New Tank

[star182]

Hi all I'm new here and thought I'd introduce myself

I've recently bought a 2ft tropical tank with everything included (fish, moss balls, heater, stand, etc) and had kept about 60% of the water but the tank was beyond filthy so after 2 hours of attacking it, it is now semi decent looking. However, I've inadvertently changed around 70-75% of the original water now because the water was dark brown. There were 5 filters in there, all full of thick, brown sludge, one of the heaters is so stiff and covered in algae, there was what looked like an awful lot of visible faeces all over the sand. In short, it wasn't very pretty, hence the accidental massive change! I have a fresh water test kit that I use for my axolotl tanks and I'm familiar with generic aquatic husbandry but it is the first tropical I've had. I am also familiar with the nitrogen cycle.

After the change I tested the water and got the following readings:
ammonia - 1ppm
nitrite - 5ppm
nitrate - 160ppm
pH - 8.0

For axies those readings are deadly so I am guessing that it is the same for the fish? I've got an albino bristle nose, 2x corys (I think 1 is a panda and the other a trilinnear), a white cloud mountain minnow, 2x male guppies and countless female and baby guppies, a couple of endlers, a neon tetra and I forget what the other one is. If it was my other tanks then I'd be fridging my axies while doing daily 10% water changes but I obviously can't fridge the tropicals so will it be fine for them to stay in there and should I be doing daily 10% water changes until my readings are looking better again? I don't plan on introducing any new fish until the end of the month when I'm paid but from the read ups I have done I'm aware that to keep the fish I have then I will need a few of each of them. I'm wanting to get rid of the minnow as he is quite nasty towards the guppies.

I'm sorry if this has come across as disjointed, I managed to give myself a concussion the other day so at the moment I'm easily confused and distracted lol. Any suggestions that you can give me though are much appreciated

 

[Aqua Tom]

You may have inadvertently done a 75% water change but I am afraid you now have to do a 80-90% water change to bring the Ammonia & Nitrite down. They are both at Toxic levels. Once you have done this test again. You are now in a Fish-In-Cycle so will probably be doing daily water changes for the time being to keep the Toxins down.

Dont panic we can get you through this.


Tom

 

[star182]

Thought as much I'm guessing it will have been a result of stirring up all the sand? You could see pockets of bacteria down there through the glass... Will it be needing 10% or 20% daily would you say?

 

[star182]

So after a 90% change I'm still getting the same reading for the nitrite and the ammonia is now down to 0.5ppm so I'm guessing that the sand is extremely filthy and every time I put fresh water in that dirt is getting stirred up. Any suggestions? I can't replace the sand as I'm skint until the end of the month. I have about 50ml of seachem prime, would it be worth double or triple dosing to try get the readings down?

 

[Mowbz]

Agreed, it sounds like the tank has been badly neglected for some period of time. And why on earth were there 5 filters in there?! lol

The spikes are likely to be due as you said, to your disturbance fo the substrate. If there has been rotting detritus on the sand for a long period of time, or detritus under the substrate layer, it will rot and produce ammonia. If you disturbed it, its now all in your water. Couldnt be helped, and would have needed to happen for the long term health of the tank anyway.

Just keep chening the water, and the levels will come down eventually. Perhaps look for a decent (second hand is always fine) external to do away with all of the filters, and have one large canister instead. You could likely cram the media from the current filters

EDIT : Filters - Did you mean there are 5 seperate filters in there, or 5 bits of media inside a filter? Just read the original post again, and wondered how much room there is for fish in a 2ft with 5 filters!

 

[star182]

I think the previous owner was under the impression that dirt = healthy, established tank... With the filters, there were 5 actual filters in there! There wasn't much room at all! They've all been cleaned up and I have one decent one in there now that seems to be doing a good job. I added a triple dose of prime and that has brought my readings right down, all the fish are still alive and there were a couple of new baby guppies this morning so I think I'm getting there again

 

[Mowbz]

Thats nuts. So it seems the previous owner was far happier to keep adding new filters, rather than sort the poor water quality!

Keep going as you are, you seem to be making the right noises so far, and im sure the fish are glad they have a new owner! For the mean time i would check your levels daily as a minimum, every 12 hours would be great if you have time.

I read you are very aware of the nitrogen cycle etc (also had a quick read on wikipedia about Aoxotl's, as i had no idea what it was!) so im assuming you've not destroyed any bacteria in the filters and have established media in the one that is still in there? (Just checking lol)

Out of interest, what fish have you inherited with the tank, and in what numbers?

EDIT : If you havent already, do a big (as close to 100% as you can get) water change to get those nitrite readings down. Perhaps get all of the fish into a bucket with the heater and one of your numerous spare filters while you do it..

 

[star182]

Nope I've kept everything as it is I did remove some of the sand which was a mistake but other than thet the filters have all been washed in old tank water and I've left the decs alone and moved some from one of my other tanks into this one. I've got an albino bristle nose, 2x corys (I think 1 is a panda and the other a trilinnear), a white cloud mountain minnow, 2x male guppies and countless female and baby guppies, a couple of endlers, a neon tetra and I forget what the other one is. I've done two large changes, one was 90%, haven't yet tested the water today but the readings were miles better last night. One of my corys has been swimming very erratically though, up and down, up and down (up being toward the surface) as well as along the tank. He's gulped air a few times too. I'm hoping he's ok, he's my fave!

 

[fluttermoth]

That's quite normal behaviour for cories; they do like to go a liitle mental every now again and they do absorb some of their oxygen through their gut wall, so gulping air is normal too

 

[star182]

Thanks I guess staying at the bottom and hiding is the abnormal behaviour then? that's all he did before the water change

 

[XeroTolerance]

to the forums.

 

[waterdrop]

Thats nuts. So it seems the previous owner was far happier to keep adding new filters, rather than sort the poor water quality!

Keep going as you are, you seem to be making the right noises so far, and im sure the fish are glad they have a new owner! For the mean time i would check your levels daily as a minimum, every 12 hours would be great if you have time.

I read you are very aware of the nitrogen cycle etc (also had a quick read on wikipedia about Aoxotl's, as i had no idea what it was!) so im assuming you've not destroyed any bacteria in the filters and have established media in the one that is still in there? (Just checking lol)

Out of interest, what fish have you inherited with the tank, and in what numbers?

EDIT : If you havent already, do a big (as close to 100% as you can get) water change to get those nitrite readings down. Perhaps get all of the fish into a bucket with the heater and one of your numerous spare filters while you do it..

I agree, 5 filters seems nuts... Sometimes when I see or hear tales about tanks with lots of filters I think that a fairly simple mistake has been made. People sometimes simply equate filters with -removing- debris from the tank, as if it were cleaning it. It's a fairly common beginner misunderstanding. Real thinking about filters tends to get a bit more complex before it begins to seem simple again! The filter -collects- debris, thereby re-arranging it in the tank but not removing it from the tank per se. It concentrates the organic debris in a trap and allows it to be broken down into ammonia, slightly raising the ammonia level in the filter box and thus helping feed the autotrophic bacteria in the filter. The filter does a quite imperfect job in the debris cleaning department, it -must- be supplemented by regular substrate-cleaning-water-changing of the tank. More filters does not equate to less need to perform regular water change type cleaning. Both this regular substrate cleaning with water change and also the timely maintenance of the filter are essential habits for beginners to form. One day, a beginner may become an advanced aquarist and perhaps have reason to tinker with these habits and ideas, but that is much better left for those advanced days and if you're a beginner plan on working hard to establish and get the feel of a correctly cleaned tank.

~~waterdrop~~