Hey fish folk. My tank has crashed and going through a cycle…. Again. But this time it doesn’t seem to be doing anything. The water is almost lime green and nearly impossible to see through. I’ve held off water changes as I’ve messed up before by doing them. But now I’ve read that high ammonia can stall the cycle. Do I let it run its course or do I do a water change. I have fish in there so I worry about them.
Tank cycle
- Thread starter BOOMSHAKER
- Start date
I personally would do a water change. The fish are at risk if you don't.
I made a major mess up. I took a filter off my big tank to use on a smaller tank. But after a few weeks I decided against the smaller tank and put the filter back on the big tank. Then I added 4 big bass, around 10-11 inch a piece, then I forgot I was draining my tank and took out way too much water. So I’ve basically asked for trouble really.
I'm assuming the population of beneficial bacteria dwindled down when you add the filter back to the larger aquarium. Adding the larger fish possibly not enough beneficial bacteria to convert the ammonia to nitrite and nitrate fast enough. I suggest testing the water parameters during your water changes also feed less food at this time.
I think I've finally learned enough here to try and help others now
What size is your tank? What fish were in there before you added the 4 large bass? Was your tank cycled before this happened??
A large water change should not affect a cycled tank.
My guess is that either your tank was not and is not cycled, or that you did not have much of a bio-load in there and then adding 4 very large fish majorly increased your bio-load too suddenly and your BB established for what was the current stocking couldn't keep up.
Need to know more details....
As said above, keep testing your water parameters....ammonia will kill them.
Do you have direct sunlight or a very close window to the tank?
My tank is 8x2x2. There was only a bass, a small Datnoid, three silver dollars and two Oscar’s in there. It was perfect. Water was crystal clear and all tests were showing good. Maybe a little high in nitrates. Then after switching filters and adding the new guys, it’s gone stupidly green. Test show high ammonia and nitrate but no nitrite.
Can you de stock and transfer larger fish to fully cycled tank until your tank has completed its re cycle. You can’t overdose nitrifying bacteria so dump a whole heap in.
It doesn't matter how many, or how few, or how large or small the fish or the tank may be; once it's cycled, that just means that it has enough bacteria to handle that bioload, i.e. to process the ammonia produced by that particular population of fish. If you increase the bioload a little bit...add a fish or two...there's going to be a blip in the ammonia level for a short time, perhaps a few hours, until the bacterial colony increases to catch up to this new ammonia production level.
If your tank had a single fish in it, it was cycled for that much ammonia production. Adding another similar-sized fish doubles the ammonia output, and requires the bacterial population to double as well...but even that only takes a day or so and you likely won't even notice a spike in ammonia because it will be over so quickly.
I can't follow exactly what you did from that post but it sounds like you threw several large fish into a sparsely-populated cycled tank, so you might've increased the bioload by a factor or 4 or 5 or even more? That'll take a bit longer to accommodate, and so you are more aware of the spike. Ideally, you would introduce those fish in stages and minimize feeding for a day or so allow for a smooth transition to the higher bioload.
An interesting manipulation of logic brought you to the conclusion that a water change is not necessary or even beneficial...but no, in a case like this, a couple of big water changes would help dilute the ammonia and give your bacterial colony a chance to ramp up to deal with it before it impacts the fish. Maybe those bottled bacteria mentioned by
RyanScanner
would be useful here also, but I don't have any experience with those so I won't comment.
Your green water is a separate but related issue. It's simply algae, which likely exploded into high gear at least partially due to the higher ammonia. Plants do consume ammonia, so the green water is an unsightly but actually helpful way of reducing the ammonia levels somewhat until the bacteria are able to do it. It also helps lower your high nitrate levels to some extent...but not enough to get you out of those pesky water changes.
Water changes are not rocket science; they're about the most basic and easiest part of the fish-keeping hobby, and are the natural answer to almost all of the basic problems, including this one. Don't "hold off" on them because you think you will make things worse; in virtually every case, the opposite is true.
If your tank had a single fish in it, it was cycled for that much ammonia production. Adding another similar-sized fish doubles the ammonia output, and requires the bacterial population to double as well...but even that only takes a day or so and you likely won't even notice a spike in ammonia because it will be over so quickly.
I can't follow exactly what you did from that post but it sounds like you threw several large fish into a sparsely-populated cycled tank, so you might've increased the bioload by a factor or 4 or 5 or even more? That'll take a bit longer to accommodate, and so you are more aware of the spike. Ideally, you would introduce those fish in stages and minimize feeding for a day or so allow for a smooth transition to the higher bioload.
An interesting manipulation of logic brought you to the conclusion that a water change is not necessary or even beneficial...but no, in a case like this, a couple of big water changes would help dilute the ammonia and give your bacterial colony a chance to ramp up to deal with it before it impacts the fish. Maybe those bottled bacteria mentioned by
RyanScanner
would be useful here also, but I don't have any experience with those so I won't comment.Your green water is a separate but related issue. It's simply algae, which likely exploded into high gear at least partially due to the higher ammonia. Plants do consume ammonia, so the green water is an unsightly but actually helpful way of reducing the ammonia levels somewhat until the bacteria are able to do it. It also helps lower your high nitrate levels to some extent...but not enough to get you out of those pesky water changes.
Water changes are not rocket science; they're about the most basic and easiest part of the fish-keeping hobby, and are the natural answer to almost all of the basic problems, including this one. Don't "hold off" on them because you think you will make things worse; in virtually every case, the opposite is true.