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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| tank appears not to be cycling
hey everyone,
sorry to be asking this, as i know it has been asked many times, but I cannot seem to find something that exactly pertains to my tanks situation. i hope you all can help me, and i greatly appreciate your time!!
ok, so back in the beginning of january, I moved. before this, it had been going well for about a year. i saved half my tanks water and put it in at the new place, then filled the rest up with new water that I conditioned. I use amquel+, kordon or wardley, and then sometimes prime. i also add stresscoat and stresszyme to the new water. so maybe a week later, i noticed my tank water was really cloudy, and it had an ammonia spike. so i figured i had lost too much bacteria. at this time i got a new aquaclear filter and a biowheel penguin filter.
over the last few weeks i had been doing daily water changes, but now i have slowed to just the weekends due to busy schedule. it does not seem like this was helping anyway, because my ammonia has been reading at least 2.0, but anywhere to 8.0 on the API test (i dont know if this is from the prime or amquel or what??) but luckily (i guess) my pH is low, around 6.0. and that's another thing, how can i get my ph up? i would like to raise it a little at least, but nothing works. i have plants in my aquarium and a lot of fish. a couple weeks ago i had a nitrate reading show up, but presently both that and nitrite are at 0, and the ammonia API thing says 8.0. my snails are out and about, and the fish arent diseased or anything. i just do not understand what is going on.
thank you so much!! | 
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February 23rd, 2009
|
| | Fish Lore Newbie
| help!!!
hey everyone,
sorry to be asking this, as i know it has been asked many times, but I cannot seem to find something that exactly pertains to my tanks situation. i hope you all can help me, and i greatly appreciate your time!!
ok, so back in the beginning of january, I moved. before this, it had been going well for about a year. i saved half my tanks water and put it in at the new place, then filled the rest up with new water that I conditioned. I use amquel+, kordon or wardley, and then sometimes prime. i also add stresscoat and stresszyme to the new water. so maybe a week later, i noticed my tank water was really cloudy, and it had an ammonia spike. so i figured i had lost too much bacteria. at this time i got a new aquaclear filter and a biowheel penguin filter.
over the last few weeks i had been doing daily water changes, but now i have slowed to just the weekends due to busy schedule. it does not seem like this was helping anyway, because my ammonia has been reading at least 2.0, but anywhere to 8.0 on the api test (i dont know if this is from the prime or amquel or what??) but luckily (i guess) my ph is low, around 6.0. and that's another thing, how can i get my ph up? i would like to raise it a little at least, but nothing works. i have plants in my aquarium and a lot of fish. a couple weeks ago i had a nitrAte reading show up, but presently both that and nitrIte are at 0, and the ammonia API thing says 8.0. my snails are out and about, and the fish arent diseased or anything. i just do not understand what is going on.
thank you so much!! | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| welcome to fishlore, nettle! to answer your questions....
1. to raise the pH you can add some crushed coral or limestone, that will raise the pH naturally and be a lot easier on the fish than chemicals  i'd wait to do this until you get through the cycle, because the lower pH will actually turn some of the ammonia into ammonium which is far less toxic to your fish
2. did you keep your filter media and gravel wet when you moved? if they were allowed to dry out for an amount of time then the bacteria probably died and you'll have to re-cycle your tank.
3. i'd just use the prime for water changes and stress coat for the fish but not the stress zyme or any of the others. the stress zyme actually has the wrong kind of bacteria, the bacteria it has is not self-sustaining so if you ever stop adding it to your tank the cycle will crash again. and the prime has you completely covered for ammonia detox for 24 hours, chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metal removal, and the stress coat for the fishes slime coats
4. i'd keep up with the daily water changes if you can, since the prime detoxes ammonia for 24 hours only, the daily changes are important even if you can't do a full 50% change.
what size tank do you have and what kind/how many fish? | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Hi nettle you need to do at least 50% water change with some prime asap..id even do 2 separate 50% changes within a few hours of one another...that 8 ammonia will do distruction...and continue to do daily 50% water changes until the cycle completes..stress zyme wont hold the cycle to gether as its not strong enough and now changing the filter starts you at the beginning again...goodluck | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| you dont need to make more than one thread on the same thing otherwise it confuses everyone with the help you recieve | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| hey thank you for replying. sorry i posted this in like 2 spots i didn't realize how organized everything was until after i posted in the general
i changed the filters out at different times like a month ago. the thing i do not understand is i have two NH3 monitors that hang on the tank inside, one by seachem and the other by mardel, and they both read 0ppm. is there any chance that reading is false? even when i was doing water changes constantly the readings were the same. | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| what test kit do you use? | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Shawnie  you dont need to make more than one thread on the same thing otherwise it confuses everyone with the help you recieve | i know i'm so sorry! i thought i should not have put it in the general because it did not pertain to anything there. sorry  thank you for the help | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Quote:
Originally Posted by agabr123 welcome to fishlore, nettle! to answer your questions....
1. to raise the pH you can add some crushed coral or limestone, that will raise the pH naturally and be a lot easier on the fish than chemicals i'd wait to do this until you get through the cycle, because the lower pH will actually turn some of the ammonia into ammonium which is far less toxic to your fish
2. did you keep your filter media and gravel wet when you moved? if they were allowed to dry out for an amount of time then the bacteria probably died and you'll have to re-cycle your tank.
3. i'd just use the prime for water changes and stress coat for the fish but not the stress zyme or any of the others. the stress zyme actually has the wrong kind of bacteria, the bacteria it has is not self-sustaining so if you ever stop adding it to your tank the cycle will crash again. and the prime has you completely covered for ammonia detox for 24 hours, chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metal removal, and the stress coat for the fishes slime coats
4. i'd keep up with the daily water changes if you can, since the prime detoxes ammonia for 24 hours only, the daily changes are important even if you can't do a full 50% change.
what size tank do you have and what kind/how many fish? |
yes, the gravel and filter media stayed wet. i have moved before and never had this happen! it is a 40 gallon tank with 6 cory cats, 6 guppies, 4 black skirts, 4 platys, and like 6 balloon mollies. i inherited some from a former roommate, i realize it is probably too many. | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Shawnie what test kit do you use? | i have API ph, nitrate, nitrate, and ammonia liquid dropper tests | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| I would trust the test kit more than your tank monitors... | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Nettle yes, the gravel and filter media stayed wet. i have moved before and never had this happen! it is a 40 gallon tank with 6 cory cats, 6 guppies, 4 black skirts, 4 platys, and like 6 balloon mollies. i inherited some from a former roommate, i realize it is probably too many. | that's interesting, since your gravel and media stayed wet i'm definitely stumped as to why this is happening. you're a bit overstocked but if they were all living in there before with no problems i doubt that your cycle would just suddenly crash like that.........hmmm........ | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Moderator
| The threads have been merged. That'll make it easier for everyone to see what's been suggested. | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| yes i do not understand it either. someone told me that the liquid test is showing total ammonia and the monitor only detects ammonia and not ammonium and since my ph is low the ammonia is turning into ammonium or something. does anyone have any idea how long this will take? or if it is even doing what it is supposed to be doing? can prime or amquel slow down the cycling process?
thank you so much! | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| does anyone know if the liquid tests can go bad? i have read about ammonia/nitrite poisoning to try to see the signs, and the fish are not gasping or breathing rapidly, they are not hanging around the surface or by the filter outpour, they are all swimming around, some chase each other, some go into and out of the house, when i go over they beg for food, and the snails are out and i heard they are really good indicators of problems. im so confused! thank you all for the help! | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| the liquid tests can expire, how long have you had them? | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Quote:
Originally Posted by agabr123 the liquid tests can expire, how long have you had them? | the ph and ammonia definitely over a year, the nitrate and nitrite i got back in november or so. | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| i think they expire in three or four years, the manufacturing date should be the last four digits of the number on either the bottles or the box, i can't remember which  | |
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February 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| hmm then its probably not that then! oh well, i have no idea :\ | |
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