Rena carbon options

Question
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Followup To
Question -

Chris -

After another 30% water change yesterday, I stopped by the local pet store to have them test my water as well ... just in case my test media have been compromised (not sure why that would happen, but I thought a second opinion would be a good thing).  Perhaps I can get your opinion on what they said ...

First they suggested that the massive fish kill(s) that we have experienced over the past few months may be contributing to our ammonia problem - you may recall that our community tank once held nearly 70 fish.  I'm skeptical about this, as we have been pretty good about getting dead fish out of the tank quickly, and it has been nearly a month since our last dead fish.  I have noticed that when I dig into the gravel with the python in an area that I don't suction frequently, I continue to get a lot of what appear to be scales and other crud (the easily-accessed areas are completely crud-free at this point).  We haven't gone through a dead-fish-hunt, taking out all the plants and moving the furniture to see if we missed one - if we have a decaying fish under a rock somewhere, I would think that the ammonia impact would have taken a week or less, and that our frequent water changes since then would have removed/diluted that ammonia by now.  What do you think?

Second, they suggested that the fact that our ammonia continues to be high is indicative that although we have a lot of bacterial activity (as indicated by the elevated nitrites), we are likely missing the beneficial bacteria.  The recommendation was to use a Seachem product - Stability.  They concurred with you about avoiding products like AmQuel, saying that they don't really work that well anyway.  Do you have experience with Stability?  I'm using Cycle now, but apparently the Stability claims to be able to add the beneficial bacteria and handle the resulting nitrates.  If I don't use something to suppress the ammonia chemically, what should I do when I get an ammonia spike?  Anything other than water changes?

At this point in my "young" fishkeeping experience, I'm jaded enough that I take all advice with a hefty grain of salt ... but I trust you.  I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Regarding your singing experience, sounds like Christmas was a blast.  Congrats!  

Sincerely -
Ken.


Chris -

My ammonia is spiking (4 ppm, up from 1 ppm two days ago) and I have absolutely no reason for it.  As earlier, the nitrites are spiking as well.  On with the water changes ... I'm starting to think that I use less water in my daily showers that on the tank (just kidding).  

In my Dr. Foster's catalog, I noticed that Black Diamond makes a couple types of carbon.  The black, activated carbon, which we use regularly in our Rena canister, and a white carbon, called an ammonia neutralizer.  They also make a product that combines the two.  Are you familiar with these?  Any opinion on them that you are comfortable sharing?

I noticed that the weather is supposed to start clearing up soon in CA ... I hope your area is included.  On a personal note, my church choir will be in LA at the end of the month to sing for the American Choral Directors Association convention.  We're one of 5 liturgical choirs invited, so it's quite an honor for us.  If you hear about this event, you can tell people you know someone singing.  :)

Thanks as always for your advice - Ken.
Answer -
Hi Ken;

I can relate to the massive water changes. My 55 gallon had a horrible time when I set it up 3 years ago. Mostly due to my own mistake of being lazy and not throwing away the transport water when I added new fish. It had already gone through it's initial break-in, but when I pumped so much ammonia into the system the nitrites went off the chart for two weeks. Yikes! It wasn't pretty. The fish survived but I'm surprised. <:-/

Black Diamond is excellent stuff! I would use the ammonia neutralizer. Don't remove all of the old filter media to put the new ammo stuff in. Every part of the filter media you remove takes the beneficial bacteria with it. Replace only half of the carbon and don't even disturb the foam or pads or whatever else is used in there. Get the carbon changed and reconnected quickly so that the bacteria on the media (pads, carbon or whatever) doesn't die. Slowly cut back on water changes unless the fish show signs of stress. What might help too is to not feed the fish at all for 3 days. With ammonia that high they probably aren't very hungry anyway. This will give the system a bit of a break and hopefully the ammonia will start going down on it's own.

The weather was sunny yesterday and it didn't rain for the first time in over 2 weeks! The trade off was that the temperatures are in the upper 20's at night. Brrr! Now it's just high cloudiness and supposed to rain Saturday. Been a nice break.

Congratulations on the choir! I haven't heard of anyone from up here going to it, but I do know people who live in or go to school in the LA area. Our church only has a choir during Christmas. My hubby, my 17 year old son and I were all singing this year. It was so much fun! We backed up the children's choir part of the time and then had 3 songs on our own. It was a terrific little Christmas program with a few little dramatic skits and solos too. (Not me!...no way! I just sing with the choir!)

Let me know when that tank finally cycles and I will open a bottle of sparkling cider here in "sunny" California to celebrate!!! Lol!

More Followups welcome.......(really! As many as you want!)

God Bless You;
Chris Robbins  

Answer
Hi Ken;

Thanks ;-)

Most of the bacteria additive products are totally useless I'm afraid. I haven't used 'Stability' specifically, but have tried "Cycle" and "Stress Zyme" and others with absolutely no effect whatsoever. The only two that I know for sure work are "Fritzyme" (I've used it) and "BioSpira" (my fish expert friends use it). BioSpira is not available right now because they couldn't keep up with the demand. I heard they will go back on the market next month. It wouldn't hurt to try the Stability. It may be like the 2 I've used.

What I would do also is move the rocks and other decorations to clean areas of the gravel and vacuum the area that was under them. It is possible that there is enough yucky crud under them to keep it from balancing. Water changes are the only safe and effective way to remove ammonia. Get rid of the actual source and you won't have to do that anymore either. That's what makes me think something is still decaying in there. Fish waste and excess food can collect under decorations and just stay there for months, putting off toxic gasses and ammonia as they decay. Yuck!

Keep me posted on the progress!

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins