[jenandcoffee]

hello all,

so after reviewing all your beautiful tanks with tons of rocks and sand ect, i decided it was time for some new decorating...

i wanted to do my whole tank in texas holey rock, but after buying a few pcs decided against that as it costs way too much, so i found some artificial rock @ my lfs and got home all excited & did a 40 % water change so that i would have room to move the rock about as i have a 90 gallon tall tank and can barely reach the bottom, standing on a chair..

it had been about 2 months since i cleaned the filter - rena xp3 canister so i decided to to do that too, needless to say i removed all my previous decorations (except the texas holey rock which had been in for 2 weeks) cleaned the filter, washed the gravel and began to add my new artifical rocks (which i rinsed & let sock for a while before adding) as i was removing them i could smell paint like oder, i found that odd but decided it should be ok as i had bought these from a pet store. right???????

now finally, i have achieved the look i was going for :thumb: only to wake up in the morning to find my water cloudy and my fave fish flashing and shaking about... so i decide i better do some tests to see whats going on.

ammonia- 0.6
ph was between 7.4-7.8 (lower than usual)
nitrate-40-80 (hard to tell as it was kinda in between)

i also brought some of my water to the pet store to double check i was not reading it wrong or my test kits were bad. the store was not very helpful as i was told they do not test water on weekends cause they are too busy...i told the girl, listen i have spent a small fortune in this store and just drove 30 mins to get here, do you think you can help me out this one time............anyways it seems the tests were acurate

so i did another 30 % water change with prime & added accu clear

did the tests again:
ammonia still 0.6
ph was the same bewteen 7.4 - 7.8
nitrate - looked more like 40 (i hope....) on my test 20 40 & 80 are all reds.

so what now? do i continue with 30 % water changes everyday?

Thanks

 

[Gibbs]

Not every day, every second would be better.
Your nitrates are huge and the you shouldn't be getting an ammonia reading which is what is probably causing your fish to act like they are.
Did you go a bit overboard when cleaning the filter. Only a few squizes is all you need to do and a quick rinse and your all done.
What gravel did you clean? Your substrate or filter media?
I don't like the idea of the artificial decor smelling like they did, sometimes fish store will sell anything. It may also be contributing to the matter.
I would continue with water changes, if you don't notice an improvement in a week then well see what else we can do, starting with that decor

 

[jenandcoffee]

oh ya i forgot to mention i bought filstar nitra- zorb (removes ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) and put into my filter.

i don't think i went over board, i just rinsed off all the guck from the sponges i have 2 trays with biomax and only rinsed with the water that was in my filter canister.

the gravel that i cleaned was my substarte (i cleaned this with my siphon)
and to think i was going to change the gravel to sand this weekend, thank god i did not...

i really hope i dont have to remove all the artificial rock, has anybody every heard or used this product from aqua-pro aquariums? http://www.aqua-pro.cn/english/newproducts.phpmodel # QFZ-50A

heres a pic:

Thanks

 

[dielikemoviestars]

Any "removal" products just detoxify them for the time being, they don't remove them.

I would bet that cleaning the filter and changing all your decor completely messed up your nitrifying bacteria colonies. Sounds like your tank is going through a minicycle because of it. Just keep on 40% w/c every other day until it levels out.

 

[Gibbs]

Then change your substrate. It is pretty straight forward and reasonably safe to do

 

[prov356]

so what now? do i continue with 30 % water changes everyday?

Yes, as often as you need to in order to keep ammonia down. Twice per day if you have to. Also use something like Prime to detox what ammonia is there. It changes 'free' ammonia to 'bound' ammonium which is not toxic to fish.

The removers like nitrazorb do just that, remove. They are different than the detox products. They're not normally needed for established tanks, but good that it's there now. Leave the filters alone for now, and the bacteria colony should rebound and begin to handle the ammonia.

Don't use the nitrazorb or any other product that removes ammonia and nitrite long term. Remove the nitrazorb in a couple of weeks once your'e past this. Your filters should handle ammonia and nitrite without this. If you want a nitrate remover, find one that just removes nitrate (if there is such a thing, don't know).

I haven't used the rock, but doubt that it's the source of your problem. Agree that it was good that you didn't change out the substrate. You want to avoid making too many changes at once. Don't consider that until you get the tank stabilized.