Freshwater cistern problems?
I have a tank that I cycled about 6 months ago. Since after, I have had the same fish surrounded by it. I recently added new gravel and wiped down the filter (it have some calcium deposits on the top of it and there were pieces of plant stuck inside of it that needed to be pulled out). A week or so after I changed the gravel (much of the old gravel is still within the tank, I just added some new for more color), I notice my pH and alkalinity were low. I After that, my pH has been continuing to condense (slowly, but it is still decreasing), and my nitrates and nitrates are suddenly rising (again, it is a slow process). Before now, my tank has other had great readings, and all of this have come on very suddenly. I have been doing 15-20% dampen changes every day, but I don't know what could be causing this or why my reading are going crazy like this.
More facts:
My first thought was that I cleaned off the filter too ably and that I changed out too much of the gravel, but I really didn't take that much out.
My tank has be cloudy since the gravel change (at first I thought maybe I didn't rinse the gravel enough, but it's looking more murky than dusty lately)
I have a couple live plants in there, but when the readings started going crazy, I notice there were spots on the leaves that were wilted and bad, so I pruned them very well.
Anyone have any theory what could be going on? It is out of control, and I don't know if there is some secret cause behind all these change that I should be testing for. I really dont want to lose any of my fish! Thanks so much for all of your help--I appreciate any answers that can point me in the right direction!
Answers: 80% of your tank life line is in the filter..
10% surrounded by gravel and 10% on glass and ornaments.
when you thought you were cleaning you were in actual fact killing the filter.
A gungy filter is a happy filter as the mud is booming with biddable bacteria, only clean it satisfactory to operate and use good bio-logical media contained by it like aqua clear bio-max or eheim splintered glass.
But if the cistern was running nice before just take heed cleaning the filter. Any contact with water that isn't from the aquarium can be instant doom.
All the symptoms of your tank are the result of ammonia spikes.
Just do 15-20% wet changes every 3 days and get the plants out if they look even the tiniest bit unhealthy as they will contribute (decaying) big time to ammonia filled water.
when the microbes get reset your good to go. whether your really worried get a small bottle of seachem stability and use for 7 days. Only this product though.
It will help your filter bounce back.
right luck!!
mwm is right about the filter having the bacteria, and even though some germs is in the gravel, it can take a while for it to catch up. And it sounds close to you only took out a little of the old gravel and put the foreign in. But when you did that, did you move the old gravel so it's deeper than it was since? The water may not be circulating through all the gravel, so it's not reaching all the microbes you had left.
One thing I can assume of about your pH is that you cut the leaves off your plants. The plants take within CO2 out of the water for photosynthesis. CO2 also combines with the water to engineer it slightly acidic. So by cutting off the leaves, they can't occupy or use as much CO2 as they did before. But once the leaves grow back, your pH could go pay for to normal.
