Upgrading to 90gal

Howdy! ☺


OK so I had a 55gal with mostly mauna running well for about 2 yrs. I wasn't overstocked but all was pretty peaceful In the tank. I decided to try and add seem CA/SA. At this point I had about 8 mauna, a pictus cat, m.syno cat, 2 firemouth, 2 confict, clown loach, JD, salvini, common pleco. I also just changed my substrate to black sand from gravel. I had a whisper 60 HOB that was getting very loud. I decided to do a DIY canister filter w/ 850gph pump.

When I was moving the tank a couple inches from the wall(to install the canister), I guess I cracked the center brace. When I woke up the next morning my lights were in the water and the tank was bowing a good 1/2 inch! Immediately I removed most of the water and clamped it back together. Got on Craigslist and found a 90 gal for 100 bucks. Sump pump and canopy included. No stand.

I put all my fish and most of decor in a 20 gal for a couple days while I built the stand. Put the HOB on it with new filters cuz I threw the old ones away.

Finally got the 90 gal up and running. It's got a mag9.5 and a trickle sump. I thought the decor and sand had enough bacteria along with some number 7 bacteria in a bottle. I can't recall the name. My lfs specialized in saltwater and I guess this brand is really good for the salt water version. But I was losing fish. The JD and a couple others got some fungus that melafix did nothing for. A fee got cloudy eyes and became very inactive. So I bought a few more juveys and thought it was just stress.

Decided to get a test kit and my ammonia bounces between 1 and 4. Nitrites fluctuate a little but for the most part stay under .5. Nitrates never go above 10. I do weekly 50% wc and sometimes emergency waterchanges as well.

I had a couple sick fish that finally recovered but my readings are staying about the same. I dose with prime to try to keep toxicity to a min.

What would you do in my situation?
Any advice or criticism would be appreciated. Try not to be too harsh lol

 

Ok, going to be blunt, sorry. Biggest mistake was tossing out the old filter media. You threw out your cycle. So basically your back to square one.

My advice is, get some Seachem Stability or Seachem Aquavitro Seed and boost your cycling a bit. With out a boost in the BB, your cycle is going to take longer to complete. I wouldn't get tss+ at this point, though if that is all you can get, use it. Just make sure you wait 24 hours after you use prime before you add the bottle. The reason why I wouldn't use it is your peramaters are all ready off and have had fish pass away because of it. I would go with more the hands on approach and test daily and be able to use prime daily and water changes.

I'm sorry this has happened to you, and sorry you have lost fish. Hopefully we can help you with a new cycling.

 

Yeah I threw it out after putting the cannister on the 55. Before it broke, wasn't expecting to need it lol. I did have a small price of it in the cannister I ended up putting in my sump.
Can I use stability with the prime?

 

Yeah, stability and seed can both be used with Prime.

 

Ever heard anything about jungle start zyme?

 

I'm sorry to say, I know nothing about it personally, just from what I have read. Some people have had good luck with it to cycle with, but most of the time it's dead bacteria in a bottle. Plus a lot of the time, it's the wrong bacteria to even cycle with. I suggest you look at the ingredients and see if it has Nitrospira in it. If it does, it can cycle your tank and new filter. If it does not, good chance it won't do a thing but waste money. Chances are, it's dead or almost dead bacteria in a bottle.

 

Well my girlfriend bought it for me yesterday. She thought it would help. She's so thoughtful. Lol

I'm gonna try to use it. I'll look when I get home what the ingredients say.

Thanks for the link! Very informative