You Think You've Done Everything Right ..........

[Cheffi]

Update:

Well, got up early this morning and did another 35-40% water change.

After the change the nitrite level dropped to about 2ppm, which obviously is not good, but is better than being off the charts.

I can only hope that over the next few days it gets back under control.

Lost another neon and a few more dont look so good.
The corys' dorsal fins are showing signs of feathering / fraying but other than that they look ok.

Got to get on top of the nitrite situation first.

OK slight improvement. Keep us updated, it does help to share when you're having problems. Maybe einstein is reading and will come up with an answer.

 

[scubadoo]

Maybe einstein is reading and will come up with an answer.

Now that would be great, but I think its more likely that large pink animals going oink will soar past my window !

anyway, einstein would probably tell me that the problem is all relative

Still at least my water supply company will be happy

and doing regular water changes will seem like a doddle after all this

 

[martin_jones]

...you've got me worried now. Will have to test water as soon as I can.

Finished fishless cycle.

Added 20 tetra (cardinal/rummynose), 4 blue rams, 2 mollies, 4 clown loach and 8 cories.

Have been testing water and all seemed OK. Will have to keep an eye on it now .

I was under the impression that once the fishless cycle was done, you could fully stock as the fishless cycle would give you enough bacteria to cope with it.

Martin

 

[scubadoo]

...you've got me worried now. Will have to test water as soon as I can.

Finished fishless cycle.

Added 20 tetra (cardinal/rummynose), 4 blue rams, 2 mollies, 4 clown loach and 8 cories.

Have been testing water and all seemed OK. Will have to keep an eye on it now .

I was under the impression that once the fishless cycle was done, you could fully stock as the fishless cycle would give you enough bacteria to cope with it.

Martin

You should be able to fully stock at the end of the cycle, and many others have done it succesfully.
I have no idea why its all gone wrong in my tank at the moment.

I'm even starting to doubt if I treated the water properly when I know that I did.

I can only attribute it to either:

1) during the last big water change before adding fish I took the opportunity to adda few plants and the filter was turned off for about 30mins

or

2) dropping the temperature back from 30 degC to 25 degC caused a die back in the nitrite bacteria

 

[Egmel]

2) dropping the temperature back from 30 degC to 25 degC caused a die back in the nitrite bacteria

This sounds more likely, though still not totally sure.

Mines just at the start of it's cycle, I'm running at 30degC too, but my plants arrive this week so I'm going to have to drop the temp for them. I'll let you know if my tank seems to go 'backwards' when I do this (though it hasn't gone far forwards yet!).

Since our LFS is a fair trek away I think our tank will cycle and then require another few days of ammonia being added to keep it ticking over before we get out to the LFS to get fish. Hopefully this will give the bacteria a chance to really bed in.

Good luck with your new fish, hope you don't lose too many.

 

[scubadoo]

thanks for the support egmel

Its my inclination is to think that the temp drop is to blame too.

Its just frustrating when numerous sources tell you to crank up the temp to aid the growth of the bacteria, what they dont then tell you is that its probably best to drop your tank temp back to fish stocking levels while still adding ammonia once you've cycled at the higher temperature in case this happens!

live & learn I guess

 

[Egmel]

It may have been temp shock, maybe if you take it down in increments over a day or two it wouldn't have the same affect.

You should add something about this current hypothesis to the fishless cycling thread, just in case someone else experiences the same problem.

 

[scubadoo]

sounds like a good idea

at least something constructive may come out of this fiasco

 

[Cheffi]

I'm not sure that the temp change could have been to blame, it wasn't that dramatic after all. I kept my temp at around 27 the whole time as I read somewhere that there wasn't any point in cranking it up although one method does suggest it. I'd put my money on the filter being off, possibly a bit longer than you thought originally.

 

[scubadoo]

I'm not sure that the temp change could have been to blame, it wasn't that dramatic after all. I kept my temp at around 27 the whole time as I read somewhere that there wasn't any point in cranking it up although one method does suggest it. I'd put my money on the filter being off, possibly a bit longer than you thought originally.

It is possible - I didn't have a stopwatch on at the time.
But all I did was empty the tank, planted 3 amazon swords and tied a small piece of java fern to a stone, then re-filled the tank.
Also, I dont seem to have experienced any die back problems with the ammonia eating bacteria - but they may be more hardy, I dont know.

I didn't take the filter sponges out of their housing (in the juwel filter), so they really should have remained moist for that period of time.

 

[Cheffi]

I'm not sure that the temp change could have been to blame, it wasn't that dramatic after all. I kept my temp at around 27 the whole time as I read somewhere that there wasn't any point in cranking it up although one method does suggest it. I'd put my money on the filter being off, possibly a bit longer than you thought originally.

It is possible - I didn't have a stopwatch on at the time.
But all I did was empty the tank, planted 3 amazon swords and tied a small piece of java fern to a stone, then re-filled the tank.
Also, I dont seem to have experienced any die back problems with the ammonia eating bacteria - but they may be more hardy, I dont know.

I didn't take the filter sponges out of their housing (in the juwel filter), so they really should have remained moist for that period of time.

When you say emptied the tank do you mean fully? Did you refill with cold water? Did you dechlor?

 

[scubadoo]

When you say emptied the tank do you mean fully? Did you refill with cold water? Did you dechlor?

No, I did about 80% water change, water was treated with tetra aquasafe and temperature was matched pretty closely to tank (by hand not using thermometer), but I would say that the final temp after adding all the water was only about 2 degC cooler than the starting tank temperature of 29-30deg.

 

[ab420]

There is a product called Prime, which works as a decholirnator, but is also VERY effective at neutralizing ammonia and nitrites. It converts the ammonia and nitrite into a form that isn't toxic to the fish, but will still feed the bacteria to keep them growing.

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

For what its worth Scuba I understood that filter bacteria needed a constant flow of water (providing oxygen) for it to live. As soon as the water flow stops they start to die of oxygen starvation. Depending on how long your filter was off will be how much of the bacteria died off.

Sorry if Im repeating what you already know, but its what I think may have happened. I had a similar problem after a power cut at home that lasted quite some time.

If my filter is off for some time I always prime it with some of the filter 'bacterlife' by Waterlife:
Bacterlife

That seems to do the trick generally.


Hope it sorts itself out for you.

 

[scubadoo]

Thanks for the posts ab420 & Fillet.

I have been adding some Nutrafin Cycle to see if it helps.

Update:

Came home from work and tested the parameters - ammonia still 0 and nitite down to 0.5ppm.
Done another 38% water change, but it looks as if the bacteria colony is starting to get back up to a level which can almost cope.

Not out of the woods by any means yet, but heading in the right direction.

The danios seem to be fine as do the serpae tetras.
Some of the cory's are showing signs of fin rot on their dorsals, and their gill may be a bit pinker than normal - its hard to tell. Will keep a close eye on them.

Neons aren't faring so well - not sure if the serpaes and one of the leopard danios are chasing and nipping their tails.