Quick Question About Maintenance

[LolaLouie]

Hi all,

I had a fully cycled tank with 14 fish (6 neons, 3 dwarf gourami, 4 corys, 1 otto) and was doing weekly water changes (Ammonia & Nitrite 0 and Nitrates 5-20 ppm). Last weekend I added to my tank so I now have 25 fish (6 neons, 3 dwarf gouramis, 4 corys, 2 ottos, 4 fivebanded barb, 6 cherry barbs).

I have tested daily and since I added the new fish Nitrites have been 0.1 and Nitrates 50-100 (Ammonia still 0).

My question is.. do I go back to daily cycles or continue weekly with these readings or just clean whenever Nitrates are above 20? I cleaned the tank yesterday and above is the readings I still got today.


Opinions about water changes would be great and also whether it's normal to have a little nitrite rise after adding new fish?

Tank has been set up for about 7 weeks and cycled for about a month (I did a fish in cycle before I found this forum! )

Thanks in advance,

Gemma

 

[evilchild]

what size tank you got? and also i have read things on here about otto and corys not getting on too well?

 

[Matt_northants]

How heavily stocked is your tank? Are you over feeding the fish?

 

[LolaLouie]

My ottos and Corys don't go near eachother, they're all really peaceful so I don't think they're going to be a problem but I guess i'll see. The tank is 24 gallons so it's pretty much fully stocked but I have an external filter made for a 100 gallon.

I only feed them what they eat in 2 minutes but put a variety of food as they all have different tastes. I put flake for the gouramis, tetras and cherry barbs but the fivebanded barbs like to eat at the bottom so I feed them (and the corys) a very small amount of bloodworm every other day. I also give the corys 1-2 algae wafers daily (which the barbs eat too so they go in about 10 minutes). Is this too much?

Should I clean out my tank?

 

[Matt_northants]

A water change of 10% a week or 20-25% a fortnight normally keeps things under control make sure that you vacuum the substrate when you do the water change to remove any solid waste. Once every couple of months rinse you filter media in some of the water you have removed to remove some of the gunk that builds up. What is the nitrate in your tapwater like?

 

[Jules H-T]

Specifically what do you mean by "clean out your tank"? You should be doing regular water changes, you should be gravel vacuuming, you should be scraping off algae from the glass/ornaments (if required- which if you're water changing enough and aren't overfeeding/lighting you shouldn't have to).

You do not need to be stripping the tank down and scouring everything, unless you've had a major disease/tank crash.

From what you've said, there are three obvious potential causes of your nitrite spike:

Firstly: Are you dechlorinating/standing your water? If you stripped it all down then put in loads of raw tap water and hooked it all back up again, the chlorine could well have damaged your bacteria colonies putting you into a mini cycle and causing a small nitrite spike.

Secondly, assuming you stripped everything down did you unplug the filter? If so, was it longer than for an hour or so? You may have suffocated the bacteria either from nutrients or Oxygen and caused some die off, although this seems unlikely.

Finally, did you clean your filter (filter media I mean by that)? If so, did you use untreated tap water (bad- chlorine, will kill the bacteria), or tank water (safe- but you only need to be giving it a bit of a squeeze, not scrubbing away then putting through a mangle).

beyond that, the only other thing I can thing of is that your cycle isn't quite finished.

Personally whatever the cause I would just do 33% water changes with dechlorinated water every two days for the next week or until you're showing no nitrite, and avoid doing any of the things above that I have suggested might have caused the problem. Not much more you can do than that really, and showing no ammonia is a good thing because that's where you get fatalities really TBH. I don't reckon you're in any real trouble, from what you've said.

 

[jennybugs]

When you add new fish, then existing bacteria needs a little time to catch up with the extra bioload and multiply to accomodate this rise in extra fish wastes.

I have otos and corys in the same tank and they all co-exist peacefully.

There's some very good advice above with regard to maintenance. I do 10% water changes and a gravel vac every week. If I can't do it one week, I do a 20% change the week after as well as the gravel vac.

 

[LolaLouie]

I don't do any of the above.

I normally add water conditioner to a large bucket of water and leave it to stand for a few hours or overnight (if I'm organised).

I then syphon out a large bucket of water from the aquarium using a gravel vac. I dont get much algae but when i do i clean 3 sides leaving the back wall for my ottos. Only have plants and rocks no ornaments and have amano shrimp to clean those up.

So just do a water test, take out a bucketful or more depending on readings.

Then refill with water than has been conditioned and left to stand.

I test daily or every other day and clean out weekly to every 3 days depending on readings.

I leave the filter on during the whole clean out as the inlet tube is near the bottom of the tank and it is an external filter so air never gets up it.

 

[Jules H-T]

When you add new fish, then existing bacteria needs a little time to catch up with the extra bioload and multiply to accomodate this rise in extra fish wastes.

Quite, I missed what was probably the most important piece of info when I read your post! Jennybugs is spot on.

 

[LolaLouie]

Oh ok so it's normal then. So do I clean out now or leave the bacteria to kick in?

Thanks for your advice!

Gemma

 

[dilbert]

Just want to add a question and a hint.

Do you also test the ph?

If your ph drops (normally it rather drops than it raises due to carbondioxide in the surrounding air and acidic fish waste) take care that it never drops below a ph of 6. That is not only harmful to your fish but also the nitrying bacteria start to die off when the ph is lower than 6.

 

[LolaLouie]

My pH is quite high in my tap and the same in my tank. It's 8 so I def don't think low pH is a problem.

Thanks though.