My Tank Is In Horrible Shape!!!!!!!!

cliftonsinclair

cliftonsinclair

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Sep 10, 2006
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I have a ten gallon tank. It has been set up for about five weeks. Right now I have two barbs two cory cats and some ghost shrimp. I have a couple plants in there growing too. I have some of them test strips and this is what they said: Nitrate 20 ppm Nitrite 4.0 ppm the hardness was like 200 alkalinity was like 200 and the ph was between 8 and 8.4. Now I haven't been doing this very long but I know that is bad. I have tried everything to fix it. What am I doing wrong?????? My fish seem fine but apparently the water is in bad shape. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!
 
yes, that nitrite is very high. Keeping it below 0.25 ppm is recommended. The best solution is water changes. You may have to do two or more a day to keep nitrites at a safe level.

Do you have any ammonia in the water, too? I would invest in a liquid test kit that does pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Those strip/dip tests are not only hard to read, but also inaccurate.
 
twig said:
thats crazy ...
Click to expand...


Could you be more definitive with what you meant?
 
well i dunno.. tank was setup for five weeks and its showing signs of crashing... :o it's just not something i've ever seen before.

I've never seen such high nitrites :O
 
Thanks for the reply, for the OP.

I would like to see some liquid test kit results, samples on the tap water, and a better understanding of what kind of cycle was done. Also, what additives/conditioners are in use.
 
I made a 10% water changed last night and nitrites went to 0. My two cory cats both have a rainbow looking film on their sides. What is that?
:duh:
 
The sheen could be their mucus coating sloughing off in response to toxic water. I've seen it happen before when fish were exposed to uncycled tanks, their skin looks like it's peeling. Not totally sure of the "rainbow" look, though, but that's my guess to what's happening.

clif, please keep posting. The more info we get, the better we can help you :)
 
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