No prob
Ammonia is your problem just now and likely biggest cause of the discomfort your fish are suffering (for the moment - bigger tank needed long term as already said a few times)
Key to cycling with fish in is you must commit to a water change whenever ammonia/nitrite are at .25 ppm or higher to bring to 0. This means you need an accurate liquid drop test kit - API make a great one, paper strips are useless, or you are guessing - no good. Use the test kit in the morning and in the afternoon at this stage, as you have plenty of fish, and high ammonia.
You need a good dechlorinator - Seachem Prime is great. Not only does it detox chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals, but in a push can be used to detox ammonia, if you are hard pressed for time to do a water change once in a while during the cycle. Ammo-Lock is useful too in this regard if you can't get prime.
It can take a few weeks to bring the tank to a point where ammonia and nitrite are constantly 0 and nitrate is slowly increasing; you are then considered cycled, i.e. there is sufficient bacteria present to cope with the waste being produced for the fish presently in the tank.
So, water change, water change, water change. 1.0 ppm ammonia is plenty high enough to cause illness and fish death.
If you had the option to return at least some fish, I would reccomend you try as you do have fish which can't stay happily in that tank for life and it would make the cycle a little easier to manage.
Just before i post all my new test results, i would like to take the time to thank you guys for helpin a newbie out on this. I'm a total n00b, and i think i got in a little over my head when i got the tank. I just hope all of this mess turns out well, because i'm starting to really love how its lookin
:help:
Anyways, here are the results:
Nitritate - 0
Nitrite - 0
pH - 7.5 Fresh
KH - 80
GH - 120
Amonia - 1.0
Even with me being a n00b with all this stuff, those numbers don't look like they're very good...
I've also read up on the cycling.. and i'll admit it, i screwed up... I would assume the best way to do this is to cycle the water, correct?
Good luck, 12 Volt. Hopefully some day you'll have a monster tank with a whole school of lemons![]()
Been there, done that. May be cliche', but you've taken the first step by accepting unfavorable information. Stick with it, do big water changes any time you read over .25 ammonia or nitrite, and learn as you go. You'll be an expert before you know it. There's a nearly unlimited amount of experience and solid advice on this site to help you along the way. As uch as it sucks (I know, I had to do it), the best thing you can do short term is to reduce your stocking and only add once the tank is stable, you have researched size, and confirmed stocking compatibility. Good luck and keep us updated!![]()
yep - I'd guesstimate a 50% change would do you if you're changing whenever you see .25 ppm but trial and error is your friend here. Your strips are absolutely no help though - pick up a liquid drop test kit or you're guessing. API is a great one.
You need a dechlorinator too, unless you have some kind of well water source; Prime is good because it does this and can detox ammonia. If you get the ammo-lock I believe you will still need a dechlorinator. Just to confuse, either will give a false positive reading for ammonia but we'll get to that in due courseYou still need the liquid drop test kit as a priority.
great call on the barbs![]()
well, I already turned down what WAS a nice place, but no basement and hence nowhere to put an 1800 pound aquarium!
I am not living anywhere where I cannot have a 6 foot tank.![]()
Why stop at 6?![]()