We have a new 200L (120Lx38Wx50h) glass tank with:
- Aquaclay Ground substrate Aquaclay website
- undergravel filter (in this case "underAquaclayGround" filter)
- 2 x 1400l/h powerheads, is this too much for my size tank?
- 1m long bubble tube under the substrate
- driftwood, 4 pieces, don't know what kind of wood exactly, bought them from LFS
- pinewood hood with 4 x 3cm round vents on top, hood not touching the water, not varnished or painted
- 1 x 36" 30W Arcadia tropical fish lamp and 1 x 36" 30W Aracadia freshwater lamp
- 1 x100W tube heater, set at 25-deg C.
Ammonia is not available where I come from. Believe me I searched everywhere, the pharamceutical stores are also wondering why it is not available. So I decided to go for fish cycling, instead of fishless cycling.
The Aquaclay Ground substrate was washed and soaked overnight throughly to remove the dust. A couple of hours after putting in the water, the remaining dust settled, as was stated by the manufacturer of the ground substrate. I also put in the driftwood. Ran the powerheads and bubble tube.
I added some water from another "good" tank where fish are okey, but overstocked, thus this new 220L tank. Added also nitrifying bacteria to induce early nitrification.
24 hours later, I put in my 4 juvenile bala sharks (each about 3" long).
The following noon (about 18 hrs), I found 1 bala to be missing. We looked and looked. We found it in a driftwood crevice dead. We suspected it got stuck there and died.
The rest of the 3 balas were quiet the whole day. I tried feeding them with frozen bloodworms. They did not eat. Later today, I put in some flakes, I did not see them eat. The whole day, they were hovering in one corner, swimmimg at about 30-deg angle. I suspected something was wrong. I tested the water:
NH3 0.5
GH 200
KH 120
pH 7.0-7.2
NO2 0.5
NO3 20
The water params before putting in the fish yesterday were:
NH3 0
GH 200
KH 100
pH 7.0-7.2
NO2 0.5
NO3 20
Later this evening, 1 bala started to go belly-up. We removed all 3 balas and put the 2 in their fromer "overstocked" tank, but are not swimming as they used to, but appears to be recovering. The other "bellying-up" bala is in a small jar, on its side but still breathing. Should we euthanase her?
The water params after we removed the balas are:
NH3 0.4
GH 200
KH 120
pH 6.5, big drop, I don't know why.
NO2 0.5
NO3 20
I am using test strips from Pentair Aqautics, and making accurate readings i.e., comparing colours to the colour chart I find difficult.
This post is in relation to my 2 other posts:
M.I.A. (missing bala)
Pine wood for aquarium hood?
I do water changes to the old tank these balas were in everyday, sometimes twice daily, because it is extremely overstocked. We are newbies who dived into the hobby without doing our homework. The water params on that overstocked tank are too high for fish to survive. I am even embarassed to post the water params. It has been 24 day days, we have not lost a fish there yet. We know we soon will, thus, our desperate efforts for a large tank.
Why is it when we put the hardy fish in a large tank with okey water params, they started to die?
I started to drain the 220L tank of water, and removed the driftwood. I stopped to post this, to get some advices.
Thanks for reading, but we need help desperately.
We really want to be worthy fish-keepers.
- Aquaclay Ground substrate Aquaclay website
- undergravel filter (in this case "underAquaclayGround" filter)
- 2 x 1400l/h powerheads, is this too much for my size tank?
- 1m long bubble tube under the substrate
- driftwood, 4 pieces, don't know what kind of wood exactly, bought them from LFS
- pinewood hood with 4 x 3cm round vents on top, hood not touching the water, not varnished or painted
- 1 x 36" 30W Arcadia tropical fish lamp and 1 x 36" 30W Aracadia freshwater lamp
- 1 x100W tube heater, set at 25-deg C.
Ammonia is not available where I come from. Believe me I searched everywhere, the pharamceutical stores are also wondering why it is not available. So I decided to go for fish cycling, instead of fishless cycling.
The Aquaclay Ground substrate was washed and soaked overnight throughly to remove the dust. A couple of hours after putting in the water, the remaining dust settled, as was stated by the manufacturer of the ground substrate. I also put in the driftwood. Ran the powerheads and bubble tube.
I added some water from another "good" tank where fish are okey, but overstocked, thus this new 220L tank. Added also nitrifying bacteria to induce early nitrification.
24 hours later, I put in my 4 juvenile bala sharks (each about 3" long).
The following noon (about 18 hrs), I found 1 bala to be missing. We looked and looked. We found it in a driftwood crevice dead. We suspected it got stuck there and died.
The rest of the 3 balas were quiet the whole day. I tried feeding them with frozen bloodworms. They did not eat. Later today, I put in some flakes, I did not see them eat. The whole day, they were hovering in one corner, swimmimg at about 30-deg angle. I suspected something was wrong. I tested the water:
NH3 0.5
GH 200
KH 120
pH 7.0-7.2
NO2 0.5
NO3 20
The water params before putting in the fish yesterday were:
NH3 0
GH 200
KH 100
pH 7.0-7.2
NO2 0.5
NO3 20
Later this evening, 1 bala started to go belly-up. We removed all 3 balas and put the 2 in their fromer "overstocked" tank, but are not swimming as they used to, but appears to be recovering. The other "bellying-up" bala is in a small jar, on its side but still breathing. Should we euthanase her?
The water params after we removed the balas are:
NH3 0.4
GH 200
KH 120
pH 6.5, big drop, I don't know why.
NO2 0.5
NO3 20
I am using test strips from Pentair Aqautics, and making accurate readings i.e., comparing colours to the colour chart I find difficult.
This post is in relation to my 2 other posts:
M.I.A. (missing bala)
Pine wood for aquarium hood?
I do water changes to the old tank these balas were in everyday, sometimes twice daily, because it is extremely overstocked. We are newbies who dived into the hobby without doing our homework. The water params on that overstocked tank are too high for fish to survive. I am even embarassed to post the water params. It has been 24 day days, we have not lost a fish there yet. We know we soon will, thus, our desperate efforts for a large tank.
Why is it when we put the hardy fish in a large tank with okey water params, they started to die?
I started to drain the 220L tank of water, and removed the driftwood. I stopped to post this, to get some advices.
Thanks for reading, but we need help desperately.
We really want to be worthy fish-keepers.
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