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30 Posts
First post on this forum. I'm sure some of you will be quite helpful. I've had a community tank for over 20 years so I'm not new to fishkeeping but this is my first Cichlid tank.
Short story- I have a new 65 gallon tank with Mbuna. I overstocked the tank too quickly and have overloaded the Bio filter. Battling high Ammonia level and looking for help. Now the details:
65 gallon tank
25 Mbuna (not juveniles) of 5 different species (added in batches of 4-5/week over about 5 week period)
Fluval FX4 filter (have "pimped" it with replacement foams, loose Poly fill, and added 2 boxes of additional Fluval Bio Max media in addition to what came with the filter. Also running an 11 oz bag of Chemi-Pure Blue under bottom tray).
CaribSea Aragonite substrate
Good aeration with Powerhead at top of tank
Slate rocks stacked for caves
NO plants
Performed fishless cycle with ammonium chloride prior to adding fish. Got that done and it passed the test after spiking with ammonia. However, for the past several weeks, have been struggling with elevated ammonia levels. Nitrite at 0 and Nitrates present (try to keep around 20 or less with water changes). Being new to Cichlids, I read about lots of emphasis on frequent water changes so that is what I did from the beginning. I use a Python and was dosing the entire tank with Prime at each 20-40% water change. I suspect what was happening was that our water in north Texas has high levels of Chloramines and this was killing off the nitrifying bacteria before the Prime could neutralize it, so I have started preparing water batches in a Rubbermaid garbage can with Prime BEFORE adding to the tank to address this. It certainly cannot hurt doing it this way.
Have been protecting fish with 2x normal dose of Prime every 48 hours. They are all active and appear healthy (eating aggression, etc).
Here are the parameters from todays' tests...
Temp 79
pH 7.8
Total Ammonia (API test kit) 1.0-2.0 (having to interpret color)
Seachem Ammonia Alert badge ALERT
Nitrite 0+ (very slight tint of purple)
Nitrate 20
GH 11
KH 11
I have also been using Seachem Stability and Fritz Zyme 7 after water changes to try and fortify the bacteria. Over the past month, I have added a TON of bacteria and you can see where I am at. Cannot believe that I am not yet winning this battle!
Is 3 pounds of Bio media enough for this bio load? If not, should I add a HOB filter? If so, which one? I have pretty much maxed out the amount of Bio media that I can get in the FX4 trays. There's no question that the FX4 has the water circulation capability. It's more a question of media at this point.
I know that I made a mistake in adding too many fish too quickly. What's done is done-it just needs to be fixed. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated at this point. I love the fish and just want things to settle down to where I just need to make my water changes and enjoy the tank.
Short story- I have a new 65 gallon tank with Mbuna. I overstocked the tank too quickly and have overloaded the Bio filter. Battling high Ammonia level and looking for help. Now the details:
65 gallon tank
25 Mbuna (not juveniles) of 5 different species (added in batches of 4-5/week over about 5 week period)
Fluval FX4 filter (have "pimped" it with replacement foams, loose Poly fill, and added 2 boxes of additional Fluval Bio Max media in addition to what came with the filter. Also running an 11 oz bag of Chemi-Pure Blue under bottom tray).
CaribSea Aragonite substrate
Good aeration with Powerhead at top of tank
Slate rocks stacked for caves
NO plants
Performed fishless cycle with ammonium chloride prior to adding fish. Got that done and it passed the test after spiking with ammonia. However, for the past several weeks, have been struggling with elevated ammonia levels. Nitrite at 0 and Nitrates present (try to keep around 20 or less with water changes). Being new to Cichlids, I read about lots of emphasis on frequent water changes so that is what I did from the beginning. I use a Python and was dosing the entire tank with Prime at each 20-40% water change. I suspect what was happening was that our water in north Texas has high levels of Chloramines and this was killing off the nitrifying bacteria before the Prime could neutralize it, so I have started preparing water batches in a Rubbermaid garbage can with Prime BEFORE adding to the tank to address this. It certainly cannot hurt doing it this way.
Have been protecting fish with 2x normal dose of Prime every 48 hours. They are all active and appear healthy (eating aggression, etc).
Here are the parameters from todays' tests...
Temp 79
pH 7.8
Total Ammonia (API test kit) 1.0-2.0 (having to interpret color)
Seachem Ammonia Alert badge ALERT
Nitrite 0+ (very slight tint of purple)
Nitrate 20
GH 11
KH 11
I have also been using Seachem Stability and Fritz Zyme 7 after water changes to try and fortify the bacteria. Over the past month, I have added a TON of bacteria and you can see where I am at. Cannot believe that I am not yet winning this battle!
Is 3 pounds of Bio media enough for this bio load? If not, should I add a HOB filter? If so, which one? I have pretty much maxed out the amount of Bio media that I can get in the FX4 trays. There's no question that the FX4 has the water circulation capability. It's more a question of media at this point.
I know that I made a mistake in adding too many fish too quickly. What's done is done-it just needs to be fixed. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated at this point. I love the fish and just want things to settle down to where I just need to make my water changes and enjoy the tank.