Crashed Tank!

HI everyone Hope I'm in the right place. My tank seems to have crashed after havin it cycled for the last 3-4years. Its 33 gal. Artificial planting Heater and filter which I think is an aquaflow but not sure I do a 40% water change every week or 2 and vacum the gravel and lightly clean the filter once a month in a bucket of tank water so ive done nothing differently. Did wc yest and my nitrates which usually hovers between 10-15ppm has literally dtopped to 0ppm. Ive only got 3 pleckos 2 cory pandas and a albino cory at the minute so nothing to do with overstock. Ive only had 1 crash years ago which was my own fault (overclean after a problem) so am bamboozled with the crash..any suggestions will b appreciated

 

What are your ammonia and nitrite levels?

 

What are your ammonia and nitrite levels?

Soz forgot that part lol amm 0ppm nitrites 0ppm water is crystal clear

 

It possible that you have accidentally grown the nitrate eating bacteria? If so then that is a very good thing.

How deep is your substrate? When you vacuum it do you dig down deep or just lightly vacuum?

no ammonia or nitrites leads me to believe your cycle is fine.

 

Your profile says its a planted tank. Is this correct as live plants reduce nitrates also.

 

It possible that you have accidentally grown the nitrate eating bacteria? If so then that is a very good thing.

How deep is your substrate? When you vacuum it do you dig down deep or just lightly vacuum?

no ammonia or nitrites leads me to believe your cycle is fine.

HI mattgirl not sure I understand when u say I may have grown nitrate eating bacteria? My substrate is roughly an inch deep and I dig deep when I vacum as I have always done Would u not say a reading of0ppm nitrate that the tank has crashed? Thanx

 

Your profile says its a planted tank. Is this correct as live plants reduce nitrates also.

HI yes its planted but with artificial plants

 

HI yes its planted but with artificial plants

Ah... then you don't have a planted tank. OK.

 

Ah... then you don't have a planted tank. OK.

Yeah soz if I worded that wrong lol its been a long time since ive had problems so bamboozled as to what went wrong

 

HI mattgirl not sure I understand when u say I may have grown nitrate eating bacteria? My substrate is roughly an inch deep and I dig deep when I vacum as I have always done Would u not say a reading of0ppm nitrate that the tank has crashed? Thanx

Since there are fish in this tank if the cycle had crashed you would be getting an ammonia reading. If there is no ammonia then the cycle hasn't crashed.

There is one bacteria that most home aquariums don't grow. It is a bacteria that lives in an almost no oxygen environment. We grow the ammonia and nitrite eating bacteria but there is one more that also eats nitrates.

I don't know enough about it to talk intelligently about it but there are other folks here that do understand it. Do a search of this forum. I know there are several threads that explain it. L

Like I said, if you have accidentally grown this bacteria it is a very good thing.

 

Suggest testing again and make sure you bang and shake up both bottles of your Nitrate liquid, especially #2.

 

Suggest testing again and make sure you bang and shake up both bottles of your Nitrate liquid, especially #2.

Yeah thanx I always give no 2 bottle a good hammering lol

 

Well I'm going to agree with mattgirl as I'm not sure you have a problem.

 

Since there are fish in this tank if the cycle had crashed you would be getting an ammonia reading. If there is no ammonia then the cycle hasn't crashed.

There is one bacteria that most home aquariums don't grow. It is a bacteria that lives in an almost no oxygen environment. We grow the ammonia and nitrite eating bacteria but there is one more that also eats nitrates.

I don't know enough about it to talk intelligently about it but there are other folks here that do understand it. Do a search of this forum. I know there are several threads that explain it. L

Like I said, if you have accidentally grown this bacteria it is a very good thing.

Thanx I will have a hoke round n c what I can find The years ive been doin this and ive never heard of this at all I would post some pics of my apI tests tho not sure how to post pics yet Thanx again ☺

 

Thanx I will have a hoke round n c what I can find The years ive been doin this and ive never heard of this at all I would post some pics of my apI tests tho not sure how to post pics yet Thanx again ☺

You are very welcome.

I am sure you have been running the test long enough to know how to do them and how to read them so photos aren't necessary in this case although we do love seeing photos of tanks and fish

Just keep a close eye on the ammonia. Should it start showing up then you might have a problem but as long as it reads zero I have to think your cycle is alive and well.

 

You are very welcome.

I am sure you have been running the test long enough to know how to do them and how to read them so photos aren't necessary in this case although we do love seeing photos of tanks and fish

Just keep a close eye on the ammonia. Should it start showing up then you might have a problem but as long as it reads zero I have to think your cycle is alive and well.

Yeah I will b testing every day for the next few days just to make sure. Ill prob get some pics up when 8 figure out how lol

 

The difference in my nitrates in the space of 2 weeks

 

 

View attachment 579550 View attachment 579551
The difference in my nitrates in the space of 2 weeks

View attachment 579550 View attachment 579551
The difference in my nitrates in the space of 2 weeks

So an update on my nitrates. Roughly 24 hrs and my nitrates have went from 0ppm to 5ppm????? Maybe thinking did I do something wrong for a split second? Would missing a drop or adding a drop extra of nitrate bottle no.2 give a total reading of 0ppm nitrates even when my nitrates were between 10-15ppm ?? I really don't know.

 

Would missing a drop or adding a drop extra of nitrate bottle no.2 give a total reading of 0ppm nitrates even when my nitrates were between 10-15ppm ?? I really don't know.

You can always test that theory and let us know.

 

How long after a water change did you get the 0 reading for nitrates? It could be that they were low enough before the water change it lowered them too low to register on the test. This is one of those mysteries we may never find an answer for. As long as you aren't seeing any ammonia I have to think there isn't a problem with your cycle though.

It is really good that you didn't panic and start adding things to fix a non-existent problem.

 

You can always test that theory and let us know.

Yeah exactly what I was thinking.. just didnt wana waste my drops lol

 

Yeah exactly what I was thinking.. just didnt wana waste my drops lol

Your drops will last longer if instead of running the test on 5 mls of water you can run it on 2.5 mls instead. By doing this you only add 5 drops from each bottle instead of 10 from each. I tested it out and I get the exact same reading as I do when using 5mls. I do the same when I run the ammonia test.

 

How long after a water change did you get the 0 reading for nitrates? It could be that they were low enough before the water change it lowered them too low to register on the test. This is one of those mysteries we may never find an answer for. As long as you aren't seeing any ammonia I have to think there isn't a problem with your cycle though.

It is really good that you didn't panic and start adding things to fix a non-existent problem.

It was roughly 24hrs after a wc I always like to give it a good 24hrs before testing. Yeah I try what I can before adding owt as I hate using chemicals. Ive only seen a spike in amm once in last lot of years.. never have spikes in amm or nitrites.. so guess I'm lucky

 

Your drops will last longer if instead of running the test on 5 mls of water you can run it on 2.5 mls instead. By doing this you only add 5 drops from each bottle instead of 10 from each. I tested it out and I get the exact same reading as I do when using 5mls. I do the same when I run the ammonia test.

Yeah ive read about this many a time tho just never tried it...just stuck to the book when it comes to the fish lol

 

Yeah ive read about this many a time tho just never tried it...just stuck to the book when it comes to the fish lol

I go through a lot of the nitrate solution because I run the tests on several tanks. I have actually bought the separate nitrate test twice since I used all of the one that came with my kit. If I used 10 drops from each bottle with each test I would have had to buy another kit at least 4 times.

I tested it out and get the exact same results using 2.5 mls and 5 drops as I do using 5 mls and 10 drops so it works for me.

 

I go through a lot of the nitrate solution because I run the tests on several tanks. I have actually bought the separate nitrate test twice since I used all of the one that came with my kit. If I used 10 drops from each bottle with each test I would have had to buy another kit at least 4 times.

I tested it out and get the exact same results using 2.5 mls and 5 drops as I do using 5 mls and 10 drops so it works for me.

Handy we can buy the bottles separately too Full kit here in uk roughly £30 tho they do last a good while. I prob will get round to halving the test kit tests as it would save on the nitrate bottle at least lol

 

Handy we can buy the bottles separately too Full kit here in uk roughly £30 tho they do last a good while. I prob will get round to halving the test kit tests as it would save on the nitrate bottle at least lol

For a while I was halving the ammonia test but since I don't really have to use that one much anymore I run the full 5mls now. I use the nitrate often though so always halve it now. All the other tests take so little of the solution I just run 5mls in all of them.

 

For a while I was halving the ammonia test but since I don't really have to use that one much anymore I run the full 5mls now. I use the nitrate often though so always halve it now. All the other tests take so little of the solution I just run 5mls in all of them.

Yeah its funny I suppose we all juggle things in our own little ways lol