Reply With QuoteAmmonia readings Are too high... badOriginally Posted by Junneh
nitrate best to lower it by water changing. ..
And you shouldn't be adding any more fishes as they are suffering silently. .. risk wasting $$ and killing fishes if you buy more.
Do water change.
Ammonia readings Are too high... bad
nitrate best to lower it by water changing. ..
And you shouldn't be adding any more fishes as they are suffering silently. .. risk wasting $$ and killing fishes if you buy more.
If i were u, i would remove the fish immediately to a safe breeding box with fresh tap water topped with anti-chlorine and anti-stress coating or fill them with mature tank water.
fish-in cycling is really cruel, i've stopped doing that after my first few tanks, have to do it the slow way, fishless cycling then add in livestock.
Thanks all for the input. I'll immediately do a water change when I get home, topped with anti-chlorine and beneficial bacteria to counter the ammonia & nitrate excess. I'll update u guys soon. Thanks again.
Maybe you wanna share on what kind of filter you use and the media in it.
I'm currently using a Power Filter-120 Shiruba Model. I've added sponge to filter out small particles in water & it's pretty efficient. I'm not too sure what u mean by media but I'm using the Super Battle Bacteria 8000 in my water.
Media are the chunky stuff you place inside your filter. Like stones with many holes or rings etc.
These media give a place for the good bacteria to grow. Without it cannot grow.
Hello Bieffe, I've wool-like sponge in my filter. I'm not sure if bacteria is cable of growing in it though.
The wool-like sponge is good for mechanical filtration, it traps suspended fine particles which helps to keep the water clearer. Some beneficial bacteria will grow on it, but because such filter wool will eventually clog up and need to be changed (can't wash all the trapped particles out, have to change a new piece), most of the beneficial bacterial is also lost in the process.
Good quality bio-media do help to greatly increase the amount of surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow and live in... though with the Shiruba PF-120 hang-on filter, there isn't much space in the filter chamber, but i guess you could still put some pieces of bio-media into the available spaces inside it, might help abit.
Its usually better to have a combination of media layers in the filter, ie. coarse sponge to trap larger particles, filter wool to trap smaller particles and bio-media to house beneficial bacteria which process the nitrogenous waste.
Note that beneficial bacteria also live in the substrate and attached to surfaces like the tank walls, plants and equipment, just that with additional bio-media, the filter can support more beneficial bacteria which in turn can handle more bio-loads more effectively.
With the amount of livestock you plan to keep, it'll be good if you can consider upgrading to a larger hang-on filter with more filter media space... or even better, upgrade to a small canister filter, which will offer alot more filter media space and provide higher filtration efficiency.
UA has said us very well again. Want to keep fishes long term and lots of it. Best to over size your filter. HOF you must throw as much as you can. Till the flow not badly obstructed. Without these media sure you will experience spike. Even small compact canister is better than HOF. Unless you reduce life stock.
Again, thanks all for the input. I'm learning a lot from you veteran hobbyists. Ha ha! I'll see what I can do about the filter. Also, do u have any Bio-media to introduce? And perhaps a better filter that's of better value & size? I've spent over $200 on setting up this tank and whatsoever. Thus, my budget can be a little tight these days. Probably wait till my next NS allowance before I purchase more stuffs xD
Was once as tight as you. But not much better now lah. Anyway I suggest Mr Aqua S sized rings. Or Azoo latest range. Cheap and good.
Haha yeah. Trying to balance my budget so I don't overspend.So, I can buy those from LFS right? And is there any specific way to place those rings in the filter? My ultimate goal is to get a breeding tank for tetras and RCS, but that's gonna take a while...
Bro just throw in. I string them together for easy removal etc. Or u can use media bag but HOF small space....
If you want budget or cheap bio-media, can buy Azoo brand or ANS mini bacteria house (junior), they come in small sizes < 1litre which costs $5-7 per box/pack that can last you quite long (given your HOF compartment for media) i think you will only need less than 1/4 portion of the media which you will be buying
Here is an example of how i place bio-media in my small hang-on filters (these are Dophin H80 models, which i use for temporary quarantine or holding tanks, should be similar in size to your Shiruba PF-120):
I simply cut some coarse sponges to shape and slot them into the gaps to create barriers, then fill the rest of the space with Seachem Matrix bio-media. You can use other brands of bio-media and they can also work too. Try to choose bio-media which are small in size though, as the space in these types of hang-on filters are very limited.
Just for reference, that filter space contains approx. 200ml of bio-media (around the volume of a small plastic cup). Note that this is much less than small canister filters which can usually fit around 1-2 liters of bio-media.
Previously i also added thin layers of white filter wool in-between the media too, but they tend to clog up quickly and restrict flow, so i gradually omitted it from these filters. Nowadays my hang-on filters are setup mainly for the purposes of biological filtration.
Last edited by Urban Aquaria; 7th Apr 2015 at 17:52.
Hello all & thanks for the prompt replies. I'm learning the ropes of this hobby slowly, but steadily. Ha ha! Now, I understand that in order for my tank & its inhabitants to prosper, bio media is a necessity. I'll look around the LFS sometime soon when I have the time. I will scout for a better & bigger filter too if my budget allows me. I noted another problem in my tank though. Some of my neon tetras tend to hover around the bottom of the tank and waits for food pellets to drop. Often, most of the food pellets are snatched up by the other fishes that are more proactive during feeding time. Should I be concerned about this issue? Also, I do notice that some minuscule leftovers tend to drop into gaps between the soil & the fishes aren't able to get them. Should I do anything about it, such as introducing shrimps into the tank?
For certain combinations of fishes, there is always a chance one species will tend to get outcompeted for food by another bolder species, if that's the case, then try feeding larger sinking wafers which hold their shape and sink to the substrate level where your less proactive fishes are, that'll give them a chance to get some food.
While shrimps can help eat up excess food particles, those that disappear into the soil substrate will still be inaccessible to the shrimps, so you'll have to assume that those food particles will decompose and add to the waste bio-load in the tank. If you have rooted plants in those areas, they will use the nutrients processed from the excess food and waste so it could still be considered a sort of natural fertilizer too.
Chances are with lots of excess food trapped in the substrate, you will start to see an increase in the population of detritus worms, copepods, ostracods etc, all of which help feed on the accumulated detritus in the tank. Those critters are harmless, but can get abit unsightly if their population starts to bloom.
To minimize excess food dropping into the substrate, try feeding the fishes in very small amounts at a time, make sure they eat the pellets without allowing any to drop past them, before feeding some more.
For bottom feeders, you can use a glass or acrylic feeding dish (can get from most LFS nowadays, or DIY using simple glass tealight holders), then put the sinking wafers in them, that can help to at least contain most of the food particles in the dish so that you can clear away uneaten food more easily.
Thanks for the advice again, Urban!
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