Confused about co2

u should really remove everything in your tank if your going to change the ground cover/substrate. I would recommend it, to stir everything up like that will possibly kill all your fish, it happened to my gf when she tried adding flourite without removing the fish/water.
 
Ok. I think that I got it now :) I think that I am going to have to go with Flourite because I can't find Eco Complete around here. Do I need to put gravel on top of the Flourite or will that just stay put all on it's own? And I think that I might be selling some left over things from my garage sale today, so I might be able to afford a canister filter.

I will remove my fish to put the flourite in. Will that have to re-cycle?
 
Alicia said:
Ok. I think that I got it now :) I think that I am going to have to go with Flourite because I can't find Eco Complete around here. Do I need to put gravel on top of the Flourite or will that just stay put all on it's own? And I think that I might be selling some left over things from my garage sale today, so I might be able to afford a canister filter.

I will remove my fish to put the flourite in. Will that have to re-cycle?
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Flourite should be all you would need BUT you could keep a small amount of mulm on the bottom then dump the flourite over it. This will help as there will be BB in the mulm.

You will most likely encounter a "minicycle" if you have a bucket or something to put the fish in for a few day's that would be optimal.
When I changed mine out a few years back I did just that. A 5gallon bucket, small filter with seeded media and a small heater is all you should need.
I covered my bucket and kept the fish in the dark to help with stress.

Check water parameters in both bucket and tank to make sure ammo levels are in check.
 
What is mulm and BB (assuming beneficial bacteria)?
I can keep my 2 quarter size Angels in a 5 gallon aquarium that I have for a couple of days while I wait to see if it cycles again.
 
Mulm is what collects under the gravel. Just save a small amount of your old gravel and spread it around the bottom of the tank not too close to the front of the glass then dump the flourite. The 5 gallon should be fine just check parameters frequently.
 
No need to worry about moving my fish. My Angles died last night. Now I am just going to get my plants growing right and then I will buy more fish. Also, one more thing, how do you get air into the tank if you don't have a hob filter and your plants aren't growing that great yet? Will the canister filter still supply air for the fish?
 
Sorry to hear your Angels didn't make it.
As long as there is surface movement, there will be O2 exchange. The problem with HOBs are that many of them splash down into the water creating too much agitation (out-gassing CO2). If the water level is high enough, it isn't as much of a problem. My HOBs barely make a ripple.
Personally, I've never seen tanks have O2 issues unless they are overstocked, filthy and/or are too warm.
 
Alicia said:
No need to worry about moving my fish. My Angles died last night. Now I am just going to get my plants growing right and then I will buy more fish. Also, one more thing, how do you get air into the tank if you don't have a hob filter and your plants aren't growing that great yet? Will the canister filter still supply air for the fish?
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It really isn't the filters that supply air to the fish. Oxygen is exchanged through the surface of the water and you really should not have any issue with this unless you put way too much CO2 in the water or your tank is sealed off really good from the outside air. I have yet to have fish gasping for air and I do not run an airstone in my 75. An airstone is the way to get additional oxygen into the water, but it bleeds off CO2 because it agitates the surface.

Seriously, if you do not overstock your tank, you will have no issues with O2 as long as you do not have the CO2 cranked up to an insane level.

How did both of your angels end up dying?
 
fabsroman said:
How did both of your angels end up dying?
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I killed them. My tank got really cloudy for some reason, so I took some water out of the tank and put it in the 5 gallon along with the fish and did a massive water change along with stirring up my gravel. I found out that my gravel wasn't really that clean... there was decaying food and icky stuff in it, and that was why my water was cloudy (eventhough I was doing 15% water changes daily) So, I filled my tank back up and let the water get back up to temp and put the fish back in it and a half an hour later they died.
After thought I was telling myself I stupid I was for doing that and that I should have remembered from years ago that you don't do things like that... but I did it anyways.
So now I am just going to get my plants going and then I am going to get more fish. I think that it would be best to work on one thing at a time.
 
Alicia said:
I killed them. My tank got really cloudy for some reason, so I took some water out of the tank and put it in the 5 gallon along with the fish and did a massive water change along with stirring up my gravel. I found out that my gravel wasn't really that clean... there was decaying food and icky stuff in it, and that was why my water was cloudy (eventhough I was doing 15% water changes daily) So, I filled my tank back up and let the water get back up to temp and put the fish back in it and a half an hour later they died.
After thought I was telling myself I stupid I was for doing that and that I should have remembered from years ago that you don't do things like that... but I did it anyways.
So now I am just going to get my plants going and then I am going to get more fish. I think that it would be best to work on one thing at a time.
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That sucks. Do gravel vacs more often and change more of the water. If you have a heavily planted tank, you will not have to worry too much about ammonia or nitrate because the plants will consume this. I use a heavily planted 55 as a sump/refuge for my 75. I hardly have any nitrate in that tank even after a month or more between water changes. I change my water to reduce the TDS in the tank and to do gravel vacs to get rid of the junk on the bottom.

Sorry to hear about your angels.
 
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