Startling tank issues any advice

[soichiro]

Hi guys. I have owned Soichiro for 7 months now and he has always been a happy fellow. He has an Aqueon QuietFlow 10 for a water filter and a 50 watt water heater which keeps his 10 gallon tank nice and warm around 83F. Anyway i have had no issues with Soichiro until tonight. i went to feed him and i noticed the water was a little smelly. took a closer look and there are what look like cob webs floating on the rock molds and coral molds i have in there. i checked the filter which had been in there for 3 weeks and instantly replaced it. however my question is should i go further and clean out the entire tank or should i just let the filter do its job??? now i know when soichiro isnt happy. he never sits on the bottom of the tank he is always on a little lookout perch so seeing him on the bottom of the tank worries me.

please give me some feedback so I can help out my buddy

[kfish]

How often do you change the water?

[soichiro]

i have never actually changed the water. every other day i add water to the tank because it just naturally evaporates so I assumed that was an ok thing to do

[kfish]

Ahh, that's your problem, then.

The "webs" you saw were probably a bacterial bloom.

When you set up a fish tank with a filter and add livestock, the fish tank starts to "cycle." Your fish excretes ammonia through its gills and its waste. When a tank is cycling, bacteria which break down ammonia into nitrite, and nitrite into nitrate start to grow and multiply in the tank. Ammonia and nitrite are very harmful in small concentrations, while nitrate is not harmful in small concentrations and acts as a good nutrient for live plants.

You want to have enough of the bacteria to counteract the ammonia produced by your fish, in order to turn it all into nitrate. After a tank is set up for a bit, a bacterial bloom may occur.

In a cycled fish tank, you never want to replace the filter cartridge (that's where the bacteria live!). You only will have to rinse it off in old tank water that you've removed.

I recommend doing a large water change in your tank. Drain off 75% of the water, and replace it with clean, conditioned water of a similar temperature.

You can empty the water in two ways:
1. Siphon with a gravel vacuum or a bubbler tube. You'll want to vacuum up as much of the waste in the gravel as possible.

2. Stir up the nasties at the bottom of the tank and scoop the water out with a cup into a bucket.

From this point forward, until you're cycled (and even after if you wish), complete at least 2 50% changes per week. I recommend investing in API master test kit if you can afford it, in order to see how far along your tank is in cycling. A tank is cycled when ammonia is 0 ppm, nitrite is 0 ppm, and nitrate is 5-10 ppm.

After a tank is cycled, your goal is to keep nitrate in a comfortable range of 5-10 ppm with weekly 50% water changes.

[soichiro]

So let's say I replace 75% of the water. Can my betta still live in the tank or should I have him in a separate tank untill the tank has cycled?

[kfish]

He can live in the tank as long as you keep up with two or three 50% changes per week. Every tank is different, but you should be safe doing that many.

I successfully cycled my tank with my fish in there. It's a 5 gallon, and I performed two 50%-75% changes per week, depending on the parameters (I used the API master test kit). My goal was to keep ammonia below .25 ppm. You can probably find the ammonia test kit by itself for $9 at Petsmart and Petco.

So for a bigger tank like a 10 gallon, you should be fine with two or three 50% changes a week.

[kfish]

Live plants will also help you in the process. They keep water quality better.

Also, using Prime or Amquel+ as water conditioners (Prime is more cost-effective) will help, as they neutralize small concentrations of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. The biological filter will still be able to use and convert the chemicals, but your fish won't be harmed as easily.

[soichiro]

Wow I wonder why I was able to do what I was doing for so long without changing the water. I didn't notice any bacterial blooms last week and I've had this setup for 7 months. But thanks for your help I will go do that

[kfish]

Every time you've replaced the filter cartridge, you've started a new mini cycle by removing most of the beneficial bacteria. That's probably why!

[soichiro]

Well I still have the other filter should I just wash it out and put it back in or start from scratch with the new one?