Testing Evolution Aqua Pure Balls

[Akasha72]

Hi everyone,

I recently changed my substrate from soft pebbles to sand. I used Argos play sand to do this. Previously my tank was fully cycled, it has been running 6 months but the filter was seeded with media from my old tank and it's cycled filter. I initially had a short mini cycle that lasted about 2 weeks which I dealt with by changing water and adding King British Safe Water.

Since removing the pebbles and cleaning the tank well I've been concerned about another mini cycle starting and have been keeping an eye on my fish and my nose close to the water!

Last night I could smell ammonia so I did an emergency ammonia test. It came out at about 0.50ppm so I immediately changed about 35-40 litres of water. I only had enough stress coat left to do a maximum of 40 litres - empty bottle has now been replaced.

This morning I did another ammonia test and also tested the PH. Ammonia came out as around 0-0.25ppm and the PH was only about 6. The fish are all acting normally, lively and no signs of ammonia poisoning so I am assuming that the low PH reading is keeping the ammonia as ammonium which is less toxic as we all know.

I've now decided to test out these Evolution Aqua Pure balls and will be adding 6 or 7 balls directly to my filter in the next few minutes. The box directions suggest adding between 5 and 10 balls for 100 litres which is why I am adding about 7.

As I changed quite a bit of water last night and the fish are not unwell in any way I have decided to leave the water as it is (whilst keeping a close eye on it and the fish) and just add the balls.

I'll test the water again tomorrow morning and report the results


Discuss as you wish

 

[MBOU]

Good luck, they are a great product!!

 

[Akasha72]

so I've heard this is why I thought I'd test them and let you all know the results. Thought it might help people with fish-in cycles and new tank syndrome if we can actually prove something works.

I thought I was in an ideal situation to test them properly. Obviously if things change and the fish become ill in any way then massive water changes will take over. If things stay as they are though I'm going to let the balls do their thing and we'll see how it goes and how long it takes

 

[Kevin8688]

You will have to update that picture! Let's see that sand ! └(^o^)┘ Still haven't gotten around to do my swap yet haven't had enough time. Goodluck on your balls :] hehe

 

[Akasha72]

I know I need to update the pic, just havn't got round to it yet. I've only taken a couple since I changed over and I'm not sure either were nice enough for my sig hehe

I'll keep things updated on the balls

 

[Akasha72]

okay, it's just taken me ages to get the signature picture changed and it looks huge but it's not intentional! It's the only feature I struggle with everytime. Sorry!!

 

[Kevin8688]

It looks really nice! I want to get to do my swap but I've decided to wait until I move to my new house.

 

[Akasha72]

It looks really nice! I want to get to do my swap but I've decided to wait until I move to my new house.

Thank you and that's probably a good idea. It took 2 days of washing sand and a full day to do the change over. It probably would've happened quicker if I didn't have M.E and had had some help but he-ho, it's done now and I'm not regretting it yet

 

[Kevin8688]

Yeah! I can't wait to do my swap Nice job hope nothing goes wrong

 

[Akasha72]

UPDATE:

Morning everyone!

Okay. Just done my water test and things are looking pretty much the same. PH is still very low at around 6. Ammonia still has a very slight tinge of green to it so probably 0.25ish and Nitrite is a nice clear blue so I'll take that as zero

Still no signs of sick fish, in fact they are now begging for food and the cories are chasing round so I think they're happy lol

My plan is still the same. Leave the water as it is unless there are signs of the fish suffering and see how long it is before ammonia goes away. My only concern is Nitrite. If that starts to climb then I may lose my oto's as I know they are sensitive to Nitrite.

I'll keep you all posted

Picture of test

 

[Akasha72]

UPDATE:

So, 10 minutes before I was about to leave the house for work I notice my fish arn't looking so good. A few are sitting on the sand, one is hiding in a plant looking a bit sick so I did another water test. Ammonia read a 0.50ppm

I only had to be at work for 2 hours so I rushed home and I've just done with doing a big water change. I changed about 55/60 litres of water, double dosed with stress coat and added 3 more aqua pure balls to the filter.

They were quite stressed before and during the water change but they've perked up now.

Now I just have to decide what to do about food tonight. Ideally not feeding at all would help the ammonia to fall but all my fish are terrible for ripping at plants when they've not been fed which I can do without ... I may just give them a small amount of flake and an algae wafer for the cories and leave it at that. I'll re-test in the morning

 

[MBOU]

Yeah, I was going to say... just because you have the 'pure' balls, it doesnt rule out water changes if you have fish in there already! Just reduces the need a bit.

Water change and a few more pure balls and i honestly wouldnt feed the algae wafer, just sink a few pellets or sink a couple of flakes for the cories, algae wafers wont do you any favours at all!

 

[Akasha72]

the plan was always to 'go with the flow'. Whilst the fish were happy and not showing any signs of distress or ammonia poisoning I was happy to monitor the situation and leave the balls to do their own thing. Whilst I knew 0.25 was over the good limit it wasn't affecting the fish but 0.50 was just too high for my liking and the fish were suffering a little.

I've fed a frozen blood worm block and made sure they ate it all. I won't be adding anything more now until tomorrow.

On a positive note the cories are trying to spawn so I'm guessing they're very happy

 

[MBOU]

Id leave off any high protein foods like frozen foods too! Its one thing that they eat it all but it still has to come out the other end too! You want to keep waste down asmuch as possible really.

 

[Akasha72]

ahh, never thought of that! I'll make sure I do a big sand vac in the morning then - that should help