Bad water test results . . .

[dundadundun]

Thanks guys. And thanks to everyone who offered their advice. I realllllllly appreciate it!!!! :hearts:

awwwwe... what a sweetheart. :dance2: you're certainly welcomed.

once again... i do apologize if my tone seemed a bit off. my purpose was hopefully to point you towards good advice. i know wading through random crap on the web can be terribly misleading. unfortunately with chasing a couple kids, by the time i hit post it seemed like it had worked itself out and i kinda felt like an insistent jerk. :huh:

 

[Corax]

The yoyo loach I had in with her was I guess picking on her and making her scales come off, I took it out of that tank (which is probably another reason my tests were off) and added the salt 4 days ago and her scales are all better.


Tank and equipment

- Glass Aqueon 40 gallon breeder (36 x 18 x 16)
- Marineland Penguin Bio-wheel filter model 200
- Marineland Visi-Therm heater 150W
- Aqueon Glass Canopy for 40 gallon breeder
- Aqueon Fluorescent Single Tube Strip Light (36")
- 1 bubble strip

Substrate & decorations

- 25 1/2 lbs of beach pebble gravel (small and medium mixed)
- 1 piece of Mopani driftwood
- 4 silk plants
- 4 plastic plants
- 14 small/med pieces of rock
- 1 medium terocatta pot
- 1 small terocatta pot

Fish

- 1 green severum (female)
- 2 german blue rams ( male & female)
- 1 BN pleco (female as I've been told)
- 3 pygmy cories

I feed them a variety of foods

- New Life Spectrum Cichlid Formula 1mm sinking pellets
- TetraColor tropical granules
- TetraMin tropical flakes
- TetraVeggie algae waffers for the pleco
- Frozen bloodworms
- Frozen brine shrimp
- The occasional cucumber

Full shot of my tank right now :

Sorry for the reflection of my 10 gallon

Nice list, very complete =)

I think you'll be ok for a long time. The sev will eventually want a bigger home, but it'll be a while. I do agree that you'll want more filtration though. I'd get either a canister (the suggested Rena XP is a great filter. I have an XP3 on my 75..) or an Emperor 400. I'm probably going to supplement my XP3 with an Emp 400 soon. My oscars are trashing up my tank lol

 

[Cerianthus]

With high nitrite level, adding salt will assist in detox of free nitrite anion along with frequent but small water changes per day.

After first dose of salt, just add what you remove per wc.
Skip feeding to every other or 3 days.

If this is pretty new tank, a possible mini cycle as NH3 also registered.

How thick is the substrate and what kind of substrate? Did you vacuum portion of substrate per routine partial wc?

Hope all goes well.

 

[RiVerfishgirl]

To answer your question about overstocking, you are not at all overstocked at the moment. You have a fairly light bioload. When the severum is fully mature it will be a bit large for your tank and produce quite a bit of waste, though a 40 breeder is not necessarily inadequate for their size due to the footprint. I would not however suggest keeping it in that size tank with other fish once mature since you may have trouble keeping up on maintenance, and he would be better off in a larger tank really.
Your bristlenose pleco will not get 2' long, that species only grows to about 6" max, so you're fine.

But I think people are correct that your tank was never cycled. A cycled tank will have 0 nitrite and ammonia, so if your ammonia and nitrites have always been present it was never cycled. I'm not sure if I missed the information, or you never posted it, but exactly how long has the tank been set up WITH fish in it? Cycling a tank generally takes 1-2 months after an ammonia source has been added, but it can take a bit longer for some people due to various factors that effect the growth of the bacteria.

You could add another filter (do not remove the one that's currently on there since it is currently establishing bacterial colonies - then you would have to start all over again with your cycle), and it's always good to have redundant filtration, but the biowheel you have on there should be sufficient for the bioload you currently have.

One thing that may have prolonged your cycle is either ammonia or nitrites becoming too high and you not noticing. When ammonia or nitrite gets to high levels it actually impedes the growth of the bacterial colonies, causing it to take longer for you to cycle or stalling your cycle altogether. So you will need to watch your ammonia and nitrite every single day and do water changes to keep it around .25-.25 since you have fish present.
Also, adding Prime to detoxify the ammonia and nitrite will actually aid your bacterial colonies since high levels of ammonia and nitrite also damage them physiologically, not just the fish. But the ammonia and nitrite, even after Prime is added and has detoxified it, will still be available for them to consume so they can grow adequately.

 

[tayhudson]

To answer your question about overstocking, you are not at all overstocked at the moment. You have a fairly light bioload. When the severum is fully mature it will be a bit large for your tank and produce quite a bit of waste, though a 40 breeder is not necessarily inadequate for their size due to the footprint. I would not however suggest keeping it in that size tank with other fish once mature since you may have trouble keeping up on maintenance, and he would be better off in a larger tank really.
Your bristlenose pleco will not get 2' long, that species only grows to about 6" max, so you're fine.

But I think people are correct that your tank was never cycled. A cycled tank will have 0 nitrite and ammonia, so if your ammonia and nitrites have always been present it was never cycled. I'm not sure if I missed the information, or you never posted it, but exactly how long has the tank been set up WITH fish in it? Cycling a tank generally takes 1-2 months after an ammonia source has been added, but it can take a bit longer for some people due to various factors that effect the growth of the bacteria.

You could add another filter (do not remove the one that's currently on there since it is currently establishing bacterial colonies - then you would have to start all over again with your cycle), and it's always good to have redundant filtration, but the biowheel you have on there should be sufficient for the bioload you currently have.

One thing that may have prolonged your cycle is either ammonia or nitrites becoming too high and you not noticing. When ammonia or nitrite gets to high levels it actually impedes the growth of the bacterial colonies, causing it to take longer for you to cycle or stalling your cycle altogether. So you will need to watch your ammonia and nitrite every single day and do water changes to keep it around .25-.25 since you have fish present.
Also, adding Prime to detoxify the ammonia and nitrite will actually aid your bacterial colonies since high levels of ammonia and nitrite also damage them physiologically, not just the fish. But the ammonia and nitrite, even after Prime is added and has detoxified it, will still be available for them to consume so they can grow adequately.

From what you are saying I'm sure I didn't let it cycle long enough. I added fish after 3 weeks. I seeded the filter cartridge with my 10 gallon that I had established. I guess thats what I get. I will pick up another filter when I can afford it. I can't get it right now unfortunately. I really appreciate all your help and information. I guess I just didn't do it long enough.

I did get a bottle of Prime and I will be adding it when I clean my tank this Sunday. I was wondering tho, how much do I add for my 40 gallon? It only has directions for 55 gallons and up. It does say "for smaller volumes, please note each cap thread is approx. 1mL" I asked my friend who uses it and she says for her 40 breeder she uses 1/4 of a cap. I don't doubt shes right because her tanks are always great, but does that sound about right?

And I do realize I will need a bigger tank for my sev and I will make that happen when I can. She's such an awesome fish, I want to keep her alive, healthy and thriving for as long as possible.

I wish I would have done this right in the first place. I hate being a beginner at something that can be so tricky. But I'm using all the gathered info I get and hopefully I'll grow to be a better fish keeper.

Thanks again guys. You have no idea how much it means to have people out there to help me in the venture

 

[tayhudson]

With high nitrite level, adding salt will assist in detox of free nitrite anion along with frequent but small water changes per day.

After first dose of salt, just add what you remove per wc.
Skip feeding to every other or 3 days.

If this is pretty new tank, a possible mini cycle as NH3 also registered.

How thick is the substrate and what kind of substrate? Did you vacuum portion of substrate per routine partial wc?

Hope all goes well.

It's about 1/2" high in some spots. It's not very high at all. I have 2 sizes of beach pebble substrate, small & medium. And I vacuum the gravel with every water change.

Thank you, I really hope I don't screw up anymore.

 

[tayhudson]

Nice list, very complete =)

I think you'll be ok for a long time. The sev will eventually want a bigger home, but it'll be a while. I do agree that you'll want more filtration though. I'd get either a canister (the suggested Rena XP is a great filter. I have an XP3 on my 75..) or an Emperor 400. I'm probably going to supplement my XP3 with an Emp 400 soon. My oscars are trashing up my tank lol

Thank you. I will definitely pick up another filter as soon as I can. With x-mas coming up I have to be very careful with money. As you all know. Lol. But I will try my best to pick one up. I hope it'll be ok for a while. I don't want my tank to crash or my fish to die. I would be crushed and probably sell everything.

 

[RiVerfishgirl]

For the Prime I would just dose according to 55g directions. It says on the bottle it's safe to dose something like 3x the suggested amount IIRC.