Tank Crash - How to Cycle A Tank That You Disturbed The Bacteria Balance In. Re-Cycling Aquariums
2019 ж. 24 Там.
20 281 Рет қаралды
Tank Crash - How to Cycle A Tank That You Disturbed The Bacteria Balance In. Re-Cycling Aquariums
Tank Crash - How to Cycle A Tank That You Disturbed The Bacteria Balance In. Re-Cycling Aquariums
Thanks Alex my brother I had a crash in my tank recently I lost everything I wanted to quit... but you inspired me to keep going I appreciate it ...
Glad it helped. Its never easy to handle though. Keep your head up man
Very helpful. I agree that’s it’s encouraging to see it’s not just me along with useful advice.
Good idea to highlight this bud. A lot of folk assume if a tank has been balanced for that period it will remain so even if making changes to fish or plant density. Plus I enjoyed it as ever. 👍
I’ve always been very careful when cleaning my tanks because I’m so scared of this. Very informative!
These are the tanks I do ck parameters on. When I push a planted tank hard and long, I ck it frequently. So far, have never tipped the scales so to speak. I do vacuum but not heavily, and using sand, rather than gravel, allows me to retain control longer and with less chance of going to far. I remember you asking me about one of my sanded, over stocked, planted tanks months ago. The vacuuming to keep it clean aspect. Nice lesson ALex. Thanks.
Thanks for taking the time for making this video. Way too much babbling though. Try to do a 3 min vid with the topic. Had a crash and a PH decrease from 7.8 to 6.4 and wanted to see if if there is a relation to high ammonia and lowered PH.
It's hard enough to explain the cycling process to new folks, then go on to this lesson, that yes, yes you can disrupt the stable cycle and have to rebalance your tank all over again. I'm so glad you tackle these topics. 👍💕👍
Thanks for sharing this, my tank is similar with endlers and lots of fry. No sponge filter just a hob.
Wow, you have so many plants, especially in the last aquarium. It looks like a little forest. Very beautiful! I'm striving to have a aquarium like that one day. 😸
Time and lots of trading plants with local fish keepers....and tons of baby snails haha
Just love your truth!
Hahah
This is a tank with 2x daily water changes, while over stocked, the ammonia did not spike in this "crash" , it actually went to 0 nitrates and thus benign bacteria took over, as the good stuff died back- if you kill your good bacteria...ill have a new video on remedies coming shortly... this is a balance issue of bacteria, not an urgent health issue I wanted to remind folks that your aquarium can un-cycle or have various bacteria blooms for many reasons. In this case I blabbed on too long and should have mentioned that this method will work to get a cycle going smooth again, only if you still have a decent amount of the nitrafying bacteria, and small amounts of ammonia or nitrites ... for tanks that have had a total crash, you must essentially reboot and restart the whole cycle after bleaching all the substrate and hardscape. Luckily, this was a cosmetic issue, and the bacteria was growing daily in larger and larger clumps or clouds- and im simply creating an environment that encourages the normal healthy tank bacteria to out compete the unknown nuisance colonies.
What time is the thumbnail taken from?
You have so many plants, especially in the last aquarium. It looks like a little forest. Very beautiful!
Thank you. Im glad you enjoy it. Check out my other aquascapes and tanks on some of my previous videos, if you think these tanks have dense plants haha...some are insane upstairs
Really good information. A lot of us encounter this when redoing and moving tanks.
Thanks...to be clear...this is not for big ammonia spike crashes...this is for just algae and bacteria blooms when you change up a tank. Thanks for watching Fish Diva!
Good.info, very well presented. Thank you.
Glad its pertinent to some one haha
How long did you leave that tank go . You have dead snails in your substrate
I replaced my substrate. It went through a 1ppm ammonia spike for about 2 days, then I barely even detected nitrites and it's gone straight onto perhaps 40ppm nitrate. Been sitting there with daily water changes for about 5 days. Will it subside, or is there something else to it. Fish in, using seachem prime. Worried.
Well it's a little tough with fish and the prime, to know when things equal out- but probably a good idea to protect the fish (use as directed or even less...too much of it seems to really stress fish also). Usually substrate will offgas ammonia for 3 to 6 weeks , slowing by the day. So it's a game of changing water daily and then making sure you have a large surface area on a sponge or in filter floss, to let good bacteria build up extra colonies. Sounds like you're doing what you can... other than a sand cap...if you top everything in 1 to 3 inches of sand, it slows the release a ton. Also adding plants is a great idea, even if you remove some of them later
Maybe you can help me. I have high ammonia and 20ppm nitrates no nitrites. Been trying to cycles these tanks for 3 weeks with stability and prime but no luck. Should I just sit patiently and waite it out or switch feom stability to fritz7
I would stop using the stability and only dose the prime ... 2 or 3 drops per 5 gallons (over Dosing it can lock up nitrates and nitrites...and they come apart later if no bacteria colony eats it off the sulfur ring molecules that are how prime works (like a big life jacket around the nitrates or ammonia, chlorine etc...chlorine will gas off or make salts... the nitrite is harder so you are probably only just now getting cycled...but something like dead leaves, food or lack of a few water changes a week is allowing ammonia to build up. Also test your tap water to make sure it's not ammonia from a sewer or well. Good luck!
@@Fishtory appreciate your response. Tap water has 0 ammonia but does have about 10 to 15ppm nitrates. 55 gal tank has 9 skirted tetras 4 red minor tetras 3 corys 3 zebra danios 1 pleco I have a aquaon 200 canester filter Wave make 2 medium spong filters. Amonia 1.0 ppm Nitrites 0 Nitrates 20ppm I have poho plants on top with roots in the water. None rotted. Feeding is only once a day very light. No food ever hits the bottom and if it does the corys get it. Water is supper glass clear. If I stop with the stability will it stall the cycle ? Do I switch to fritz 7 ? Thank you in advance
How would you get beneficial bacteria from another tank if it is not free swimming but on surfaces? I know you want the "crashed" tank algae gone what is the other tank actually supplementing?
So ill be moving stones and filter floss over first of all, but secondly, there is a bacteria and microorganisms biome that is rich in life, as well as an algae i prefer to black beard or other species ive noticed creeping in to that unbalanced sponge filter colony area... so hopefully the freefloating algae i can easily live with, will compete also...plus there are anywhere from .5% to 6% nitrafying bacteria in the bottom of a tank's water collumn according to a paper i read a few years ago. But mostly, its just adding proper ph, tds, and microorganisms to a tank that's likely not healthy in that sense
Personally, w/ emphasis on personally, 1st thing I'd do is to use 3% hydrogen peroxide within a dental/medicine-type syringe to spot test - to determine if it's effective. If so, I'd proceed w/more spot treatments, and possibly move to treating the complete water column (WC) for 1-, 2-, w/3-day max at 1.5mL per US gallon. No need to remove anything. Do water changes at 30% to 50% after (day-event) WC treatments.
This was actually a week ago... so I ended up adding some filter media to the tank...got rid of the clumps of bacteria bloom and some algae ....then did 3 days of water changes of about 30% after I added 5 gallons of healthy water from another tank ...and it's doing a lot better.
@@Fishtory Awesome! It's definitely true, "There's more than one way to skin a cat."
@@4funrc11 yeah.... pesky cats
I need some help - I have a 4 month old tank (75 gal) it was cruising right along - green stuff was growing on things and fish were doing well and I recently got more fish - but now fish started dying and I noticed all the green algae stuff on the glass etc stopped coming.. the tank looks clean ? i took a water sample to the pet store and they said I literally have no good bacteria ? I recently got a couple small new pieces of drift wood which was interesting that you mentioned (Briefly) I don't know whats going on but I'm losing fish daily - there's a lot of fish waste on the sand ? do I take it out? I saw a little white fuzzy moldy stuff growing on older wood but it's not green like before ? I know you said make the water warmer so I can do that - what else do I do ? I do not have a second tank and I don't want to lose any more fish ? Do I clean the waste ? do a water change ? buy a turkey baster ?? help please !
First off add Dechlorinator to the tank ...2 or 3 caps full of seachem prime if you have it. That'll detoxify a lot of the ammonia.... make sure all the dead fish are getting pulled out. Make sure your filter media is able to pull water (its not clogged with mud or duckweed etc)... then I would honestly go buy a bottle of quick start bacteria... if they said you have no bacteria, what it means its they only see ammonia...no nitrites or nitrates... it may even be safer to grab the fish and a batter powered pump & airstone (15$ at aquariumcoop.com I think) then put the fish in fresh Dechlorinated water...with the airstone... don't feed them except every other day and only what they'll eat in 2 minutes with no left overs. If you want to keep them in the tank...you need to do like an 80% water change and then 50% the next day ... 40 the next and 20 to 30 for the next 3 days (5 days of extreme water changes...and hoping your filtration starts to get recolonized.) Id also recommend an api master liquid test kit, or minimum an ammonia and nitrate test sets...liquid ... any ammonia is too much. Lastly get filter media from the store if they'll sell you some...Or on Amazon buy ATM-"colony" (my choice for bacteria in a bottle...after the first big water change, dump in the full amount for a new tank...then the next few days add a bit more just in case. You can Google other beneficial bacteria in a bottle too...but if its not refrigerated its usually not great quality
@@Fishtory Got It - Thanks for the Help - I'll try it
Hi, Alex. I disturbed my gravel and spiked the ammonia in a matter of minutes over a week ago. I lost half my fish. The survivors are doing well in an emergency hospital tank. I still can’t lower the ammonia despite water changes and there’s no debris or dead things in the tank. Any suggestions please.
Id get an ammonia test kit.... and then add a fish for a few days to look for gasping or troubles. You can add Dechlorinator to it and that will help detoxify some. But ultimately you may need to add more plants, add a sand cap of an inch to 2 inches and hide the ammonia...or just wait and do water changes of 50% weekly or 25% 2x a week until it stabilizes. Or all of those things hehe. Best of luck and sorry to hear this
How does 0ppm nitrates cause a bacteria bloom?
I just messed up the cycles in one of my goldfish tanks!
Quick question tryinf to do my research I added tetra life guard to treat a cichlid with Popeye in my 75 gal every since adding it my aquarium has crashed 3 fish have died and the rest are all very lethargic does anybody know what could of caused this?
It is a poison. Dose to high with any fish "meds" and it happens often. If u are sure you didn't over dose, perhaps stress from the meds, and ph could have been impacted too, and even a lack of oxygen depending on the meds.
I'm dealing with a very odd mini crash of sorts. I switched from a canister filter to 4 sponge filters. Prior to the switch I put the sponges for the new filters in the canister to get em all cycled n happy. Fast forward did the switch, parameters where steady at ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 10-20. Well today I'm at ammonia 0 nitrite .25 nitrates about 80. I'm definitely panicking. I have a 6 inch Raphael catfish, three 4 inch clown loaches, and a mess of guppies which the cat and loaches eat! This tank has been stable for years and I have never experienced this kind of "mini crash". Maybe I should have run the 2 kinds of filters simultaneously for longer maybe I should have never switched maybe I took to long or went to fast. Moot point now, it's to late to turn back. Fingers crossed it pulls itself together.
Yeah just keep up on water changes and maybe cut back feeding for a week or so? Best of luck!
by moving dirty water, really the only thing youre moving is nitrates, which is the end product of the nitrogen cycle. Nitrates are only needed by plants and algae. There is very little nitrification bacteria in the water column. 99% of it is on solid items inside the tank and filter. The best way to fix a crash is to take known healthy bio media from an established tank / filter and put it into the tank that has crashed.
Agreed, but if you're moving the same fish over, i notice it helps to have some of the nitrate and overall bio-chemical/tds load the same. Also, i agree that porous surfaces and filter media will have the best beacteria...but the water also carries microscopic life, algae, fungi and other critters that sometimes I want replicated
Co2 injection crashed mine !! My ph was 6.0 if not lower and pretty much why the bacteria died
My nitrates are ok, a bit high in one tank at 100ppm but my pH has gone right down to 6.2ppm or lower in both my tanks. I can't work out why? Any ideas anyone? I put some crushed coral in but that's not done anything.
Sounds like you either need more plants... less fish food ...less dead plant debris, or more water changes... you probably knew those things though
I'm having a bacterial bloom on a 5 month old filterless tank. Happened overnight after a water change and now it's been 2 weeks and it's still there
It can take time...and water changes to clear up
@The Secret History Living in Your Aquarium its finally going away lol I was over feeding
Question.. any chance your nitrites spiked due to excessive ammonia available due to dead uprooted plants, and that stalled your cycle? I understand Nitrobacter colony can deplete if nitrites are off the chart.
Yup! Very possible
I need help I just messed up my nitrogen cycle with swapping the gravel and I don’t know what to do. 4 of my fish has died and the last 3 are struggling they were my best friends but now their gone because of the gravel. :/ I just want to know what can I do to get the BB quick and help my fish survive not to mention I did a PWC yesterday and I’m going to be doing one today, I just need help on what to do.
So if you have a big bucket or storage bin, you can literally fill it with Dechlorinated water and an airstone / heater...and even though it's not cycled, it will revive or refresh the fish for 12 - 48 hours depending on the load. First of all, don't feed them for a few days (it just makes more ammonia). Then you can add a double dose of Dechlorinator like Seachem prime or safe. Then if you are leaving the fish in, do a big big water change... 75 or 80%. You can buy sand and "cap" the disturbed gravel also. 2 or 3 inches of sand will lock the ammonia and nitrates in the bottom, then you can keep up with changing the tank water daily at 50% or so after the first massive water change. After 2 or 3 days, you can feed them a little bit of food (never feed more than they eat in 3 to 5 minutes...if there's left overs, net or Siphon it out.) But after a week of that daily water change (and testing the nitrates)...you should see it drop then slowly rise again (or stay at 0) Nitrites, if you uncycled the tank, could be detectable...and it shouldn't be, nor should ammonia (reminder...ammonia turns to nitrite which then turns to nitrates which are the least harmless of the 3 chemicals. Then we remove nitrates with the water changes or via bacterial filtration...OR by adding plants, then trimming them- which physically traps those nitrogen based compounds and can be replanted or tossed.) So your nitrites test may be at 0 or detectible...but you want to see it at 0...meaning the BB are caught up converting it to nitrates. Same with ammonia. So with the uncycled tank ...you can tell what you're doing is working by watching ammonia test reduce, then watch the nitrite test go from 0 to 20-50ppm then slowly over a week or two, it will go back to zero and nitrates levels will increase again if it's in need of a total re-cycle. But it's good if you can keep the nitrates under 30 to 50ppm... ideally. 0 is fine too, but plants do need some amount of nitrogen compounds, to grow. So recap... you can move fish, if you keep the water fresh and change nearly all of it daily, or if you keep the fish in the tank, get a liquid API test kit and monitor water parameters for 2 or 3 weeks at least....daily for the first week or until cycled again. If keeping fish in the same tank, do a massive water change. Then add double dose of Dechlorinator, then if you want...you can add pool filter or aquarium grade sand (after rinsing it well) then add it right on top of the gravel and plants or decor (try and keep the plants above the sand if possible though. Then keep up with water changes daily of 50% for a week or two...you can also add an extra filter if you want ... or expand your surface area that hosts beneficial bacteria. You can add as many plants as you want ...the more the better. And other than that, it's time. Best of luck and sorry to hear things went poorly. It happens to us all at some point. Take care and let me know how it goes Cheers, Alex.
Thank you for the information! I have a few questions so I have a 1 gallon tank which was given to me for some reason but I have an 10 gallon tank in which the BB was disrupted. I’m wondering if I can just put my 2 glo light tetras and my 1 guppie in the 1 gallon? And could I add a sponge filter in the 10 gallon tank to help get the bacteria around quicker? Also I only have one heater but my room temperature is around 76-78, so will the qt tank be good without a heater? I’m getting a testing kit Friday. Thank you for the help and I will keep you updated as much as possible!
@@kendall6053 yes that plan should work fine 🙂
@@Fishtory ok thank you :) also do I just put tap water in the 1 gallon then put some api quick start and some seacheam prime in there? Also just do daily water change? And anymore tips I need to get the beneficial bacteria back in my main tank?
@@Fishtory Update I only have 1 more fish and my fish are doing worse in the qt tank why is that? It’s freshwater, it’s has a filter, an air pump and it’s temperature is 76 degrees I’m wondering why are they still not able to breathe, could it be because of the ammonia spikes which closed their gills?
What happened to the Re-Cycle part? The "how tos" are missing.
Check out the nitrogen cycle and crash video
Ready to CRY! I have a new tank. I used quick start. Didn’t know about cycling. Also had to medicate tank so really probably killed bio! Total crash! My ammonia is .25, my nitrites are 1.0. Did three 50% water changes in 24 hours as per a KZhead video. People are telling me to just let it go. My oranda is spending alot of time in top corner of tank. I have air stones, temp is 71, not over stocked- 4 fish in 75 gallon tank. PLEASE HELP! Should I take fish out and if so I don’t have a cycled tank.
Okay, so to make the fish safe for the moment ... just Dechlorinate some water and put the fish in a bucket or bowl with fresh water... even though it is not cycled, this will allow the fish to recuperate from the ammonia burn (which if exposed to for too many days, can cause the gills to inflame or even scar and then stop working). If you do this, you can then simply do a total water change every day or two and the goldfish should be fine, even without heat or air (although they do appreciate both). This will allow your tank and filtration system, time to cycle (it needs some ammonia present in the water, for the bacteria to eat in order to colonize and detoxify it.) Keep testing the tank water, and do a 50% water change every 2 or 3 days....you basically want to have some ammonia , and then should start to see nitrites show up on the test kit (when you see nitrites you will know that the first species of goof bacteria is working to detoxify the ammonia. Then you want to see nitrates appear... they will rise for several days, and the bacteria species that turns nitrite into nitrate will begin to colonize your filter. Finally after anywhere from 6 days to 4 weeks, the test should start to show no ammonia, decreasing nitrites....then no nitrites and finally only nitrates. When you see just nitrates on the test, then you'll have a cycled tank.) So to help cycle the tank, make sure to add some plants, and don't keep adding Dechlorinator or stresscoat to the main tank (beyond the amount needed to dechlorinate the water when you do water changes). It seems odd, but you actually want the ammonia and nitrites to be in that main tank (while the fish is safe in a bucket or bowl for a while)...so that those bacterial colonies can form. If you want to sooth the goldfish, you can add almond leafs or wood with tannins to the water...also don't over feed the fish.only feed as much as it eats within 2 minutes and nothing more. Keep up testing and just keep that fish in fresh water daily until the tank cycles up and you'll be fine (unless the fish was exposed to such high ammonia that it's gills are shutting down....in which case, all you can really do, is wait and keep it in fresh water. Good luck.... you can also buy products like ATM- colony or fritz-quickstart and after adding those products to the main tank, the fish should be fine to be there...since those products introduce large amounts of the bacteria that usually just appears naturally over time. Good luck don't stress too much, just do what you can, and try to relax and let the time pass
I replaced all of the gravel in one of my tanks and totally forgot about the beneficial bacteria that I was taking out. 😖 any thoughts on how I can bring things up to speed?
This is a good video thank you
What time stamp is the thumbnail? I watched the whole video and I think I missed it???
Click bait. Feeding in there at a different time...sooorrrry haha
In your situation i would invest in a proper biomedia like Seachem Matrix, Sera Siporax or Biohome. Sponge filter are not very good. After i put some proper biomedia in my filter the problems with nitrates and algae will be very low.
I have 2 sponge filters and a 75 gallon rated HOB usually going hah. But i agree with your assessment if not
For the Algorithm!
This happened to me on my cycled tank after my ex partially ripped out my spider wood during an argument.. it took me MONTHS Of siphoning the white fuzz..ig just grew back.what fixed it.. 95% water change.
Yeah it can be a total pain in the butt ...especially wood
That is by far the filthiest tank on You tube.
Yuuup that was the point...showing it all gnarly
What are you yammering on about? As a biochemist who has studied microbiology for a while, I should tell you that bacteria are self-selecting for the conditions you provide. Turkey bastering out mulm is not going to help, and the microbiome of your tank is likely as balanced as it should be. If the complaint is aesthetic, I can understand you messing around. But don’t assume you’re helping anything but appearance.
The ammonia went up ... there for there was either extra waste or plants in the system... i was costmetically removing the bacteria bloom... and keeping the colonized bacteria at bay by reintroducing water from a cycled happy tank. Yes, i know sucking up mulm damages more cycled bacteria also though. This changed which bacteria moved in ...as i had removed bulks of the one i didnt want...and the preexisting ones were able to compete again as the ammonia or imbalance was remedied
@@Fishtory First, I'm sorry I'm so mean. I'm a bitter person with a cold heart, but I do really like your channel and videos so I should have tried to be nice. In my experience with bacteria, the film you remove is not what you need to worry about. You see, when we do a culture in a lab, small differences in favorability of the environment for a certain species magnifies, and you end up with one outcompeting the other. Thus the necessity for sterile technique is born. In the medical field, this is a big problem. I'm sure you've heard of fecal transplants. Part of the procedure is 'nuking' the intestines by cleaning them out with detergent prior to seeding with the fecal implant. The reason: whatever changes to the system caused the unwanted bacteria to flourish will persist and stay that way unless major changes are made. It is very likely that there are still many cells of the bacteria you want in the tank, but they are just not in an environment where they can thrive. I would not take the fecal transplant as a model for this problem. Rather, I would consider the question of probiotics vs prebiotics. Probiotics don't work, but prebiotics do. So, essentially, you just need to make sure that your tank parameters match the food and chemical requirements of the bacteria you do want and not of the bacteria you don't. But it seems to me that this bacterial bloom is happening because your tank wasn't used to nitrogen waste, but was suddenly challenged with it when the events you described in the video occurred. In which case, these may be the very bacteria that you want, just in great magnitude. The problem will most likely sort itself out. And you do have A LOT of mulm. I would gravel vac that and not turkey baster it. Our tanks are somewhat of a closed environment, but if you have a septic tank, it is safe to assume septic tank bacteria will grow there.
I agree with all of what you're saying. I think perhaps i just didnt articulate myself well at all and this video should just be about this one tank, and not anyone else's when i think about it more... i also have nearly nothing in my tap water and no septic tank. We get wood rot fungi and about 3 visible colonies or bacteria possible from our tap water (in my tests and tanks, of course 1000s more likely exist as well....but i just dont want protoplasm style blobs or slimey visible colonies.... however the fish were eating it and no one died. Also it's just one corner...specifically the aerated sponge filter that took the hit and turned nasty, so introducing more good nitrite and nitrite creating bacteria worked within 2 or 3 days...and while im sure this harmless bacteria exists in the billions...homeostasis has returned and overpowered whatever strain it was....its some form of bacteria that doesn't like nitrites or ammonia from the look of it. When fish waste increased again and plant decay was cleared - the new bacteria lost it's attempt at colonizing anything but the filterm...which was then killed by turning off the O2 line. Now its dead and black...and ill likelt bleach it or something. (it's sort of funny, how i wanted more fish waste to get my tank healthy
@@Fishtory I'll be direct. I'm an asshole and you're a nice person. I'm sorry I polluted your comments section with several ultracrepidarian tirades. You clearly know what you're doing, and I really don't. You were right and I was wrong.
You seem like a very humble and nice guy 🤡
U took eternity to explain. Waste of time
There's a lot of extra info about Aquaria in all my videos, not just one topic...Google it if you want a quick rundown. It's definitely for entertainment/education and not efficiency and speed. Some folks need to hear and see things several ways and several times
If you don’t have time for tanks . Don’t keep them :(