Wannaknowaboutsand
Fish Fanatic
I would like to share some of the story that has been my fish tank.
This all started about two months ago whe I decided I would start keeping fish again. I bought myself a 50 gallon tank and decided to set it up as an African Cichlid tank. I got it all nicely set up with a Magnum 350 canister filter hooked to a BIO Wheel 60 pro.
I used a fishless cycle method and cycle. It work beautifully The ammonia started to dimmish almost as fst as I was putting it in the tank and after 7 loooonnng days the Nitrite dropped to ZERO. I did my 50% water change; I was so happy so I ran out to a petco and bought myself 3 yellow labs( labidchromis caeruleus) and two red zebras (psuedotropheus esthrae). I drop the little guys in the tank they seemed so happy. About three days later I decide to swap out the carbon container in the Magnum for its water polisher.
This is where the trouble began. Turns out most of my bacteria formed in the carbon and the pre-filter for the carbon container. NOTHING had formed on the biowheels! I was lucky as the ammonia stayed low, but the nitrite spiked to over 5.0! I was devestated. I added some salt and changed the water daily but one of the more sickly yellows died. I was very upset and watched everythign very cosely of another week until the Nitrite dropped to zero again. I was happy again and so were the fishes.
I waited a couple of days and decided to add to my fish collection. I spotted some nice looking labidochromis pearlmutt and bought 2 and ran these home and put them in the tank.
They seemed very happy.
I should mention about now that during this juvinile period I was holding a friends figure eight puffers also in the tank. He had bought them for an uncycled tank and had nearly killed them, but luckily he brought them to me for keeping until he finished a fishless cycle. Well he was feeding them ghost shrimp every once in awhile. I was very careful to make sure that the africans were nicely stuffed before I gave the ghost shrimp to the puffers. One day something bad happened. The container I kept the shrimp in fell into the tank! I managed to catch 3 of the 12 shrimp[ that fell in but with all the rock work in the tank I could mot get the rest.
My africans made quick work of them and were all very fat and happy over the feast. I had shrimp parts everywhere. So, I started some tank maintenance. I cleaned out as many parts as I could, and while I was at it decided to cleam the tubing on the magnum. WHAT A DUMB idea. turns out that is where my bacteria was again not in the bio wheel. THe ammonia shot up to 8.0 and I ddid a water change and dosed the tank with ammonia lock. Well one of the red zebras and pearlmutts died both actually from bloat not the water conditions, But I still had a major problem on my hands.
I kept adding the ammonia lock for 2 weeks and the tank never cycled. I was entertaineing the idea of taking my fish back to the store or keep addign ammonia lock until Bio Spira was released again. I did not now what to do!
I looked around for an alternative to bio spira and found one called Nitromax freashwater. Desprate, I ordered it and waited 2 weeks for it to be delivered. When the stuff arrived I was still at 8.0 ammonia and had a crisis where my largest labidochromis caeruleus was found laying on his(turns out to be female) side barely alive. I pulled him out and kept him in a bowl, of all things, until he was trying to jump out. Anyway, I did a 90% water change to get rid of all the ammonia lock and add the Nitromax. The bottle said to add it everother day but I started doing it daily. The ammonia got to 90% but none of the fish including the one that was near death looked like htey where having any problems. I also bought a Ehiem 2217 canister filter to help that magnum 350. The results where great!!!
In 3 days I got a nitrite spike again of .5 and the ammonia remained at 4.0. I kept adding the stuff daily and at 7 days I had zero ammonia and zero nitrite. I was crazy happy. NOTHING HAD DIED!!!!! now I have a lot of happy fish and the one that almost died is holding!!!!
I have learned a lot for this experience. First, I think hang on back filter are probably better than the canisters. Second the magnum bio wheel combo stinks. THe bacteria doesn't for on the bio wheel .
I thought I would share my exprrience and tell you about the little product I used in case you ever need somethign like that.
This all started about two months ago whe I decided I would start keeping fish again. I bought myself a 50 gallon tank and decided to set it up as an African Cichlid tank. I got it all nicely set up with a Magnum 350 canister filter hooked to a BIO Wheel 60 pro.
I used a fishless cycle method and cycle. It work beautifully The ammonia started to dimmish almost as fst as I was putting it in the tank and after 7 loooonnng days the Nitrite dropped to ZERO. I did my 50% water change; I was so happy so I ran out to a petco and bought myself 3 yellow labs( labidchromis caeruleus) and two red zebras (psuedotropheus esthrae). I drop the little guys in the tank they seemed so happy. About three days later I decide to swap out the carbon container in the Magnum for its water polisher.
This is where the trouble began. Turns out most of my bacteria formed in the carbon and the pre-filter for the carbon container. NOTHING had formed on the biowheels! I was lucky as the ammonia stayed low, but the nitrite spiked to over 5.0! I was devestated. I added some salt and changed the water daily but one of the more sickly yellows died. I was very upset and watched everythign very cosely of another week until the Nitrite dropped to zero again. I was happy again and so were the fishes.
I waited a couple of days and decided to add to my fish collection. I spotted some nice looking labidochromis pearlmutt and bought 2 and ran these home and put them in the tank.
They seemed very happy.
I should mention about now that during this juvinile period I was holding a friends figure eight puffers also in the tank. He had bought them for an uncycled tank and had nearly killed them, but luckily he brought them to me for keeping until he finished a fishless cycle. Well he was feeding them ghost shrimp every once in awhile. I was very careful to make sure that the africans were nicely stuffed before I gave the ghost shrimp to the puffers. One day something bad happened. The container I kept the shrimp in fell into the tank! I managed to catch 3 of the 12 shrimp[ that fell in but with all the rock work in the tank I could mot get the rest.
My africans made quick work of them and were all very fat and happy over the feast. I had shrimp parts everywhere. So, I started some tank maintenance. I cleaned out as many parts as I could, and while I was at it decided to cleam the tubing on the magnum. WHAT A DUMB idea. turns out that is where my bacteria was again not in the bio wheel. THe ammonia shot up to 8.0 and I ddid a water change and dosed the tank with ammonia lock. Well one of the red zebras and pearlmutts died both actually from bloat not the water conditions, But I still had a major problem on my hands.
I kept adding the ammonia lock for 2 weeks and the tank never cycled. I was entertaineing the idea of taking my fish back to the store or keep addign ammonia lock until Bio Spira was released again. I did not now what to do!
I looked around for an alternative to bio spira and found one called Nitromax freashwater. Desprate, I ordered it and waited 2 weeks for it to be delivered. When the stuff arrived I was still at 8.0 ammonia and had a crisis where my largest labidochromis caeruleus was found laying on his(turns out to be female) side barely alive. I pulled him out and kept him in a bowl, of all things, until he was trying to jump out. Anyway, I did a 90% water change to get rid of all the ammonia lock and add the Nitromax. The bottle said to add it everother day but I started doing it daily. The ammonia got to 90% but none of the fish including the one that was near death looked like htey where having any problems. I also bought a Ehiem 2217 canister filter to help that magnum 350. The results where great!!!
In 3 days I got a nitrite spike again of .5 and the ammonia remained at 4.0. I kept adding the stuff daily and at 7 days I had zero ammonia and zero nitrite. I was crazy happy. NOTHING HAD DIED!!!!! now I have a lot of happy fish and the one that almost died is holding!!!!
I have learned a lot for this experience. First, I think hang on back filter are probably better than the canisters. Second the magnum bio wheel combo stinks. THe bacteria doesn't for on the bio wheel .
I thought I would share my exprrience and tell you about the little product I used in case you ever need somethign like that.
