davemonkey

Sorry to hear about the muck!

I don't see how the Koralia could be stirring up the soil in a tank that's as densly planted as yours, unless it was sitting close to the substrate and sucking up residue that way. Of coarse, I don't have one so my opinion is ill-educated.

I don't have any advice to offer, just my condolence.

-DaveMonkey

 

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doubleott05

here i come to the rescue

i doubt the fish are the culprit

heres my recommendation to you i had the same problem after i redid my first tank
with the ada soil actually

this is gonna sound crazy
dust off the plants
get your vaccume and suck all the junk off the bottom and leaves best you can
remove anything dying even if you think you can revive it better safe than sorry

then commense regular everyday waterchange with vaccuming (EVERYDAY)
dose excel to compensate for massive co2 loss
add a bit of PRIME and BIOLOGICLE STARTER what ever brand you use
after every water change

definitly clean the filter all of this action will cause it to fill quickly
rinse the sponge in the vaccumed aquaruim water dont wanna loose your bacteria

now once this is done get some stuff to clear the water (clear super ada)works well
or other brands i know seachem has clairty or something like that
add this to the tank afer every water change use the instructons on the bottle
this will make the waste particles coagulate or clump so that they either settle on the bottom
or get caught by the filter (hense the cleaning the filter part)

in 3days to a week you should see a signifigant difference
these are the steps that i followed and my tank was good to go in 9days it was my old 58 gallon

good luck

Tex Gal

Thanks doubleott05 - a few ???
Paragraph 1 - I've been doing this except for tying to save a few precious plants (though not everyday)

Paragraph 2 - How much water? I have been changing at least 40%. Did you dose the recommended amount of excel for a water change? Also what brand of bilogical starter did you use. My tank is not a new tank it has been set up for years. When I changed to substrate out my old filter media and mulm were used. All hardscape pieces were wrapped with plastic and not allowed to dry out, saving the bacteria on them. Same with plants. Tank was refilled as quickly as possible (50% old water) and all plumbing was not changed, tubing and all had old crud , bacteria there... Only lost 1 fish at change over. After about a month, I did add some bio started but it must have been bad because I had many fish deaths. I thought maybe I needed more bacteria to counter act the crud thinking it was a mix of diatoms. There was no ammonia, all levels were find that I could test for except dropping pH which is normal. Dissolved solids remained consistent. It happened right after the addition of the bio starter. I'm afraid of that stuff now. Also since I have a UV that will kill it all anyway, won't it?

Paragraph 3 - no problems here. When I get the diatom filter back up it will work it's magic quickly.

Paragraph 4 - I do have some clarity. They say not to use more than once a week. I have read that folks here say it will hurt the gills of your fish. You used it everyday?

Paragraph 5 - How long did you have this problem? I keep thinking, "Where is it all coming from?" The water will look mostly clear but if you touch a plant it's like shaking a filthy rug. I always suck around all the plants. It's such a mess. How is it all getting back into the water column? Are you thinking I just never have been able to get it all out and it just stirs and resettles?... a vicious cycle?

doubleott05

i think the reason your fish are dying is from the massive water changes it throws them into shock and kills them
thats y i did 20% everyday (all my advice is off of previous events keep in mind)
i use seachem brand biological starter and seachem clarity
ya i knwo what you mean about the filthy rug
this will be no easy task as you may have already experienced
the key for me was small amounts every day consistantly
dont feed the fish unless you have too that just adds to the mess
or feed in every small amounts
there is enough waste in there they can feed off that for a bit im sure
as far as excel dosing you can use 150% of the recommended amount if you want
i think if you do this every day in smaller amounts youll def see a difference
i know its so frustrating but youll get it im sure
just shake the plants every day and do you water changes 20%
and add abit of clairty excel and maybe a little biological(if your comfy with it)
and you should be good to go in no time

o ya and that UV thing might be part of it
its killing not only bad bacteria but good as well keep that in mind
but i dont see any harm in it

i had that prob for about 2 months
then i started my little program and it was 10x better in about 9 days or so
i tried everything but this worked
yes an i had a few deaths before the program too
but when i went to smaller changes more consistantly everything stabalized
and my fishies were happier i bet i had at least 65 tetras in there

message me if you got questions

cs_gardener

I had a slightly different problem, I use a soil under-layer and stirred it up in my 33 gallon tank by moving a large Nuphar japonica with a truly massive root system. My tank looked like a mud puddle. I ended up doing 30-50% WC's daily with careful vacuuming for about 2 weeks before I noticed a real drop in the amount of sediment on the plant leaves. I always tried to vacuum as much gunk as I could off of leaves, hardscape and the surface of the substrate before stirring it up and doing a general WC. I can't even count the number of times I cleaned the filter and changed the mechanical filter media. It was a few weeks longer before the tank looked really clean, but I'd slacked off on the WC's and obsessive vacuuming to a 20-30% WC every couple/few days since I could see my plants and fish and they were looking pretty good. I imagine in a tank that is so much larger you'd have a much larger amount of gunk to try and clear out and that gunk is just so miserably resistant to being cleaned it's infuriating.

DonaldmBoyer

I think that one or two Magnum 350's with micro-polishers ought to clear it up quickly. Hey, you have already dropped major $$, what is another $150-300? Plus, you can re-use them.....it is the easiest way to get clear water that I have ever used, and that has included the massive, frequent water changes!

Tex Gal

Thanks, you all.

doubleott05 - just wanted to let you know that I had the fish die off with the nutrifying bacteria additive. I think I had a bad batch. My fish love the water changes. They play like crazy. No one goes into shock. I've always done about 40-50% w/c. The nutrifying bacteria, once established lives on the surfaces of things not really in the water column so the only thing what would be affected by the UV is any that I would add to the water column.

Catherine - I guess I just need to do more frequent water changes. I guess I haven't been vigilant enough for long enough. I was watching the tank tonight and the loaches came out and somebody in there spooked themselves and you should have seen the dust cloud! I feel like the soil is just dust. Yet when I plant in it with tweezers (just planted UG) I don't get the dust clouds. Even with 2 fingers I don't get it. They must really go down into the soild.

Don - been missing you!!! I talked to my Vortex XL people today and they said the Magnum filters are very similar and made for the same purpose. They swear to me that when I get the leaks fixed (they are sending me the parts free) that it will "polish" my water. Don't I love the sound of that!!!! BTW are you talking about the HOT Magnum 350's?

erijnal

Time to get SeaChem Purigen.

Thing did wonders for my tank with AS at startup. Might work for you as well. Just have to be careful when you remove it from your filtration because it has nitrate/nitrite removing properties. Taking it out sometimes will lead to a nitrite spike.

Tex Gal

THE DECISION! I recently gave my big apon away. As I was in the back of my tank I realized that my substrate which had been 3-4" was now 1.5"-2" max. It's official - I have been filtering out my substrate one dust storm at a time. It's just one big miry sludge in there.

I have decided that it has to be that the new Amazonia II just isn't holding up. I'm gonna change out my substrate again for the original Amazonia. It is a tried and true substrate that has been on the market for more than 10 years. I'm going to have to be vigilant with my w/c (which I've had much practice at). I'm sure I'll experience a new tank cycle again. I do have plenty of plants to replant. While I don't look forward to the work of changing everything all over again at least I will be done with the muck and sludge.

Just goes to show you that perhaps first generation products should be avoided!

MatPat

Maybe you should contact the vendor and see if they will refund/replace your Amazonia II? Carib Sea has stepped up and replaced their bad batches of Eco Complete, maybe you just got a bad batch and ADA will step up and do the same as Carib Sea

 

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