Restarted tank incorrectly!?

Thanks!

Here's todays levels:
pH 7.6
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 2.0
Nitrate 5.0

Doing the larger water changed seemed to help, although the Nitrites jumped.

 

Keep changing the water, lots of it and everyday. Also continue to do the stuff the others suggested.

I like the effort you're putting into this---kudos to you.

 

Thanks Lady J. I unfortunately was never this into the maintenance side of things until this restart. Basically was a check pH, change water, change filter and feed type of guy. No wonder why the old setup had so many issues....

Did another 8 gallons today, along with 1 of the filters (both are nasty, flow was restricted). With the hope of keeping some of the beneficial bacteria that was on the old filter, I cut a 1.5'' square pad off the old one and put it in front of the new filter. There is also a second old filter still in the other side to keep the bacteria going.

On my Penguin 350, it can accommodate 2 filters on each side (one behind the other). Is there any benefit to running 4 filters total vs. 2?

 

No, there is no reason to place four filters in there. The regular blue filters with some carbon in them work great. That is a pretty damn good filter imo, i've never had an issue with them.

 

Thanks! Im happy with it. Its turning the tank over 11 times/hr!

 

Here's an update after a death.

Tank balanced out on 9/11. As of today, we're running 3 red fin tetras, 3 gold dust mollys, 3 Orange/black finned platys, 3 spotted catfish/bottom feeders.

Tonight my wife found one of the red fins dead. Im not sure how long he was dead, Mabye a day or two.

Levels were: pH 7.6, Ammonia 1.0, Nitrite 0.50, Nitrate 5.0.

Levels were perfect two days ago, and I assume the levels jumped because of the dead fish? I'm doing a 10 gallon change tonight, and will report back tomorrow.