Issue with QT Tank

[Fish Tank Travis]

Hello; For decades I have cleaned tanks with a salt paste. I get non-iodized table salt although forum members have said any table salt is ok.

I make a paste of salt and a little water. The salt paste does not scratch glass (as long as there are no sand or gravel bits in it). I some times leave the paste to dry out in hopes it will dessicate any unwanted parasites or bacteria. It rinses out easy.

Thanks, I may have to give that a try.

I have used CLR in the past. It pretty much just rinses the calcified stuff off completely to a brand new looking tank. Of course, you have to be sure it is rinsed out extremely well afterwards.

 

[Drstrangelove]

While this was going on, I pulled some bio media from my running 220 system and filled the two internal filters with it.


Now, my question to you guys is, what did I do wrong?

Well, this is my theory given a lot of the water parameters weren't tested before and only one or two afterwards.

First, when you say "some" bio media, I'm going to assume a little.

Second, given that it was a little, then, I would guess that is what you did wrong. Mature media is the BB on the bio balls, not the bio balls, and when it's moved, a lot of BB comes loose.

When you move the bio balls in the filter or water, a lot of the BB sloughs off into the water or back into the old filter. The BB are useless at that point because they only become active once they have an established surface, not when floating in the water.

The reason seeding with mature media works is because one allows the residual BB on the media to begin growing and expanding onto new media before adding fish. Alternatively one can add an entire mature filter to the new tank which keeps most of the BB in place. Either works. But taking a smaller amount and then tossing a fish in immediately is probably too much too ask.

In short, optimally, either add more BB at the start or allow the BB more time to grow. Imo, what happened is you lost most of the BB off "some" of the transferred media during the handling. Not enough BB was available to handle the bioload.

Glad it eventually worked out, but that's my theory fwiw.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Well, this is my theory given a lot of the water parameters weren't tested before and only one or two afterwards.

First, when you say "some" bio media, I'm going to assume a little.

Second, given that it was a little, then, I would guess that is what you did wrong. Mature media is the BB on the bio balls, not the bio balls, and when it's moved, a lot of BB comes loose.

When you move the bio balls in the filter or water, a lot of the BB sloughs off into the water or back into the old filter. The BB are useless at that point because they only become active once they have an established surface, not when floating in the water.

The reason seeding with mature media works is because one allows the residual BB on the media to begin growing and expanding onto new media before adding fish. Alternatively one can add an entire mature filter to the new tank which keeps most of the BB in place. Either works. But taking a smaller amount and then tossing a fish in immediately is probably too much too ask.

In short, optimally, either add more BB at the start or allow the BB more time to grow. Imo, what happened is you lost most of the BB off "some" of the transferred media during the handling. Not enough BB was available to handle the bioload.

Glad it eventually worked out, but that's my theory fwiw.

I added about three cups of mature ceramic media from my 220 to the internal filters that were empty prior to adding the media, but were still running inside the tank. The media was cycled, and was producing nitrates, as I saw an increase when I tested for them the next morning. I just don't think it had enough beneficial bacteria to keep up with what must have been a very large ammonia source within the substrate. Now that the substrate is gone and the canister tubes are gone, there is literally nothing in the tank that can produce ammonia besides the fire eel itself. Since he hasn't eaten yet, I'm guessing he's producing next to nothing for ammonia and I made sure to just put a few small pinches of bloodworms in so that I could leave them overnight for him in case he wanted to eat. He didn't, and I removed them this morning, but will try again tonight.

I certainly do appreciate all the help you all have offered. I am learning this one the hard way but so far the fish is not lost.