aaron11 Posted July 7, 2012 Report Share Posted July 7, 2012 Hello fellow fishers Been sick on and off so not much tank maintence so doing a good half water change When I clean my gravel and there is white cloud like it came out in a puff is that just fish waste OR ammonia???/ One of my other tanks went all cloudly so I half cleaned it one cat fish died but it was old the angel survived ok And no test kitt yet working on that though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron11 Posted July 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2012 Hello fellow fishers Been sick on and off so not much tank maintence so doing a good half water change When I clean my gravel and there is white cloud like it came out in a puff is that just fish waste OR ammonia???/ One of my other tanks went all cloudly so I half cleaned it one cat fish died but it was old the angel survived ok And no test kitt yet working on that though What stuff was in a hard to reach place btw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamstar99 Posted July 7, 2012 Report Share Posted July 7, 2012 What sort of gravel do you have? Could it just be fine sand, silt. Its not ammonia- you cant see that. Fish waste is the colour of your fish food. Dont stir your gravel up so much. Do you have a gravel cleaner? Just work your way around the tank plunging it into the gravel and giving it a little wiggle ull see the waste free up and get siphoned out. Fully cleaning your gravel (thus giving your good bacteria a hard time) could have killed your cat fish with the subsequent ammonia spike as you have upset the balance in your tank by killing your bacteria. A test kit would help monitor ammonia, nitrites after you have given it a good clean. A nitrate test would be handy if you dont feel like cleaning your tank but want to check if you have too much waste in there. Easiest way is to stay on top of the maintenance, depending on your bio load, every 2-3 weeksish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron11 Posted July 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2012 What sort of gravel do you have? Could it just be fine sand, silt. Its not ammonia- you cant see that. Fish waste is the colour of your fish food. Dont stir your gravel up so much. Do you have a gravel cleaner? Just work your way around the tank plunging it into the gravel and giving it a little wiggle ull see the waste free up and get siphoned out. Fully cleaning your gravel (thus giving your good bacteria a hard time) could have killed your cat fish with the subsequent ammonia spike as you have upset the balance in your tank by killing your bacteria. A test kit would help monitor ammonia, nitrites after you have given it a good clean. A nitrate test would be handy if you dont feel like cleaning your tank but want to check if you have too much waste in there. Easiest way is to stay on top of the maintenance, depending on your bio load, every 2-3 weeksish. I think the cat fish may have died of natural causes as it was old and ive lost a few from other tanks they are about 7 yrs old Test kitt coming going to layby one and the white stuff in the gravel was in my 3 foot breeding guppy tank.. under the ram that is hard to get it next time i wont mix the gravel up so much I will mark on my calender when to do my tanks.. Had the flu so let them go a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted July 8, 2012 Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 What sort of gravel do you have? Could it just be fine sand, silt. Its not ammonia- you cant see that. Fish waste is the colour of your fish food. Dont stir your gravel up so much. Do you have a gravel cleaner? Just work your way around the tank plunging it into the gravel and giving it a little wiggle ull see the waste free up and get siphoned out. Fully cleaning your gravel (thus giving your good bacteria a hard time) could have killed your cat fish with the subsequent ammonia spike as you have upset the balance in your tank by killing your bacteria. A test kit would help monitor ammonia, nitrites after you have given it a good clean. A nitrate test would be handy if you dont feel like cleaning your tank but want to check if you have too much waste in there. Easiest way is to stay on top of the maintenance, depending on your bio load, every 2-3 weeksish. I've always beleived that syphoning the gravel does not affect the bacteria much, running 60+ undergravel filters and never had an ammonia spike even when the tank is at full capacity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamstar99 Posted July 8, 2012 Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 I've always beleived that syphoning the gravel does not affect the bacteria much, running 60+ undergravel filters and never had an ammonia spike even when the tank is at full capacity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron11 Posted July 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 I've always beleived that syphoning the gravel does not affect the bacteria much, running 60+ undergravel filters and never had an ammonia spike even when the tank is at full capacity Yeah i agree. Just not sure what Aaron meant by fully cleaning. Syphoning would be better than say taking it out and cleaning it. You tend to have too much crap floating around if you stir it up heaps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketman Posted July 8, 2012 Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 I used to purposefully stir up the crap and siphon to ~40%... Works alright if you are consistent in your W/C's, the rest of the crapola goes over my overflow with filter wool then to the canister. I had a powerhead that used to keep it stirred up too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 8, 2012 Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 Sometimes you can have a "dead area" in the gravel. When you siphon, great bubbles of smelly gas erupt and these may cause harm to the fish but 'white stuff'? Are you using PH Up or Down? They can make funny fluff-like stuff appear on the gravel. I always stir up the gravel as much as possible when I siphon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron11 Posted July 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 Sometimes you can have a "dead area" in the gravel. When you siphon, great bubbles of smelly gas erupt and these may cause harm to the fish but 'white stuff'? Are you using PH Up or Down? They can make funny fluff-like stuff appear on the gravel. I always stir up the gravel as much as possible when I siphon. Hi thanks nothing just water !!!! was in a spot that was hard to gravel it was like cloudy smoke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted July 8, 2012 Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 could just be the left overs from a bacteria banquet. have had a similar experience when I over fed the day after using a sludge destroyer bacterial mix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron11 Posted July 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 could just be the left overs from a bacteria banquet. have had a similar experience when I over fed the day after using a sludge destroyer bacterial mix Year thats what I thought too... I will keep up the tank maintence!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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