vaious questions

[xrenegadex]

first, the easiest, what is the 'corect' way to change a filter?

second, i've been cycling for 2 weeks now (with fish) and the past weeks the ammonia and nitrite haven't moved at all.

ammonia is at around 1.0 ppm and nitrite is a little over 5.0 ppm. Why is it....stuck?

lastly, i took the filter out cause it was clogged. On the filter was a thick dark gray slime type substance on almost the entire filter, what is it?

other info- 20 gallon tank with 3 fish. one tiger barb, one female guppie, and one 3 inch irr. shark. also there are 2 ghost shrimp somewhere in there. hard to find.

i have 2 filters on it. one is ment for a 30 gallon and has carbon in it, the other is for a 10 gal. and has ammo-chips in it.

 

[WILDER]

I would put the sponges in the bigger filter, don't wash the sponges or you will lose your bacteria colony you only rinse the floss in old tank water once a week, also stir the gravel up so the filter collect the debris, your reading are high I would do a 30% water change, what type of shark is it.

 

[xrenegadex]

Irredescent Shark (sp?) about 3 or so inches long.

is it ok that i have the two filters going?

 

[WILDER]

Two filters are great.

 

[xrenegadex]

what about the strange stuff that was in the filter?




why has the 'cycle' stopped moving the ammonia and nitrite? readings been the same for about a week. i feed them once everyother day. and they all eat well.

 

[xrenegadex]

i did a 30% water change after the last post....i just checked the levels after 3.5 hours and they haven't changed.....1.0 ppm ammonia and ~5.0 ppm nitrite

 

[xrenegadex]

bump

 

[xrenegadex]

can anyone help?

 

[Slyspy]

If you are cycling the tank then I would ditch the ammo-chips. You don't want anything artificial influencing the cycle. In fact I would ditch them after the cycle as well since they should be unecessary.

The nitrIte - nitrAte build up is the longest part of the cycling process. Be patient.

When cycling with fish you need to do frequent water changes to keep the fish alive. Unfortunately this also slows the process down.

Not sure about the slime. Could just be waste. Wash it off in the water you remove from the tank during water changes if it is clogging the filter.

 

[the caretaker]

you should be doing a water change of about 10/15% every day until your levels are down and whatever you do don't put any more fish in until then!

 

[xrenegadex]

now you tell me....just added two more guppies yesterday. the one that was looking....sick....is acting normal since i added the two new ones...

but besides from that...i did a water change, and tested it about 3 hours later and the levels are the same.

i took the ammo-chips out and since then the ammonia when down to about .5 from 1.0 which confused me....why did it go down so fast?