dee34

i have a 110g tank with cichlids and im having trouble with the water,the tank is 6 months mature its a vision 450 bow tank.the filter system that came with the tank was struggling so i got an external filter which is running about 5 weeks now but doesnt seem to be making any difference .i feed the fish once a day and when i do the nitrites show its ugly face , the tank isnt over stocked and the fish arent over fed so i cant figure out what it causing it so if someone can share there knowledge it would be a big help

Lucy

Hi dee31, I moved your thread to the proper area of the forum, I hope this will help you get more responses and help with your water problems.

Did you replace the first filter with the new one? It could have set off a mini cycle since most of the bacteria is found on the filter media and by getting rid of the old one you would have lost a lot of your bacteria.
Do you know what your readings are for ammonia and nitrAtes?

dee34

hey lucy i have both filters running together the nitrites are reading 0.25 and ammonia is 0.50 , i did a water change this morning but didnt make a differance

Dino

What fish?
Size, numbers and species would help.

Also, what is your water changing schedule?

dee34

hi dino there are 3 blood parits all are 5" ,1 oscar 3" ,1 pleco 6" ,the small fish is 1 pictus 1 jewel 2 severums 1 upsidedown catfish. i do water changes every 2 weeks

Jeff M

Hi Dee
How much water do you change and how do you wash your filters?

Jeff

dee34

hi jeff m i clean the filter in a bucket of water from the tank i dont lose the bactria then, i do a 20% water change every two weeks . when i got home from work earlier i did a water test for nitrites and it was perfect so i fed them , three hours later the nitrites are reading 0.25 im puzzled

Shawnie

if you got ammonia or nitrites of any kind, for some reason you are back to cycleing

daily water changes with some prime will neutralize the ammonia and nitrites for 24 hours until your next change...this has to be done until the cycle completes again

dee34

hi shawnie thanks for the advice

lew2000

You don't say if your ammonia and nitrite values have always been around this level. I would test your tap water for ammonia and nitrites - also when changing water do you add the additive (to permanently bind ammonia, nitrites, etc.) to the water to be used, or to the tank afterwards? Also what product do you use for testing, strips or liquid. Strips are notorious for not giving proper reads, and testing liquids age. imho, i would purchase new tests (API gets good reviews) for ammonia and nitrites. My understanding is that fish food takes at least 12 hours to get into the cycle of adding ammonia to the nitrogen cycle and some time there-after to spike. imo, if an ammonia/nitrite binder is added to the aqaurium directly and daily, this severly disrupts the nitrogen cycle and will not allow the necessary bacteria to mutliply or even sustain. If the water your adding to the levels in the aquarium is not the problem, then either your tank never finished cycling (not enough nitrobacteror bacteria) or you are continuing to have filtration problems (still not not enough nitrobacteror bacteria). As a stop gap i would get a product that will reduce the nitrite levels and continue with water changes and slowly taper off until your nitrite levels are not detectable.