Dead Bio-filter

A

aaronburro

Medium Fish
#1
Mar 27, 2003
84
0
0
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#1
I've been cycling a 30-gal for almost a month now, and I finally got something resembling a nitrite spike a few days ago. I've been keeping the ammo at 5ppm the whole time. For the past few days I've been adding two cap fulls, but both today and yesterday the ammo was way over 5ppm, so I didn't add anything. The ites yesterday were at 1ppm, and today there was nothing, which was a bit of a shock. It would seem that my ammo eating bacteria have all croaked, but I have no idea why. I topped off the tank yesterday with some aged water which I treated with stress coat before the aging. Our tapwater is fine, so even stress coat isn't necessary. I haven't used any other additives than that, though I did seed the tank when I started with both Bio-Spira and the filter media from both of my other tanks. Any ideas what has gone on? Do i need to re-seed?

Well, not that I checked the pH, it seems awful weird. There are no plants in the tank, so there is no reason for the pH to be that low... is this going to be a problem with cycling?

Thx guys, and here are the specs:

pH: below 6
temp: 90F
ammo: 7ppm
ite: 0ppm
ate: insanely high, thus
 

W

wethead

Large Fish
#2
Jun 7, 2003
101
0
0
90
Phila. Burbs
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#2
I would get ahold of an air driven sponge filter & put it in one of your cycled tanks for a few days so it would load up on the good bacters. Then add it to your cycling tank & give it a few days to stir your cycling, then continue testing & look for a positive change in your amonia & nitrite.....Rich
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

Forum Manager
Moderator
#4
May 16, 2003
8,589
10
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43
Colorado
#4
90 is on the high side...but shouldn't be too high. Try doing a water change if your nitrates are that high because sometimes the cycle will get stuck because of high nitrates (it would appear. I don't know WHY it would do that...but both of mine did)

Once you start seeing nitrites (should have been about 3-5 days into the cycle) you don't have to keep adding that much ammonia. You can just add it every few days to make sure that the bacteria that change ammonia into nitrites is still kickin.

What kind of test kit do you have? I'm wondering if your results could be off for some reason...the cycle is usually pretty predictable.

Suggestion: Lower the temperature a little. Do a 75% water change. Put in SOME ammonia (not the same amt that you've been putting in...maybe half of that just enough so its measurable in the tank at 2ppm or so) and then let it sit for 24 hours or so and test again.
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

Forum Manager
Moderator
#6
May 16, 2003
8,589
10
38
43
Colorado
#6
Yep...thats what I use too. I officially have no idea...unless the ammonia just built up so high that it had a detrimental effect.

Try the water change thing and see if it changes anything
 

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