My discus bio filter has crashed, please help!

[Rachel]

Hi,

My tank has cycled from the beginning again from using myaxzin medication and now I'm having to do 50% water changes everyday until it kicks back in again! Currently the level of ammonia is 0.014.

Is there anything I can do to make it less
Toxic for my discus and rams. My male
German ram seems to be more affected sitting at the bottom
Of the tank

[DiscusLoverJeff]

One of the things I do in case I have to use meds is I setup an extra bio filter in another tank for emergencies. This way I have a backup at all times. Some good water changes and maybe some carbon filter should remove the ammonia and get your bio filter back after a good rinse.

[Skip]

Carbon remove ammonia?

[foreese]

get some Seachem Stability.

[DiscusLoverJeff]

There are many ammonia removing pellets that work well.

Is that better Warlock?

[Skip]

Sorry, meant charcoal. Or there are many ammonia removing pellets as well.

Is that better Warlock?

ooh you meant the ammonia chips stuff. .. yes.. better..


op.. do you have a water conditioner the DETOXIC ammonia? what are you using? as long as you neutralize the ammonia.. it will be ok.. BUT you will need to keep up the water changes.. UNTIL your bio filters and REMOVE the DETOX'd ammonia from your eco system..

[Chicago Discus]

I use a product called Cycle after water changes when I have an un cycled tank or one thats went into a mini cycle works great just make sure that its not outdated

[judy]

up the water changes to seventy per cent daily, and add a full-tank dose of Seachem Prime daily, when refilling your tank. You will see false positive ammonia readings, but Prime locks ammonia into its non-lethal form. should be fine in a few weeks...

[DerekFF]

If money isnt an issue buy a bottle of safe start and your tank will be good in 2 days or so

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[Rachel]

Ive brought some prime, should come tomorrow, ive also squished out my goldfish tanks filter sponges into the water in a hope to seed the tank with good bacteria and added the sponge to my canister filter.

Been doing daily water changes, Ammonia is currently at 0.014 now...

Ive read nutrafin cycle isnt that good. Have used it in the past but it doesnt help in the long. Found this really useful webpage about the nitrogen cycle. Check this out its the most valuable page I have found...


http://www.americanaquariumproducts....gen_Cycle.html

5] Cycling Products;



There are many products for cycling available too, but most in my experience/tests do not work well with the exception of SeaChem Stability, Fritz Turbo Start, & possible BioSpira.
Properly cared for BioSpira (continuous refrigeration is a must, as well shelf life is still short) or the newer Fritz-Zyme Turbo Start #700 (Freshwater) & #900 (saltwater) can be effective as these are live albeit very fragile Autotrophic bacteria.
The key for BioSpira and Fritz Turbo Start is proper care, the shelf life is short and both must be stored between 34 F and 40 F. In my opinion, the Fritz product is better since it is sold direct with better control of shelf life, refrigeration, and shipping to the end customer.

I will note however that many I know in the aquatic community such as others in aquarium maintenance profession as well as aquatic forums have not had all that good of results in tests with BioSpira, possibly due to poor storage, etc.

Most other products are Heterotrophs, which cannot truly cycle an aquarium and are at best useful for spikes in bio loads of established aquariums.
Another problem with many cycling products is due to the fact that aerobic nitrifying bacteria cling to media and gravel (this has been PROVEN scientifically) and do not work while suspended in water. Also poor storage and shelf life undoubtedly play a role as well, and proper since storage and handling cannot often be well verified, this explains the often mixed results especially with BioSpira (FritzZyme ships directly, so this may be the better choice of these two products).
It should also be noted that many freshwater products generally cannot be used in saltwater or vice versa.

Liquid Cycle and Stress-Zyme are just preserved bacteria (mostly Heterotrophs) that are more useful for over feeding or other bio over loads in an established aquarium (as aerobic bacteria needed for nitrification do not store well in liquid form at room temperature without oxygen).
Honestly in my tests Cycle or Stress Zyme are really only useful to aid in breakdown of excess wastes from over feeding, poor filtration, etc. (Cycle can also be used as an aid to organic breakdown while waiting for your aquarium Nitrogen Cycle to get started from other means when fish are present). The Heterotrophic Bacteria within these products can aid in the decomposing of excess organic waste however they are basically useless for actually seeding an aquarium and this is a FACT.
Tetra Safe Start is another newer product, that makes many claims, but without any real proof to date (as well previous experience with most of their products over the last 3 decades leaves me with little trust of any product with a Tetra Label). That said, I know a few persons I trust that have used this product (I have not) with poor to fair results (better results than Cycle or StressZyme). These tests were not controlled though, so these are more of an observation.

Another product on the market by a VERY reputable company; SeaChem, is “Stability”.
SeaChem claims this to be a synergistic blend of aerobic (including encapsulated oxygen Autotrophs), anaerobic, and facultative bacteria.
What SeaChem provides is an autotrophic nitrifying bacteria that would normally shut down and become dormant until oxygen and ammonia/nitrite again become available that normally takes considerable time to revive (they can last for years in this state), that revive relatively quickly
In the meantime the quick acting faculative bacteria temporarily act as the agents of nitrification, however facultative bacteria are NOT the primary bacteria of nitrification and are mostly Heterotrophs of which I discussed the differences earlier in the article, so use of this product for cycling is helpful, it should not be used as a crutch for adding fish too quickly.
The result is that SeaChem Stability is the closest bottled/non refrigerated product to date that I have found to be a reliably useful product

One major positive of this product over other products such as Stress Zyme or Microbe-Lift that also employ Heterotrophs is that its synergistic blend does not "dump" these into the aquarium/pond thus taking over any true nitrifying Autotrophs that may be present, thus it allows for establishment of your bio filter while it also takes care of immediate and slowly released nitrogenous wastes ('Microbe-Lift Nite Out' is similar to Stability as it is primarily 'aerobic encapsulated oxygen' Autotrophs).

My recommendation as it pertains to Stability is to use it as an aid in cycling of new aquariums or (better) as a boost when the bio load of an aquarium suddenly “jumps’ for whatever reason. If any non-refrigerated cycling product is to be used in an aquarium, Stability would be the one I would recommend, especially for an aquarium that already has fish and is encountering cycling problems (whether an established aquarium that had a spike in bio load for whatever reason or a new tank that had a set back for whatever reason).
More bluntly, Stability (along with Microbe-Lift Nite Out) are the best non-refrigerated aquarium/pond cycling products available, and even based on use of Bio Spira, I would suggest Stability over it as well.

[DerekFF]

Ive used tetra safe start, api quick start, and bio spira all with great effects on cycling. Those 3 are all personally used and did a great job. Combine that with water changes and prime and your tank is pretty safe. Shelf lives of them are around 2 years. Microbe lift does make some great pond products, just never used them outside of my pond

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[Orange Crush]

Over the years I have used Stability, Microbe-Lift Special Blend, Microbe-Lift Bacterial Aquarium Balancer, Mardel's Biozyme and API Stress Zyme. The only ones I have been impressed with is the Bacterial Aquarium Balancer and Stability.

However, I have read that using these products do help with the "New tank Syndrome" but they do not allow a tank to truely cycle and that it can result in future mini-cycles especially if you continue to use the products. I have had tanks go through minicycles but it is impossible to say that it is a result of having used these products.
I still think fishless cycles is the way to go, then you never have to worry about sick/dead fish because they are going through the N cycle.

[shoveltrash]

Rachel - what a great post! good info there