Using Filter Media Question

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Okay- i tested my dads 55 gallon tank and it is indeed cycled- nitrates and ammonia are zero so i had him take his white filter bags out empty the carbon pellets, put them in a plastic baggie with the water he took out of his tank and bring it to me... it did sit on the porch for a few hours because i didn't want to bring it in until the baby went to sleep and it got down into the 60's (temp wise) so i hope that doesn't affect it. They look really nasty but i assume thats a good thing.
I have a biowheel filter so I took out the empty gray cartirige thingys and put the gross (used to be white) filter stuff in there. Is that right??? How long to I leave it in there? And I put one "cycled filter" into each gray thing (2)
My nitrates were high again today so i am getting ready to do a water change. Its quite a process since my tap water has to be treated before i even put it in there and I need to use gallon bottles because I can't lift more than that. And since the biowheels were not kept wet when I bought the tank should I buy new ones?? Or its it too late for that- I just want to make sure that the "dead" bacteria leave room for new bacteria...I know I am a goof OH yeah- Im talking about my 100 gallon
Thanks in advance to anyone and everyone that can help
Respectfully- a newbie with spends WAY too much time on this.

 

[Mikaila31]

Sounds right. But there are fish in the tank or you are adding ammonia to keep them alive right? Also do you mean nitrIte, cuz mature media isn't going to do anything to nitrAtes.

 

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Yeah theres fish- Sorry- there a good bit of fish
2 nice sized angels, 2 giant danios, 4 mickey platies, 3 little balas, 3 dwarf gournami's, 3 mollies, 1 red finned shark- and a partrige in a pear tree.... boy do i need sleep
And I did mean NitrItes- there is some nitrAtes too but i meant nitrItes- im usually very careful about mixing those up.
So, is there a general time frame i should start seeing this take effect, the gunky filters???

 

[OldMan47]

The "gunky" filters should give your tank some help right away. The heavy fish load including the partridge may still be too much for the media that you have so keep a close eye on your water and do water changes to control nitrites and ammonia. You need to make sure that you don't just have the transferred media in your filter. Your objective, at this point, is to get the nitrogen converting bacteria established in your own filter media and not just to use what you moved over. The biowheel will become loaded with the right bacteria very quickly if the media you moved over is alive as it should be. If you are worried about the wheels, wash them in tank water to remove some of the old deposits but be careful as they can be fragile.

 

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this is no good- i did my 25% water change around 1am and this morning around 1030 my Nitrite was at 1.0!!!! a little worse than yesterday.. Im going to try to do a 50% water change if i can get the baby to take a nap but is this something that is critical and needs to happen within hours or will everyone be ok until tonight?? My dad thinks Im doing a bunch of unecessary work since he never paid attention to his readings but his tank had mollies and Giant danios and from my understanding those are pretty hardy fish....
Do i need to be treating my tap water before putting it in with my fish or can i treat it once its in there? This 50 1 gallon jug thing is killing me but i heard that my tap water has high chloramine levels and Wal-mart (i dont usually listen to them) down the street said not to use it at all but with a 100 gallon I dont have much of a choice. I've been trying to call the water company and asking them directly but i have yet to talk to someone.
Besides water change and used filter media is there anything I can do to help keep fish healthy while im waiting to get a chance to change it?? Damn I wish i did a fishless cycle- By the time i learned of such a thing it was too late.

 

[button]

This is driving me crazy- I did the 50% water change and the Nitrites went down to .25 but the Ammonia is still1.0!! Should I put some ammonia granules in for a few hours or something?? I used 2-3 drops of Prime in each gallon of water before adding it thinking that
may help but its been about 2 hours- does it take longer for the Ammonia to go down? Is 1 something to worry about? When should I retest and if it doesnt go down when should i change the water again??
Sorry for asking so many questions but like i said before i just want to do things as right as i can(an I am REALLY wishing i did the fishless cycle now) At least with my next tank (as we are already talking about getting another one) i'll know.
Do you think If i got some gravel from my dads tank and put it in my other biowheel filter (its a single wheel a 130 i think- my other is a 400) that would help??
PLUS, after i changed my water my 3 bala sharks gathered in the corner by the filter andhave been hanging there vertically head down- I did have the one that died in there with them for a few days before i took him out and put him in a hospital tank- that was about 2 weeks ago- do you think they caught what he had? Should I just keep a close eye on them or treat with something? They were my whole reason for getting a 100 gallon so quickly- i wanted happy, healthy balas- please help me keep them from dying- i woul send them to my dads 55 gallon until i was cycled but he has WAY over 50 inches of fish as it is...its one crowded tank....thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any assistance whatsoever

 

[Mikaila31]

I would do another large water change, then double dose prime. That should bring ammonia and nitrite down to almost zero. If you have enough bacteria in the mature sponge, the levels should stay about the same or drop to zero. If they rise again, then you have a mini cycle and you will have to do lots of water changes or hunt down some more mature media to add to your tank. But from the sounds of it you should have enough bacteria if the sponge came from a fully stocked 55gal tank. I think the tank just has too much ammonia and nitrite built up. Dropping everything down to zero will mean the bacteria will only have to deal with the waste your fish are currently producing, instead of trying to play catch-up.

 

[button]

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG??!! this filter media has been in there for at least 3 days now and I changed 50% of the water once and 25% three times in the last 4 days and my Ammonia is still at 1.0 ppm! (API kit) and my Nitrites are somewhere between .25 and .50 ppm- is this mature filter media thing not working?
I've also been using double dose PRIME with the water changes could it be Ammonium showing up as Ammonia and if so thats not so bad is it? Is there anything else anyone can think of i could do- i did add Cycle about a week ago and BioZyme a couple times I've been looking for BioSpira (here in South Texas) and cant find it yet... ANY advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated
Thanks to everyone on here for being so helpful thus far -
ALSO- One of my Giant Danios has a white spot (it doesnt look cotteny though) on his bottom lip- Could this still be columinaris? He was acting a little weird yesterday (not as actvie) but today hes him old self again? AND like i said in my other post my bala's are acting a little weird and the oldest one has darkened and lost his "sheen" Can these guys be saved or has my tank poisioned them already??

 

[button]

bump...sorry guys i just wanted to make sure someone saw this and try to get a little advice....i tried again to take my fish back to the stores but to no avail- is .5 Nitrite and 1 ammonia (maybe lower today going to seriously harm my fish? Please read previous entry Thanks in advance

 

[OldMan47]

Button'
It sounds like you are doing everything right. Keep up the water changes and keep using the prime on all the new water. The only thing that is keeping your fish from being poisoned by ammonia is the water changes. The prime does not remove ammonia, it just makes it into a little less toxic form of ammonia. It will still show up on your water tests as being ammonia because it is. I think a 50% daily water change would probably be enough to keep up until the bacteria have a chance to get established in your tank. At least that's what it sounds like from the readings you gave us. The cycle should be moving along by now if the bacteria from the established tank has started to settle in and make itself at home.

 

[littlest]

have you tested your tap water? I have heard of people having ammonia in their tap water.

Also, if you are finding the waterchanges hard work, try and buy a python [URL="http/www.aquariumpros.com/p-PYT25,PYTwc.html"]http/www.aquariumpros.com/p-PYT25,PYTwc.html[/URL]

no idea what that site is like or if you could get it cheaper, was just the first to come up on google to show you.

 

[waterdrop]

Wow button, I remember you. I wrote in your Chemistry Issues thread last tuesday. Where is that enthusiastic spouse?? You need to make -him- lug some of those water buckets, lol. Maybe you can get a python setup going! I knew you were going to wish you had figured out a way for those fish to go back. At least you are a good learner! gotta go, waterdrop.

 

[button]

I have been using a python to remove the water its the replenishing the water thats a pain - lol- i have 25 1 gallon bottles (have a bad back and cant lift more than that) and i have to refill them all to make it 50- thats what I get for not doing a fishless cycle-
Well, I added the BioSpira yesterday but the package was for 90 gallons and under (its a 100) and my nitrites are 1.0 now! but my ammonia is only .25...hopfully thats a good thing. I went to a highly respected aquatic store in my city and they claimed that I wasn't supposed to do water changes daily that it needs to stay in there to assist in the cycle- Ugh...so many differnt ways of looking at things....and of course my husband was standing there with me and he believes them over what i have learned here and its been a constant battle trying to convince him that if we don't change it our fish will be poisoned...Hopefully our tank will be cycled soon and i wont have to worry about this anymore-
I've been trying to decide if I should move my 4 fancy tail guppies, 5 neon tetras, 4 baby mollies and 1 betta into my 100 gallon to put my danio in that tank to treat the fungus?? on his lip- (its a white spot but not cottony looking) He is not acting any differently just the spot-- But I don't want to add such a big load of fish to my 100 gal while I am still in cycle (or at all for that matter ) all at once. I don't know what to do- I did put 15 spoons of Aquarium salt in there and I have my fingers crossed that it will help so I don't have to resort to medicine? Is there any other non-medicated way to treat this? I think one of my bloodfin's have it too but its hard to see- OR do i Need to treat my 100 gallon so the other fish dont' "catch" this?

This all orginally started because my parents bought my 5 month old son a fish tank(lol) and stocked it with fish to "suprise" us - One of those fish was a Bala shark and I learnt that the 10 gallon was way to small for him so I bought a 100 gallon (spoiled little fish) and then my husband got all into it and bought a bunch of fish before i could tell him not to- the stores wont let you return fish so up I am SOL...If i can get through this with at least most of my fish happy and healthy I will be ever so grateful !!

 

[waterdrop]

<...> I went to a highly respected aquatic store in my city and they claimed that I wasn't supposed to do water changes daily that it needs to stay in there to assist in the cycle- Ugh...so many differnt ways of looking at things....and of course my husband was standing there with me and he believes them over what i have learned here <...>

I've dealt with highly respected aquarium stores on and off for years and most often have found (for whatever reason) their information to be not very good if not completely wrong. Its not that they don't have good experience to share, often they do and I always try to listen, especially when talking with owners, to the things they have to say. Sometimes I think they are just coming from such a different place: suppose you had a struggling business and you had to tell potential customers that they can't enjoy the colorful happy creatures you have there to sell them until they carefully tend an empty cloudy tank that smells mildly like a locker room (that comment from my 11-year-old!) for maybe -six weeks- and would they please just take these many pages of instructions and come back months later?

I mean, just picture a fish store owner doing that! I mean, maybe somewhere out there we might find the one great store that does that (Hey TFF, has -anyone- experienced this store??)

Additionally, when you as a LFS deal with hundreds/thousands of fish, you are used to having plenty of fish die, plenty of problems. It just goes with the statistics. Your mindset is "Hey, what's a few fish dying in a new tank? No big deal!" You are not mean. You probably got into it because you love the hobby in a way. You just probably have a very different mindset.

And, again as a LFS business person, you hope customers will have a good experience and keep coming back, but there is this opposing reality that if a few fish are lost then more will be bought. If a few fish get sick then many meds will be sold. If a tank turns out to be too small then hey, it turns into a big sale of a whole bigger system. The economic forces just can't help but be different from what the lone hobbiest might want as an experience.

Oh well, just my thought this morning. Hopefully others might enjoy commenting!

button, I still think you are doing the right thing and have happened upon hundreds of the most knowledgeable peoople out there in the hobby. Heck, some of these people helped to design tanks at the Monterey public aquarium, one of the best in the world. Some of them write columns in the respected fish magazines. I really think its the real thing.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[button]

I wholeheartedly believe that the majority of people here know what they are talking about otherwise I wouldn't keep coming back...my entusiastic spouse works nights 4 days a week and has to sleep all day so his particiapation isn't as great as we would all like- he does help out a lot but he is getting sick of having to do the water changes with me after coming home after a 12-14 hours shift and helping me take care of the baby and getting maybe 2 hours of sleep cumatively thoughout the day ( i keep finding other reasons to bug him while he's trying to sleep and I'm working on it-poor baby)(my husband that is)

I did get another pack (a small one this time) of Biospira and added most of it to my tank (and abut a third to my 10 gallon tank) since the orginal pack was for 90 gallons and below and its a 100 AND it claims you can't overdose on it...So i hope it helps- Today my nirtrites are pretty high- at a 1 - but my Ammonia is almost 0- so I am crossing my fingers my fishys can handle the Nitrites until they can get down to zero...My husband made me promise to wait until tomorrow to do another water change (if then its necessary) and give the store owners a little credit on what they said...and I figured since one of my Danios already have a little fungus on his lip mydaswell -- I have to say I am nervous as hell though.

I have been looking for a 20 gallon that I can put all my "gentle" fish in and use the 10 as a hospital tank for the Giant Danio and maybe my Bloodfin(it looks like he "might" have the same problem-he's small so its hard to tell) I am sure that these problems are all caused by these water issues....Does anyone know of a way to treat this "fungus" or whatever it is in a way that won't disrupt the biological filter? I have aquarium salt in there and i have ( but have NOT used)Jungle tank buddies fungus treatment and Jungle "lifeguard" that is supposed to treat "all" "issues"....and i was looking a Pimafix thinking that since its "natural" that maybe it wont hurt the biological filter- after all this work I don't wont to destroy the bacteria I've worked so hard to establish... SO besides the salt i havent' done anything- He's still acting normally so I am hoping to find a decent priced 20 gallon before its too late. I've ranted enough for now...thanks again everyone - you are all VERY helpful and I am very grateful to have found this site.