Hi everybody, as you can see my name is Dan 
Anyways, I have a 3 week old 29 gallon tank with the Whisper 30 Filtration system. Water temp is 79 degrees and PH is 7.0. Nitrite and Nitrates are all 0. Ammonia is 0.
Upon initial setup, I gave the water 48 hours before adding fish. I used a chloramine remover. I added 2 Bala Sharks and I forget the name of the other fish, but they were about a Half Dollar size and they were translucent. My local shop told me all 4 fish were very hardy and would most likely survive the initial cycle.
About a week into having my fish, the original bio bag became caked in dust (I had a rather huge dust issue initially, but that is all settled now).
I checked the Ammonia/ph/nitrites/nitrates daily and everything read 0. Being new to this, I took out the bio bag and washed it with spring water. I put it back into the filter and a whitish powder was emitted into the tank and clouded the water just a very small amount. The same night the bio bag was clogging again (with nothing I could actually see) and making a ton of noise as the water dripped back through the wonder tube. The current at the top of the water never seemed to slow down. The local shop told me it would be okay to add 2 new fish, I picked these yellow Gourami (I think that's what they are..)
I made the huge mistake of changing the bio bag for a new one. This solved all the dripping and noise issues.
About 8 days in (the very next day after changing the bio bag), the ammonia jumped to 1.0ppm. Being new to aquariums, I only got one opinion from the local shop and promptly added 3 teaspoons full of ammolock. The fish were showing small signs of distress. The translucent fish would swim to the top and take a couple gulps every 20-30 mins. The fish became very lazy, just kind of floating around. The shop advised me to NOT do a water change & to just keep treating the water with ammo-lock. This seemed to work, but the water became cloudier & at night time the fish showed signs of distress still. The ammonia would fluctuate between .50 & 1.5 or so. I promptly purchased an Ammonia 'filter' to replace the black sponge filter.
Finally I decided it was time for a water change, I did a 25% water change and the water was nearly clear and the ammonia dropped to .25, the lowest it had been since detected. For a couple days it kept fluctuating back to 1.0ppm and I kept doing 25% water changes. The fish showed minor stress only at night. The fish had become active again! All the while this ammonia problem was occuring, the fish were fed once or twice a week.
48 hours ago, I woke up in the morning and the tank had gotten much cloudier & the Ammonia had spiked to 4.0ppm. The fish were showing signs of distress. I went back to the local shop and they gave me a bottle of 'Cycle'. They told me to take 2 capfulls and pour it into the Whisper 30, infront of the bio bag. They said this would create the bacteria that will break down the ammonia into Nitrites and told me once I detected nitrites to start doing 50% water changes until everything read 0 again and my bio-bag will have been completely cycled and these issues should be gone.
I added the 2 capfulls and the water proceeded to become extremely cloudy. 12 hours later the water was so cloudy I could not see in the tank and one Bala shark has died, both translucent fish died and now my Gourami & 1 Bala Shark are all very aggressive and territorial.
I've done a 50% water change this morning and the water was still very cloudy, but not a pure white mess like it was. I've done another 25% water change about 3 hours later and the water is still cloudy, the ammonia is still reading at 4.0ppm and like I said, all the fish are aggressive and territorial.
I know this post is long, so I will make a sort of cliff notes for it.
Initial startup, water was treated for chloramine, PH was 7.0 and water had 48 hours before adding fish.
Added 2 Bala Sharks & 2 translucent fish, ammonia/nitrite/nitrates all read zero. PH of 7.0
Bio bag became clogged, cleaned with spring water.
Local shop said it was okay to add 2 more fish. Added Gourami, ammonia/nitrite/nitrates all read zero, PH 7.0
That night bio-bag clogged again and I replaced with a new bio-bag.
Next morning Ammonia spiked, treated with ammo-lock, 2 weeks later here I am with higher ammonia after ammo-lock treatments, water changes and 'cycle' being added and after adding cycle the ammonia spiked to 4.0ppm and killed 3 fish.
What should I do?
Anyways, I have a 3 week old 29 gallon tank with the Whisper 30 Filtration system. Water temp is 79 degrees and PH is 7.0. Nitrite and Nitrates are all 0. Ammonia is 0.
Upon initial setup, I gave the water 48 hours before adding fish. I used a chloramine remover. I added 2 Bala Sharks and I forget the name of the other fish, but they were about a Half Dollar size and they were translucent. My local shop told me all 4 fish were very hardy and would most likely survive the initial cycle.
About a week into having my fish, the original bio bag became caked in dust (I had a rather huge dust issue initially, but that is all settled now).
I checked the Ammonia/ph/nitrites/nitrates daily and everything read 0. Being new to this, I took out the bio bag and washed it with spring water. I put it back into the filter and a whitish powder was emitted into the tank and clouded the water just a very small amount. The same night the bio bag was clogging again (with nothing I could actually see) and making a ton of noise as the water dripped back through the wonder tube. The current at the top of the water never seemed to slow down. The local shop told me it would be okay to add 2 new fish, I picked these yellow Gourami (I think that's what they are..)
I made the huge mistake of changing the bio bag for a new one. This solved all the dripping and noise issues.
About 8 days in (the very next day after changing the bio bag), the ammonia jumped to 1.0ppm. Being new to aquariums, I only got one opinion from the local shop and promptly added 3 teaspoons full of ammolock. The fish were showing small signs of distress. The translucent fish would swim to the top and take a couple gulps every 20-30 mins. The fish became very lazy, just kind of floating around. The shop advised me to NOT do a water change & to just keep treating the water with ammo-lock. This seemed to work, but the water became cloudier & at night time the fish showed signs of distress still. The ammonia would fluctuate between .50 & 1.5 or so. I promptly purchased an Ammonia 'filter' to replace the black sponge filter.
Finally I decided it was time for a water change, I did a 25% water change and the water was nearly clear and the ammonia dropped to .25, the lowest it had been since detected. For a couple days it kept fluctuating back to 1.0ppm and I kept doing 25% water changes. The fish showed minor stress only at night. The fish had become active again! All the while this ammonia problem was occuring, the fish were fed once or twice a week.
48 hours ago, I woke up in the morning and the tank had gotten much cloudier & the Ammonia had spiked to 4.0ppm. The fish were showing signs of distress. I went back to the local shop and they gave me a bottle of 'Cycle'. They told me to take 2 capfulls and pour it into the Whisper 30, infront of the bio bag. They said this would create the bacteria that will break down the ammonia into Nitrites and told me once I detected nitrites to start doing 50% water changes until everything read 0 again and my bio-bag will have been completely cycled and these issues should be gone.
I added the 2 capfulls and the water proceeded to become extremely cloudy. 12 hours later the water was so cloudy I could not see in the tank and one Bala shark has died, both translucent fish died and now my Gourami & 1 Bala Shark are all very aggressive and territorial.
I've done a 50% water change this morning and the water was still very cloudy, but not a pure white mess like it was. I've done another 25% water change about 3 hours later and the water is still cloudy, the ammonia is still reading at 4.0ppm and like I said, all the fish are aggressive and territorial.
I know this post is long, so I will make a sort of cliff notes for it.
Initial startup, water was treated for chloramine, PH was 7.0 and water had 48 hours before adding fish.
Added 2 Bala Sharks & 2 translucent fish, ammonia/nitrite/nitrates all read zero. PH of 7.0
Bio bag became clogged, cleaned with spring water.
Local shop said it was okay to add 2 more fish. Added Gourami, ammonia/nitrite/nitrates all read zero, PH 7.0
That night bio-bag clogged again and I replaced with a new bio-bag.
Next morning Ammonia spiked, treated with ammo-lock, 2 weeks later here I am with higher ammonia after ammo-lock treatments, water changes and 'cycle' being added and after adding cycle the ammonia spiked to 4.0ppm and killed 3 fish.
What should I do?
