HELP!! My water parameters are whacked!!

[STONEDFISH]

I got a new tank last week for my Flowerhorn. It was a great deal so I bought it without a plan on moving the fish and getting everything straight. This I what I did, feel free to tell me why I am a dumbass:

When I got home I emptied my 29gal to about as low as I could with fish in it, into a large bucket. I needed to move the 29 into another room, so I took as much weight (rock and wood) out as possible. Then, I set up the 52 with the bucket of old water, new gravel, old decor (rock and wood) and a Whisper 40 filter I had on the 29 (I have 2 filters on it)...I added some Cycle and ordered a bigger filter.. figured the tank had so much old stuff in it, it would pretty much be cycled....added Flowerhorn.
Got new filter (Magnum H.O.T.) removed half the carbon from my 55gal filter and the carbon in the bag on the existing filter and put it in with the new carbon on the new filter. Topped everything off with fresh carbon. Put the old filter back on the 29 and fired up the new Magnum.

Now the 55gal, 52gal, and 29gal have ammonia and nitrate readings off the charts. I tried some AmQuel but it didn't help much. The 55gal is 5 years old has 5 bichirs, and has had great water quality untill now. The 29gal is almost 2 years old, it had the flowerhorn, but now has 9 small clown loaches and 5 rasbora tetra.The 52gal has just the FH.

I'm afraid massive water changes will just set the cycling process back, so do I just do small water changes very frequently instead of my usual weekly 50% until its straight?? Is there water additives I don't know about to help me? How bad is this for these fish?

stonedfish

 

[Brooklynella]

IMO Use prime and do daily, small water changes until the tank cycles.

 

[ethnics]

can you explain what you did over again? seems like you took off the cycled filter after u put the new filter on which would be where you messed up... u shoulda kept it on long enough so the new filter will get seeded. you took the old one off so soon the new one didnt seed yet, and now ur brand new filer isn't cycled of course which is why ur params are all whacked out. put the other filter back on with ur new filter on it, and leave it for a few weeks. and do a large water change asap b4 the other filter goes back on.

 

[CHOMPERS]

Yeah, you are only giving us half the story. The way you told it, we are lead to beleave you have a thirty gallon bucket.
This is what I see:
You started out with 30 gallons of water, saved a bucket of the old water, and somewhere ended up with 72 gallons of water in your tanks. You said nothing about how or where that water came from. If you have water changing habits like most people here, you filled your tanks with tap water then added chlorine remover, right? If so, you are starting from scratch again. Adding chlorinated water to your tanks is a no-no.

 

[Sunpoe]

Let me get this straight, you had two tanks(55 and a 29) that were previously cycled? Now you have three tanks that have high levels of ammonia? What did you do with the filter media on the 55 and 29? Return the filters to there original tanks (including the original media). If possible I would mix some of the old media with the new media to "seed" the new whisper. And use water changes in the mean time as the new tank "gets on it's feet."

If you can get bio spira that would also help things along.

Good luck.

 

[STONEDFISH]

You started out with 30 gallons of water, saved a bucket of the old water, and somewhere ended up with 72 gallons of water in your tanks. You said nothing about how or where that water came from. If you have water changing habits like most people here, you filled your tanks with tap water then added chlorine remover, right? If so, you are starting from scratch again. Adding chlorinated water to your tanks is a no-no.

Not to be a prick, but 29+52=81.

I have a big 20+ gallon tub with handles.. so there was probably just over 20 gallons of old water that went into the new tank. The rest of the 81 gallons water came from the tap, via my Python. So not accounting for gravel and decor and assuming the tanks are completely full, 36% of the water in the two tanks was "old".

So what you are telling is when I use my Python to drain/fill the tank and then add stress coat or prime, I'm screwing my tanks up? How do you add the stuff if you use a Python then?

I just hit all my tanks with an emergency dose of Prime.

stndfsh

 

[STONEDFISH]

Let me get this straight, you had two tanks(55 and a 29) that were previously cycled? Now you have three tanks that have high levels of ammonia? What did you do with the filter media on the 55 and 29?

I used all the carbon out of the Whisper 40 bag, and half of the carbon in my other Magnum HOT on the 55. I put a new bag in the Whisper and topped the two Magnums off with fresh carbon. My 55 has the Magnum HOT and a Whisper 60.. I didn't touch the bags in the Whisper 60. The 29 has the Whisper 40 and a Penguin BioWheel 200.. I didn't touch the Penguin.

Off to fight the ammonia and nitrates!!
stndfsh!!!!!!

 

[Bderick67]

Well I read all 3 of your posts and it's kanida hard to follow but here's my suggestions and thoughs,

1. Are you sure your test strips are correct, May want to buy another kit just to make sure.

2. If you have ammonia in your tank, this is very bad for the immedeate health of your fish. Don't worry about slowing the cycle process, worry about the fishes health. you need to dose daily with prime and do 50% daily water changes.

3. With your filter selections, you do not have very good biological filteration. Carbon is not a biologcal media, So your magnum HOT are only good for mechanical and chemical filtration. The whisper filters don't have much area for benefical bactera, just the small sponge in front. Your best filter is the Peng bio wheel 200.

4. when you add untreated water to your tanks with the python, you are adding chlorine, which kills your benefical bacteria. My guess is that you added so much untreated water that it wiped out your relativly small colonies of benefical bactera. leaving you with uncycled tanks.

 

[STONEDFISH]

Geez, you think you know a little about something and it turns out you know squat!!
So if carbon isn't good filter media what should I fill the canisters with? Why do they put carbon in all the filters if it sucks? And so as far the Python goes.... useless for filling fish tanks?
Well, sounds like I gotta go do 50% water changes to three of my tanks. I should enjoy breaking my back with buckets.

STONEDFISH!!!!!!!!!!

 

[eh1421]

by moving carbon from filter to filter you are doing nothing
carbon is a chemical filter that will only remove meds and chlorine and basically any chemical that is present in the water
what you should of did is removed some of the other media such as filterfloss or bioballs or sponges etc. etc. etc.
anything that bacteria grows on
take some of that from a seeded filter and put it in your new filter and this will
speed up your cycle

as for the python
that is how i change the water in all ten of my tanks
just be sure you add some type of water conditioner as you are filling (such as prime which is what i use)

hope this helps

mike