water quality

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steve1815

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Feb 28, 2010
83
3
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in my shark tank
I am havering trouble keeping my nitrites down below 2ppm.
A little about my setup.
I have a 300 gallon tank with 2 pearl rays male and female. They are both about 1 year old and have been in my tank for about 2 weeks. I just did a water change yesterday of about 40% and added prime as I was told to. I have a sump filter with lots of filter pads and socks. And I also have about 5 gallons of bio balls in it. I am running a sand bed in the tank that I got from home depot. I was told to use quickrete medium grade sand that was washed and approved for aquarium use. Please let me know your thoughts about keeping nitrites down.
 
Is this a new setup?
 
Is this a new tank or has it been cycled before? If the tank was cycled then it might just be taking a while for your bacteria to catch up to the extra load of 2 rays, depending what your previous stock was. If your sump is just filter pads and 5 gallons of bio balls that probably isn't enough, I would get more bio balls.

Till you get things under control you should be doing daily water changes and adding prime daily as well. Some Stability, also made by Seachem, will help you get it cycled faster.
 
The water has been cycleing for almost 2 months with just a few small fish in it. Its basically a new setup with only 2 rays in it right now. I also have 15 lbs of crushed coral in the sump to help stabalize the ph. What more should I put in the sump to keep it better filtering? That is all I have room for is 5 gallons of bio balls. I have a magnum 350 canister filter I can add to the filter setup if need be. But I really don't want to add the canister filter.
 
Is 2ppm too ugh for the nitrites in a ray tank? I can add bio balls in a different part of the sump but it will be comletly underwater no wet/dry just wet. Will that be better and help my bacteria grow?
 
If thats all you got room for not much you can do. Since its a new tank that just had a few small fish in it your bacteria was not nearly up to the large amounts of waste rays put out. I assume you probably also had an ammonia spike that has recently gone away. Best thing you can do is keep up with the water changes and prime and see if your nitrite levels start to go down.

One trick I have used to add more bio capacity to a sump is to take a small rubbermaid, drill the bottom and install a bulkhead with some egg crate over it, and then set that on top of the sump and fill it with bio balls. Then make a drip try to sit ontop of it and pump some water up to it, the water then just drains back into your sump.

When I think about it if your current setup is keeping the ammonia at 0 it should be able to handle the nitrites to once the bacteria developes, but I would still suggest adding more bio for when the rays get older.

Yes, 2PPM is way to high, both nitrites and ammonia should always be 0 in a properly cycled tank. 2PPM is a dangerous level, when cycling a tank I don't stop using prime until its below .25 PPM.
 
What about just adding bio balls to the sump bit like I said it would just be underwater with no dry part will that be ok? Also how often should I do a water change with whats going on right now? I maybe going out of town for about 2 days will they be ok? Should I do another waterchange tonight? I did one earlier today. Is there anything else I can do? I have been doing reef tanks for years but this is my first freshwater tank.
 
I am not positive about the underwater bio balls, if I remember right bio balls will help under water but are not as effective as when in a wet dry setup. No reason not to do another water change tonight if your able to, more the better till those nitrites come down.

If you have to go away for 2 days I would do a water change and dose them with prime before you leave and then again as soon as you get back, they should be ok. If you had someone who could give them a dose of prime while your gone it would be a good idea, its supposed to be effective for about 24 hours. I don't think there is much more you can do, the prime should protect them till your bacteria catches up.

I had nitrites get up in the 2-3ppm range when i was cycling my last pond, maintained a constant water change and a daily dose of prime and everyone was fine.
 
I am doing a water change now. My ammonia is about 1.5ppm how long should it take to have it fully cycled from now? Would you add bioballs in the sump even though they will be fully underwater?
 
how are the rays doing? I am worried that all these water changes are going to hurt the rays, by destroying the bacteria by flushing away all its nutrients it needs to multiply and supply new bacteria. I would be looking at getting a bottle of bacteria, a good one I have found is made for ponds, its called Microbe lift. I have seen it used to boost a newly repaired tank for a couple hundred koi, not one lost and not one had an issue after being put in with that stuff to help boost the bacterial levels.
 
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