Feeling like a complete failure...water test results

[shawnhu]

I'd say to cut down on the feedings, I don't think your snail can finish 3 wafers in that short a time. I find that wafers are extremely messy and gets all over the place. Cut back on the live feedings as well, and try to stick with flakes for a few days, re-test. Keep up the water changes to make sure ammonia is below .25 ppm. Keep extra air to combat the columnaris, and also add some salt. Melafix won't do anything against columnaris but keep it from exploding. If you're treating for bacteria i.e. columnaris, then you are also going to be hitting your biological filter as well.

How big is the tank, and what type of filter?

I was just thinking...maybe I'm not rinsing my biofilter properly?

When I do my weekly 50% I take out the biofilter and I dip it in the tank water that I just vacummed out of the tank. I dip it a few times and I will take and pic off any matter that I can see (like plant pieces).

Cleaning the filter every week is not necessary, and if it is, then you are most definately overfeeding. I clean my HOB filter at most, one a month. Water is crystal clear, and house more than 50 guppies in the 10G. There's no need for cleaning so often.

It sounds to me like daily gravel cleanings are whats killing alot of the bacteria. The feces from the fish is what produces the ammonia that fuels the growth of bacteria. So aggressive gravel cleaning isnt giving the bacterial enough fuel. What you can do is either reduce the gravel cleanings or you can scan the top of the gravel with the siphon without digging in. This picks up any garbage sitting on top and leaves the bacteria in the gravel put.

Although I may agree that the daily gravel vacs are excessive, I wouldn't hold it accountable for her ammonia readings. Gravel vacs killing bacteria will only shift the main population of bacteria to the filter, and other areas of the tanks. The thing about bacteria is, it's everywhere. Removing it from the gravel, will only make a higher demand for it elsewhere.

I believe her problem is overfeeding, and an increased bioload so she's seeing a mini-cycle. Keep up the water changes, reduce your gravel vacs, and reduce feedings.

If you know anyone local that also has fish, offer to test his water to verify that the test kit is good.

Have you tested your tap water yet? Take 2 tests, one right out of the tap, and another after it has sat for 24 hrs.

Shawn

 

[enrique4jc]

I would definitely cut down on the gravel vacs and cleaning the filter media. I also agree that it seems like you're feeding too much.

Do water changes as necessary to keep your levels down. Just take it slow and be patient without doing anything drastic, and you should be okay.

 

[lorindaleigh]

I'd say to cut down on the feedings, I don't think your snail can finish 3 wafers in that short a time. I find that wafers are extremely messy and gets all over the place. Cut back on the live feedings as well, and try to stick with flakes for a few days, re-test. Keep up the water changes to make sure ammonia is below .25 ppm. Keep extra air to combat the columnaris, and also add some salt. Melafix won't do anything against columnaris but keep it from exploding. If you're treating for bacteria i.e. columnaris, then you are also going to be hitting your biological filter as well.

How big is the tank, and what type of filter?




Cleaning the filter every week is not necessary, and if it is, then you are most definately overfeeding. I clean my HOB filter at most, one a month. Water is crystal clear, and house more than 50 guppies in the 10G. There's no need for cleaning so often.



Although I may agree that the daily gravel vacs are excessive, I wouldn't hold it accountable for her ammonia readings. Gravel vacs killing bacteria will only shift the main population of bacteria to the filter, and other areas of the tanks. The thing about bacteria is, it's everywhere. Removing it from the gravel, will only make a higher demand for it elsewhere.

I believe her problem is overfeeding, and an increased bioload so she's seeing a mini-cycle. Keep up the water changes, reduce your gravel vacs, and reduce feedings.

If you know anyone local that also has fish, offer to test his water to verify that the test kit is good.

Have you tested your tap water yet? Take 2 tests, one right out of the tap, and another after it has sat for 24 hrs.

Shawn

Ok. I will cut down on the wafers. I put in so many because the mollies like to go after them, and I keep hoping the pleco will eat one. How often do you recommend the live food? I don't think that I can cut down on it too much since thats the only food that I have for the adf's besides the freeze dried blood worms but they have to fight the fish for those.

I started treating them with marclyn today for the columnaris. I'm still using salt. I also added slime coat since I read it can help speed up the columnaris healing process. My bottle of quick cure arrived today. I read thats good for columnaris as well but haven't used it yet because I need to figure out if its snail/adf safe.

I have a aqua-tech 20/40 filter. It has the gray biofilter and the regular filter with carbon. I have a 20 gallon tank.

My water is also clear, I thought you were supposed to rinse it weekly. Opps...

I have not tested my water. I will do so asap. I believe that the kit is good. It was brand new and sealed and the lot date is 08. That means its good for another year correct?

 

[shawnhu]

Sounds good. Poo all over the place in the morning often indicates that there's too much food during the night-time. Increase your photo period so that the plants can help absorb the ammonia as well. Do you have timers for your lights? Floating plants will also help greatly on improving water quality and reducing the bioload on your biofilter.

Keep us updated on the health of the fish, and the combat of columnaris.

 

[lorindaleigh]

I must have a lot of algae then since I can;t get him to eat anything else...unless hes eating my plants.

I don't have timers. I leave my lights on for about 6 hours during the day and then for 4 hours late at night (usually 10 pm to 1am).

I do need to get some floating plants. I moved all of my floating hornwort to the QT tank, so I don't have any in the 20 gallon but I do have duck week coming this week.

 

[platytetrafan]

Yes I agree you are overstocked plecos get big you have alot of fish in that 20g probably the reason for the ammonia spike. Also try to lighten up on the amount you feed the fish that should help too and gravel vac when doing wc's. You should only rinse your filter once a month that is sufficient to keep in flowing well.

 

[shawnhu]

If you moved the hornwort, that's the root of your ammonia spike. Hornwort comsumes ammonia as a nutrient, as with most other floaters. Without that, your biofilter is taking on the extra load, and your test kit is showing just that.

Your daily water changes is what is saving your fish from the mini cycle.

 

[lorindaleigh]

If you moved the hornwort, that's the root of your ammonia spike. Hornwort comsumes ammonia as a nutrient, as with most other floaters. Without that, your biofilter is taking on the extra load, and your test kit is showing just that.

Your daily water changes is what is saving your fish from the mini cycle.

U are so smart shawn! I'm going to put it back now. So its possible that my tank was cycled then before I moved the hornwort? That would make me feel so much better!

 

[H4rb]

hi lorindaleigh...remember...ur tank is like a little piece of nature, there's a life and death cycle going on the whole time inside of it...and just moving or removing a small piece of it is gonna cuase a shift in the balance. It may seem like a small change but on a micro scale it's a huge diference in the environment.

 

[shawnhu]

U are so smart shawn! I'm going to put it back now. So its possible that my tank was cycled then before I moved the hornwort? That would make me feel so much better!

But you still have to combat the columnaris... If the situation is not dire, you can use the sick neon to test the meds and see the results before adding to the mail tank. Quick Cure is one drop per gallon.