[Netmancer]

Well, I'm PO'ed. My 30 gallon tank had been up for months and the cloudiness would not go away for anything. I think when I fist got it I was a little cocky and overstocked it, so the initial waste in there was insane. The ammonia went to 0, so that was good, but the cloudiness never went away. I found a place out here that sells both nitrate and nitrite kits. I was going to pick up a nitrite one so I could see what was going on, but I accidentally grabbed a nitrate kit instead and wasted $15 and a trip 40 miles away. So I tested my nitrate and it was WAYYYYY too high. I'd done weekly water changed up until I was told not to anymore so that the cloudiness would go away. Still didn't go away and I wanted to get rid of the nitrate, so I washed the tank, gravel, etc. Only thing I kept unwashed was the carbon in my undergravel filter and the bio-wheel on the Penguin filter on it. Hopefully the tank will completely cycle now since I started with cultured carbon and a cultured bio-wheel. The fish do seem a lot happier now than ever before though.

 

[Innes]

Good idea, I would have suggested that you empty and start again also, lets hope it works this time.

 

[Netmancer]

Yeah, I took all the water out and all the gravel out, got butt-naked

, hoped in the shower with my tank and scrubbed it and the gravel pretty good. So everything in there is pretty fresh. I did notice that there was some waste still left in the gravel, but nothing huge, just like little chunks, but those settled and got sucked up in the power filter. So hopefully all the factors combined will start the cycling quick.

 

[Innes]

you took a shower with your fish tank?

 

[Netmancer]

Yes, it was very romantic.

 

[Innes]

:laugh:

 

[baby_dragon]

that's never really happened to me.. do o fish dig up your gravel?

 

[Netmancer]

Nope, haven't seen them ever dig it up, but I do keep an oscar in there, so he might've been digging around since oscars do that sometimes.

 

[RhomZilla]

you took a shower with your fish tank?

Yes, it was very romantic.

ROFLMAO!!!:laugh: :biggrin:

 

[mdemers883]

UGF's are notorius for trapping waste and causing poor water parameters. Next time you have a bad nitrate problem just do a bunch of water changes to bring it down, cause washing the gravel and such with non treated water it kills the bacteria. The way it works in an established tank is ammonia is produced by the fish. Bacteria converts it to nitrites, then the nitrites are converted to nitrates. Nothing eats the nitrates so you do a water change. I tried to explain it as simple as possible. If you already knew that then I'm sorry if I insulted your intelligence. Good luck with the tank bro.

Mark