W/c rays

[Dieselhybrid]

Are they wild caught? How big is the tank. Do you test your water often. What's the diet? How often do you feed? There are a few variables to look at before treating. Since Prazi is generally recognized as nearly harmless to the fish being treated many use it as a preventative. Can't hurt, but if they're in a small tank full of ammonia, or you don't feed enough it will be a waste if you can catch my drift.

I don't want to thread jack the OP. But look into those questions, make sure you're adequate in all domains. 2 inches in a year is less than typical growth for motoro, but not unheard of.

PM me if you want or make a thread if needed. I like to respect the original poster.

 

[turkoman]

Are they wild caught? How big is the tank. Do you test your water often. What's the diet? How often do you feed? There are a few variables to look at before treating. Since Prazi is generally recognized as nearly harmless to the fish being treated many use it as a preventative. Can't hurt, but if they're in a small tank full of ammonia, or you don't feed enough it will be a waste if you can catch my drift.

I don't want to thread jack the OP. But look into those questions, make sure you're adequate in all domains. 2 inches in a year is less than typical growth for motoro, but not unheard of.

PM me if you want or make a thread if needed. I like to respect the original poster.

water is good,
they are in A 480
I feed fish fillet, smelt, shrimp, clam strips, I generally will fed them what they will eat in 10 minutes or so

 

[Dieselhybrid]

let's PM

 

[turkoman]

they are wild caught and starting a thread is fine but I thought this would be it

 

[Dieselhybrid]

treat them, nothing to lose.

 

[Dieselhybrid]

krabbo008 can you test your well twice a day morning and night for a week? I've been doing this as my lake water source recently was compromised. All has stabilized now but late spring and summer bring all kinds of runoff into the water tables that cause fluctuations in water quality.

this will help us narrow things down a bit. I doubt prazi caused an ammonia spike if it did not disrupt your usual WC regimen.

 

[krabbo008]

Dieselhybrid I did test the tap water before I decided to do the large water change on monday, as that was my initial thought also. It tested fine. There was some HEAVY rains and lots of flooding a few hours north of me last week. I live on the river and it is undoubtedly feeding my well (shallow 45'). I'm now assuming it was most likely from the tap. Could it be possible to have detectable levels one day and then not the next? Could the water be testing zero initially and then somehow change? I know this can happen to p.h. I use api drop tests and they are not expired.water change day is tomorrow and I'm hesitant at this point. I'd much rather higher nitrates than adding ammonia to the tank. my feeding routine has not changed. No fish have been added in recent weeks. I cannot imagine by bio media is maxed out. My sump has about 50 biosticks, a few hundred scrubbies and a few hundred bio balls. The bioballs are submerged so I know they are not really doing much, I intended to swap them out for more biosticks I just haven't ordered them yet.

 

[Dieselhybrid]

Tell us about these bio sticks. Scrubbies are "okay" submerged bio balls (not helping much) in my mind the bio sticks must be the majority of your BB colony.

Essentially I'm asking are the 50 biosticks alone enough for your stock? What's the hourly turnover like? I don't think the scrubbies and bio balls are doing that much for you. Not compared to a k1 moving bed or 10-20 gallons of high flow pond matrix or pumice stones/equivalent media.

Yes being on a well near a river I'm guessing your source could vary even day to day. I would guess more with nitrate but with others saying they've seen ammonia spikes in well water before, this could be a factor that's hard to pin down.

Just throwing around ideas and questions trying to help you narrow it down!

 

[krabbo008]

This is amazons description of the bio sticks. They are basically the same as biomax but 100 times the size. More porous and don't clog as easy.....-->The Bacteria house is a ceramic that has been heat treated at 1300 degrees Celsius for 60 hours. This tremendous amount of heat causes the ceramic to break its internal bonds thereby creating an extremely porous structure that has a much greater surface to allow very large bacteria populations to colonize. Due to the large quantities of tiny holes, mechanical filtration is also achieved. Large organic solids and decaying matter are degraded at a far greater speed than conventional media. One of the key elements of the bacteria house is that it reacts in a seemingly 'electrostatic' manner with floating organic matter causing an increase in adhesion rate. This produces clear clean water at a rapid rate. Water in its natural state creates multiple bonds with surrounding water molecules creating a cluster. The bacteria house emits FAR infrared rays that break the bonds of the neighboring water molecules thereby allowing more oxygen to be dissolved in the water. Dimension: 6.25" Long x 1.75" OD

 

[krabbo008]

I definitely think the biosticks alone are more than sufficient. I have 2 large air wands under all the bio media driven by a 600 gph air pump to help with oxygenation. The sump is powered by a jecod dct 12000 lph running at 90%.. so around 2000gph? after head loss. The water goes thru 2 300 micron filter socks and then thru a 100 micron filter I made before it gets to the bio chamber. There is also a large pouret foam piece it goes thru before the return chamber. It's maybe twice the size of an aquaclear 110 foam block, so that's probably adding to bio as well.