New Member, New Tank, New Hobby, Need Advice

[Meechm]

Hello guys. I am new to this forum and new to aquariums in general. I do a lot of online research and find myself coming across this forum regularly so I figured I would give it a shot. So here it goes. It all started at the local carnival with my kids and a 5 dollar bucket of ping pong balls. A few cute goldfish, what could be the harm in that. Next thing you know I am completely obsessed. I have spent close to 1000 bucks already and I cant stop thinking about my fish. The goldfish are now gone and I have a 60 gallon freshwater tank with a 90 Gal HOB filter and a fluval 406 Canister( Eventually I want to stick with just the canister but I was told to leave the HOB running for a while). I have the lights, aerators, heating elements, Nite lights, deco's and close to 25 fish. Of course I went to my LFS and bought the house and a bunch of fish with 0 knowledge about what the heck I was doing. I have been using products like Acurel F, Stress Zyme+ various bacteria's, etc and most recently due to an ammonia spike I started using stability. I also have a 10 gallon tank with an HOB that acts as a sick tank/prego tank. Right now 1 of my molly's that got pregnant is in there.

Now that I have begun to grasp what I have gotten myself into I am starting to do in depth research on nitrogen cycling and whatever other useful information I can get my hands on. Let me just say that I have found this to be one of the most fulfilling and wonderful ways to spend my time and I absolutely love caring for my fish. So my tank has been set up for a month now and besides a few losses I suffered from Petsmart fishes for the most part my fish seem healty and happy.....all my levels where perfect for weeks but out of the blue 2 days ago my Ammonia levels shot up to 4 PPM!

I am freaking out! I cant sleep or concentrate on work and yesterday I lost one of my Dainos. I went to the LFS, the best one around here about 40 mins from my house where they have a large variety of great fish and seem to know what they are doing and they reccomended using stability to solve this issue. I gave the tanks the proper doses yesterday and today but I still haven't seen any changes. I love my Fishies and I dont want to see another one suffer. I feel so stupid for not understanding what I was getting into earlier and doing in the right way, but at this point I am all in!!!

A few more points to mention. The day before the ammonia spike I did a gravel vaccuming and about a 30% water change. I had been using Acurel F to decloud the tank and the day of the spike I changed the filters (which I now have learned was a mistake). I put one of the old filters back in after rinsing it in a bucket of tank water I had removed yesterday. I will be home in about an hour and will check my levels again then, but I want to know if there is anything else I should do. I am afraid to remove more water from the tank because I dont want to remove good bacteria and the last time I did a water change it didnt work out so well. I am afraid that the product I am using will get my cycle to used to using a chemical to work and it wont learn how to do it naturally but at the same point in time I don't want the fish to get hurt. Any advise would be appreciated.

Bio Load

2 marble angels
5 Various tetras
4 Various Danios
5 various Botias
1 pictus cat
1 snail
3 various loaches (including my rediculousely cute reticulated hillstream loach)
4 Mollys (1 is in preggo tank another has just been made pregnant by studly White molly Zia)
1 madagascar rainbow

 

[cambojnr]

Hello guys. I am new to this forum and new to aquariums in general. I do a lot of online research and find myself coming across this forum regularly so I figured I would give it a shot. So here it goes. It all started at the local carnival with my kids and a 5 dollar bucket of ping pong balls. A few cute goldfish, what could be the harm in that. Next thing you know I am completely obsessed. I have spent close to 1000 bucks already and I cant stop thinking about my fish. The goldfish are now gone and I have a 60 gallon freshwater tank with a 90 Gal HOB filter and a fluval 406 Canister( Eventually I want to stick with just the canister but I was told to leave the HOB running for a while). I have the lights, aerators, heating elements, Nite lights, deco's and close to 25 fish. Of course I went to my LFS and bought the house and a bunch of fish with 0 knowledge about what the heck I was doing. I have been using products like Acurel F, Stress Zyme+ various bacteria's, etc and most recently due to an ammonia spike I started using stability. I also have a 10 gallon tank with an HOB that acts as a sick tank/prego tank. Right now 1 of my molly's that got pregnant is in there.

Now that I have begun to grasp what I have gotten myself into I am starting to do in depth research on nitrogen cycling and whatever other useful information I can get my hands on. Let me just say that I have found this to be one of the most fulfilling and wonderful ways to spend my time and I absolutely love caring for my fish. So my tank has been set up for a month now and besides a few losses I suffered from Petsmart fishes for the most part my fish seem healty and happy.....all my levels where perfect for weeks but out of the blue 2 days ago my Ammonia levels shot up to 4 PPM!

I am freaking out! I cant sleep or concentrate on work and yesterday I lost one of my Dainos. I went to the LFS, the best one around here about 40 mins from my house where they have a large variety of great fish and seem to know what they are doing and they reccomended using stability to solve this issue. I gave the tanks the proper doses yesterday and today but I still haven't seen any changes. I love my Fishies and I dont want to see another one suffer. I feel so stupid for not understanding what I was getting into earlier and doing in the right way, but at this point I am all in!!!

A few more points to mention. The day before the ammonia spike I did a gravel vaccuming and about a 30% water change. I had been using Acurel F to decloud the tank and the day of the spike I changed the filters (which I now have learned was a mistake). I put one of the old filters back in after rinsing it in a bucket of tank water I had removed yesterday. I will be home in about an hour and will check my levels again then, but I want to know if there is anything else I should do. I am afraid to remove more water from the tank because I dont want to remove good bacteria and the last time I did a water change it didnt work out so well. I am afraid that the product I am using will get my cycle to used to using a chemical to work and it wont learn how to do it naturally but at the same point in time I don't want the fish to get hurt. Any advise would be appreciated.

Bio Load

2 marble angels
5 Various tetras
4 Various Danios
5 various Botias
1 pictus cat
1 snail
3 various loaches (including my rediculousely cute reticulated hillstream loach)
4 Mollys (1 is in preggo tank another has just been made pregnant by studly White molly Zia)
1 madagascar rainbow

you're gonna have to do a 90% water change asap and keep on doing water changes every day until youre tank is fully cycled so dont add anymore fish. also 99% of bactera are in your filters, water changes remove nitrates from youre tank when it is fully cycled not bacteria

 

[Meechm]

Just got home and started water change. How will I know when the cycle is complete? How much should I remove each day? Thanks.

Also I still have the old filter pads I removed, should I put the second one back in? Should I add plants or wait?

 

[cambojnr]

Just got home and started water change. How will I know when the cycle is complete? How much should I remove each day? Thanks.

Also I still have the old filter pads I removed, should I put the second one back in? Should I add plants or wait?

you should never have to remove filter pads unless they are falling apart. test every day and if you see ammonia of 0.25ppm do a 90% water change, you might have to do this every day for a long time, our you could take all your fish back to the store and do a fishless cycle, the cyle is complete when you have ammonia 0ppm nitrite 0ppm for 1 straight consecutive week. and when you wash youre filter media only was it in used tank water never under the tap as tap water kills you beneficial bacteria. do some research on fishless cycling.

 

[Meechm]

Thanks again for the advise Cambojnr. I am prepared to change the water every day for a year if I have to, I don't care. I enjoy working on the tank anyhow.

What about the plants? I had a similar problem in my 10 gallon as I listed above, it was at approx 3ppm and I was going to do a water change on that yesterday also but when I got done with the other tank and tested the small one, which has 3 plants in it, I noticed that the ammonia was practically gone in the smaller tank. I read on one of the cycling forums here that plants can help reduce ammonia as they feed on it when you are cycling with fish in the tank. Should I add some plants to my larger tank?

Also I still have 2 old filter pads from when the tank was running smooth, before i listened to the directions of the filter and changed them, I kept them in a plasic bag. Should I reuse them or add them to the back of the HOB just before the water hits the new filter pads? I did not rinse them in tap water, I rinsed them in tank water, they have been out of the tank for less than a week.

 

[cambojnr]

Thanks again for the advise Cambojnr. I am prepared to change the water every day for a year if I have to, I don't care. I enjoy working on the tank anyhow.

What about the plants? I had a similar problem in my 10 gallon as I listed above, it was at approx 3ppm and I was going to do a water change on that yesterday also but when I got done with the other tank and tested the small one, which has 3 plants in it, I noticed that the ammonia was practically gone in the smaller tank. I read on one of the cycling forums here that plants can help reduce ammonia as they feed on it when you are cycling with fish in the tank. Should I add some plants to my larger tank?

Also I still have 2 old filter pads from when the tank was running smooth, before i listened to the directions of the filter and changed them, I kept them in a plasic bag. Should I reuse them or add them to the back of the HOB just before the water hits the new filter pads? I did not rinse them in tap water, I rinsed them in tank water, they have been out of the tank for less than a week.

just test youre water every day and when ever you see ammonia do a huge water change, as for the filter pads that have been out a week they wont have any bacteria left on them as the need to be in tank water and feeding on ammonia. if you can fit them in you filter put them in as the more media you have in the filter the better as there is more room for the bacteria to grow on. also plants help to reduce nitrate level in the tank and more could help.

 

[basboi85]

Also I still have 2 old filter pads from when the tank was running smooth, before i listened to the directions of the filter and changed them, I kept them in a plasic bag. Should I reuse them or add them to the back of the HOB just before the water hits the new filter pads? I did not rinse them in tap water, I rinsed them in tank water, they have been out of the tank for less than a week.

Don't quote me on this but from what I believe is that if your old filter pads are now dry then they are no good now as the bacteria will be dead as they survive in water, and If you have washed them in normal tap water as well as stated above then 99% sure you've killed the bacteria that was on them so you might be lucky and have a 1% chance that there might be some bacteria left on them.

Sorry to bring bad news

 

[Meechm]

Also I still have 2 old filter pads from when the tank was running smooth, before i listened to the directions of the filter and changed them, I kept them in a plasic bag. Should I reuse them or add them to the back of the HOB just before the water hits the new filter pads? I did not rinse them in tap water, I rinsed them in tank water, they have been out of the tank for less than a week.

Don't quote me on this but from what I believe is that if your old filter pads are now dry then they are no good now as the bacteria will be dead as they survive in water, and If you have washed them in normal tap water as well as stated above then 99% sure you've killed the bacteria that was on them so you might be lucky and have a 1% chance that there might be some bacteria left on them.

Sorry to bring bad news

I don't know if it matters but I rinsed them in tank water, not tap water and I put them ina plastic bag, they are still a bit damp also. I can fit them behind my regular media in my HOB.

If there is a chance they will help I am going to do another huge water change when I get home and add the still damp media to the back of the HOB. What do you think about putting plants in there?

Also, I keep my water temp around 78 degrees, is that okay for the fish I have in there?

 

[basboi85]

[/quote]

I don't know if it matters but I rinsed them in tank water, not tap water and I put them ina plastic bag, they are still a bit damp also. I can fit them behind my regular media in my HOB.

If there is a chance they will help I am going to do another huge water change when I get home and add the still damp media to the back of the HOB. What do you think about putting plants in there?

Also, I keep my water temp around 78 degrees, is that okay for the fish I have in there?
[/quote]

In that case you might be lucky then, all you can do is try and hope for the best and as stated above if anything it will prob be better with extra in as more bacteria

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Madagascar rainbows need to be in schools.

 

[Meechm]

After 2 days of 70-90% water changes and some stability

my water is holding steady with no ammonia for the moment. I also used some Paradym

and some water conditioner. All the fish seem happy and healty.

So, assuming that the ammonia stays at 0 or I only have to do a few more water changes, WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP?

 

[fluttermoth]

Next step is you need to start testing for nitrIte (not nitrAte), as that's what the ammonia is being turned into.

Once you've gone a week with no ammonia or nitrite readings, your cycle will be finished.

 

[Meechm]

Next step is you need to start testing for nitrIte (not nitrAte), as that's what the ammonia is being turned into.

Once you've gone a week with no ammonia or nitrite readings, your cycle will be finished.

I see. And once the cycle is complete I only need to change the water when the nitrAte gets too high?

P.S. I'm not in the clear yet, the tank shot back up to 1ppm ammonia. Looks like its time for another water change. Will the smell ever go away? I don't remember the LFS tanks smelling.

Madagascar rainbows need to be in schools.

I will grab some more when my tank cycles, how many you think?

 

[fluttermoth]

Regular partial water changes are for more than just reducing nitrate, so you want to do them weekly, whether your nitrate is high or not, but they can be smaller if the nitrate isn't rising too much.

What kind of smell is it? Even cycling tanks don't normally smell.

 

[Meechm]

Regular partial water changes are for more than just reducing nitrate, so you want to do them weekly, whether your nitrate is high or not, but they can be smaller if the nitrate isn't rising too much.

What kind of smell is it? Even cycling tanks don't normally smell.

Can't really describe it, the water smells. I guess just really fishy, for lack of a better description. It gets better when I change the water, but when the ammonia creeps up, even just a bit, the smell comes back. I just added some live plants, maybe that will help