BIRD0887 Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 So I just added live plants to my tank, maybe 5 days ago. I did a partial water change today n tested, my nitrite level is elevated, prly around 3.0 maybe, not rly sure...my fish have only been tog in the tank 3-4 wks, is my tank just cycling?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miranda Marie Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 How did you cycle it originally, how long has it been set up, and how many fish did you add 3 weeks ago? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 So i may have screwed up....so i had fish in from beginning of aug til begining of dec. when they suddenly died...i aquainted it to overfeeding and did a gravel clean n water change and added these fish, 5 goldfish and the pleco. so they have been in the tank since the wk b4 xmas... i have been doing like 25 percent water changes once a wk, and last wk i did a rly good gravel clean because my nitrate levels were rly bad. The nitrate level is good today, i did my water change n tested the water and the only thing out of wack is the nitrite.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 (edited) @BIRD0887 Is this the same tank from this thread? If so, what filter are you using? Edited January 9 by jwcarlson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Sounds like it. I have done this before as well. Daily water changes is a must. maybe 50-75 percent. If it was me, I would add in some seachem Prime to help with the toxicity and some Fritzyme 7 for more good bacteria. Some controversy on whether these products work or not. but observationally, they have for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOLANANO Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 On 1/9/2024 at 3:23 PM, BIRD0887 said: So i may have screwed up....so i had fish in from beginning of aug til begining of dec. when they suddenly died...i aquainted it to overfeeding and did a gravel clean n water change and added these fish, 5 goldfish and the pleco. so they have been in the tank since the wk b4 xmas... i have been doing like 25 percent water changes once a wk, and last wk i did a rly good gravel clean because my nitrate levels were rly bad. The nitrate level is good today, i did my water change n tested the water and the only thing out of wack is the nitrite.... I would have said you tank is mid cycle but the fact that you had high nitrates, did a water change and gravel vac and now nitrites are out of wack makes me wonder. I still think you are mid cycle and it will all even out so long as you have a strong enough filter. You should do daily water changes until the nitrites come down though. Question: did you change the media in your filter when you did the deep clean? Imo its better to rinse a sponge than replace it if you can especially in a new tank where you probably don't have enough bacteria built up to sustain loss of the bacteria on the sponge. If you didn't replace any filter media then my theory is out the window. On 1/9/2024 at 4:28 PM, Tony s said: Fritzyme 7 for more good bacteria. Some controversy on whether these products work or not. but observationally, they have for me Even if its a placebo effect, doing something always feels better than doing nothing lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 On 1/9/2024 at 5:31 PM, NOLANANO said: I would have said you tank is mid cycle but the fact that you had high nitrates, did a water change and gravel vac and now nitrites are out of wack makes me wonder. I still think you are mid cycle and it will all even out so long as you have a strong enough filter. You should do daily water changes until the nitrites come down though. Question: did you change the media in your filter when you did the deep clean? Imo its better to rinse a sponge than replace it if you can especially in a new tank where you probably don't have enough bacteria built up to sustain loss of the bacteria on the sponge. If you didn't replace any filter media then my theory is out the window. Even if its a placebo effect, doing something always feels better than doing nothing lol Yes! Absolutely! Something is better than nothing and helps calm the panic. But i have kept them from dying that way. And, mostly, i do believe they do some good even if they're not perfect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galabar Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Have you been testing ammonia and nitrite levels all along? What have you seen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 10 Author Share Posted January 10 So i dont currently have ammonia test strips but they r on my list, but i do have an ammonia treatment i used a little of when i noticed the nitrite level this morning. last wk right after i did the gravel vac n water change all the levels were rly good. waited exactly 7 days n did my change today n the nitrite is outta whack. also my water is cloudy rn, which makes me think it could be mid cycle. my other question is, if im doing all these water changes during the cycle will it mess things up? I am not totally new to fish, but ive never cared for them the way i do now!! I am using a Tetra 30-60 gal filter with to cartridges...but when i did my gravel vac last wk i changed them!! I ddnt know i was getting rid of things i needed, i thought i was helping! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galabar Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 (edited) So, last week ammonia and nitrite were 0? In a new tank, the "biobag" (and scaffolding) in the Tetra filter represents most of your biological filtration. Later, your whole tank can be considered biological filtration. So, changing that biobag probably got rid of most of your filtration. I have the Tetra Whisper IQ 45. It comes with a plastic "scaffolding" in the front. I placed a sponge in that area. I cut holes in the sponge for each of the "spikes" on the scaffolding which allowed it to fit properly. I'm able to change the "biobag" (throw it away) without losing the beneficial bacteria in the sponge. Here is one of mine: Edited January 10 by Galabar 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galabar Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 (edited) It really is an extremely easy and cheap filter to (slightly) modify to get a really good result. It is also very quick to maintain. I don't change/squeeze the sponge. I simply replace the biobag. Edited January 10 by Galabar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOLANANO Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 On 1/9/2024 at 10:24 PM, BIRD0887 said: when i did my gravel vac last wk i changed them!! I ddnt know i was getting rid of things i needed, i thought i was helping! Bingo, we found the source of the issue. Not a huge deal and its a mistake many people make. When I first started in the hobby many years ago I used to remove my fish and completely empty my tank and scrub everything in a sink with tap water and change the filter media once a month. I didn't know any better and I was out of the hobby within 9 months. Back then there was no Youtube to teach the basics so I just didn't know any better. When I got back in the hobby about 4 years ago Cory and other youtubers taught me everything one 5-10 minute video at a time. Obviously I still made mistakes but when I made a mistake, there was a video to tell me how to fix it. There is an ACO video about getting the most out of your HOB filter that is very informative. I'll try to find it and link it here. My suggestion is to do daily water changes until your tank is fully cycled again and don't change any media for a while. And when you do change media, change to a thicker sponge than the HOB filter comes with so it can build up a bigger colony of beneficial bacteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miranda Marie Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 It's hard to tell from the photos, but another way to help would be to add a pre-filter sponge on the intake tube, if the filter allows it. I keep one on mine to prevent shrimp getting in, and it adds another place for beneficial bacteria to live! This is the one I use: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/pre-filter-sponge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 11 Author Share Posted January 11 How do I know my tank is fully cycled? An yes Corey And Dean r my fav yts, I've learned a ton!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miranda Marie Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 On 1/10/2024 at 5:17 PM, BIRD0887 said: How do I know my tank is fully cycled? An yes Corey And Dean r my fav yts, I've learned a ton!! When you stop seeing any nitrite and ammonia for several weeks. You should see 0 of both those numbers and only be seeing nitrate if it is cycled. It's likely your tank was cycled before you changed the filter media/cartridge and now you are experiencing a bacteria bloom as the colonies try to recover from you removing a large portion of them from the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 11 Author Share Posted January 11 Thank u everyone for the help, i love my fish and just want to be able to provide a healthy enviroment 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 11 Author Share Posted January 11 This is my reading after another 30 percent change and 30 min wait....nitrite is almost under control and my nitrate level looks rly good ya?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galabar Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Great news that your nitrite level is going down. Just keep doing what you are doing. Also, you may consider the filter modification mentioned earlier. I can't remember. Did you share your exact filter model? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 11 Author Share Posted January 11 I have a tetra whisper advance 30-60... it has 2 filter cartridges and the filter sponges that came with the unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galabar Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 (edited) If it is this one, I think you are good with the sponges. Once those are handling your bioload, you should be safe to replace the biobags. Edited January 12 by Galabar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 12 Author Share Posted January 12 @Galabar yep that is my filter...when i gravel vacced 2 wks ago, i changed the bio bags but not the sponges Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanked Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 On 1/10/2024 at 3:52 PM, NOLANANO said: When I first started in the hobby many years ago I used to remove my fish and completely empty my tank and scrub everything in a sink with tap water and change the filter media once a month. I didn't know any better and I was out of the hobby within 9 months. Prior to the internet, this is how most of us did it. You were doing pretty good if your fish survived a year. If you did not have access to a LFS, partial and water change were never used in the same sentence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galabar Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 On 1/12/2024 at 8:36 AM, Tanked said: Prior to the internet, this is how most of us did it. You were doing pretty good if your fish survived a year. If you did not have access to a LFS, partial and water change were never used in the same sentence. As a kid, I would change the entire contents of my corner filter (floss/carbon/floss). Fish would not die. I know attribute this to the entire tank housing bacteria and the corner filter mostly being a mechanical filter... 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanked Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 On 1/12/2024 at 3:35 PM, Galabar said: As a kid, I would change the entire contents of my corner filter (floss/carbon/floss). Fish would not die. I know attribute this to the entire tank housing bacteria and the corner filter mostly being a mechanical filter... 🙂 I hated those corner filters. It seemed like they needed cleaning twice a week. A tank my brother and I shared had a whiteout. The water looked like milk. If someone had told us to stop messing with the filter, and changing all ten gallons. things would have gone much better. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 13 Author Share Posted January 13 Nitrite levels r very low n stable now, all other readings r good. This is my hillstream, think he found his new fav spot! Those r maybe 2wk old Anubis, from aquarium coop 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now