Is it time to give up on my 2.5 gallon?

Are you using an ammonia reducer in your tank?

Don't give up on your tank. Ammonia CAN be beaten!

Seriously, just keep doing water changes. If the ones you're doing aren't reducing the ammonia, do larger ones and do more of them.

Cut back your feeding to 1-2 pellets each day while the tank is cycling. It doesn't matter if the food you're feeding isn't rotting in the tank, it's still going into the fish and coming out in the form of waste from the fish. Feeding sparingly means less ammonia in the tank.

If this fails, check your tap water for ammonia.

You can try using 'Prime' water conditioner, which helps to de-toxify ammonia in the tank. It won't remove it (only water changes will), but it can help to ease ammonia toxicity while the tank is cycling.

not time to give up, maybe time to upgrade. This is talking from experaince....


Look at it this way...

When chemicals in a tank change the fish know, and it stresses them, and we all know to much stress and to much chemical change ina tank equals dead fish.

In a 2.5 gallon it takes very little to effect the chemal balance of the tank compared to say a 10 gallon.

You would need 4 times the chemical to effect a 10 gallon as you would a 2.5.

This means by the tiem you notice something si wrong it is to late, OR you just cant act fast enough to solve the problem with out loseing fish. I found it MUCH easier to take care of a 30 gallon since it does not takes more ofa change to effect the fish, the water balance is more stable in larger tanks.

Hope this helps a little

amyandlars said:

I totally understand and belive that! My 10gal is so much easier to take care of. We are actually in the process of upgrading this 2.5gal. We bought a 10gal today, but are trying to complete a full cycle on it rather than move the fish over and go thru the whole cycle with the fish again. I just can't believe i've moved past the ammonia cycle on my 10gal and still stuck on it in the 2.5 gal.

Click to expand...

It is the filter that cycles (and to a lesser extent, the gravel and decorations), not the tank. If you put the 2.5g gravel and filter in the 10g, (along with adding your 10g equipment), you won't slow down your cycle one bit, and your fish will be MUCH happier!

As a bonus, when you are done cycling the 10 with the 10 + 2.5 filters, your filter will be ready to go back into the 2.5 for fishy use! You could even empty out the 10g, and keep it around as a QT. (Tack the filter on your other 10g to keep it cycled.)

SirWired