Is This True?

[AdAndrews]

i have a rekord 60, 54 litres and have a high nitrite reading, my lfs shop told me that the filter sponges on the jewel compact super didnt have enough surface area to hold the ammount of bacteia that would be able to compose the fishes waste
he said i should either
get undergravel filter with airpump, but that will mean emptiing my tank or
get an external filter which costs about how much i payed for the tank!

what would you do, is this true or not?

 

[OohFeeshy]

A high nitrite reading would indicate that the tank isn't cycled properly. Which could be due to many things- overstocking, adding too many fish at once, killing off bacteria somehow, and so on. Lack of bacteria is the cause, but in general there should be enough surface area in the filter media, unless the tank is overstocked.

 

[minxfishy]

The juwel filters are more than sufficient for the bacteria to grow.

Is there a reason for the nitrIte spike? Too many fish added at once? How long has the tank been set up, did you (are you) cycling with fish in or did you do a fishless cycle prior to adding the fish?

If you have fish in now, I would suggest an immediate 50% water change for the sake of the fish, btw what is the ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte readings?

 

[Jazzzz]

would not go for an undergravel especially if you have plants

 

[AdAndrews]

i think its because i added too many fish at once- i couldnt help it when you get in the shop you want all of them!- i know i shouldnt have but i will learn from my mistakes

the lfs shop said to test nitrite readings everyday, if they are not below <3 then do 10% water change to get rid of it snd if that didnt work in 2 weeks get an undergravel filter, i have it set up for 7 weeks, cycled succesfully 4 weeks ago, see my signature for fish

 

[minxfishy]

If your nitrIte readings are above 0.25ppm then do a 50% water change, 10% whilst cycling isnt enough, from the stockng list you have in your sig, then yes you are overstocked and this will not be helping, you will need to keep on top of the water changes and think about re-homing the clown loaches at the very least once they grow, they need a much larger tank to grow into it or there growth will be stunted, but Im sure you already know that.

 

[nosoup4you]

Just an aside, the Juwel Rekord 60 is just over 14 gallons not 20.

 

[AdAndrews]

Just an aside, the Juwel Rekord 60 is just over 14 gallons not 20.

well on my baby biorb it says 5 gallon, 15 litres so if i have a 60 litre(near enough) tank then that must be 20 litres

U.K

i dont know about ppm minixfishy, i have a tetra nitrate liquid test kit, it says <0-3 mg/l

 

[OohFeeshy]

Just an aside, the Juwel Rekord 60 is just over 14 gallons not 20.

well on my baby biorb it says 5 gallon, 15 litres so if i have a 60 litre(near enough) tank then that must be 20 litres

Urm, no.

Volume: approx. 54 Litres

Then take away water displacement for substrate etc, and you're left with even less.

Do a Google search-
http/www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q...llons&meta=
http/www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q...llons&meta=

US is about 14, imperial more like 10.

 

[nosoup4you]

According to the Juwel website, the Rekord 60 is approximately 54 liters which would make it 14.265 US gallons or 11.878 imperial gallons.

Juwel Rekord 60

Here's a decent calculator:

http/animal-world.com/encyclo/information/calculate.htm

 

[AdAndrews]

complain to BIORB then not me , lol

 

[kribensis12]

I think it has to do with the BiOrb is circular. It must add more water space or something ?

 

[nosoup4you]

complain to BIORB then not me , lol

I wasn't trying to 'complain to you'. I just thought that you should know the true volume of your tank for stocking/medicating purposes.

 

[drobbyb]

I wasn't trying to 'complain to you'. I just thought that you should know the true volume of your tank for stocking/medicating purposes.

I'm with nosoup on this one. You need to know what volume of water you have so you can dechlorinate, medicate, and stock properly.

 

[Honeythorn]

Sometimes....just sometimes.......It's like talking to a sock.