Filter Problems

[bambino_bird]

Hi there, I fear this may sound a little odd but please help if you can. About a month ago I set up my new Fluval Roma 125 (with Fluval U3 Filter). I added some new swordtails that I purchased about 2 weeks ago but unfortunately they brought with them some sort of fungus/finrot. After this happened, my water quality went a little crazy. So, over the past week and a half, I have treated the tank with 'anti-fungus and finrot' removed the carbon and done 25-30% water changes every other day. On Tuesday I did a water change, cleaned everything in tank (including gravel) and tested the water. All results were fine.

When I looked into the tank yesterday, the 2 clown loaches we breathing really fast and everything in the tank was covered in some sort of slime/algae. Once again I did a water change, cleaned everything (including plants) and tested the water. Again results were fine.

Could it be that my filter is not working properly?

Oh, one last thing... I am testing the water with a proper kit (not test strips) and the carbon is still out of the filter.

I'm sorry this is so long, but thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Tu13es]

What exactly are you testing the water for?

 

[Amerce]

Was your tank fully cycled when you put in the fish, this sounds like new tank syndrome, was your filter mature ?

Pleae give us your tank readings and also your stock in thectank.

 

[arobinson1984]

I agree with the answers given above. You say the results are fine but that depends on what your interpretation of 'fine' is

Please write down all your test results for PH, ammonia, nitrITE and nitrATE and post them on here because without them nobody can give any accurate advice

Andy

 

[bambino_bird]

Hi there,

Sorry for the late reply, I lost internet connection till now.

I am using an API testing kit and testing pH, Nitrite, Nitrate and Amonia. The last two test results were as follows...

pH - 7.6 (blue) Nitrite - 0 (blue) Nitrate - 0 (yellow) and Amonia - 0 (yellow)

When I purchased the tank I did everything that I was told by the pet shop. I set the tank up, added tap safe and bacteria (as suggested and provided by tank manufacturer). I only left the tank for 1 week (as per pet shop advice) but I did test the water before adding my fish. I am also adding weekly maintenance doses of the bacteria (as directed).

I have;

2x clown loach
1x bleeding heart tetra
1x flame tetra
1x lemon sucking loach
1x red tail shark
4x mollies
5x neon tetra

from my old tank

plus;

2x dwarf gourami
1x swordtail (I lost 2 from the fungus/finrot infection they came with)
1x rainbow fish

that I pushased from the pet shop about 10 days ago

and

5x head and tail light tetras

which were rescued from my neighbours tank as they were being eaten.
I've looked today and there doesn't seem to be quite as much slime/algae as there was. I appreciate that I have not fully cycled the tank as suggested on this website. Its unfortunate that this information was not made available before I moved my fish in.

I should probably say that the pet shop did test my water before they sold me the new fish.

Thanx again

 

[Amerce]

Thanks for the info. and I appreciate you did what the petshop said, but 1 week turnaround from brand new to cycled is very fast also I think that you may have populated your tank too fast for your filter to cope with the sort of bio load produced by the fish.

I'm surprised that there is no ammonia present as i would have expected at least a small amount on your reading.

Just keep ontop of the water changes and keep an eye out for any more problems with the fish, otherwise I can't see any way around this now that you have moved all the fish into this tank and, or you could move some into your old tank if you still have it and also presumably that is nicely matured.

Good luck and fingers crossed that things have settled down.

 

[bambino_bird]

Thanks for the info. and I appreciate you did what the petshop said, but 1 week turnaround from brand new to cycled is very fast also I think that you may have populated your tank too fast for your filter to cope with the sort of bio load produced by the fish.

I'm surprised that there is no ammonia present as i would have expected at least a small amount on your reading.

Just keep ontop of the water changes and keep an eye out for any more problems with the fish, otherwise I can't see any way around this now that you have moved all the fish into this tank and, or you could move some into your old tank if you still have it and also presumably that is nicely matured.

Good luck and fingers crossed that things have settled down.

You are absolutely right, I now realise after exploring this site that ALL the information I had been given was completely incorrect! Unfortunately my old tank has moved on and has been empty since moving the fish over anyway as I put over half of the water into the new tank.

I'm quite annoyed really, because the pet shop seemed happy with everything I had done any so were happy to sell me more fish. When really, I should have been advised to wait even longer. (maybe its ok as long as I am spending money!)

Do you think that I should continue my water changers every other day and how ofet should I test? Also, I would appreciate some more of your wisdom. I had been feeding the fish daily with flakes, and an algae wafer for sucking loach and tiny pellets for the clownies, and once a week swapping flakes for frozen blood worms or tubifex (as I have had fish suffer with swim bladder in the past).

Since this problem occured I have only fed algae wafer every other day. I have read that sum of the problem I have had can be caused by over feeding and so I would just like some advice on exactly what I should be giving them and how often.

One last thing, (maybe you should charge for info, you would be very rich with me around) the pet shop owe me 2x female swordtails that were killed by the fungus, I am willing to wait as long as required before getting them but how long do you think that should be, or should I leave it completely? How many fish do you think is too many for this size tank?

 

[arobinson1984]

If your results are coming back as zero then I would stop the water changes until either your ammonia or nitrITE rises, if you are doing water changes every day it will be hard to tell if your tank has finished cycling.

Has you tank got live plants? if so how many? I'm surprised you have a zero reading for nitrATE.

Also the clown loaches will easily outgrow the tank and should be kept in 350L tank minimum

Hope this helps a little

Andy

 

[bambino_bird]

If your results are coming back as zero then I would stop the water changes until either your ammonia or nitrITE rises, if you are doing water changes every day it will be hard to tell if your tank has finished cycling.

Has you tank got live plants? if so how many? I'm surprised you have a zero reading for nitrATE.

Also the clown loaches will easily outgrow the tank and should be kept in 350L tank minimum

Hope this helps a little

Andy

I have 5 live plants in the tank, I did go to buy more but then all this happened. The guy at the pet shop told me to do the water changes every other day and take out my plants while I had all these problems. I read the book that I've got and decided against taking out the plants so they are still in. Do you thing I did the right thing?

I understand what you are saying about the clownies. When they get bigger I will either have to get a more suitable tank, or find them a good home!

I will stop the water changes I am doing at the mo, do you think I can go back to weekly testing of the water or should this be more frequent?

Am I correct in assuming that my filter is NOT faulty?

What do you think about the feeding?

MAny thanx

 

[arobinson1984]

If the filter is pumping out water fine then I cant see it being faulty, at the end of the day the filter is just really the housing for the filter media which is the important part of keeping your tank healthy.

Keep up with the water testing for another week or so, I'd test once a day and if the ammonia or nitrITE rise to 0.25ppm or above then do a water change but if the levels remain at zero then I'd say your tank was cycled. After a week or so if your still not getting any readings for ammonia / nitrite then revert to weekly water changes.

Your plants may explain your zero nitrATE levels because plants use up the nitrate in photosynthesis.

I feed once a day, only feed an amount that your fish can eat in 2 mins and fish out any uneaten food otherwise it will rot and create ammonia

Andy

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with Andy's advice. I'd suspect that holding off on the water changes should allow traces of ammonia and/or nitrite to begin to show, possibly confirming that this is a fish-in cycle that may even still be in the early stages. The triple zero readings may even be coming from the same reason, that the cycle hasn't really made a lot of start. Let's hope I'm wrong though and that the 25-30% changes every other day have in fact closely matched the output from the stock and the cycle has been able to proceed. The pH begin in the higher 7s will have helped some from the bacteria's point of view.

Be aware that if its not really very far along then the ammonia and nitrite may show up suddenly, so as soon as you do see some traces, I'd increase to morning and evening testing to get a feel for the numbers. As soon as one or the other shoots up above 0.25ppm though you'd have to water change again.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[bambino_bird]

Agree with Andy's advice. I'd suspect that holding off on the water changes should allow traces of ammonia and/or nitrite to begin to show, possibly confirming that this is a fish-in cycle that may even still be in the early stages. The triple zero readings may even be coming from the same reason, that the cycle hasn't really made a lot of start. Let's hope I'm wrong though and that the 25-30% changes every other day have in fact closely matched the output from the stock and the cycle has been able to proceed. The pH begin in the higher 7s will have helped some from the bacteria's point of view.

Be aware that if its not really very far along then the ammonia and nitrite may show up suddenly, so as soon as you do see some traces, I'd increase to morning and evening testing to get a feel for the numbers. As soon as one or the other shoots up above 0.25ppm though you'd have to water change again.

~~waterdrop~~

Thank you ALL for your help. I really appreciate it. I expect I will be back at some point for some more wisdom, till then, thanx again and I hope the tank will be okay now.

Take care ALL
Liz

ps can I put the carbon back in now???

 

[Rediahs]

You have very odd readings for an uncycled tank.

This reminds me of when another member on here was trying to cycle her tank and thought all was going well, then we found out that she had that nasty zeolite stuff in her filter.

Do you think maybe you've got something that's removing ammonia in your filter? I mean if your readings for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate are all zero... that's very odd!!!

 

[waterdrop]

Usual reasons I can think of for triple zeros are:

1) Tank is mostly tap water and mostly uncycled yet.
2) Tank has Zeolite and is mostly uncycled.
3) Tank has lots of plants, many of which are nitrate eaters.
4) Tank has had so much water changed recently that we are just seeing tap water readings.

Otherwise, for a normal cycled non-planted-specialist tank we'd see perhaps:
1) zero ammonia and nitrite and a small nitrate reading

For a normal non-cycled tank we might see:
1) some ammonia, some nitrite, some nitrate, depending on proximity to water change

(just to generalize on a general morning, lol)

~~waterdrop~~