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Help too much BioLoad

adamt4050

adamt4050

Member
Joined
4 Jun 2011
Messages
25
hello, in my tank recently alot of fish waste has been collecting in my tank, and its really frustrating me, i water change aprox. 30% a week, and it still gathers quickly.
I havent changed anything about my tank, apart from removing the carbon media(i heard its bad for plants)

So.. I have:
5- Zebra Danios
5- Pearl Danios
4- serpae tetras
3 - Black phantom tetras
1- Bristle nose plec

my tank is 30x35x75(cm) wich is 78litres???
Im running a fluval 205 aswell.

Could anybody shed any light???
 
adamt4050 said:
hello, in my tank recently alot of fish waste has been collecting in my tank, and its really frustrating me, i water change aprox. 30% a week, and it still gathers quickly.
I havent changed anything about my tank, apart from removing the carbon media(i heard its bad for plants)

So.. I have:
5- Zebra Danios
5- Pearl Danios
4- serpae tetras
3 - Black phantom tetras
1- Bristle nose plec

my tank is 30x35x75(cm) wich is 78litres???
Im running a fluval 205 aswell.

Could anybody shed any light???
Click to expand...

Were it me, I might reduce frequency and amount of foods offered and perform larger water change maybe 50 percent each week.
Maybe vaccum one half the tank each week and different half each week (if not heavily planted).
Add more plant's (if not heavily planted).
Would not be looking to add any more livestock
 
thanks guys, ill give it all a go, unfortunatley i was ill advised about stock by a large pet chain COUGH COUGH, metioning no names, however i am looking to move on a few, if not all of my fish to be replaced with nano fish (neons, galaxy danios ect.) any ideas, on how to move on fish, i'd rather NOT give them away for free :S
 
As Matt says, your tank is very heavily stocked, especially for only a 30% WC per week. The first thing i'd do in a tank that size is re-home the Bristle Nose, they are awfully messy. I would do 2 x 30% WC per week, waving your hand over the substrate to lift the debris into suspension, whilst syphoning the debris away with your other hand as quickly as possible. Repeat this as many times as necessary over the next 3 or 4 weeks and you should eradicate it. The reason behind the culmination of debris is lack of flow/under filtration. If the flow is good enough and the filter capable then any debris should be sucked into your filter. I would take a guess that what has "changed" in your tank is that the filter is becoming blocked = the flow is slowing down. Give it a clean and see if you can see a noticeable change in the flow.

So, i'd suggest
1) Re-home the Ancistrus
2) Clean the filter
3) Try and remove the visible waste on the substrate
4) Think about thinning out your fish
5) If you don't want to re-home your fish then upgrade your filter to something like a 405.

I hope this helps.

NB - disturbing the substrate always creates an ammonia spike, any substrate disturbance should be followed by a water change, unless of corse you're doing a water change at the time!
 
Thanks Dan, i will definatly look into re homing the fish, as selling my filter and buying a new one is expensive and time consuming, would buying a hydor koralia nano 900, increase the circulation thus picking up the slack so to speak??
 
Get a gravel cleaner. I never realised how much rubbish was in the gravel until I bought one. I always thought they were a bit of a gimmick and was happy with the wafting/syphoning technique until I got one to see what they were like. The difference is amazing.
 
Drouthie said:
Get a gravel cleaner. I never realised how much rubbish was in the gravel until I bought one. I always thought they were a bit of a gimmick and was happy with the wafting/syphoning technique until I got one to see what they were like. The difference is amazing.
Click to expand...

i do have a gravel cleaner, however the tube is quite long and this makes it very difficult to move around the hardscape, could anybody sugguest a good gravel cleaner??
 
I bought one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001 ... ss_product the other day. Since using it my gravel is looking significantly less poo covered! The end it comes with is flipping huge though, so I'm going to take it off and just use the tube (roughly 3/4"), though I am going to have to put in a guard to prevent the gravel getting sucked up due to the increased pressure in a narrower surface.

A few tips:
* vacuum gravel and then do a water change else you will have a very murky tank for a while ;) As Dan mentioned you will possibly get an Ammonia column too.
* don't vaccum all the gravel in one session, it contains bacteria as well as your filter! See comment about Ammonia column - larger area vacuumed = more potential Ammonia
* small fish seem to think it's entertaining to swim up the pipe if you're not paying attention when putting it in the tank

pete.
 
Thank You, for the tips :) i will look in to both of those gravel cleaners :D
and again thank you, my first forum post here, shame its about a bad occurrence not a good one, but non the less a kind community :)
 
Actually he does not have too high bio load. Stocking only 72% for the size of his tank. Just do not put 75cm as height but as length in the calculator posted.. I doubt he really got so tall tank.

I think you are fine just feed much less, 1x per day and every 2,3 days they do not need to eat daily.
 
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