Thanks again big fish. Interestingly my long term goal is to keep freshwater rays. So I'd love to talk with you more eventually. Unfortunately, I have to use stress coat because it dechlorinates the water. I live in a small apartment and don't have storage to keep several buckets in order to get water from the fish store. I don't mess with my filter at all. Your theory there makes sense though. Especially since that would be the second bacteria developing correct? So I keep getting mixed opinions on the prime. What is the main purpose for it? Any other opinions on prime? Thanks again budd.
wow...
so how do you clean your filters? Any chance you killed the cycle that way? When cleaning filters make sure you using old tank. Water changes don't kill cycle even 95%, the bacteria (good stuff) lives mostly on the filter media.
As far as getting back on track I would say you need to be 70-90% wc daily 25% is simply not enough. Feed only once a day, very small amount to see if anyone is interested, if not siphon out the food after 5 min.
no meds are needed here. sounds like its simply a water quality issue / cycle issue. I would keep the lights off during this time to promote resting and not further stress them out. also make sure remove all that ornaments and give the substrate a clean. add a bunch of floating plants which will help improve water quality, every little bit counts. Add only a few decor (things for the fish to hid in but nothing excessive till they are healthy. You need to be able to see if someone died or how they are doing in general. With too much decor it could hide dead fish or fish waste which is bad.
Keep temps mid 70's too high and it makes it harder for them to breath.
Add air stones if you can, keep high surface agitation. prime is the best dechlor, use it.
so how do you clean your filters? Any chance you killed the cycle that way? When cleaning filters make sure you using old tank. Water changes don't kill cycle even 95%, the bacteria (good stuff) lives mostly on the filter media.
As far as getting back on track I would say you need to be 70-90% wc daily 25% is simply not enough. Feed only once a day, very small amount to see if anyone is interested, if not siphon out the food after 5 min.
no meds are needed here. sounds like its simply a water quality issue / cycle issue. I would keep the lights off during this time to promote resting and not further stress them out. also make sure remove all that ornaments and give the substrate a clean. add a bunch of floating plants which will help improve water quality, every little bit counts. Add only a few decor (things for the fish to hid in but nothing excessive till they are healthy. You need to be able to see if someone died or how they are doing in general. With too much decor it could hide dead fish or fish waste which is bad.
Keep temps mid 70's too high and it makes it harder for them to breath.
Add air stones if you can, keep high surface agitation. prime is the best dechlor, use it.
I have only cleaned the filters once, in a bucket of tank water. They have only once had build up on them that needed to be cleaned. I can clearly see all the fish at all times when I check the tank with my decor in there now. Would removing that decor not remove the BB with it? Isn't that the exact opposite of what I'm trying to do? It has a large air pump with lots of surface agitation and aeration and everyone has been eating very well. Temp stays at 78 which I have always read is right for freshwater tropical. Every time I do a water change I clean the substrate with the vac. Move ornaments to one side clean the substrate till it's running clear. Move ornaments to the other side and do the same thing. So as long as I can see them, wouldn't removing the ornaments just remove more BB and make it worse?
Thanks for the help and another vote for prime. I'll get some live plants and prime it up then.
Thanks for the help and another vote for prime. I'll get some live plants and prime it up then.
I had an idea... when we put the rope fish in I had his bag clamped on the side. When we went to get him out of the bag I slipped and accidentally got a bit of the fish stores water in my water. Since I have never had any signs or symptoms of high nitrite levels before, until I dropped the rope fish in, is it possible that getting That small amount of the lfs water in my tank was the culprit?
Not very likely, the short amount of time the rope fish was in that water shouldn't have made all that much ammonia to overload your bio. I kinda think it may be a coincidence that this all happened when you added the rope fish. It may have happened any way. Nitrite spikes are rough! I forgot, how long has uour tank had fish in it?
No no, I meant could have spilling the water from the LFS tank into my tank caused it. Not putting the rope in. It's had fish in it for about 8-9 weeks with no signs or symptoms until the rope. Most likely a coincidence I agree but still was wandering if getting there water in mine could've had anything to do with it.
Hello; This does not seem likely to me. First it was a small amount. Next if the bb that convert nitrites were in place in sufficient numbers they would convert the nitrite before long. Perhaps a brief spike but the nitrite levels should not persist.
Another tidbit to either add to the confusion or hopefully clear things up a bit. The relationship between the types of bb and the waste byproducts they consume is dynamic. (I will only use ammonia but a similar relationship exists with nitrites.) If you add a large fish or a number of small fish to a even a cycled tank then for a time the new fish will be producing ammonia in excess of what the established bb population has been use to getting. The bb will increase their population fairly soon as there will be more nutrients available for this. With a well established bb population and with other conditions being to their liking, they should reproduce quickly and you should only get a brief spike of ammonia.
If you remove big fish then the supply of ammonia is reduced and the population of bb will die back to be in balance. This of course will not generate a spike as their are more bb than the nutrients they need.
There are a couple of things we can do when adding a relatively large fish. One is to stop feeding for a day or two as this should reduce the metabolism byproducts of fish digestion and also the decay of excess uneaten food.
A WC for the reasons already mentioned.
hello; correct me on this but you were still at the time using test strips?? It may remove some of the confusion if the results while using the test strips are disregarded as part of your thinking.
