I set up 2 tanks a few weeks ago. A 40 and a 20. Both have guppies. The 40 has 3 bn plecos, the 20 has 5 CBS. I feed live food with a pinch of dry. Both are under stocked. Both have hobs, the 40 has an air stone. Both are heavily planted with wood decor. Substate is sand with a covering of glass or gravel. Both have heaters with settings in mid 70's. I used Terta Safe Start midway in the cycle of both. What I did to one tank, I did to the other. I've also been using Jungle Start Zyme after w/c, figuring it might not help, but prolly wont hurt.
The 20 is done cycling. The 40 is driving me crazy. The ammonia is way out of whack. It read .25 for days. I did 25-50% w/c daily. Yesterday ammonia went up to 1.0. I did 80% w/c. I also tore down the tank and stirred up the substrate. I found 2 SMALL dead fish. Very cloudy water when I was done, was clear by morning. Checked ammonia today, expected it to have gone down or finished cycling. Ammonia was at 2.0. I did 95% w/c, added more water, and did another w/c. Reading was between 0 and .25
Has anyone experienced this before? Other frequent w/c am I missing something? I considered using media from the 20 to help the 40, but the cycle is too new for me to want to disturb a balanced tank this soon.
The 20 is done cycling. The 40 is driving me crazy. The ammonia is way out of whack. It read .25 for days. I did 25-50% w/c daily. Yesterday ammonia went up to 1.0. I did 80% w/c. I also tore down the tank and stirred up the substrate. I found 2 SMALL dead fish. Very cloudy water when I was done, was clear by morning. Checked ammonia today, expected it to have gone down or finished cycling. Ammonia was at 2.0. I did 95% w/c, added more water, and did another w/c. Reading was between 0 and .25
Has anyone experienced this before? Other frequent w/c am I missing something? I considered using media from the 20 to help the 40, but the cycle is too new for me to want to disturb a balanced tank this soon.