desperate!! two problems in 2 diff tanks

[qjim206]

first in my 72g my nitrites are reading 5+ and have been for 1 week i have been doing 50 -60 % water changes every other day but still no change the tank was fine for 2-3 months the only thing i changed was adding a canister filter could this have caused the prob? my temp is 75...amonia is starting to raise it is @0.5 ph 7.2. going to get nitrate test kit today think my tank crashed? i have only two fish in tank so its not over crowded.

Also my violet goby has got a bad prob..hes floating on his side sorta.....he is floating like he has a big air bubble stuck in his gut so he is bent like a u at first at the top of the tank now at the bottom he still swims but when he stops he just rolls on his side and floats there also he is not eating. my salinity is round 6 water test all in good ranges its just odd..........

 

[CathyG]

When you added the canister filter, did you remove an existing one (and therefore the bacteria colony)? It sounds like you have a mini cycle going on and, in order to keep the fish healthy, you will need to keep up the water changes until the bacteria levels have grown within the canister, enough to cope with the bio-load.

If you did not remove the existing filter, or you seeded the new one with old filter media, you may need to look at what else might have caused the spike. Since the tank was young, it might have been the disruption whilst it was still maturing that caused the new cycle to begin. You only list hardware with your tanks, what fish do you have in there and when were they added?

It sounds like possible swim bladder with the Goby.

Good luck!

 

[bigfish]

Yeah if you have moved media from one filter to another it may have set a mini cycle going but glad to see that your doing water changes every couple of days.

If one the other hand you have stripped out the old internal filter and swapped it for an external using totally fresh media [new] then i'm afraid to say you've put yourself into a cycle.

Don't beat ya self up over it as we've all done it at some point in our fish keeping days myself included....

Just keep an eye on Levels and fish behaviour oh and you might want to cut down on feeding, maybe evry other day until things sort themselves out.

 

[qjim206]

sonic3ooo powerhead & sponge filters,pinguin 350b,marineland 300wt heater,penn plax x5 air pump is the original equiptment and the lifetech 883 canister is the new filter i did not seed the filter as i thoight sense the original filters had been handleing the load. the new one would just act as a mechanical untill filly inhabited.
i have one 8" reddevil and one 12-14" pacu in the tank, before you fly off the handle bought the size of fish note: i have 125g on the way for them!up and running in 4-6 weeks . Im also adding stress-zime and stress-coat @ water changes. i have barely enough gravel in tank to cover bottom.

 

[sylvia]

So did you remove the original filter or not? Are both the new and old filters running now?

Your first filter would have contained all the bacteria so replacing it without seeding the new filter will have caused a re-cycle.

You need to increase water changes until the cycle is completed or you move those fish.

You should also make sure your test kit is ok - particularly if it's one of those test strip things as those become innacurate with time.

One last note - you may be moving those fish soon but that doesn't change the fact that they are messy and will, as such, be producing a lot of ammonia (and therefore nitrItes) in the tank.

I think the goby sounds like swim bladder if it's having problems swimming. However, the bubble and bent like a 'u' thing worry me if it's realy how you describe it. Your fish probably has an internal bacterial infection and needs antibiotics - prefferably added to its food.

 

[CathyG]

Just a thought until we know how many filters you have running (and how mature the filters), with barely enough gravel to cover the bottom of the tank, there will be little bacterial support from your substrate. The tank will be dependant on the filters.

I am with Sylvia re the test kits. If you are not using one already, I would advise liquid test kits - they are more accurate

 

[qjim206]

when setting up the 72g tank it was during a water change (50%) on my 55g all that water went in to the 72g then i installed the penguin350b on the 72g that had been running in the 55g for 2 years added 25 g fresh water to 72g tank along with the powerhead and sponge filters then fish less cycle (4 weeks) desired levels indicated completion of the cycle i added my fish 28days later added canaster filter.
total combined filtering is 1123gph or the tankwater is filtered 26,925 times a day.plenty of filtering going on with out substrate! 30% water change twice a week saturday& wednesday. as for the test kits they are bran new liquid (replaced every 3 months).