water quality emergency

[teknikz]

anno i already posted this is chit chat but its urgent now

i got a 2nd hand tank.....used new sand.....60% mature water....25% water that the fish came in from this tank (2nd hand) and 15% fresh treated water and an established filter

the ammonia is up a bit as is the nitrite....1 fish has died but im not sure if this is why

ive got a 10 gal tank with cichlids in it (firemouths, 1 jewel cichlid and a krib)

a 180 litre community tank....matured....original juwel filter and a fluval 4+ filter which are both established

is there anythin i can do to make sure the fish stay alive?

movin filters around or swappin what fish are in what tank?

in my newest tank is 5 platties...1 rainbow fish...2 silver sharks and 3 quite big synodontis angelicus i think....they big cats anyway...and 2 cory's

i was thinkin movin all my small fish to my 10 gal (neons guppies platties n small tetra's)

big cats cory's n sharks to my 180l and the cichlids into the new tank as they are quite hardy apparently

please help

 

[Alien Anna]

Put the Juwel filter in the new tank, if the new tank is deep enough. If the 180L tank is well established, a Fluval 4 will be absolutely fine (in fact, I'd say you had rather too much filtration on there, although I know with cichlids it helps cut down on water changes).

Juwel filters are fantastic biological filters so that will help your new tank more than anything. If the whole filter column doesn't fit in your new tank take the sponges out and weigh them down in the new tank, aerated by an air-stone.

You can temporarily put your new tank's filter into the 180L Juwel tank - that will mature it and act as a back-up for the Fluval 4.

I'd be surprised if your water quality problems continued after 48 hours if you did that - like I said, those Juwel filters are quite amazing at biological filtration (pretty crap at producing current, but that's a good thing for some fish).

I do strongly suspect that ammonia and nitrite killed your fish - it is horrifically toxic and I think sometimes we forget that when we've been fish keeping a while.

 

[teknikz]

right okay.......does that mean i shouldnt use the nitrazorb bag then?

 

[Alien Anna]

right okay.......does that mean i shouldnt use the nitrazorb bag then?

Pass. Not sure. I've never used chemicals like that.

Pro: it will immediately remove the ammonia from the water and may save your fish.

Cons: It only works temporarily and once it stops working, if your tank is still not cycled you're going to get one heck of an ammonia spike suddenly. Also, it messes up the water parameter test results. It may also lock away all the ammonia your beneficial bacteria need to grow.

Probably on balance, I'd use it but keep a very close eye on the ammonia levels and make sure I used the Juwel filter as well. It is possible that original filter in your new tank "crashed" at some point during the set-up (i.e. you had bacteria dying off in it). I've had that happen to me once, with a Fluval (never with a Juwel for the reasons I said earlier). You can stick it inside the Juwel filter column.

 

[teknikz]

right ive put the juwel filter in the newer tank for now.....and im gonna put the media from the existin filter inside the juwel 1 so the bacteria builds up on it