Help Me Save My Fishies?

[nanoMama86]

If you removed the carbon, and it dried, it is no longer seeded. You can put the newest filter on larger tank and turn it on low to help it start the cycling process, but I certainly do not suggest the purchase of a another tank until you get your new one sorted. 50% water changes is NOT gonna cut it unfortunately. Prime is only a band-aid and is only effective for about twelve hours so if you do not keep dosing, you risk re-burning your fish with ammonia. Your plec may never look the same after that severe of an ammo burn. You should read ZERO ammonia after a water change and it should stay that way for at least 4 or 5 hours or you are not changing enough. Just to give you an idea, I change 75% every 2 weeks on my established tanks,fresh and marine, and 90%-95% on my cycling tanks twice a day the first month, then once a day for two months. Then, usually, my tank is cycled. We are trying to help you save your fish and get your tank going. We say these things because we know this is what it takes for healthy tanks. Good luck chappo, and get on them water changes, man!

 

[noobWITHaPROBLEM]

so now im keeping a journal on all this crap lol i just started it yesterday.....
trust me i am doing the water changes..
getting sick of lugging that bucket around the apartment.. did a water test first this morning... these are my results for ammonia nitrite and nitrate.

i know a little better than to let things dry out..... i moved it directly from one tank to another. it was still dripping when i put it in.

so im reqading a 1ppm of ammonia o nitrite and 5ppm nitrate. going to do a 75% and see if it helps... give me an hour to wake up before i start moving the bucket...

also going to try moving some fish to my good tank to lessen the load.

This is the ammonia tank...

ps the pleco healed up gorgeously when i put her back in her old tank. good as new not a single dot of red anywhere on here.

 

[nanoMama86]

Awesome to hear the plec healed up so well! You could also try removing the bogwood so your ph comes up a little, making the ammo a little less toxic. I always mention things like media drying out, because with this hobby, you can't assume someone already knows. I'm not trying to be a butthead, I promise. +1 on moving like 4 of your fish to your already established tank. Today is water change day for me, lol, so I may not be back on till tomorrow. Really, the best of luck and I wish I could send you some of my filter material.

p.s. I have a 100 gallon, a forty marine, a 55 gallon mbuna, and a ten gallon nano reef! All are getting 75% changed today! Send a prayer for my arms!

 

[the_lock_man]

You could also try removing the bogwood so your ph comes up a little, making the ammo a little less toxic.

NO! Ammonia is more toxic at high pH, not lower!

 

[nanoMama86]

Oh sorry! I had it backwards! Thanks sooo much for jumping on it lock man! It has been a few months since I have cycled a tank.

 

[the_lock_man]

Oh sorry! I had it backwards! Thanks sooo much for jumping on it lock man! It has been a few months since I have cycled a tank.

 

[noobWITHaPROBLEM]

my ph is sitting still at 7.6... has been since the first test...
since my ammonia in there is high anywaysssss i was thinking i could start cycling my other filter in the ammonia tank? then i would have both filters sucking up the ammonia and i would be able to temporarily move a bit of my mature media into this tank to help it out a bit... ?
only problem is the media will be going into the wrong filter...
i just cant think of a way other than just my carbon pouch to move more media over... in my good filter i have two big blue sponges in my ammonia tank filter i dont... its the fluval c3 ... not much i can move around there... and the new filter has one big white sponge so what i was gonna do is cut the new white sponge in half and take one blue sponge from filter 1 and swap them so them i would have 50% in filter 1 and 50% in filter 3.
not counting the 10% on the carbon pouch which is in the ammonia tank ( tank 2 )
............ hope ur following me here ............
THEN i was going to stick filter 3 on ammonia tank alongside filter 2 with the carbon.. set filter 3 on low get that cycling and hopefully filter 2 will continue to cycle... if im right it should technically work since my ammonia is high anyways... both filters should technically help the tank while cycling themselves........ right???
and im considering getting more bogwood to lower the ph a bit more.... any thought? these tanks are scambling my brain... i dont even know how many times i have edited this post...

 

[noobWITHaPROBLEM]

ps: my black phantoms are dancing <3 I LOVE THESE LITTLE FISH!! just throwing that out there

 

[the_lock_man]

Sorry, got a little bit lost there.

If you've got a high KH (carbonate hardness), you won't budge the pH, unless you start softening the water - probably best not to muck about with that.

If you put this extra filter in the tank with high ammonia, then yes, you've got more media in there, so it will deal with the ammonia quicker. However, I think I read right that this would be temporary, so you will then find you're into a mini-cycle when you move that filter out.

And to make yourself male, you can either (A) click on the little white triangle next to your username at the top right, click on My Profile, then "Edit My Profile" or (B) there's a clinic I've heard about in Thailand.......

 

[noobWITHaPROBLEM]

lmaooooo ok no i figured that out...
ok so putting the second filter on will help? .... a mini cycle is better than what im dealing with right now right?? which seems like no cycle...

 

[This Old Spouse]

And to make yourself male, you can either (A) click on the little white triangle next to your username at the top right, click on My Profile, then "Edit My Profile" or (B) there's a clinic I've heard about in Thailand.......

 

[the_lock_man]

lmaooooo ok no i figured that out...
ok so putting the second filter on will help? .... a mini cycle is better than what im dealing with right now right?? which seems like no cycle...

Yes, it'll help. A minicycle will be what you're doing now, just it'll sort itself out quicker.

 

[noobWITHaPROBLEM]

good thank you lock_man you are officially the best answerer so far <3 much gratitude lol will keep posting test rewsults

 

[nanoMama86]

Your best bet might be the purchase of yet another filter. A 20-40 aqua-tech,imo, is a good little filter and perfect for the ammonia tank. plus, the media slot can fit anything. Then stick with your media halving plan. Ok....now for everyone to yell....I have personally had a LOT of success with bio-spira to kick-start a cycle. I think Tetra bought their patent now ,though. The thing to make sure of is that the bottle is fresh, preferably right off the truck. Pour it into your filter, NOT your water, as I have found this to have an impact on efficacy. Things like the nutrafin cycle, I believe it is called, has never worked for me. A lot of people on this forum do not advocate the use of these bottled bacteria products, and with good reason, as most of them are truly garbage, and deceive beginners into thinking, oh, ok, my tank is cycled now, lets throw twenty fish in! Had a googling session, and it is TETRA SafeStart now. SafeStart will fail as well if you do not get a fresh bottle. You can get your lfs to order some for you, or ask your petco or petsmart when their trucks come in. Easy, everybody, I would not suggest this to most noobs, but this person is really trying here, and this product has never failed to take a cycle off the floor for me. I must state, however, it DOES NOT "instantly cycle" your tank! You will still have to do water changes and monitor ammo and keep on top of things. It will simply take your cycle off the floor and get things boogeying!


BTW.....The water is still pink in 100 from all the blood. What should I do?

P.s... My arms..are going to fall off! Turns out my 100 needed an 80% change as I discovered a snail in my clowns cave system that they had "pocketed" away! Ammo spike big time. They were furious with me for taking there hidden snack and my big male shanked me, deep, causing me to bleed freely into the water and jerk my hand back, then catch and cut my arm on my light strip, just got back from hospital, 8 stitches and an admonishment to keep my hands out of my tanks for a few days, but I still have to do my 40 and nano salt.

 

[noobWITHaPROBLEM]

omg no.... fishes that shank you!?!?! what kind of fish was it i dont wanna get shanked... ill go pick up some safe start later tonight. thanks for the info on that hope it helps. that sucks that u needed stiches all u wanted to do was change ur water.... if it makes u feel any better while you were bleeding so was i... i was cutting the pop outs on my lid so i could fit that second filter on and i sliced most of the skin off my finger i bled on the floor though ( thank god ) ) lol
ok so the new tank... tank 3 as im calling it... its gonna be cichlids... what should i get..... its got sand and rocks and this filter is pretty powerful plus im going to eventually get a power head for it.. but im unsure of what kind of cichlids to put in.... i need to start thinking about this because i will have to put at least one or two in right away to keep the cycle going.... but if anyone has ideas for rock layouts plant types and different fish to stick in there im open to ideas i like colorful fish and REAL plants