Brackish Bio conversion

[f8fan]

I did something REALLY stupid, read here: http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/fre...my-worst-fishkeeping-nightmare-come-true.html
In a nutshell I cleaned some ornaments with Dawn dishwashing liquid, this killed one of my puffers and the other two are still looking pretty sick. I emptied out my 25 gallon - traded a lot of my FW fish - and have converted the 55 gallon to brackish.

So - I have my remaining two puffers in my 55 gallon tank. I have added salt (premixed of course) and the salinity is at 1.005 currently. I plan on upping this gradually to about 1.008.

I did some readings tonight and I was shocked to see that I had 1 PPM Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, and 40 PPM Nitrate. I did a 50% W/C, and now my readings are .5 Ammonia, still 0 Nitrite and 20 PPM Nitrate.

When I put the puffers in the new 55 gallon I transferred their biowheel as well as the filter cartridge from their old tank - to their new tank. However - I think the soap killed the bacteria .

I am treating them with Melafix and will purchase some SW Biospira tomorrow. My question is, is this even necessary? Or will the ammonia spike clear itself up. I am just really confused having ammonia and NiTRaTES at the same time. Will daily water changes be enough?

My puffers aren't looking too good. Here's a little video of them. The poor things, I feel horrible.

 

[Fuzz16]

do you have any live plants...that might help but im not sure.
like when people get sick, you filter it with drinking a lot of water.
im blonde when it comes to puffers

 

[Limi310]

I would think that some of your bacteria survived and you are probably having a mini-cycle. I would probably add some Prime. It kind of neutralizes the ammonia, but still allows it to be used by the bio-filter so it won't interupt things getting back to normal.
At a SG of 1.005, I'm not really sure if you would be better off with FW or SW bio-spira...although it may not be necessary. I would get it if you notice the ammonia getting higher.
Sorry, I probably didn't help much. I hope your puffs are ok, how are they today? I can't watch the video since I'm here at work.

 

[f8fan]

See, that's what confuses me. The 55 gallon is completely cycled - been running for a year and a half as a FW tank. And it had not only biowheels, but TWO cartridges plus TWO additional cartridges with floss inside them. There's plenty of bacteria in there. All I did was piggy back the Brackish filter media to one of the freshwater cartridges with elastic bands. So - even if the brackish bacteria had died from the soap, wouldn't the FW bacteria keep the ammonia obliterated??
I also rigged up the biowheel from the 25 gallon to the 55 gallon's filter. A lot of cakey debris has fallen off it and as gross as it may sound, I took that sludgy stuff and smeared it onto the FW biowheel in the hopes of jump starting some colonies.
I didnt take any readings this morning but I will tonight. I left about 2 inches empty in the tank so there will be plenty of aeration from the filter splashing into the tank as well as the airstone running.
I don't want to take any chances sine I have three new puffers being delivered tomorrow from FishGeek so I'm gonna take a shot at adding some SW Biospira (if the LFS even carries it I know they carry the FW version, but, hey, this is Maine )

 

[Limi310]

Possible that the FW bacteria was shocked from the sudden jump in salinity, even though it's 1.005. The recommended 'upage' is 1.002 at a time over the course of 2 weeks or so. That in addition to the soap may have thrown it off.
I would get the Bio-Spira - I forgot about the 3 new puffs. Get the Prime too.

 

[f8fan]

Well whaddyah know...I just called and indeed they do stock SW Biospira.

I know I sound like a rookie here, but I gotta ask cos I have never used biospira before:
~ How much should I purchase for a 55 gallon tank? They sell it in one ounce portions (which treats 30 gallons - SALTWATER) Where this isn't really a full-fledged SW tank, should I just do one packet? I don't want to overdose it with bacteria that isn't correct for the conditions. It's only got a little salt compared to the large amount of salt a true saltwater tank requires.
~ Do I do a large water change beforehand?
~ Do I just pour it into my tank, or should I drizzle it over my filter media?
~ Should I wait until tomorrow to do this (FishGeek's puffers will be delivered tomorrow) so it can have the true bioload it needs to support in the future? Right now there are only two puffers in there - tomorrow there will be five. Will one night make a difference?

 

[FroggyFox]

Sorry to hear about your other puffers I know the feeling I lost a firefish and two pink skunk clownfish and the only thing I can think of is that I used something I shouldn't have in their tank because all the parameters were good etc

I think I'd treat it just like FW + biospira, do a nice big water change so the lowest amount of ammonia etc is in there, add the biospira and then add the fish straight after. I'd probably pour the biospira over the filter, but I dont know that it matters, it should all make it into the water just fine and all of the water goes through the filter so....yeah.

As for dosage on the biospira...I dont think that the difference between SW and FW is going to change how much to treat how many gallons...you still have 55 gallons of water whether its salt or fresh or brackish. You can't OVER dose the tank...so I wouldn't worry about putting two packages in if you wanted, I would think that one package would probably be ok since you do have some bacteria already in there *keeping fingers crossed*.

I think the fact that you had so many nitrates that quickly *unless they were built up??* means that this little cycle is progressing quickly...just because towards the end of a fishless cycle your nitrates really build up in a hurry.

anywho...thats my two cents. Good luck and let us know how it goes ok?

 

[f8fan]

Well, I bought the 1 oz. SW biospira.

Did another 50% water change on the tank. Filled it back up. I'm thinking the salinity is gonna be about 1.006 as I went heavier on the salt.

Added the Melafix. Waited about 10 minutes and added the biospira to the filter. The puffers look happier already, they are actually exploring instead of being lethargic. They both ate some bloodworms, so, so far so good! The worse-off one with the cloudy eyes actually has one eye almost cleared up, so he can "see" his food now. He ate a few bloodworms.

I'm all ready for the new puffers, I think. Wish me luck! I ordered a couple orange chromides from the LFS, too. I'm gonna do tests in the morning after everything has settled down.