Filter Flow Rate Too High?

[FishyDan]

Hello all

I have a planted Rio 125 and bought a tetratec ex700 instead of the normal internal filter which i did nt like.

I did a fishless cycle using bactinettes, standard 5ppm and all seemed fine.

I added 10 harlequins and 3 rock shrimp and again it seemed ok

Then i added 2 Keyhole cyclids. now i am getting amonia spikes? I have to do water changes all the time (i always use dechlor)

I have bought 2 lots of bactinettes and added it to the filter and it has nt solved the problem

I was wondering if the flow rate might be too high on my filter so the bacteria arent getting enough contact time with the amonia and nitrite?

The flow rate is high and fish do get blown around if they are in the the stream of the outtake.

I have turned the flow rate down to see if it helps but dont want to sacrafice filter performance.

Can anyone give me any advice on what could be going wrong??

Thanks

 

[shelaghfishface]

the filter flow should be fine, make sure the water covers the spray bar, the bactinettes are not 100%, is that all you did to cycle??

 

[maximinimus]

700 L/hour is not a high flow rate, after all, how would a filter with x number of thousand litres per hour cope?

The problem is more likely the Bactinettes, as many people have pointed out, these products can be hit and miss. Sometimes they work, sometimes you get a nitrite spike, sometimes they do nothing.

When you added the bactinettes, how many days did you continue your fishless cycle? as a single day would not be long enough for the bacteria to establish themselves fully even with the "magic in a bottle" product.

 

[minxfishy]

Unfortunately bactinettes dont always work, so you are now doing a fish in cycle, so daily 50% water changes are in order. The flow rate shouldnt effect the bacteria growth, however, if your fish are being blown around, its a good idea to adjust the output to suit them.

 

[FishyDan]

did a proper fishless cycle for 2 weeks, used bactinettes to start it off

was reducing 5 ppm to nothing in 24 hours

 

[maximinimus]

Fully cycled is reducing 5ppm to nothing in 12 hours not 24.

10 rasboras and 3 shrimp wont be producing more than 5ppm of ammonia in 24 hours.

 

[minxfishy]

No those rasboras and shrimp wont be producing much ammonia, but it looks like the bactinettes have run out and didnt do anything to cycle your filter, so now they are no longer useful, your filter is effectively starting its cycle.