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Long story short...Somehow my heater went nuts and cooked all my fish, very sad as I'd had them for over 2 years. Well we managed to save one parrot fish but as the days went by an incredible amount of black algea(?)formed everywhere not to mention my parrot fisd died as well.
After months of my empty tank sitting there I decided to get off my pitty pot and start over.
I have a 55 gallon tank and totally started over. Scrubbed the tank, rocks, decorations. I even bought a new pump (well actually my husband did a few weeks ago to try to get me interested again). I used a small amount of bleach and LOTS of elbow grease to remove the blackish matter from the decorations and plastic plants. And just rinsed and rinsed and rinsed the rocks.
I tossed my old pump away and kept the bio wheel, now reading I should have kept the media filter to help cycle the tank. I put one old bio wheel in the pump to see if that would help. It's been over 2 days now so I decided to check the water with a kit I have. Thing is I lost the little chart to let me know the results and how to correct them if they are not right. I have a Freshwater Master Test Kit. I do know the PH is high, because it always ran a little high. I added buffer to lower it a bit.
Have I done the right thing? And does anyone know where I can get a chart to help me understand the readings?
Thanks

If the biowheel had dried out or if you had cleaned it also then the bacterial culture that it had has probably died off and basically you are starting from scratch and will need to cycle your tank all over again.

As far as the chart is concerned you should be able to contact the manufaturer by e-mail and they can probably provide you with a replacement. Just try a search on google and you should be able to find them.



Last edited by OldTimer at 10-Apr-2005 09:09

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

ph chart

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