Transfering RTG to New 180g Tank.
- Thread starter Cliff.W.
- Start date
Cliff.W.;4195864; said:
Adding the bio max will not help right away, It will take a couple weeks for the bacteria to colonize the biomax. Myself I would try to keep both sponges and do as I suggested, along with adding the bio max
I'm planning to get a 180 G, already have a brand new fx5, just bought a rena xp4 and I'll be using a ac50. My point is: you need more filtration or at the least more wter circulation.
Wow, a lot of people all over the place here... Your slowly killing that arowana...
Your tank is cloudy because your params are not okay. Every time you rinse your sponges you are killing your bacteria that eats your amonia and nitrites and turn them into nitrates. Amonia and nitrites will make your tank cloudy, and take a while to remove. I have 1 ac110 running a heavily stocked 90 gallon. Your filters are just set up very bad. What you need to do is just put the sponge in the bottom of the ac110. Then put the biomax on top of the ac110 sponge. Turn on the filter and leave it. Then follow this schedule......
Week one: take hose and drain 25% of water, but save a 5 gallon bucket full. Take the bio max out of the filter and swish around in 5 gallon bucket, TANK WATER ONLY. Then take the sponge and rinse it out really good. Put sponge back and leave media in 5g bucket. Make sure your tank is drained 25%, and begin to fill back up with fresh new dechlorinated water. Once filled and dechlorinated, replace bio max back on top of filter and turn on. Repeat each week.
Note: Be sure to clean sand or gravel while doing draining water.
^^^^
Follow these steps and you will not have a problem ever again with water on your 75. You don't need more filtration, you need a routine that will work. You also need to read up on "cycle" and the difference between biological media and mechanical.
If you have any more questions feel free to PM me. I personally used 2 ac110s on my 180 with 2 12 inch plus jags breeding. Filtration is all about proper set up and a good routine.
Your tank is cloudy because your params are not okay. Every time you rinse your sponges you are killing your bacteria that eats your amonia and nitrites and turn them into nitrates. Amonia and nitrites will make your tank cloudy, and take a while to remove. I have 1 ac110 running a heavily stocked 90 gallon. Your filters are just set up very bad. What you need to do is just put the sponge in the bottom of the ac110. Then put the biomax on top of the ac110 sponge. Turn on the filter and leave it. Then follow this schedule......
Week one: take hose and drain 25% of water, but save a 5 gallon bucket full. Take the bio max out of the filter and swish around in 5 gallon bucket, TANK WATER ONLY. Then take the sponge and rinse it out really good. Put sponge back and leave media in 5g bucket. Make sure your tank is drained 25%, and begin to fill back up with fresh new dechlorinated water. Once filled and dechlorinated, replace bio max back on top of filter and turn on. Repeat each week.
Note: Be sure to clean sand or gravel while doing draining water.
^^^^
Follow these steps and you will not have a problem ever again with water on your 75. You don't need more filtration, you need a routine that will work. You also need to read up on "cycle" and the difference between biological media and mechanical.
If you have any more questions feel free to PM me. I personally used 2 ac110s on my 180 with 2 12 inch plus jags breeding. Filtration is all about proper set up and a good routine.
wow...a lot of people getting on this thread that i initially thought was a simple transfer of bio from old tank to new tank setup...
Cliff, now i/we know why your RTG was having problem...it's the water (nitrite [and possibly amonia too spikes] mostly certainly if you rinse filter sponges under the tap). that's good because it was a big unknown - it's hard to see a good RTG causing that much of damage and not knowing the root cause.
Do filter cleaning as TheCanuck described because i do the same thing for years. and whoever told you not to use the biomax (the ceremic round tubes as you described) in the filter is wrong (or you might misunderstood him/her!) because that's how bacteria colonizes the bio load in your aquarium which breaks up your nitrite. just keep in mind that the bacteria/bio is needed for your aquarium and chlorine in tap water kills it and that's why we de-chlorinate the new water going into the tank during water changes.
good luck.
Edit: after re-reading TheCanuck's post, i would recommend to also rinse the sponges IN THE TANK WATER as well if TheCanuck didn't mean to say that.
Cliff, now i/we know why your RTG was having problem...it's the water (nitrite [and possibly amonia too spikes] mostly certainly if you rinse filter sponges under the tap). that's good because it was a big unknown - it's hard to see a good RTG causing that much of damage and not knowing the root cause.
Do filter cleaning as TheCanuck described because i do the same thing for years. and whoever told you not to use the biomax (the ceremic round tubes as you described) in the filter is wrong (or you might misunderstood him/her!) because that's how bacteria colonizes the bio load in your aquarium which breaks up your nitrite. just keep in mind that the bacteria/bio is needed for your aquarium and chlorine in tap water kills it and that's why we de-chlorinate the new water going into the tank during water changes.
good luck.
Edit: after re-reading TheCanuck's post, i would recommend to also rinse the sponges IN THE TANK WATER as well if TheCanuck didn't mean to say that.
I think one big thing you need to know is when "cleaning" bio media is you're simple rinsing or squeezing the gunk out of the media versus actually getting it sparking clean. As mentioned above, cleaning the filter media in the old tank water that you took out during a water change will help lessen the loss of bacteria because the tank water has no chlorines.
Side note: the more bio media you have the more stable your tank will be!
good luck!
Side note: the more bio media you have the more stable your tank will be!
good luck!
Bderick67;4196278; said:
ok.. so what I did was took out one sponge from each of the AC110's and Sliced one in half. I then placed the BIOMAX ontop of the sponge in the AC110's and placed 1/2 piece of sponge on top of the bio max. Now my AC110's are packed solid all the way to top.
TheCanuck;4196655; said:
OH man... I had no idea i was killing the bacteria i thought they were hardy SOB's in the sponges... So the Bio media's are in and I have copied and pasted your notes above, Gonna start doing that instead of what i did before.
I think i'm going to keep my RTG in my 75g for a couple of weeks and get my new 180g tank cycled before i put my RTG in the new tank. BUT is 2 weeks enough? What I'm planning to do is put 1 of the AC110's onto the 180g for 2 weeks to run and cycle and keep 1 AC110 on my 75g to keep my RTg alive with WC's every 3 days to help out. Would 2 week be enough for 1 AC110 to cycle my new 180g??
arodini;4196785; said:
Oh yah... I had no idea i was killing the bacteria like that... I feel so bad for my RTG right now... poor fella. But yah Biomax is in and just need to wait I guess. At the mean time I'll just do WC's every 2 or 3 days just to keep water cleaner. The water was cloudy last night so I did a WC and it looks a litte better now.
Thanks for the help ALL I really appreciate your time making Posts.
