Tank Crash - How to Cycle A Tank That You Disturbed The Bacteria Balance In. Re-Cycling Aquariums

Thanks Alex my brother I had a crash in my tank recently I lost everything I wanted to quit... but you inspired me to keep going I appreciate it ...

Good idea to highlight this bud. A lot of folk assume if a tank has been balanced for that period it will remain so even if making changes to fish or plant density. Plus I enjoyed it as ever. 👍

These are the tanks I do ck parameters on. When I push a planted tank hard and long, I ck it frequently. So far, have never tipped the scales so to speak. I do vacuum but not heavily, and using sand, rather than gravel, allows me to retain control longer and with less chance of going to far. I remember you asking me about one of my sanded, over stocked, planted tanks months ago. The vacuuming to keep it clean aspect. Nice lesson ALex. Thanks.

I’ve always been very careful when cleaning my tanks because I’m so scared of this. Very informative!

Thanks for taking the time for making this video. Way too much babbling though. Try to do a 3 min vid with the topic. Had a crash and a PH decrease from 7.8 to 6.4 and wanted to see if if there is a relation to high ammonia and lowered PH.

Wow, you have so many plants, especially in the last aquarium. It looks like a little forest. Very beautiful! I'm striving to have a aquarium like that one day. 😸

Very helpful. I agree that’s it’s encouraging to see it’s not just me along with useful advice.

It's hard enough to explain the cycling process to new folks, then go on to this lesson, that yes, yes you can disrupt the stable cycle and have to rebalance your tank all over again. I'm so glad you tackle these topics. 👍💕👍

Thanks for sharing this, my tank is similar with endlers and lots of fry. No sponge filter just a hob.

Just love your truth!

What time is the thumbnail taken from?

This is a tank with 2x daily water changes, while over stocked, the ammonia did not spike in this "crash" , it actually went to 0 nitrates and thus benign bacteria took over, as the good stuff died back- if you kill your good bacteria...ill have a new video on remedies coming shortly... this is a balance issue of bacteria, not an urgent health issue I wanted to remind folks that your aquarium can un-cycle or have various bacteria blooms for many reasons. In this case I blabbed on too long and should have mentioned that this method will work to get a cycle going smooth again, only if you still have a decent amount of the nitrafying bacteria, and small amounts of ammonia or nitrites ... for tanks that have had a total crash, you must essentially reboot and restart the whole cycle after bleaching all the substrate and hardscape. Luckily, this was a cosmetic issue, and the bacteria was growing daily in larger and larger clumps or clouds- and im simply creating an environment that encourages the normal healthy tank bacteria to out compete the unknown nuisance colonies.

How long did you leave that tank go . You have dead snails in your substrate

How would you get beneficial bacteria from another tank if it is not free swimming but on surfaces? I know you want the "crashed" tank algae gone what is the other tank actually supplementing?

I replaced my substrate. It went through a 1ppm ammonia spike for about 2 days, then I barely even detected nitrites and it's gone straight onto perhaps 40ppm nitrate. Been sitting there with daily water changes for about 5 days. Will it subside, or is there something else to it. Fish in, using seachem prime. Worried.

Maybe you can help me. I have high ammonia and 20ppm nitrates no nitrites. Been trying to cycles these tanks for 3 weeks with stability and prime but no luck. Should I just sit patiently and waite it out or switch feom stability to fritz7

Hi, Alex. I disturbed my gravel and spiked the ammonia in a matter of minutes over a week ago. I lost half my fish. The survivors are doing well in an emergency hospital tank. I still can’t lower the ammonia despite water changes and there’s no debris or dead things in the tank. Any suggestions please.

Quick question tryinf to do my research I added tetra life guard to treat a cichlid with Popeye in my 75 gal every since adding it my aquarium has crashed 3 fish have died and the rest are all very lethargic does anybody know what could of caused this?

I need some help - I have a 4 month old tank (75 gal) it was cruising right along - green stuff was growing on things and fish were doing well and I recently got more fish - but now fish started dying and I noticed all the green algae stuff on the glass etc stopped coming.. the tank looks clean ? i took a water sample to the pet store and they said I literally have no good bacteria ? I recently got a couple small new pieces of drift wood which was interesting that you mentioned (Briefly) I don't know whats going on but I'm losing fish daily - there's a lot of fish waste on the sand ? do I take it out? I saw a little white fuzzy moldy stuff growing on older wood but it's not green like before ? I know you said make the water warmer so I can do that - what else do I do ? I do not have a second tank and I don't want to lose any more fish ? Do I clean the waste ? do a water change ? buy a turkey baster ?? help please !

How does 0ppm nitrates cause a bacteria bloom?