just orderd overnight shipment for testkit plus the stress zyme and some stress coat as for filter bioload I am going to be replaceing the carbon pads(I use cut eheim carbon pad pieces)once I get everything and also am going to be adding plants(swords and telanthera) as well as frogbit to aid in filteration altho I believe it is mini cycle since filter was so dirty and im adding more air pumps for more oxegen but my concern is wat should I do for now as I said only bottom feeders are acting strange the hatchetfish and tetras are fine I did water change earlier and im keeping my emergency air pump on and not going to feed the corys keep digging as well as breathing heavy and plec keeps fanning should everything be okay till shipment comes?
something wrong with tank need advice and help
- Thread starter cudamaster13
- Start date
just orderd overnight shipment for testkit plus the stress zyme and some stress coat as for filter bioload I am going to be replaceing the carbon pads(I use cut eheim carbon pad pieces)once I get everything and also am going to be adding plants(swords and telanthera) as well as frogbit to aid in filteration altho I believe it is mini cycle since filter was so dirty and im adding more air pumps for more oxegen but my concern is wat should I do for now as I said only bottom feeders are acting strange the hatchetfish and tetras are fine I did water change earlier and im keeping my emergency air pump on and not going to feed the corys keep digging as well as breathing heavy and plec keeps fanning should everything be okay till shipment comes?
I am not positive as to why your fish are behaving like that, its to little info to go off of. I can tell you that doing a water change andcleaning the filters on the same day is not a great idea it can kill off to much bb and throw your tank into a cycle. Test your water and treat for ammonia/nitrite as those are the two you would prob. be most concerned with. I am not going to say its anything in particular until you have water chems b/c right now it's really just guessing. It sounds like the water is well oxygnated at this point. If you have a spike you can treat the water. You can do small water changes with water treatments (I would dose for the entire tank) to help bring the levels down, you can add in something like stability to help as well (I don't know how effective this is). Good luck.
There is little to no BB in the water, so changing it at the same time as cleaning your filter shouldn't make a difference, it certainly hasn't with any of my set ups. What will make a difference, IMO, is how often you clean your filter. Not sure what sort of filter we're talking about in this thread, but using canisters as an example, if you let them get filthy dirty so the bio media requires a thorough clean you are far more likely to damage the BB than if you clean frequently so the bio media just needs a quick dunk in a bucket of tank water. The fact that the OP said his filter was "so dirty" reinforces that. Thorough cleaning of your bio media can easily lead to mini-cycles. Having sufficient mechanical filtration before the bio and cleaning it regularly will avoid the need for thoroughly cleaning the bio media, thus avoiding mini-cycles.
From my understanding the reason its bad to do water changes at the same time you do filter changes has to do with the loss of bb from the filter as well as in the tank. The water its self may not cause an issue in just changing, but you do still have some bb in the tank on the decor (like rocks) and substrate. I run canisters and the three times I did a water change (one time I did a full scrub down, on two of the times it was just a water change/vac) and cleaned the canister at the same time I had issues, and ended up with ammonia spikes each time. When I did not do them at the same time, I never had any problems. I like to scrub down the glass on the inside of the tank, vac it and scrub down the rocks so that is what I mean by full scrub down for the one time. I would clean my canister once a month and yes, they needed to be cleaned but they were not very dirty. I did some research/reading/discussing way back when I was having that issue and that was what I found/ what came out of it. I was losing to much bb between the water change and filter changes. It was just an issue I ended up having, so I alternated did a w/c one week and the filter cleaning on another and never had a problem again.
As for statement, I do not disagree with it.
I am just throwing something else out there because I did run into problems.
As for statement, I do not disagree with it.
I am just throwing something else out there because I did run into problems.
I agree without knowing more about the tank setup, and the procedures done its hard to say for sure...
I personally only ever clean out one canister at a time, wont do both on the same day to ensure i can help the cleaned out one build BB faster...
As for the water change + cleaning canisters, i guess part of the problem is there is ammonia etc in there already, which can again help the cleaned out filter regain BB faster?
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I personally only ever clean out one canister at a time, wont do both on the same day to ensure i can help the cleaned out one build BB faster...
As for the water change + cleaning canisters, i guess part of the problem is there is ammonia etc in there already, which can again help the cleaned out filter regain BB faster?
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OP I hope everything is working out, keep us updated on what is going on!
I am not positive I don't know a ton about water chemistry. I know ammonia is good in small amounts to help gain the bb, I also thought that too much ammonia could also cause a die off of bb? It may come down to the water source its self and the levels that it contains and how its treated?
I am not positive I don't know a ton about water chemistry. I know ammonia is good in small amounts to help gain the bb, I also thought that too much ammonia could also cause a die off of bb? It may come down to the water source its self and the levels that it contains and how its treated?
ammonia should never ever be traced. if ur filter is working the bb will take in all the ammonia and it will never show on a test kit if ur filter is adequate. bb feeds of ammonia, turns it into nitrite, then into nitrates which are depleted through water changes and plants. too much ammonia cannot cause a bb die off, but the reason ur bb may not be efficient is cos like david said, it could be wiped out through a clean. I clean my filter media every two weeks, and always leave some in there.
That doesnt explain the issue I had a while back though. I understand how the nitrogen cycle works and a tank is established and why its important to watch certain parameters out of tap, etc. What I was trying to understand a long time ago is why when I clean my filter and did a waterchange I had issues, but I had no issues if I did them sepratley. I cleaned my filters regularaly (once a month) that was not really all that ditry (def. not dirty where it would have required any type of extensive cleanings that would have killed off bb - I understand how that works, which is why I said that I don't disagree with what David stated). If the filter was the issue in my case, then I would expect to have the issue each time that I would have cleaned my filter. I only had the problem 3 times and all 3 times the only differnece in what I did was I cleaned the filter and did a water change at the same time. That issue lead me to start asking question and looking for anwsers. I am no chemist so I can't say what the issue was for sure, but my research/asking around lead to the conclusion that I had posted above. This also happened way back in like 2006 so I don't doubt that better information might be available now.
As for ammonia I was just replying back with a question. I am not positive but I have read before that in very high levels it could kill or slow down bb. I put a ? because I was not positive about that fact that I had read.
As for ammonia I was just replying back with a question. I am not positive but I have read before that in very high levels it could kill or slow down bb. I put a ? because I was not positive about that fact that I had read.
everything is fine now I got my test kit and more stress zyme fed small amount of spirluna flakes and added more stress zyme and stress coat and have other powerhead going still will keep updated
