Good....I love my two raphaels but they will not come out of the hole in the fake log for nothing...Left them w/ out water for a good 3 minutes and they still keep themselves wedged in there....so they are gonna stay in the tank...Thanks a ton fellow mfk'ers for helpin me out!
Tank levels good...fish dying?my pbass...
- Thread starter gangster
- Start date
HELP ME OUT guys/girls....Ive been re-cycling my 120g for 8 days now. I cleaned all my filter media and drained my tank and refilled it. I moved all but a pleco and two raphaels into my 55g in the mean time. Everyone in the 55g is a happy camper. But a couple minutes ago my common pleco that is in my 120 helpin w/ the cycling process had a seizure and almost died. This was the reason I emptied my 120g....fish seizing w/ no sign of problems....Ammonia 0, nitrates 0, ph 7.6. Tank levels are good in my 120 and I am once again stumped.....SOmething is messed up...but when the fish go into the 55g they are fine...no seizures no nothing....just fat and happy fish.
You really can't cycle a tank without fish in it... They are necessary to feed the biological filter. Without fish this is unable to develop. Add fish slowly so that the biological filter can develop without completely overloading the system.
You said your nitrates were '0' after the tank having been set up for 7 months, that's extemely odd to have '0' nitrates with only a 30% weekly water change for 7 months. I understand them being '0' now since you took the whole tank down and started over.
You should be using a liquid test kit and checking for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Don't use the dip strips, they're worthless for accurate results.
You should be using a liquid test kit and checking for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Don't use the dip strips, they're worthless for accurate results.
Sorry you are still having problems with the 120G tank. But I do have a lot of questions to maybe pinpoint the problem.
Is the 120G tank brand new or used? Glass or Acrylic?
What is the substrate? Any rock piles?
What other decorations are in the tank? Driftwood- store bought or homegrown?
Plants? Live or fake?
Any DIY background?
What media do you have in the FX5 & Penguin?
Cycling a tank normally can take up to 2 months without fish; maybe a couple weeks with fish. I wouldn't leave any fish I wanted to keep in that tank until it was done cycling.
Did the pleco seize all of a sudden or did you change something in the 6 hrs before it happened? Sorry for all the questions but there definitely has to be something going on in there besides the fact it isn't cycled.
Is the 120G tank brand new or used? Glass or Acrylic?
What is the substrate? Any rock piles?
What other decorations are in the tank? Driftwood- store bought or homegrown?
Plants? Live or fake?
Any DIY background?
What media do you have in the FX5 & Penguin?
Cycling a tank normally can take up to 2 months without fish; maybe a couple weeks with fish. I wouldn't leave any fish I wanted to keep in that tank until it was done cycling.
Did the pleco seize all of a sudden or did you change something in the 6 hrs before it happened? Sorry for all the questions but there definitely has to be something going on in there besides the fact it isn't cycled.
Deeda...120 was bought new(special ordered). Its a glass tank w/ no substrate(bare bottom). The only decoration in the tank now is a large piece of fake wood. No plants...live or fake. I have a black background to ward of algae blooms. In my fx5 I have the foam blocks in each basket..the bottom basket has 3 fine filter pads, middle basket has a large bag of carbon, and the top basket is filled w/ ceramic rings. The penguin has the new style bag filters made for penguin filters. I have 2 pleco's and 2 raphaels in the tank right now as it is cycling.
There has been no changes made to the tank in the last 8 days since its been cycling. The seizures happened before I tore the tank apart for no apparent reason. I have lost a good dozen fish to this 120 and its odd seizure causing ways. Thanks for the help guys/girls.
There has been no changes made to the tank in the last 8 days since its been cycling. The seizures happened before I tore the tank apart for no apparent reason. I have lost a good dozen fish to this 120 and its odd seizure causing ways. Thanks for the help guys/girls.
You need to get a test kit for Ammonia, NitrIte and NitrAte as twistedpenguin suggested. Or take a water sample to your LFS to get tested for these 3 things at least.
When you do a water change, are you adding any water conditioner to eliminate chlorine/chloramine? Are you adding any other products to your tank water?
Is it possible the problem is with the fake wood?
Can you put one of the 'dirty' filter cartridges from the 55G Penguin in the 120G Penguin to help jump start the cycle? You have four large fish in the 120G that hasn't been cycled. You just cleaned all the media in the FX5 & Penguin so there is no good bacteria in them.
Is it possible to post a pic of your tank so we might see something you missed?
When you do a water change, are you adding any water conditioner to eliminate chlorine/chloramine? Are you adding any other products to your tank water?
Is it possible the problem is with the fake wood?
Can you put one of the 'dirty' filter cartridges from the 55G Penguin in the 120G Penguin to help jump start the cycle? You have four large fish in the 120G that hasn't been cycled. You just cleaned all the media in the FX5 & Penguin so there is no good bacteria in them.
Is it possible to post a pic of your tank so we might see something you missed?
I have a test kit for ammonia, nitratate and nitrite, ph, high ph....The problem occured befor the fake wood was introduced to the tank. I will put a filter from the 55g into the 120g. I do not believe the problem is w/ the tank being not cycled. My only guess would be that there is something toxic w/ the glass of the tank or something that is not availible in my test kit.
gangster;2307424; said:
I avoid putting any chemicals in my tank at all costs besides dechlorinator.
Heres the few questions everyone has been getting at.
After 7 months, nitrATes are at 0.... that surely points out to everyone that your cycle isnt completed yet.
Brief recap. Amonia ->nitrIte -> nitrAte. Often times you dont have nitrAtes because you don't have the correct bacteria to convert from the nitrites to the nitrates.
Now to the algae fix chemical you're using. What type of algae are you getting? If it's to try and fix green or cloudy water(bacterial) then that's another sign that your phosfates are too high or your beneficial bacterial is not established to control the clouding effect.
Depending on the chemical, it can be harmful to the beneficial bacteria in the filters. You could be nuking that bacteria every time you treat your algae problem. If it's the type of chemical that "clears" your water, it's bonding the algae/other debris which will make then larger so that your filter can collect them. thus plugging up your filter/choking out the oxygen which can kill off the bene bacteria, restarting your cycling process.
Next, we have another element to the cycling process. If i cycle a tank, with 1 goldfish. That tank has enough beneficial bacteria to process the waste of 1 goldfish. Now I test the waters and see that my tank is cycled, awesome!
I add in 5 large Pbass, a pleco, cats, etc. The night goes by, and I have enough bene bacteria to process 1 goldfish worth of waste. The rest of the waste is trapped in amonia or nitrite. the bacteria to process from amonia to nitrite establishes pretty quick, but it takes a while to go from nitrites to nitrates.
So you probably lose a fish, and see no nitrates, or amonia, skipping over nitrites. So you do a water change, cause that can't hurt. Lowering the amonia/nitrites in the water. Basically you put a bandaid on the problem. The next day or two, you have more die off, the shock from high amonia/nitrite levels.
Any one of these could be the cause of your problems. Getting into a rush, and trying to "QUICK FIX" the problem is what is causing your problems. You have to build an aquarium 1 fish at at time. It's just like if you baked 1 cookie, and put yourself on the market and got an order for 10,000 cookies you'd be overwhemled and not ready to accomplish that, and you crash. Same thing happens to your aquarium, when you don't build it one step at a time.
