Problems with little tank...

[PumaWard]

Hello everyone,

A few weeks ago I set up my little home made tank, let it cycle (speeded up the process by using sand, filter media, and water from another cycled tank). I added mystery snails and water wysteria during the cycle and fed the snails a few fish food pellets each night. The week after the tank had finished cycling I added my small fish to the tank (this was last Sunday). The next morning after I got up, I tested the water to find that my nitrites were slightly high, about 0.25 ppm. I didn't worry too much, and started doing about 20% water changes daily....The fish are chocolate gourami, so at first I tried to feed them frozen blood worms after I thawed them, they didn't eat them, so from then on I have been feeding them about 4 medium sized live mosquito larvae, which they eat... But my problem is that my nitrites kept going higher, so I continued daily water changes with the same feeding schedule every morning and night. My nitrites have finally begun to drop down to their original state or 0.25 ppm but now my ammonia is starting up. My fish seem to still be doing better as they adjust to their new surroundings, but I don't want to temp fate because I've heard that they can be sensitive to dirty water... Does anyone have any suggestions on how to solve this problem and why it happened in the first place?

Its a 4 gal tank with a 10 gal Aqua Clear sponge filter. I've added a fine layer of long strain peat to the substrate to soften the water. I am also using Aquarium Pharmeceuticals liquid test kits..

Last I checked my water was around a pH of 7.5 (climbed up from 7), a gH of around 7 degrees, and a kH of around 8 degrees....
Temp is 75F

If I have done anything wrong... please let me know so I can correct it, I don't want to lose my new little fishies because I have made a mistake... Thanks for your help :)

[OrionGirl]

If the tank sat for a week with very little/no ammonia, the bacteria starved and the tank is recycling. How are you cleaning the filter media?

[PumaWard]

I haven't cleaned the filter yet, but I will be rinsing it out with similiar temp tap water. (I have well water, so there's no worry of chlorine or other anti-bacterial substances).

[OrionGirl]

Okay. I would guess that the existing bacterial bed you imported suffered a die off during the time it ran with only snails in the system. Now that there are 2 fish in there, the bacteria beds are rebuilsing, but it can take some time, and the usual 'organization" of ammonia and nitrite break down is a bit askew. Small tanks are very prone to problems, since it only takes a small change to cause a major shift. Regular water changes to keep the levels low should help, and will probably be needed for a while to get the system stable.

[PumaWard]

I haven't have much experience with a sponge filter... so I was wondering how often should I rinse out the sponge?

Also, as soon as ammonia and nitrite levels return to 0 and stay stable, I will be adding another chocolate to the tank as TKOS advise me in a previous post... but, I always like to have something eat any uneaten food as it seems much a waste to have it rot on the bottom of the tank.... I was thinking of something along the lines of some specie of shrimp... are there any species that are inexpensive that would go well in this set up? Or any other kind of aquatic animals for that matter? I don't want to leave the mystery snails in there forever as they get WAY to big and start pulling up plants.. and their not very good scavengers.

I'd also like to thank you Orion, you've been very helpful :)

[OrionGirl]

I rinse my sponges with each water change. Basically, look at the sponge, and if you see 'guck'--build up organic waste--rinse that off.

For a nice, low maintenance cleaner, I really like ghost shrimp and amano shrimp. The ghost shrimp are often eaten by members of some of my tanks, but I don't think the chocolates would pay them much attention.

Your welcome--I try! I'm not always right on, but hopefully in the right direction.

[TKOS]

Yeah, small fresh water shrimp like ghost and amano are a great idea. Plus really fun to watch as well. I believe they are sometimes sold as feeder shrimp at some stores. At least that is what I assume those fresh waterfeeder shrimp are at the LFS near me.

[PumaWard]

Okay, I'll ask my LFS about them, thank you sooooo much guys! :)

[anonapersona]

How much are you feeding? How often? Food shouldn ot hit the bottom to rot.

[PumaWard]

They are being difficult to feed currently... once and a while I can trick them into thinking that the blood worms are alive... other wise they only eat live mosquito larvae... so while I am trying to get them to eat the blood worms I am going to have a lot of uneated food until they understand that its food, so I need something to clean up those blood worms... I don't want to try and get it out with the net because one of them is very easily scared into hiding.

[TKOS]

As long as you understand that you are over feeding and are looking for a solution I owuldn't worry too much. I know how hard it is sometimes to get fish to eat. I would rather over feed and try to clean than starve my fish. My puffers were horrible little guys for it.

The chocolate gourami in my parents' tank never liked flake food at the beginning very much. He spent most of his day picking algae from the plants and actually picking at the rocks on the bottom. They will get the hang of it soon.