Ok so here is my dilemma. I have a very well planted 12gal tank that has been running along beautifully for a couple years. I upgraded my lighting to an ecoxotic Panorama Pro 12K and things looked awesome plants were bubbling and everything (since changed it to an 8K). I noticed a slight greening to my water (not sure time frame from adding lights) didn't thing much of it but then in what seems like a day I had pea soup. Talked the the shop I go to and they recommended turning on the lights only in the morning to feed the fish then shut them off and wrap the tank in a blanket or something to block the light. Do this for a while and for a while and the bloom should just disappear one day. After about a month and a half of this with only a little improvement I stopped wrapping the tank. This weekend at about the 2 month mark and two days ago I decided to do a 50% water change and change out the small filter I was using just to circulate the water for the most part. I added the Zoo Med Nano 501 canister filter. I didn't really think changing the filter would have much affect on the tank since it is so well established and planted. I also left in the charcoal bag since I was adding back in some wood pieces that I'd had in the tank perviously. I'd removed them before because I never had the clean clear tank it was always tea colored. I did boil them repeatedly making sure there was nothing in them that could cause a problem in my tank and to try and pull the tannins out. My thinking is that the charcoal may help keep the water clearer looking if there were any remaining tannins.
Well this morning when I turned on the light to feed them I find all my fish up on the surface sucking air and looking near death (did loose one neon). I immediately grabbed and old air pump and stone, rinsed the stone really well then dropped it in the tank. this is a pretty high volume pump and puts out a lot of air through the stone. I pulled some water and tested it to find my ammonia at 0, but my nitrites at over 5.0 ppm. By the time I finished testing the fish looked a lot better, full color and swimming around. I've read doing the 10% changes daily so I'll start that. But any ideas about where to go from here and do you see just needing the 10% changes being enough for the nitrites and what to do with the algae bloom. I intended to pull the charcoal bag later and just put white filter media in it's place hoping it would trap some of the algae bloom...
Thanks for any help!
Well this morning when I turned on the light to feed them I find all my fish up on the surface sucking air and looking near death (did loose one neon). I immediately grabbed and old air pump and stone, rinsed the stone really well then dropped it in the tank. this is a pretty high volume pump and puts out a lot of air through the stone. I pulled some water and tested it to find my ammonia at 0, but my nitrites at over 5.0 ppm. By the time I finished testing the fish looked a lot better, full color and swimming around. I've read doing the 10% changes daily so I'll start that. But any ideas about where to go from here and do you see just needing the 10% changes being enough for the nitrites and what to do with the algae bloom. I intended to pull the charcoal bag later and just put white filter media in it's place hoping it would trap some of the algae bloom...
Thanks for any help!