Need Advice for a 7-Gal System

[ghost_shrimp]

Also check whether your city water has chlorine or chloramine in it. If it has chloramine, check the label of the dechlorinator you use to see if it can neutralize it. If it can't, then your dechlorinator is just neutralizing the chlorine and releasing ammonia into the water every time you do a water change. Otherwise, everyone else here has given you good advice: do frequent water changes, don't disturb your biological filter by replacing the media, and keep testing your water to make sure you are on the right track.

 

[tigerstripes]

This is ridiculous, but almost immediately after I came back here for advice, my last neon stopped eating and he died this week. If I've learned nothing else from my aquarium experience, I can at least tell a failing fish. When I noticed he wasn't eating, I tested the water, which came back normal, except for being very very hard. I vacuumed the bottom of the tank and did a two-gallon water change.

So now it's just the ghost shrimp and snails. If I decide to continue, should I tear down the tank and let everything dry out? If I do that, should I start a reef tank?

 

[kmgriff72]

If you think it is hard to not know what is going on and watch fish die try doing it with a reef tank. The expense alone will make you want to do CPR on the dead fish. I just took down my SW tank because it crashed and I could not afford at this time to keep it going. I did manage to save and sell all of my fish etc... except for the one fish that I lost at the beginning of my water crashing. I am now going to set my tank up for FW fish because it is a lot less expensive to keep going. Fishkeeping is not a hobby that you can sit back and let it do it's thing, you have to be on top of things from the very beginning and ready to take action when things happen. Losing fish is one of the unpleasent rewards of the hobby but when it happens it usually is a learning experience. Some fish just die and you may never know what was wrong with them. If I was you, I would keep trying with FW until you get the hang of things. Speaking from experience and $2000.00 down the drain, I wished I would have done FW from the start and then moved onto SW once I got more experienced at what I was doing. I still plan to one day have a SW tank because I loved the look of it but right now that is not an option for me. Whatever you decide I wish you the best of luck and keep us posted.