Aaaarrrrggggghhhhh!

oogpister · 05-25-2008, 08:08 PM

Well SHUCKS! I thought we were on to phase 2 of setting up the aquarium, cycling. unfortunately, I now have about 2 inches of foam at the top of the tank. Is it soap? I didn't wash the tank with anything but water. I rinsed the rocks well. What to do? Do I have to scrap everything and start over? Is my bio wheel and filter unusable? I did not add anything to the tank... somebody help me salvage this disaster!!!!

drfong · 05-25-2008, 08:50 PM

was everything new. Give us some more info please

Tommy Gun · 05-25-2008, 10:26 PM

Hey oogpister - welcome to the forum!

I agree with drfong, you don't really leave us a lot of information to help you with so if you could expand a little bit, I am sure it would help out a lot. In fact, if you browse through this 'sticky' thread, you will find some questions which, if you can answer them, would be beneficial to all of us.

In the mean time, I don't think that scrapping everything you have done up until now is going to serve a whole lot of good....unless you need instant gratification but are still patient enough to wait it out again. I would also be against doing too much cleaning of your rocks, substrate, filters, etc...etc...etc... since this may also be setting you back.

If I had to guess right now, I would say that the foam could very well be soap....and if you are/have used any soap to clean things in or on your aquarium, you should stop.

This could also be nothing more than an abundance of proteins that are being allowed to accumulate because your tank is so new. In fact, I have gone through that myself a couple of times already. However, the problem resulted in relatively small amounts of foam and since I am not sure to what extent your problem has reached, I can't tell you much one way or the other.

Anyways, like drfong points out, the more information you can provide, the better FTF's members can help you out. Again, I would hold off on 'starting over' just yet until you can do a little bit more detective work.

oogpister · 05-26-2008, 07:30 AM

ok.more info. I bought this tank used from a friend. its a 29 breeder? anyway. she had gouramis in it, something happened to the fish. over 6 months later its at my house. I washed it with water and a magic eraser (no soap) to get the garage goo and stains off of it. It came with a penquin 200 power filter with a brand new bio wheel. I bought a new charcoal filter to put in. We bought new rocks and plants,etc.(silk) Then we rinsed the rocks, set up the plants and decos. added water from the tub with a bowl that had been through the dishwasher. everything looked good to begin with and today I was going to see if I ccould find some ammonia(pure) to start the cycle. I went back to look at the tank about an hour or two after we had it runnig (just the filter and bubblers, not the heater) and there was foam bubbles on top of the water. they go away when you turn off the filter, after a time. then reappear when it is running. There was no foam as we filled it (bowl by bowl)ALTHOUGH , here's where I confess.... my toddler knocked a closed bottle of hair conditioner in one of the bowls as it was being filled. I dumped that water and filled the bowl again. It didn't foam or anything. Was that incredibly stupid? We are hopefull you will help us salvage our work so far... thanks so much

drfong · 05-26-2008, 11:27 AM

Knowing all that, I would probably start over. Here's what I would do.

Drain the water and dispose of it.

Take the bio-wheel and carbon filter and throughly rinse them under the faucet. You can not over rinse them so really rinse them good.

Then rinse out the filter housing really good. Basicly rinse everything. Rinse out all the gravel. A clean collander works great. Rinse, rinse and rinse.

You can take the empty tank out and rinse it good with a hose outside. If you have a good sunny day, the sun is a great disinfectant. Rinse it very well. Let it sit in the sun.

I will say that I have a dedicated bucket I use for water changes. That way I know it does not have any soap or chemicals in it. Fill it back up with water and ad your declorinator. Turn it all on and you should be good.

It sounds like you are going to go fishless for your cycle. I just completed a fishless cycle on my 90gal community tank. It went great. Just make sure that you use ammonia that has no soap or dyes. Shake the bottle and if it foams up, don't use it. I had to go to 5 stores to find ammonia that was pure. (got it at Kroger, but all stores don't stock the same stuff so shake it up)
Also, add a little at the time and test ammonia levels. I found out the hard way that too much ammonia registers as 0 on the test. On a 29 gal tank I would say start with about 2ml. If you have the ammonia test with the little test tubes the line is probably 5 ml, so a little less than half. Add that amount, let it run for awhile then test. If the ammonia level is not up to 5-6ppm add alittle more.

Best of luck

Tommy Gun · 05-26-2008, 08:50 PM

I would do the same as Drfong suggests with the exception of rinsing the carbon filter media but only because this media works by 'soaking' certain chemicals up and when it is full, it is basically of little to no benifit to you. So, with that in mind, it is probably better to just replace it since it is so cheap (relatively speaking anyways).

orb4me · 05-31-2008, 02:22 PM

What was phase 1? Garage goo dont sound good. If I got a bowl from my cheap dishwasher, I wouldnt use it. lol. How long have you been cycling the tank? There is also a word on an Ammonia called surfactant. dont get that one either, sorta like soap or something Is the foam leaving a ring around the top? if so, that will need cleaned too. JMO as always.

Dont give up, everyone here has had problems, or none of us would be here

soap bubbles not air bubbles right? Im not sure if it matters at this time, but have you checked the water prams, and tryed a good old fashion w/c?

oogpister · 06-01-2008, 09:46 AM

Garage goo= debris that accumulates on other stuff when it sits in the garage

Will buy new filters, you are right, cheap enough. We will reset up the tank today. Found the pure ammonia (no surfactants). we had not started cycling yet. One more good rinse for everything before it goes back in the tank. I will let you know if we get bubbles (soap bubbles).

oogpister · 06-01-2008, 03:43 PM

Alright, there doesn't appear to be any SOAP bubbles, just AIR bubbles I am assuming this is normal. So to start my cycle, I want to raise the water temp., keep my filter running and add ammonia per directions of fishless cycle article. I bought some Top Fin brand Bacteria Supplement. Is this a good product to use?(It says it introduces bennificial bacteria) I can also seed my tank with an ornament from an established tank. Any thoughts on that?

fernival brainard · 06-02-2008, 12:37 AM

If you look on the back of the magic eraser package it specifically says "not recommended for aquarium use" maybe that is where the problem came from. Just my 2 cents :-)