Ultimatum !!! Help with tank !
- Thread starter Pataphysicist
- Start date
Yeah i added a cup of aquarium salt, 1 x Tablespoon per 5 Gallons of water ratio. This morning i checked on the Seachem ammonia alert and Seachem PH alert and the PH still at 6.0 and ammonia is at 0.05 PPM ( alert color ). As soon as i get home today from work ill add another dosage of prime and continue process, Safestart should be here today , so ill start the BB dosage tomorrow or maybe today if it gets here before i add more prime to the tank. All my fish in the tank are acting normal as in now, and none of their eyes are burnt , only one who suffered this faith was the clown knife, one of his eyes are fine but the other one is white. Maybe after the tank settles, he pulls through and his eye gets better :/ . I noticed the gars skin is flaky , like if the ammonia burn took their slime coat off, theyre doing fine, hardy little suckers. Arowana is unreal how nothing happened to her, perfect eyes, no flaky skin, appetite still on point. Keeping fingers crossed.
Sounds like your situation is improving a bit at least. I would test to see for nitrites if you haven't, probably like every day. Nitrites will give you proof the tank is cycling and some peace of mind, just don't let them build up too much.
I had a question for you guys. After going through all of this, the one thing that tells me why my system crashed is due to low bio filtration to handle the water changes. Maybe it was the Prime refills, maybe not. Ill never know for sure, since my 75 gallon have been treated with the same thing and never had a problem with it. The one thing that I have different on my 75 is my first HOB filter I purchased of walmart 3 years ago when I first got into the hobby. A tetra whisperer rated for 50 gallon lol. I think I cleaned that filter maybe 3-4 times in 3 years? got so much slime all over it, but I ignore it since I have the AC110's doing the job. Maybe that little tetra is the real BB winner here. Now on my 220 I run the Eheim 2262 Canister with amazing bio filtration, expensive too . Matrix / biohome/ Eheim Substrate pro. That's all there is inside that canister.
I also run 2 x SunSun's 402 that frankly, do little to nothing to help my filtration, being honest. I opened them a month ago after not opening them for 2 months and all the media was literally clean, as if they were brand new, which tells me they're not doing their job too well.
I also run 2 x Ac110's , but we all know that's nothing for a 220 , I just use them for Filter Floss and Purigen or Chemi Pure Elite, I switch back and forth.
So it comes down that's the real filtration on my 220, its the Eheim 2262, I know that's not enough to filter a tank this size, with fish this size. I know I should buy another eheim 2262 and call it the day and be safe for good. But right now is not a good time to drop $ 450 - 500 on another, specially after this disaster of losing fish and buying stuff to fish the issue.
So here it goes, should I add substrate to my tank and quit the bare bottom look? At least until I can get some more filtration? I have a local rock/plants spot that has amazing small river rocks, all natural and very cheap. Should I add them to the tank for some BB, which is going to help with filtration? or should I stay the same. Ill only be adding enough gravel for BB colonies to be there, not too much where I have to constantly be gravel vacuuming. Let me know guys, Thank you
I also run 2 x SunSun's 402 that frankly, do little to nothing to help my filtration, being honest. I opened them a month ago after not opening them for 2 months and all the media was literally clean, as if they were brand new, which tells me they're not doing their job too well.
I also run 2 x Ac110's , but we all know that's nothing for a 220 , I just use them for Filter Floss and Purigen or Chemi Pure Elite, I switch back and forth.
So it comes down that's the real filtration on my 220, its the Eheim 2262, I know that's not enough to filter a tank this size, with fish this size. I know I should buy another eheim 2262 and call it the day and be safe for good. But right now is not a good time to drop $ 450 - 500 on another, specially after this disaster of losing fish and buying stuff to fish the issue.
So here it goes, should I add substrate to my tank and quit the bare bottom look? At least until I can get some more filtration? I have a local rock/plants spot that has amazing small river rocks, all natural and very cheap. Should I add them to the tank for some BB, which is going to help with filtration? or should I stay the same. Ill only be adding enough gravel for BB colonies to be there, not too much where I have to constantly be gravel vacuuming. Let me know guys, Thank you
Your lack of biofiltration more than likely is not the problem. The only way it could be the problem is if the ammonia was so bad it killed the bb, but your fish would probably go first. The problem is your tank isn't cycled, even the amount of bio you have should have gotten cycled to nitrates. Your not reading any so that isn't the case. That said, the more the merrier although I think your filtration isn't as bad as you make it out to be.
Most of your bb is gonna be in the filters im not a fan of bare bottom if it were me i would add a fine layer of pfs. But dont think its gonna dramatically change the amount off bb your tanks has. See what the other more experienced members think
Pool filter sand is nice, but not with the amount of circulation pumps I have. 2 x of them are putting out 12600 GPH, and 1 x is doing 3200 GPH. That's not including the GPH with the filters, if I were to add sand, it would be a disaster, I been doing that road before. Here is what this tank looked like when I first set it up over a year ago, then after a few months I took all sand out. Sure is beautiful, but I was spending countless hours in filter cleaning due to sand going in and crap in the sand.
At this point I wouldn't be adding anything to this system - just stay on course and allow things to balance out. Adding substrate is not going to do much of anything with regards to bio capacity. You have more than enough bio media to handle the bio load, but that bio media needs to mature. (do not wash it, rinse it, or anything else for a very long time!)
BTW - I have seen 300 gallon tanks, heavily stocked, filtered by 3 AC 110's - with just sponges for filtration! People get way too crazy when it comes to bio media.
BTW - I have seen 300 gallon tanks, heavily stocked, filtered by 3 AC 110's - with just sponges for filtration! People get way too crazy when it comes to bio media.
