been plenty of good bacteria on those sponges...
My question is... Why did the bacteria die so quickly? My 55g, and 125g are stocked fairly heavy, and I thought there would have been plenty of good bacteria on those sponges...
xEchOx;835352; said:
check he used a dechlor............
then its odd...that is usually a very safe way to proceed.........look for a dead fish rotting in the tank, uneaten food, too much food........
I'm sure he used a dechlorinator... ok I know he used dechlorinator, bc he just told me... I doubt there are dead fish in the tank, its just a 10g, and not many places for detrius to just lay around unseen... He gravel vacs w/ water changes too...
It could have been overfeeding, but I doubt it... I feed my O tanks 10 fold what he puts in that 10g... I don't know. Just baffled.
It could have been overfeeding, but I doubt it... I feed my O tanks 10 fold what he puts in that 10g... I don't know. Just baffled.
xEchOx;835365; said:
but his was not fully established.....'should' have been fine....but if his water was ok...then the overfeeding with the transfered filter would been the simplest .....as it could take a few days for the filter to come on full strength.....
Up the water changes to 80% a week or even twice a week.
When adding water do you use a dechlorinater to remove chlorine and cloramine?
Do you rinse your filter media out in tap water or un dechlorinated water?
Was this tank originally cycled? If so how?
What size tank do you have and is it stocked with?
When adding water do you use a dechlorinater to remove chlorine and cloramine?
Do you rinse your filter media out in tap water or un dechlorinated water?
Was this tank originally cycled? If so how?
What size tank do you have and is it stocked with?
Seems very odd. I don't ever take filter bio media out of the water for more than seconds. When I clean my AC's, I drop the media into the tank, clean the filter, and then fish the media out of the tank and put it back into the tank. I have not cycled a new tank in 2 years, and I have set up 14 new tanks. I am guessing the bacteria in the biofilter died for some reason, probably out of water too long. I recommend transporting filter media in a container with tank water in it.
