RECYCLING?

[panther1505]

My aquarium finished cycling about a month ago. My fish seemed to be doing alright. Now it seems that my tank is recycling.

Could that happen?

In the last week or so I've lost about 4 neons, 3 rasboras, 1 glass cat, and 1 bala shark.
I swapped out the biobags in my Whisper 60, and I also swapped out the carbon filters in the tops of my air supply tubes on my UGF.

My ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are as follows:

AMMONIA = .25

NITRITE = ~5.0

NITRATE = ~5.0

Some questions,

1. What do you think I should do about these levels?

2. How often do you think I should replace the above mentioned filters?

3. How often do you think I should vacuum my gravel?

4. I've got a magnetic scubber. How often do you think I should scrub the sides of the aquarium?

5. How often do you think I should do a water change, and what amount do you think I should change out?

 

[tstenback]

Yes, that can happen for a variety of reasons. Usually it is caused by a sudden increase in bio mass by adding fish too quickly, in this case you will get a mini cycle where the bacteria colony will grow to catch up to the amount of ammonia being produced. It could also be caused by the killing off of the bacteria colony through use of meds, forgetting to dechlorinate the water etc.

When you say swapped out, do you mean you you took the existing filter material out and replaced with new. If this is what you did then you probably removed the bacteria colony almost completely as the bacteria in your filter is what treats the water flowing through it. It will rebuild quickly as there is bacteria on all surfaces in the tank and it just has to repopulate the filter.

In the mean time do daily water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrate levels below 1 ppm if possible. This may mean starting off witha 50% water change and even doing additional 25% changes until you get that nitrite level down.
Then once everything stabilizes do regular gravel vacs during your 20 - 25% weekly water changes and just rinse the filter in the old water. When the filter needs replacing i cut the foam front off the old one a place it with the new cartridge for the first couple of weeks. that way the bacteria will quickly populate the new filter media and you wont get the spike. Also when cleaning dont do it all at the same time. If youvac and do a water change today wait a few days before doing the filter. That way anything happens there will still be a good source of bacteria available in the tank.
Clean the side of your tank whenever the urge hits. If you have algae eating fish leave the back glass alone and they will have that algae to eat. HTH

 

[panther1505]

Yes I did take out the existing filter material and replace it with new. My fish died, and my water was cloudy before I put new filters in. It has been at least 3 day now since I put the new filters in and the fish that are in my aquarium right now seem to be doing well. The gold zebras are very hyper, chasing each other around, the glass cats are swimming all over the place, as are the remaining neons and the 2 bala sharks.
My water has also stayed clear since I made the change.
The old filters that I replaced were pretty filthy, brown, and seemed pretty clogged.

 

[tstenback]

What i do is rinse the filter out each time i do a water change. It keeps the food and plant bits under control so they dont clog the filter as much. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[panther1505]

How do I go about bringing my nitrite level down to 0ppm?
And I also need to bring my ammonia level down to 0ppm too, right?

What should my nitrate level be? It's at about 5ppm now.

I know that you said that you usually rinse your filter material when you do your water changes, but eventually you will have to replace them. NO?

You do weekly water changes? Even after you know for sure that the environment has been established?

 

[tstenback]

the nitrite and ammonia levels will come to zero on their own as part of the cycling process. To minimize the damage of these chemicals on your fish do a 25% water change daily until the levels are at zero.

Nitrate levels should be as low as possible but i have found no problem as long as it stays at or below 20 ppm.

Yes, you would have to replace them eventually and when it does i cut the foam front off the old one a place it right against the foam of the new cartridge for the first couple of weeks. that way the bacteria will quickly populate the new filter media and you wont get the spike. Then after a couple of weeks i discard the old filter material. If you do not have cartridges then i cut the old sponge in half and put in half of the new one and then the other half after about a week. If you have room you could just put the new sponge in about 2 weeks before you get rid of the old one.

Yes do weekly water changes as it is the only way to control the build up of nitrates and other "stuff" in the tank. HTH

 

[nightlife20]

when you rinse the filters, do it in old water out of the tank.. this way the chlorine out of the tap wont kill of ur bactiria



if you dont feel like doin water changes every week, just do a big one ever 2 weeks, say 50%-70%

 

[panther1505]

Thank you all for your advise. I will do that.