Iain Miller
April 6th 04, 12:20 AM
"*xVx*" > wrote in message
...
> if so what would cause this? a week ago ammonia was zero, nitrites were
> spiked and nitrates were getting high.
> relatively heavy planted 29 gal tank with 9 tbarbs . this week ammoniais
up
> high and there is ZERO nitrates/nitrites.
> no power outages. 1/4 water change mid week
> tia
You don't say what kind of filter you have or how long the tank has been
running.
If its a UGF:
Powerhead not working or gravel (or plate underneath) blocked solid with
muck. If you havn't cleaned the gravel out for a while be careful if you
disturb it - you may find some stuff down there has gone very bad (!) If you
think this is the cause I'd take the fish out as a precaution & then do a
deep gravel vac. If you smell rotten eggs when you disturb it then this was
your problem. lean it out as best you can, re-fill & leave for a day or two
to settle before you put the fish back in. In the meantime make sure they
are in a big enough container with an airpump and the necessary heat - and
cover it so they can't jump.
If its an in tank or cannister filter
then maybe your pump has packed up or the filter is just blocked (if its a
cannister then check the intake) - or did you clean your filter media under
the tap? If you did then you killed the bio filter and you will be starting
the cycle again. If you have a cannister that's stopped, it will have gone
bad - don't just restart it - empty the water out and then rinse the media
in a bucket of tank water before then refilling and restarting. Same with an
internal filter.
If its a new tank that you thought had cycled and you just added extra fish
then that is the cause - your bacteria filter is not yet big enough to
handle the extra load you dumped on it. The bacterial colony is only as big
as it needs to be. It will grow pretty quickly once its established and cope
with extra load but you may get aspike for a day or two if you add a lot of
new fish together
HTH
I.
...
> if so what would cause this? a week ago ammonia was zero, nitrites were
> spiked and nitrates were getting high.
> relatively heavy planted 29 gal tank with 9 tbarbs . this week ammoniais
up
> high and there is ZERO nitrates/nitrites.
> no power outages. 1/4 water change mid week
> tia
You don't say what kind of filter you have or how long the tank has been
running.
If its a UGF:
Powerhead not working or gravel (or plate underneath) blocked solid with
muck. If you havn't cleaned the gravel out for a while be careful if you
disturb it - you may find some stuff down there has gone very bad (!) If you
think this is the cause I'd take the fish out as a precaution & then do a
deep gravel vac. If you smell rotten eggs when you disturb it then this was
your problem. lean it out as best you can, re-fill & leave for a day or two
to settle before you put the fish back in. In the meantime make sure they
are in a big enough container with an airpump and the necessary heat - and
cover it so they can't jump.
If its an in tank or cannister filter
then maybe your pump has packed up or the filter is just blocked (if its a
cannister then check the intake) - or did you clean your filter media under
the tap? If you did then you killed the bio filter and you will be starting
the cycle again. If you have a cannister that's stopped, it will have gone
bad - don't just restart it - empty the water out and then rinse the media
in a bucket of tank water before then refilling and restarting. Same with an
internal filter.
If its a new tank that you thought had cycled and you just added extra fish
then that is the cause - your bacteria filter is not yet big enough to
handle the extra load you dumped on it. The bacterial colony is only as big
as it needs to be. It will grow pretty quickly once its established and cope
with extra load but you may get aspike for a day or two if you add a lot of
new fish together
HTH
I.