popik Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Not sure of the exact cause but i'll tell it how it is So i added 5 teenage (3-1/2") Discus to my 46g tank on Sunday. Things were going great till last night when i checked my water. By all records the tank had been cycled and had a small fish population or 2 yoyo loaches, a 5" Pearl Gourami, pleco a couple 1" tetra and 4 danio's. I have been running with this load for a couple weeks wanting to hold off to get the Discus till i was sure the tank was good and ready. I pulled the danio's and tetra's out beofre adding the discus just to keep the shock to filter low (they are very happy in a semi-planted 10g. Long story short my ammonia and nitrite spiked last night and gave me a good scare. Ammonia at 0.5-1ppm and nitrite at 3ppm. I immediately dosed with both stability and prime to try and control it. Unfortunatley by this afternoon the nitrite had risen to 5ppm and the ammonia oddly stayed the same. The fish seemed to be fine and are acting normal...fed them the tiniest bit and they went ape over it. So i thought that a 50% water change and another dosing would work so i did just that (these fish hate the water changes). I wanted to leave it for an hour or two to see if i had made any effect so in the mean time i got some used floss and a couple bio balls out of a friends established tank to help seed my filter a bit more...at this point anything would help. When i added the used floss and bio balls i had a full on bacterial bloom within 5 mins. So my question today is(sorry for the long story) i have this tank running on an eheim 2213 classic, i added a Fluval 2+ in tank filter more as a power head than anything...is this maybe not enough filter for this tank? its rated for a 60 G tank but i have heard some say that its overated. I'm hoping im in the clear with these guys but domt want to be that optimistic yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Did you clean the filter at all recently? If so, you may have killed some of the beneficial bacteria. How old are your test kits? Is it possible that they gave a false reading? If you want some floating plants to soak up the nutrients, I've got tonnes - if you want to pick them up, I'll give you enough to cover the whole tank!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popik Posted April 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Did you clean the filter at all recently? If so, you may have killed some of the beneficial bacteria. How old are your test kits? Is it possible that they gave a false reading?If you want some floating plants to soak up the nutrients, I've got tonnes - if you want to pick them up, I'll give you enough to cover the whole tank!! Thanks for the reply I opened the filter for a few minutes the day i put the Discus in but only to put a new carbon pad in as the old one was a few weeks old...no cleaning though and never out of the water. Test strips expire late in 2009. If things dont stabilize tonight or at least show a glimmer of hope i will possibly take you up on the plant offer thank you kindly. Any comments on whether the 2213 is big enough for a 46G? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish_Frenzy Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 The most important thing is to keep doing water changes...I would say 30% a day until you get those readings down. The Discus need good water quality to thrive and when they start going downhill, they go down fast. Also, I would add an Aqua Clear filter on the tank (if you have one) just for extra filtration and aeration. Once everything is back to normal in the tank, I would remove the carbon from the filter as it is said to be detrimental to the health of Discus. Some say it causes hole in the head or HLLE. You didn't mention the temperature of the tank. A minimum temp for Discus should be 82F-84F....sorry if you already know this, just trying to be thorough. Feed very little until the readings are lowered also as it will just add to the problems. I would think that filter is adequate, though the more filtration, the better. I have 2 filters on all my Discus tanks in case anything happens to one, also makes cleaning the filter (in water removed during water change) easier as I can clean one filter one wc, and another the next without any problems. Hope this helps some, Tammy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popik Posted April 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2008 Udate....after dosing and seeding over the past two days i am getting a 0 ammonia reading but still have some Nitrite. I'm a little optimistic now that the fish and the filter will pull through. Hope by tomorow to see the Nitrate rise and Nitrate fall. I was also encouraged to leave the water changes to every two days unless the readings were really toxic. Almost picked up a new filter today but after some hopefully good advise i have regained some faith in my eheims ability to handle this tank volume! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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