Fishingfool Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 (edited) Set up a Fluval Flex 9 on Jan 6th. I added a bottle of Tetra SafeStart Plus that afternoon. Tap water with API conditioner. Substrate is SeaChem Flourite Black. That evening, I added plants, 2 cherry shrimp, 5 Celestial Pearl Danio, and a dwarf gourami. Testing with API Master Freshwater kit. After 1 week, I was still not showing any signs of nitrites or nitrates. Ammonia was .5-1PPM. So I added API Quick Start to help and also a handful of gravel from a friend's tank. Started adding SeaChem Stability around week 3 and been adding it daily since. There's like 7 or so root tabs in the substrate. Also weekly squirt of Easy Green. Well today is week 6 and still same parameters. Doing weekly water changes. Typically about 20-25% except for about the 3rd week which was 30% or so. I test the water after doing the changes. Ammonia .5-1 PPM Nitrites and nitrates 0 First day, Jan 6th. Week 1 Week 3 1/27. I did about a 30% water change. 1/28 Lost both cherry shrimp 1/29 Lost 2 CPD. Dont know if they died in the water or died when they got stuck on the intake vents. One was on the bottom vent. Other on top. Started adding SeaChem Stability Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Edited February 18, 2021 by Fishingfool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 How much ammonia is in your source water? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishingfool Posted February 18, 2021 Author Share Posted February 18, 2021 1 hour ago, Brandy said: How much ammonia is in your source water? Never bothered testing it but just did. I cant quite tell. It's not quite yellow but it's not quite .25 PPM green either. So somewhere in between I guess. Could also be residue from the previous testing. So in my noob opinion, I dont think ammonia in the tap water is a factor. Or is it? I wonder if my tap water conditioner is bad. It smells terrible. I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 Your conditioner is likely sulfur based, it is supposed to smell bad. sounds like you do have an ammonia problem in your tank and your test is working correctly. Next step is to consider where the ammonia can be coming from. Usually it is death...snail, shrimp, fish, something in your tank is rotting. Fish waste obviously causes ammonia too, but your plants are growing, and they should be able to take up a lot, and also take up nitrate. Likely that is why you don't see any. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 Looking at your pics, that is a SPARKLING clean tank. I don't see algae. When you water change you just change water, not clean anything else right? What kind of "SeaChem" are you adding? that is a whole line of products... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 Try testing your water before you do a water change. You may see a little nitrite/nitrate before adding the fresh water. Or maybe not, but it’s something to try. 🙂 You do have some (very normal) leaf dieback but I don’t think it would cause the level of constant ammonia you’re seeing. What substrate are you using? Do you have any dirt or anything under the gravel? I’m also curious about the SeaChem product you’re adding every day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trish Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 This is a method from Richard Klinger for a quick start. Not surprising your Cherry Shrimp didn't survive, they are water sensitive preferring established tanks with bio film. Once your tank is older you could try again. I always run extra hang on back filters in my established tanks to move should I need to start a new tank quicker. Here's how to instant cycle: "Find an established healthy tank and take the filter material out of the filter and squeeze it out good in a bucket of aquarium water. Then dump all the filter cleanings into your new tank with the filter running. Your filter will clear the water of the cleanings and you will have instantly established a beneficial colony in your new tank and won't have cloudy poisonous water for your fish. It will be all set up. It is good to use filter cleanings from a tank with the same bio-load ( number of fish ) but if you can't what ever filter cleanings you get will help as long as it comes from an established filter." Then it is a good idea to keep an eye on ammonia and nitrite to make sure they stay at zero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishingfool Posted February 18, 2021 Author Share Posted February 18, 2021 (edited) I've edited the main post to add the missing info. Got lost when I was jumbling with the images I guess. Anyways, the substrate is just SeaChem Flourite Black. I rinsed the substrate throughly since I saw how dirty it was. The chemical additive is SeaChem Stability. I know the first couple of weeks, I believe it was the gourami having lots of poop. I kept sucking out those. I'm also feeding micro pellets that I crush just slightly for the CPD, once per day. Without a doubt, the majority of my ammonia is from fish waste and remaining food. There is a tiny bit of algae in the tank. It's growing on some of the leaves, rocks, and fake wood. When I do water changes, I dont do anything scrubbing. I just hold the hose end near the rocks or plants or whatever and suck out as much of the junk I can see. I dont vacuum the gravel since it's so light. I typically loose a few of my substrate when I get too close. It's just too light. There's also these weird looking fuzzy clear hair on the root of my runners that's not in the substrate. Also had several long strands of what I would normally think is spiderwebs strands coming off my grass clump on the yellowing side. It was probably about 6-7" long. I'm assuming some sort of melt off from something. I sucked that away when I did the water change. I also notice something odd about this Fluval tank. Right now, after this latest water change, it seems fine but sometimes the water level in the rear/reservoir is much lower than the actual tank side. I'm talking about half the height sometimes. Right now, there's only about a 1" difference. For some reason, sometimes water is slow to filter through. Edited February 18, 2021 by Fishingfool 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt E Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 I had the same problem with my Flex 15. I gave up and neglected it for like 6 months. I didn't have any livestock so it wasn't an issue to do so. It's probably new tank syndrome. If you have cycled media or know someone. I'd recommend to go that route. I was obstinate and didn't do this even though I had the ability to do so. Sometimes patience pays off and you can learn alot from the challenge it provides. But if you want something fast, cycled filter media (sponge, ceramics, bio-balls, etc) from an established tank is the way to go. I don't know about the Flex 9, but the 15 has tons of space in the filter compartment for extra media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 I agree that this might just be new tank syndrome. It sounds like you’re doing all the things you’re supposed to be doing, and the tank just needs a bit more time. I would actually stop adding Seachem Stability because at this point you want to let the bacteria cultures in your tank specialize. You don’t want to keep adding generic bacteria that may outcompete whatever specialized types will work best in your tank. It’s a great tool to get things started, but it’s probably done all the good it can do by now. It does sound like you’re having some issues with water flow through the filter. That may be slowing down or throwing off your cycle a bit, so if you can figure out what’s going on there, that will probably help. It won’t fix the cycle overnight, but for the tank’s long term health you certainly want the filter to be working properly, Don’t give up! Just give it time. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishingfool Posted February 19, 2021 Author Share Posted February 19, 2021 It seems like after 6 weeks, I should start to see other signs. It's just weird to me. Maybe my plants are using up the little nitrates I might be getting. Dont know. So this flow issue I have with the tank. Last night after changing the water, like I said, there was about an inch difference. If you look at the last picture posted, you can see the water line for the front portion of the tank. Well as of right now, that water line only has 1 row of those dots exposed from the top. The rear partition is about 5 inches lower. So the back is roughly 2/3 full only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 1 hour ago, Fishingfool said: So this flow issue I have with the tank. Last night after changing the water, like I said, there was about an inch difference. If you look at the last picture posted, you can see the water line for the front portion of the tank. Well as of right now, that water line only has 1 row of those dots exposed from the top. The rear partition is about 5 inches lower. So the back is roughly 2/3 full only. So, you have water coming out faster than it can go in. Your intake could be clogged. You could have some area internal to the filter compartments (like the areas between sections) that are clogged. Or you could have packed it so tightly with filter floss or something that it is flowing too slowly everywhere--this is usually when someone gets creative with their media. Or your pump is set kinda high and needs to be turned down a little... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt E Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 (edited) Just like with the flex 15, the lower intake needs to allow flow. I recommend you move the plant away from it. It will only cause problems later. I had the same problem with difference in water level and had to move things around to ensure nothing was blocking flow. I ended up putting a rock in front so it wasn't going to get blocked. I also bought the mini pre-sponge filter for both intakes so that no debris gets through. These filters fit perfectly in the rounded intake grate and it makes it shrimp friendly. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/sponge-filters/products/mini-pre-filter-sponge Edited February 19, 2021 by Matt E 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishingfool Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 (edited) On 2/19/2021 at 11:26 AM, Matt E said: Just like with the flex 15, the lower intake needs to allow flow. I recommend you move the plant away from it. It will only cause problems later. I had the same problem with difference in water level and had to move things around to ensure nothing was blocking flow. I ended up putting a rock in front so it wasn't going to get blocked. I also bought the mini pre-sponge filter for both intakes so that no debris gets through. These filters fit perfectly in the rounded intake grate and it makes it shrimp friendly. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/sponge-filters/products/mini-pre-filter-sponge I actually have a piece of filter that I cut and jammed into those covers. It's some sort of pink filter floss I guess. It's very porous but same reasoning behind it was to prevent shrimp from slipping through and help with a bit of pre-filtering for all the big crud. Well, it turns out, this was the cause of my water flow issue. It seems to slow things down enough after a while. I still have some on the bottom cover but I've removed it from the top filter. Ever since doing that, there's only about 1/4-1/2" difference in water. If you havent had any flow issues with those mini sponges, I might give those a try and see what happens. Always, so here we are. 3/10. I'm having the exact same water parameters. Only difference is, I do have a bit more algae forming on the glass, rocks, and plants. I've had to scrub the glass the last 2 water changes. I want to add a pair of Ottos and 3 shrimps to help with cleaning but I dont want to do it with the current water conditions. Should I even bother adding Easy Green, since my water seems to be so nutritious lol? 3/10 [img]https://i.imgur.com/zSllhxj.jpg[/img] https://imgur.com/zSllhxj Edited March 11, 2021 by Fishingfool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 Your plants look great!! You probably don’t need Easy Green yet. 😄 Or maybe dose it every three weeks instead of every week. So I’m not sure if someone already mentioned this, but some water conditioners can cause false ammonia readings. Something about the way they bind with chlorine and/or chloramine. Could that be what’s going on here? I’m with you now that there’s no way you should be having such high ammonia in a tank this old with that many plants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishingfool Posted March 12, 2021 Author Share Posted March 12, 2021 If I use too much water conditioner, could that kill off my good bacteria? I wonder if that's my issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 What conditioner are you using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Ellison Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 Are you cleaning your media? Can you get access to a dirty filter from a seasoned tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishingfool Posted March 15, 2021 Author Share Posted March 15, 2021 On 3/11/2021 at 9:56 PM, Hobbit said: What conditioner are you using? API. Directions say 1 ml per 20 gallon. I'm now using 1 drop per 1/2 gallon. On 3/12/2021 at 1:12 AM, Ben Ellison said: Are you cleaning your media? Can you get access to a dirty filter from a seasoned tank? I wasn't. I did this past water change though. The flex has this big sponge media with 2 cutouts in it for filtration. One for bio-rings and the other carbon. Instead of using carbon, I added more bio-rings. Anyways, I cleaned the sponge just be squeezing and rinsing it in the bucket of water I just drained from the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishingfool Posted March 15, 2021 Author Share Posted March 15, 2021 Added 2 cherry and 2 orange shrimp yesterday. Was looking for some Otos but no go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Ellison Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 How's the cycling going? I have good luck with aquahuna fishies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishingfool Posted March 15, 2021 Author Share Posted March 15, 2021 6 hours ago, Ben Ellison said: How's the cycling going? I have good luck with aquahuna fishies Well, as of last week, I still have no signs of a cycle. All the current fish seem to be doing well. So we shall see how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Ellison Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 What makes you believe it's not cycling? With those plants they could be consuming the results of ur cycle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 So far I believe @Fishingfool is still seeing ammonia and no nitrites/nitrates. If that’s still the case I am very baffled! I haven’t heard of API causing false ammonia readings but I could be wrong. Ohhhh but you said earlier your tap water conditioner smells really bad. I just went and smelled mine (I also use API) and to me it only has a faint soapy/chemical smell. I have a really sensitive nose (I can’t stand most scented soaps and cleaners) so I wonder if you do have a bad bottle of API?!? 😮 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishingfool Posted March 15, 2021 Author Share Posted March 15, 2021 6 hours ago, Ben Ellison said: What makes you believe it's not cycling? With those plants they could be consuming the results of ur cycle 5 hours ago, Hobbit said: So far I believe @Fishingfool is still seeing ammonia and no nitrites/nitrates. If that’s still the case I am very baffled! I haven’t heard of API causing false ammonia readings but I could be wrong. Ohhhh but you said earlier your tap water conditioner smells really bad. I just went and smelled mine (I also use API) and to me it only has a faint soapy/chemical smell. I have a really sensitive nose (I can’t stand most scented soaps and cleaners) so I wonder if you do have a bad bottle of API?!? 😮 Correct. I'm still seeing about 1 PPM of ammonia each week before the water changes. About .5 PPM afterwards. Maybe a tad more or less. Really hard to tell. I'm still at 0 for nitrites and nitrates. And yes, my bottle of API conditioner smells like a bottle of farts. Supposedly it's sulfur base, so that make sense but wow. lol 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