Biological additives? for ammonia 4ppm-in a week-46g-

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L

LunLun

Feeder Fish
Dec 19, 2008
5
0
0
new york city
I have 46g tank with 2 oscars, 2 jack dempseys, 2 parrots, 1 clown knife, 1 florida gar, 2 pleco

Been a month and tank still not cycled...does seachem stability work? as in cycles within a week. Water always cloudy...too cloudy maybe...I change the tanks water about 50% 2 times a week to keep it under 4ppm ammonia. I'm also worried about the nitrites and nitrates as I do not have a test kit for those....Question is, is there an addictive that you tried and worked to cycple the tank within a week? maybe more?
 
You're first problem is that you have a 46g with 2 oscars, 2 jack dempseys, 2 parrots, 1 florida gar, and 2 plecos.

That wasn't meant to be mean, but true. Even if they are still small, some of those fish aren't known for being the cleanest. Oscars do well full grown 1 to a 75g and 2 can survive in a 90. If you have common plecos, then they get 14", flordia gars get about a yard long and will eat (or at least try to) most all of your tankmates when it gets larger.

If you are unwilling to budge on getting a bigger tank or less fish, then the only bacterial additive I can think of that will work is the natural grown kind. Get some of the filter "junk" from a filter at the petstore (if you trust it) and put it in yours. The rest of those additives suck. In the mean time, 4 ppm ammonia is still lethal to fish. Do enough water changes to keep it under 1 ppm. It might be a 50% a day or 2-3 90% a day. If you value your fish, do it. Even if it doesn't kill them, the effects can greatly shorten their lifespan.
 
Look what Seachem wrote to me, with similar question...

Hello,
The bacteria in Stability will be able to lower and control ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels in your tank. It will help you move through the cycling process within a week or two. You may want to consider what you are using for biological filtration media. You will need to use something, such as our Matrix, that is very porous and will be able to house both aerobic (consume ammonia and nitrite) and anaerobic (consume nitrate). If you would like to read more information, here are the links to the Stability and Matrix product web pages:
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Stability.html
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Matrix.html
We hope this information helps; please let us know if you need further assistance.
Thank you,
Tech Support 1076
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seachem Laboratories, Inc.
1000 Seachem Drive, Madison, GA 30650
888-SEACHEM Fax 706-343-6070

So they are saying that it will work within 2 weeks and able to handle all that ammonia, etc....
I thought about getting filter media from LFS but will there be enough bacteria? and I asume that I ask them "May I buy your filter media that's in your fish tank?" errrr...how would it work? I was hoping that stability would work....not disagreeing about the addictives but why would they sell something that's bs? they must have done research to make it....
 
I have heard of people using and having success with Stability, as for the other part of the question companies will sell what they think will sell even if it doesn't do exactly what they say it will i.e.; If they labled a plain rock as a instant tank cycling agent and people kept buying it, it will still be produced.
 
Your fish are dying. Ammonia and nitrite levels above .25 are harmful to fish and your struggling to keep them below 16x more then what is safe. If you want to save the fish you need to do enough water changes to get the levels to be safe.
 
I got an idea!
How about i do a fishless cycle in a 10g tank with biomedia, then when cycled use the biomedia in the big tank?
on the process:
I read alot of fishless cycle and said i get ammonia from local grocery store and i found a bottle of store brand ammonia....tested it in my api ammonia test kit and found no ammonia, but smells really bad, so how can i do the cycle with the testkit saying 0ppm ammonia from the ammonia bottle?
 
Did your tank cycled before you put all those fish in?

I have not use Seachem stable but I would also not trust their technician because their statement can be bias; it's their product that they are trying to sell.

I might have miss the reading on your post, but what are you using for filtration?

Go get bio spira or fritz zyme from your lfs. They are live bacteria that will help boost your tank with bacteria really quick. With 46 gallon, you will need at least 2 large bags of bio spira or 2 large 8 oz bottle of fritz zyme. Do a 50% water change but make sure that the water is neutralize because chlorine and chloroamines will kill the added bacteria. These bacterias are not cheap but they work. A large bag of bio spira cost about $35 and an 8 oz bottle of fritz zmye cost about $37 where I live.

Why not get rid of some of the fish because if you plan to keep those fish in the long term, you will run into trouble again.
 
Howdy,

You are not mentioning the filtration of your tank. It seems like you have 1) insufficient biofiltration and 2) stocked your tank with too much too soon.

You desperately have to upgrade your tank, but in the meantime, you can use sera nitivec (http://www.seraessentials.com/index.cfm).

HarleyK
 
Your stock list is a little ambitious for your tank size. I would highly recommend upping your water changes until your water is tolerable. Maybe slow down their feeding and breaking this group up quite a bit.
 
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