Need a little advice

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ikevi

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Nov 19, 2006
1,228
17
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Oregon
So I just got in my 240... And I am trying to decide what I want to use for filtration. At the moment I am planning on for sure moving over my Fx5, and my AQ 110. The problem is that even with those filters plus a xp3 I still had an Oscar start to develop hole in the head. (Weekly water changes etc)

So this tank will basically be moving all the fish in the 120 over to the 240. And it is a decent amount of fish. Should I just buy more bio material and pack the 3rd basket with it, and then just use the AC as sponge filtering? (At the moment I think I have 2 baskets full of bio, 1 with charcoal.) Or do people think it would be wise to just pick up another Fx5, since they are what ~200 on e-bay.
 
What do your water params tell you? Did you have any amounts of ammonia or nitrites? How fast would your nitrates rise between water changes?
 
I wouldn't really see a rise. I am out of ammonia tests, but even now (a week after last water change) my nitrites read <.3 mg/l. Hence I am confused on why this is happening. (IE all the other fish are doing great, but this guy has 2 spots now.)
 
My oscars also have hole in the head, and I know that it is not a water quality issue. It is frustrating, but I have just learned to deal with it. I have tried so many things to try and remedy the situation, but nothing with much success. They breed and are otherwise happy though.
 
im not sure of the cause of hole in the head...some argue water quality some argue activated carbon...in the end you do the best you can do for your fish and thats all you can do.
 
Really carbon? Because I do have some in my filter. I will pull it out and see if it gets better. I mean honestly I feel I should have plenty of bio-material... (I have what ~4-5 containers of Seachem Biofilter media.) And then I clean the tank plenty. (IE I never see any feces now that I have a bare-bottom tank.)
 
If you are reading amounts of nitrites and not much of a rise in nitrates, then I would say you are lacking in biofiltration. With a FX5, XP3 and an AC110 you should have more then enough capacity for an adiquate amount of biomedia to support a 120g.

As far as surface area to support beneficial bacteria, the Seachem Matrix is very poor compared to Fluval/Hagan's Biomax or Ehiems Ehfisubstrate.
 
Huh? I am reading the lowest level I have to read...

And I use both... Seachem and fluval. And why do you say it is poor? Because they don't advertise that they have almost an acre in 1 box for bio material to be on? Honestly I am very doubtful of any claims... Let alone if it really is that fine then there would be no room for the water to actually flow through. Anyways all we really need is porous material and I have enough to keep water parameters in order, like I said I don't see anything bad, yet the fish still has H.I.T.H. hence something isn't right.

Anywho I have another filter coming and more bio-material. At the moment I am keeping the Os in the 120 and have moved everyone else to the 240.
 
One more update... I was dumb real dumb. I forgot that my water likes to drop without a buffer or plants... And well it dropped... and lets just say I am not hopefully raising it some. Hopefully that was the problem.
 
I have tried removing carbon, and now all I have is two huge sponge filters running on my oscar tanks and I still have HITH. I read that it could be electrical current from pumps and stuff also...so that is why I have the sponge filters on air pumps. It makes it easier when they breed, but the HITH remains the same.
 
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