I Need Your Help Quick :(

[kylealastairlove]

i need your help guys and gals

i've had my juwel lido 120 up and running since wednesday now, and i decided to do a water test yesterday just to see how it was, well it was bad, here is what i got

ammonia-0.5 ppm
nitrite-5.0 ppm
nitrate-40ppm

im really confused as to why these stats are reading this, has my new tank gone into sort of a mini cycle?
when i set this tank up 1/3 of the water for it came from my mature tank, and my mature media has also been put into the new tank too,

anyway i just thought is it okay to put your filter media into freshly dechlorinated water ? or is that bad. because what i did was i started filling the mew tank with water from my old tank, then i stopped because i needed to leave water in there for my few fish i had, because i wanted to have the new tank full and everything running before i put the fish in, and i couldnt fill it with just the old tank water as there wasnt enough so i started filling up with dechlorinated tap water, which would have been in contact with the filter media that was in the bottom of the juwel filter system

other than that i cant think of any other reasons behind whats going on with my water stats but i want all those back at ZERO because i have some new fish coming soon and i dont want them to just end up dying or putting a strain on the filter and messing up the stats even more! hmm what to doooooo

 

[CezzaXV]

Probably don't need to tell you this but big (possibly multiple) water changes are in order.

Mini cycles do happen on occasion when changing over a filter, but not normally on this scale. I would think it is just a mini cycle and pass if you keep testing and changing water over the next few days.

Did you transfer substrate from the old tank? It's possible that poop and other undesirable stuff was stirred up in the process also raising your ammonia.

 

[kylealastairlove]

i did a small water change last night, didnt really have time to do a big one as it was very late at night, checked the readings again today and they're still the same. yeah im gonna keep up with the water changes and testing now. as for the substrate i just went with a fresh new substrate in my new tank so it cant be that, thanks for the reply too!

 

[Shelster]

I did this about three weeks ago when setting up my smaller 54 litre using media and half of the water from my 180 litres water change. I thought I had done a major boo boo by not heating the RO water I topped the tank up with, as no fish were in I thought I'd let the thermostat raise the temp.
Why the thought never crossed my mind of shocking my bacteria I don't know! I have tested the water twice daily since and all has been ok.
Did you temp match your water? I was extremely lucky I guess, and the tank is now fully stocked and due another water change tonight.
Good luck and I hope you get your stats sorted before the arrival of your stock. (Is this more kuhli loaches?) if so, hope all s well this time!

 

[kylealastairlove]

hmmm that is a good thought that crossed your mind i guess, because i did the same thing (except that thought didnt cross my mind), when filling up my tank i just used mostly cold water straight from the tap, and it was quite cold! oopsy, maybe i shocked my bacteria, but for some reason something is telling me if i have shocked them it was with cold water and wouldnt that just send them to sleep! or would it just totally kill them ? because its been like 3 days since the tank was set up and running

and yes i really like the kuhli's so im going with some more of them thinking of some harlequin rasbora too, always wanted those only problem is what if i have killed my filter off and its starting up again because these fish like a matured tank Darn!

 

[Shelster]

Coolio posted this on my question of bacteria:

The temperature for optimum growth of nitrifying bacteria is between 77-86° F (25-30° C).
Growth rate is decreased by 50% at 64° F (18° C).
Growth rate is decreased by 75% at 46-50° F.
No activity will occur at 39° F (4° C)
Nitrifying bacteria will die at 32° F (0° C).
Nitrifying bacteria will die at 120° F (49° C)
Nitrobacter is less tolerant of low temperatures than Nitrosomonas. In cold water systems, care must be taken to monitor the accumulation of nitrites.

I know lock man said to me to not take anymore than a third from my cycled filter, can you take a bit more? Or did you add a third initially?
It's so easily done though, like I say. I guess I was just lucky! Perhaps after your big water change see what your ammonia levels are like in the morning as they would read particularly high if you've killed your bacteria.

Good luck!

Ps, my tank had started to warm by the time I went to bed, so bacteria was cold for about one and half to two hours ish. How long did your tank take to get up to temperature?

I believe it would kill the bacteria too, not just send to sleep

 

[kylealastairlove]

ahh thats quite useful information there!

erm i dont quite understand the question, lol my bad, erm well i just used all of my old filter media and put it in my new tank as i took my other tank down after setting up the new one, if thats what you meant, i dont know lol silly me! then i just added as much of the water that was left from my old tank as i could filled about a 3rd of the new tank and then i just used cold water to fill it up and wait for the temperature to get up, well after the time it took to fill the tank (about half hour) i left it then it must have been another couple of hours before i checked but the temperature had risen by then

im hoping everything will be alright after i get the big water change done and i can do a few smaller water changes if needed too, but im gonna be in a bit of a nasty situation if the ammonia and nitrite aren't at 0 because i dont want to add my fish knowing that the waters not at its best quality, and i've got nowhere else to keep them and i dont want to mess anything up hmmm.

 

[coolie]

wow, now I've been quoted by someone, I feel like I'm going up in the world. It's like getting a gold star at school.

 

[kylealastairlove]

congrats on being quoted! its all gold stars from here my friend haha!

 

[Shelster]

Ha ha, except I got your name wrong!! Oops, ha ha guess I was thinking of you as a rapper " gangsters paradise" 'n all that!

Ah sorry Kyle, I thought you also had your old tank running.
Any friends who can give you some media just in case?

 

[LaurenRhiain]

If it's still cycling then it's perfectly normal When I fist set up my 65Litre tank it went through all sorts in the cycle procedure. If you want to speed up the process then add some used filter media to add some of the good bacteria and put only one of your fish into the new tank. A couple of plants will help too. And don't forget to keep doing water changes until your tank water is safe x

 

[the_lock_man]

If it's still cycling then it's perfectly normal When I fist set up my 65Litre tank it went through all sorts in the cycle procedure. If you want to speed up the process then add some used filter media to add some of the good bacteria and put only one of your fish into the new tank. A couple of plants will help too. And don't forget to keep doing water changes until your tank water is safe

x

Huh?

Coolio posted this on my question of bacteria:

The temperature for optimum growth of nitrifying bacteria is between 77-86° F (25-30° C).
Growth rate is decreased by 50% at 64° F (18° C).
Growth rate is decreased by 75% at 46-50° F.
No activity will occur at 39° F (4° C)
Nitrifying bacteria will die at 32° F (0° C).
Nitrifying bacteria will die at 120° F (49° C)
Nitrobacter is less tolerant of low temperatures than Nitrosomonas. In cold water systems, care must be taken to monitor the accumulation of nitrites.

I know lock man said to me to not take anymore than a third from my cycled filter, can you take a bit more? Or did you add a third initially?
It's so easily done though, like I say. I guess I was just lucky! Perhaps after your big water change see what your ammonia levels are like in the morning as they would read particularly high if you've killed your bacteria.

Good luck!

Ps, my tank had started to warm by the time I went to bed, so bacteria was cold for about one and half to two hours ish. How long did your tank take to get up to temperature?

I believe it would kill the bacteria too, not just send to sleep

If TwoTankAmin is to be believed, even drying out filter media does not "kill" the bacteria, it merely renders them dormant. They may take a while to revitalise, but they do. The above says that the bacteria are killed at 0deg Celsius - well that's freezing point, and I suspect you may have noticed if the tank had frozen sold, so it looks like maybe they're just recovering.

I've just read that back to myself, and I realise I sound rather like the pet shop owner in Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch. "Nah, it's just sleeping"

 

[greenmumma141]

When you switched your filter over, how long did you wait before adding the fish from your last tank, or did you add them at all? The temp might have a big reason to do with the spike, but if you waited too long to add the fish then you starved your bacteria, sending it into a mini cycle.

 

[kylealastairlove]

shelster- nope i took my old tank down, only got room for the one in my bedroom + i dont want to like massively up the electric bill else my parents would go crazy lol!

thanks lauren, i think its just going through sort of a mini cycle
and thanks lock man, you're quite right i think i would of noticed to be honest if my tank was a block of ice, i dont feel as bad about this whole thing now, ifi just think logically! i recon its just a little mini cycle going on and i've done like a 70% water change to be on the safe side still need to take a water test though, feeling positive about it now though

i had a fluval u2 but i didnt use it on my new tank because it already had the filter built in, if any one else thats had a juwel tank knows what i mean, i didnt want to try and rip it out because i couldnt get it out, and i dont think i would have used my U2 on there because i would've wanted the U3 to have sufficient power for my twice the size tank so yeah i had to wait till my tank was almost full to turn on the filter, kept my old filter media wet in some old tank water, and it took me less than an hour to fill not sure exactly how long though, then i just put my 4 remaining fish in

 

[eaglesaquarium]

If TwoTankAmin is to be believed, even drying out filter media does not "kill" the bacteria, it merely renders them dormant. They may take a while to revitalise, but they do. The above says that the bacteria are killed at 0deg Celsius - well that's freezing point, and I suspect you may have noticed if the tank had frozen sold, so it looks like maybe they're just recovering.

I've just read that back to myself, and I realise I sound rather like the pet shop owner in Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch. "Nah, it's just sleeping"

You are correct about 0 Celsius being the freezing point, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the water would have to be frozen solid. I don't disagree with the point about the water not being that cold though, there is virtually no chance that the water was even near that cold. Even if it were really cold, it would be at least a degree or two above zero, or it might have frozen in the pipes a bit - or at least been a bit "slushy".
My guess is that it went no lower than 4 degrees Celsius. 4 degrees Celsius is the point at which the water starts to get less dense (seeing as ice floats on water), and the lighter water would "rise", which is why lakes only freeze on the top - and not completely solid.