A New Start...

[abih2005]

I went away for a few days, came back and the water was bright yellow, the plants were dead and the rocks and woods were covered in black slime. Apparently he thought that two caps off the ammonia bottle (boots brand) was the correct dosage despite my having him shown him a 2ml cap!!!!

I was extremely angry, emptied the tank, i actually tested the water and result was so deep it was almost black, hardly a colony. So p'd off.]

Gonna have to start all over again. Everything has been soaked and scrubbed. Gonna buy a new filter. Just ARFGGGGGGGGGGGGh was so close to being done!!!!

 

[littlemissjo]

men......... hahaha

sorry to hear this has happened, at least the accident happened now and not when the tank was full of fish....

 

[Curiosity101]

You shouldn't need a new filter. Try to keep the pads and everything from this one wet. Empty the tank, refill and then leave the filter to it... there's no point losing ALL the progress you've made.

 

[abih2005]

I was too angry to think straight, like I said the water came up almost black for ammonia so no chance of anything still alive! I'm going to go to a pet shop and try and get some mature media when I feel like starting up again. Only reason I'm interested in a new filter is cos some on here have queried whether slow progress was down to cheap filter (it came with aldi tank).

 

[Twinklecaz]

Get a Fluval U Series one. I've got very few complaints so far *touch wood* and I know others feel the same.

It took a while to cycle, though that could just be conincidence.

 

[OldMan47]

In my own experience, there is no such thing as a filter that will not work. If you respect the limitations of your filter, it can be made to serve your purposes. A poorly designed filter simply means that you cannot expect it to respond effortlessly to rapid stocking levels. It will take some time to do so. If you are as grossly over-filtered as most of our tanks are, you should see a better response to a rapid change in stocking. The cure, if you will, is to make all changes to the fish environment slowly, not to buy some gadget. If you can make that a principle of your fish keeping, you will find fish care much easier in the long run than if you don't. Unfortunately, many of today's youth think that a technical solution to all the problems they encounter should be something they can just tap into. I am sorry to have to say that an educated fish keeper is far more important to the health of any tank than a simple set of rules and other guidance for that quick fix.

 

[abih2005]

No offence but surely a new filter, Fluval - would be more efficient at processing bacteria? It took me four months to get the ammonia down to 2ppm in 12 hours, I really cannot be bothered to redo it again if that's how long it will take!

 

[Tolak]

As far as bio filtration goes, all a filter does is move water past media that has a lot of surface area for bacteria to grow. Your problem may not be the filter as much as the media provided. You can take a top of the line canister filter that holds 2 liters of bio media, or a filter made from junk around the house that holds 2 liters of the same filter media, both will perform bio filtration the same.

I would look at the media first, as well as trying to get some mature media from a shop or another aquarist. Four months is a long time, I would look into other aspects of what you are doing during this cycle. I'll look back at some of your posts to see if anything stands out, in my mind there is no reason it should take this long when many tanks cycle in a fraction of this time.