Newbie problems

[Farhan Tahar]

Hi guys, I have a month old 2 ft tank with a internal Hydra 20 filter. A few days ago, the water turned cloudy (white haze) and i assume thats bacteria bloom. I have a few problems now.

- one of my pleco is missing (might be permanently hiding in my driftwood
- driftwood is trapping lots of decomposed material and even a dead yamato
- white haze

My question is, can I remove my driftwood to clean it out and find my missing pleco?

What can I do to remove the haze?

I recently added a eheim 2217 canister filter to cycle along with the hydra.. Its after the pleco went missing and the haze.. I hope that this would help with the haze..

My ammonia is off the charts when i tested it.

I have a few tetras inside the tank. Planted with monte carlo and hava fern and have a CO2 canisted attached with a single bulb 7500k bulb running on timer.

Can some seniors help? Let me know what other info you need.

Thanks!


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[Farhan Tahar]

I plan to remove all my fishes to another tank and put my hydra in there along with some of the original tank water and add on new water.. Keep them there for a while.. In the meantime, I would go and drain 90% of the original tank water, remove the driftwood and clean or replace it and let the new eheim canister cycle in the original tank.. Would this method help or is there a better way? Its demoralising seeing the tank in such a condition..


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[Urban Aquaria]

Sounds like your tank is still in the midst of cycling, the bacterial bloom could be due to the high bio-load from the pleco and other livestock. If the pleco is dead, it will rot and generate a lot of ammonia, so quickly check to make sure. Always remove all dead livestock immediately to prevent them polluting the water.

The new 2217 filter you recently added will still need time to establish its beneficial bacteria population, so in the meantime you will need to do a series of large water changes to flush out all of the excess ammonia.

Your plan to transfer out all the existing livestock to a temporary tank is a good idea, as it will make it easier to work on the main tank. Remember to do drip acclimation on the livestock before each transfer, so that they don't get repeatedly shocked by the sudden changes in water conditions.

[Farhan Tahar]

Still can't find the pleco.. And I plan to remove the driftwood to check but am afraid that it would spike the ammonia.. Also, the bacterial bloom is gone.. Yay!


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[Urban Aquaria]

Best to shift the driftwood and check... you wouldn't want a dead livestock continuing to pollute the water.

If its difficult to move the driftwood without disturbing the tank and it creates alot of blind-spots, maybe consider changing the position or orientation of the driftwood so that its easier to observe and maintain the tank, otherwise you will always encounter the issue of wondering what happened to missing fishes and shrimps.