Feeling much better...

Whew... Ok for those who read my welcome thread, you know that I messed up and started a "fish in cycle". I have an under gravel filter... My fish have been stressed out for the past week .. Even with daily water changes, 50% per day.
I was pretty certain that most of the fish would die.
The female Pearl Gourami has been surfing the glass non-stop for days.

I think I fixed it with material from my friends tank... And a hang on the back filter, with piece's of his filter cut to fit in mine...and I squished one of his filters from a canister into a bucket.. I dumped the funky brown water into my tank as well....felt so weird doing that lol, but I'm desperate.
I'm still holding my breath.... But my fish have been acting much more relaxed and just exploring the tank.....
We'll see,
B.

You would have been fine adding the filter media.

The gunky brown water doesn't have a lot of beneficial bacteria in and is more home to fish poop and harmful disease organisms. That's the stuff you don't want in the tank or filter.

Colin_T said:

You would have been fine adding the filter media.

The gunky brown water doesn't have a lot of beneficial bacteria in and is more home to fish poop and harmful disease organisms. That's the stuff you don't want in the tank or filter.

Click to expand...

Hmmm.. well that's what's in the other used filter media as well right?.. Was just trying to squeeze out the good stuff as it were. Either way it cleared up pretty fast. The fish seem to be much happier... Even the rasporas have come out of hiding..
Thanks.
B.

So this is where the water tested at this morning... 0 ammonia but the nitrites are high. However the nitrates have gone way up. I think it's around 20 ppm when it was around 5 before.
So I went ahead and changed 50% of the water just now....
Any ideas?... Should I keep changing water after introducing the used media?..

Do a 75% water change any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Don't bother testing for nitrates until the tank has cycled. Nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate and give you a false reading.

Colin_T said:

Do a 75% water change any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Don't bother testing for nitrates until the tank has cycled. Nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate and give you a false reading.

Click to expand...

Gotcha... %75. Not sure why I was still doing 50.. I'll step it up... Thanks.
You know when I had a tank 20 years ago. They sold me a hose with an attachment that fit over the bathtub faucet.... I did a search and came up with nothing. Didn't see it in any of the pet stores either.. Would make my life much easier.
B.

look up parts for a "python gravel cleaner". It might be in there.

Alright.. So the test this morning took a few minutes to change to purple and it was pretty light. So maybe it's getting better?... Well let me grab this bucket lol

It's BLUE! First time for this tank to test 0 nitrites.