will going bare bottom heal HITH?

[Bderick67]

Your tank is very under filtered. The magnum provides no biological filtration and the bag of biomax in the AC is rated for a moderately stocked 70 gallon tank. If you've been rinsing the biomax in tap water then it is likely the gravel in your tank is what been keeping your oscars alive.

For now cut down on feeding and do alot of water chages to keep the ammonia levels lower. Also do a double dose of "Prime" water conditioner after each water change.

You need to add more biofiltration, there are many ways of doing this depending on your budget. You can also make your magnum into a biofilter if you still have the media container for it.

Once you filtration has been upgraded and is cycled you can then remove the gravel from your tank.

 

[crisper]

its a 125 gallon with a magnum 350 and an aquaclear 300. so i think my filters are good. i am cleaning the filters and changing water frequently. its just that im afraid the main reason for the HITH is the dirty gravel because i dont have time to clean it. so im hoping once i go bare bottom it will help with the HITH problem a lot faster im also going to change the water more frequently. how much water and how frequently should i change to heal the HITH

i have 3 oscars 9 inches each. im feeding them hikari bio gold twice a day. once in a while ill put in some feeders.

thanks

Get a gravel vac and clean your gravel while doing your water changes.It really won't take that much more time. And you need to test your water to know what's going on.

 

[thayayballa]

Your tank is very under filtered. The magnum provides no biological filtration and the bag of biomax in the AC is rated for a moderately stocked 70 gallon tank. If you've been rinsing the biomax in tap water then it is likely the gravel in your tank is what been keeping your oscars alive.

For now cut down on feeding and do alot of water chages to keep the ammonia levels lower. Also do a double dose of "Prime" water conditioner after each water change.

You need to add more biofiltration, there are many ways of doing this depending on your budget. You can also make your magnum into a biofilter if you still have the media container for it.

Once you filtration has been upgraded and is cycled you can then remove the gravel from your tank.

will adding another bag of biomax into the aquaclear help?

 

[Ric Foster]

Your tank is very under filtered. The magnum provides no biological filtration and the bag of biomax in the AC is rated for a moderately stocked 70 gallon tank. If you've been rinsing the biomax in tap water then it is likely the gravel in your tank is what been keeping your oscars alive.

For now cut down on feeding and do alot of water chages to keep the ammonia levels lower. Also do a double dose of "Prime" water conditioner after each water change.

You need to add more biofiltration, there are many ways of doing this depending on your budget. You can also make your magnum into a biofilter if you still have the media container for it.

Once you filtration has been upgraded and is cycled you can then remove the gravel from your tank.

This is spot on.
I would define "alot of water changes" as 50% every other day. every 3 days at most. *don't forget the Prime. You will probably have to do this for a month +/- then once a week should suffice.

Buy a hydro 5 sponge filter and a good air pump to run it. put this in your tank. (this will be your bio filtration) in 20-30 days this will be established. (never touch it again) and you can then do business as usual with the other filters as they will now be only for mechanical filtration.

I Have 6 oscars (all 10-12") in a 240 with a Huge DIY sponge filter for bio.
one AC110 and one Emperor 400 both of these for mechanical filtering. (what i mean is I rinse the sponge and the blue cartridges with a garden hose to remove the poo)

Lastly get a liquid test kit for amonia, nitrite and nitrate.
use this daily till your amonia and nitrite = 0

then test at least once a week for nitrate. the purpose of this is when nitrate gets to 40 you will want to do 50% water change.

you want
amonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate less than 40

I hope this all helps. good luck

 

[ShadowStryder]

Also remember that if you are using tap water and it is on a public system then it is chlorinated and chloromined. This will also destroy your BioFiltration. I must be treated before rinsing any of your filtration.