Sand in a Aquarium

[FiremouthGem]

Personally would avoid getting more to add to the stock list, possibly change more water and or Rinse the canister filter media in old tank water, while testing your water perimeters. Maybe add plants that may help lower nitrates that wont get chucked around or something. Would also avoid feeding things like cheese and bread.

 

[Backfromthedead]

Again if you read my other post the only problem I had with my tank ever was cloudy water and PH crashing. As of today my Ammonia is 0 Nitrite 0 PH 6.8 Nitrate 10-20

Cloudy water can be a symptom of a bacterial bloom, which in turn can be a symptom of elevated ammonia, nitrite, or Nitrate toxicity. A "ph crash" as you describe it can be triggered by excessive levels of nitrite or Nitrate in the water. High levels of any of these pollutants can have an adverse effect on levels of dissolved oxygen in the water. A large pimelodid like TSN prefers highly oxygenated water....ughhh honestly man I could on and on but if you honestly think changing your substrate and adding more fish to an unstable tank is a good idea I'm just wasting my time. Those parameters sound great if you can maintain them for several months without incident maybe then consider expanding your stock.

 

[Oscar Mike]

The problem was when I had the Stingrays they would not eat anything, but bloodworms or other Frozen food like Frozen squid cubs, but the other frozen varieties made a huge mess in the tank. Even after starving them for a few days. I could try brands of Frozen Bloodworms that Add proteins to them if there is a next time.
The Tiger Shovelnose Catfish would eat anything I gave it. Frozen Fish, cheese, bread or imitation crab. My Florida Gar is a little more pick, but will eat most things. again my Longnose Gar will only eat Bloodworms

Ok heres what I would recommend. Rehome the longnose unless you have plans for a much larger tank or pond in the near future. The Florida should be ok in the 180 for a long time but the longnose will quickly outgrow it and continue to cause problems.

Don't feed things like cheese, bread, meat from land animals, etc as most fish cannot properly metabolize the amino acids and fiber in these sources of protein. Adult fish can go a month without eating, continue to offer things like prawns until they start eating but bread and cheese should never be an option. Stop feeding frozen cubes, they are primarily made up of (dirty) water and meant for juveniles of certain species, not gars. They are low in protein and will only foul your water quality.

Like I mentioned in your other thread the pH crash was most likely due to "old tank syndrome" (ie. doing small infrequent water changes and not cleaning filters often enough) and occured gradually over time, not overnight. The gars were able to acclimate to the lower pH and higher nitrates while the sensitive rays could not. The newly added catfish was probably stressed, but when you noticed the dead rays and cleaned everything he probably couldn't adjust to the new water chemistry.

Don't be discouraged everyone makes mistakes the important part is learning from them. It sounds like you have much better turnover rate now so keep doing 20% water changes daily until the pH is the same as your tap water, then do at least 50% WC's weekly (I do fin level 2-3 times a week) and clean the canisters monthly. Feed pellets, shrimp and tilapia not cubes and terrestrial proteins. Also if you have more than 1-2" of sand take some out so gas pockets don't accumulate.

 

[Joshuakahan]

I don't over feed by far. I feed 6 pieces of imitation Crab 2 times a day and a few times a week I feed frozen Blood Worms. Sometimes it seems like the Catfish throws up the Imitation Crab because I see the Imitation Crab looking like cotton floating in the tank later after I see the Catfish eating.
When I do feed blood worms and the left overs fall to the ground I clean it up with in a hour.

I was saying maybe the Catfish moving around stirs up the Sand. I now have way enough Filtration and the best filter of all time. fluval.

That sounds like a feeding issue to me, I’d cut out the fake crab