Biological filter

[Rodders]

Why wont any bacteria grow in my filter. One week after i had the tank full up, (no fish) I did a test on nitrite and ammonia and nitrite was real low 0.1 and ammonia was 0. Added some fish after that week and ever since the nitrtite test has been sky high, a real deep purple/pink!!!
Also the ammonia is dark green!!!
I use ammo lock to stop the fish dying, but why wont my filter start working.
I've been putting in the filter start but seems to be doing nothing.

 

[BobK]

Bacteria is growing in your tank otherwise your nitrites would be zero. It takes time. You can put in ammo-lock but by reducing the ammonia your are reducing to food source for the nitrifying bacteria. Cycling takes a good 4-6 weeks for completion. From your post it appears you began with a fishless cycle. What changed your mind and prompted you to add fish? The dark green is probably an algae bloom.

edit: oh, duh, the dark green is the color of the ammonia test.

 

[Leslie]

If you were running your tank empty with no ammonia source no bacteria will grow. You need an ammonia source (ie: fish or pure ammonia) in order to cycle your tank. If you could tell us the size of the tank and type/number of fish you added would help. How long have you had it running with fish in the tank?

 

[Rodders]

This is what i've done from new

20th Nov 04 tank filled, heater and filter on, aireation on

21st nov Ph 7.5, filter start added

22nd nov nitrite 0.1 ammonia 0 22.5c

23rd filter start added, nitrite 0.1

25th filter start added 22.5c

27th changed white pre filter, added 4 danios and a bit of filter start

30th filter start added

3rd dec white pre filter change, siamese fighter added and 2 plecs. nitrite 0.25
ammonia 0.1. 15% water change. 24c

4th dec, new 200W heater 26c

5th dec, one danio died 26c

6th new danio added and some stress coat 26c

7th some filter start added

10th nitrite 1.5 ammonia 0.4 ph 7.5 changes white pre filter. ammo lock added, stress coat.

12th 3 sunset gouramis added

14th ammo lock dose and filter start

17th ammo lock and filter start, ammonia high, murky white water. Danio found dead in filter. new pre filter and carbon filter. Water change 15%

19th water change 15% filter start, ammo lock stress coat added. Anti white spot added to treat white spot.

20th turned heat up to 30c to kill white spot.

21st danio died, fin rot 29c, white spot gone.

23rd stress zyme added. anti finrot added

24th water change 15%. ammonia high(dark green), nitrite high (real deep
purple/pink) white pre filter changed.

Dont think i missed anything

 

[Leslie]

I'm not sure what filter start is but I'm assuming it's a product much like Cycle. If it's not please correct me on that. What's the size of the tank?

That white prefilter you are changing is a very important bacteria source so you should leave it in there and not disturb it until you are at least fully cycled. You seem to be adding too many fish too quickly and most of them do not go through the cycling process well. This will be the cause of your Ich outbreak.

Keep in mind that the more medications you add to your water the more you are stressing your fish. The less meds we add the better. If you are going to cycle with fish the rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per every 5 gallons of water. Patience is the key when you are cycling.

 

[Bignose]

there is one thing you missed, from the 20th to 27th of november you did not give your bacteria any food at all. I am unfamilier with 'filter start' but most of that stuff has negligible effect if any. Even the best one, Bio-Spira, the last batch has been hit-or-miss from all the reports I've read. So, your filter, really the nitrogen cycle will not start until there is ammonia present.

A lot of us have started fishless cycling, where we simulate fish being in the tank by adding a quantity of ammonia each day until the filter is all the way cycled -- no ammonia or nitrite. This is not an option now since you have fish in there, the fish will be providing the ammonia.

This is right now a test of your patience. You have to wait to add more fish, to add medications, etc. until you get though the whole cycle. As mentioned above, this will take 4-6 weeks, and you will have to continuously do partial water changes to keep the pollution levels below toxic levels. Plecs are failry messy, that is high waste producing, fish as are the gouramies, so you have quite a lot of waste being produced now. Feed lightly until the cycle is completed, this will help cut down the amount of waste the fish produce each day. But, you must, must, must do partial water changes when needed, too. So long as you match the temperature and pH and hardness of the replacement water with that in the tank, you can do almost as large of a water change as you want.

Also, the whitespot/Ich medicine cannot be helping your immature biological filter -- so, do not add it unless it is really really necessary. And then, if it is necessary, you will have to treat for at least two weeks -- you need to read up on the life cycle of ich because the protozoan parasite goes through several life cycles, only one of which is vulnerable to medications. So you have to treat long enough until the entire population of parasites goes through all of its life cycles.

So, in synopsis: 1) do not add any more fish 2) do not add any more medications unless absolutley positively necessary 3) do partial water changes as necessary to keep pollutions levels low 4) BE PATIENT -- a lot of fishkeeping in patience

 

[Rodders]

Yup, i know not to add any more fish, wasnt intending too.
Filter start has the biological bacteria in to help the filter kick start faster.
Changing water every week at the moment.

The white filter is only the pre filter that holds bits of food that get in the filter unit. The actual bacteria grows in the lower parts. So cant see why i shouldnt change this first filter? it gets so dirty in a week.

The booklet i was following on start up said add fish after 3 days, guess this would have been a fish cycle. But a friend who keeps fish, told me to just leave it for a week. So things got a bit confused here.

Had to add fin rot cause i dont want to just let fish die, not really fair on them. Think its only one dose anyway, according to the booklet, so ill leave it at that.

White spot has gone and keeping temperature up, so it shouldnt bother me again.

Have cut feeding down to once a day a week ago to help ammonia levels to drop.

I think i've done most thinks right to help get it back on track.

 

[Synirr]

Big Re-Edit:
What kind of filter do you have? I have no idea what a pre-filter is, to be honest, and therefore don't know if changing it as frequently as you have could have affected your cycle, but that's the theory I'm leaning towards at the moment.

 

[Leslie]

It would really help if you could tell us how big the tank is.

 

[Rodders]

Its a juwel filter

Bottom to top filter media

There is two fine blue media filters on the bottom, bacteria cultivates in here, clean the water of even the smallest inpurities.

1 course blue filter and 1 green course filter, allows bacteria to develop quicklyt, cleaning the water which is now free from chemical impurities

Then a activated carbon filter, remove inpurities from the water which cant biologically

Then the white pre filter on top, removing large particals or dirt and excess food, ensuring the other sponges dont get clogged.

 

[white]

My system has been running for some 9 weeks. This is the same filter as you, running in a Rio 125 aquarium.
I have changed the polymer pad every week as this is only there to prevent debris clogging the sponges. Other than that I have left the sponges alone. When they are cleaned/washed they should be done in some of the water removed from the aquarium at water cahenge time. Not in tap water as this is chlorinated and will kill the bacteria.
The water is perfectly clear and plants are all growing well. All readings down to zero. I am changing 10% of the water weekly using a declorinator.
I used Cycle at the start and this definately seemed to speed up the process.
Fish were installed after 14 days. I did lose a couple of neons but from reading reports on them it does seem that there is a high mortallity rate due to the way they are bred.
I think that with a little patience you will succeed. Best of luck.
Roy

 

[Rodders]

There is hope then