First, hello out there from a first time poster. I've found a ton of good info on this site and the forums. So thank you. I'm going to put all my basic info I think might be helpful and then ask my questions below.
I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank. I'm at the 3.5 week mark. I have made some pretty good mistakes in the learning process. My temp is a steady 79. My ammonia and CL2 are 0ppm. Total hardness is 120 ppm, total buffering capacity 120 ppm, pH is 7.6. Nitrate is holding at 20-40 range, but nitrite is probably above 5 ppm (less than 10 ppm) I am using mardel 5 in 1 test strips and Red Sea Fresh Lab for testing. I have added 2 tablespoons of salt to my water right off the bat, and 2 more, probably 2 days ago. The box says add 1 tablespoon per/5 gal, but it seems more recommended to use 1/2 or none. I only added more salt when I heard it was good to help fish deal with nitrites and had done a ton of water changes. The water I'm putting in the tank has pretty much the same stats but no real nitrate/nitrite/ ammonia, so I'm pretty sure that's not a problem. I believe I'm sucessfully done with the ammonia spike part of the cycle, I haven't detected it in over a week. I didn't faithfully test during the ammonia spike, so I don't know how high it got. I didn't know I needed to test a lot then. I am also guilty of being an overfeeder, but I did curb that pretty fast. I was also deep cleaning the gravel due to the mess. My water is very clear now, but I still stir up a bit of material during water addition. I let the tank run a week without fish. I then added 2 plecos a few days later a school of 5 neon tetras, and a week later 2 Raphael Cats (yes, now I know what they like to eat but my LFS didn't and neither did the website I researched before this one!!). The fish did fine, until 2 neons disappeared! (see last sentence). I moved out the Raphs, and put in 2 cories. The Raphs got there own little tank to settle that issue. Everything at this point is fine. I believe it was another week and I thought, this is going good and added 2 guppies and 2 mickeys (gold platys). This is also when I noticed by nitrates going up. One of the guppies and one of the mickeys died. So did a neon. I thought they died awful fast (1 day) and returned them to store. Got 2 more mickeys, 2 more guppies, and 3 neons. The match might not add up, but the fact is, I had 3 guppies, 3 mickeys, 8 neons, 2 plecos and 2 corys. I was told the plecos and cats don't count against my fish total, so I thought, I'm pushing the envelop of nice and slow, but every thing is going fine so why not. Then it happened, the nitrites when through the roof. My sea lab kit only goes to 1 ppm and I was beyond that, my test strips show between 5 and 10 ppm. I have been doing water changes pretty regularly the whole time, and probably stupidly cleaning too much and hurting my bacteria levels. I researched what to do for high nitrites and didn't really find much, it's nowhere near as documented as the ammonia spikes. But I did find water changes and so I did a 30% daily with no effect, everyone is dying. I increased to about a 50% daily with no effect. Still high nitrites, death after death. I didn't want to break down to chemicals as that seems to be a newbie mistake. With no one left but my pleco's, I finally added chemical. Too much fish death guilt already. So I added it at 9:30 am and find 1 pleco dead at 8 pm. I have 1 pleco left, and very little hope for him. A strange behavior my fish had was swimming up to the top and right back down. They went doing the gasp for air thing (I did get some of that during the ammonia spike!) But I read nitrites my the fish listless. So I didn't expect activity and it doesn't seem like they are trying to escape the poor conditions. I don't get it. Let me add that I have a Bio wheel power filter and heater. I haven't changed cleaned or touched the filter. I believe that I'm supposed to leave it alone until my cycle is finished. I have 1.5 to 2 inches of gravel, as recommended by the tank maker, but not by anyone else after some reading. Some of the fish were swimming somewhat drunkenly prior to death (the neons) floating along upside down death like then swimming away naturally from the net. One of the mickey's was swimming madly before the end. The others just went, one I didn't find till later, and one just kinda sat there and died. So, I think I have given as much info as anyone could need, and probably then some. But I have been wanting to post since the first deaths and built up a lot of questions. One thing I forgot: I have fake plants, not live. And even though it's been a rocky start, I think I could really get into this hobby. Thanks in advance for the help, and wading through this lenghty post! Questions follow.
General Questions:
PUR filtered water, good for the fish or not? I was using it + water conditioning, then thought, maybe it's filtering out useful hardness buffers.
Do I have too much gravel?
How many fish? I've heard the dreaded "inch per gallon" and used an online calculator that pretty much came out the same (23"), so I won't ask the old how many, but how about this, maybe it's another myth to dispel: Cats and plecos don't count. Should they? That makes sense to me, they poop.
Another related question: I read Cory Cats are schooling fish too, and they like a group of 6. Is that realistic in my aquarium? As you can see from the above, I do give everone a pal, and try to keep a good school for schoolers, but 6 cats? I don't have a problem with it, they are nice looking fish, but I don't want to take up my whole tank with any one type.
Specific Questions:
I am having a HUGE promblem with nitrites.
How often can I do a water change?
I am using AMQuel plus (removes nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia) as of today.
How soon should I see results?
Should I keep adding till I see results? (I'm guessing no)
With all the fish gone, should I do anything or just wait till my nitrite readings are good and then (slowly) add fish? The basic question is, will the cycle continue properly without fish?
Should I remove some of my gravel?
Assuming no fish, is it safe to remove a good chunk from a certain area and then give it a day or so and remove some in another
area?
Eddie
I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank. I'm at the 3.5 week mark. I have made some pretty good mistakes in the learning process. My temp is a steady 79. My ammonia and CL2 are 0ppm. Total hardness is 120 ppm, total buffering capacity 120 ppm, pH is 7.6. Nitrate is holding at 20-40 range, but nitrite is probably above 5 ppm (less than 10 ppm) I am using mardel 5 in 1 test strips and Red Sea Fresh Lab for testing. I have added 2 tablespoons of salt to my water right off the bat, and 2 more, probably 2 days ago. The box says add 1 tablespoon per/5 gal, but it seems more recommended to use 1/2 or none. I only added more salt when I heard it was good to help fish deal with nitrites and had done a ton of water changes. The water I'm putting in the tank has pretty much the same stats but no real nitrate/nitrite/ ammonia, so I'm pretty sure that's not a problem. I believe I'm sucessfully done with the ammonia spike part of the cycle, I haven't detected it in over a week. I didn't faithfully test during the ammonia spike, so I don't know how high it got. I didn't know I needed to test a lot then. I am also guilty of being an overfeeder, but I did curb that pretty fast. I was also deep cleaning the gravel due to the mess. My water is very clear now, but I still stir up a bit of material during water addition. I let the tank run a week without fish. I then added 2 plecos a few days later a school of 5 neon tetras, and a week later 2 Raphael Cats (yes, now I know what they like to eat but my LFS didn't and neither did the website I researched before this one!!). The fish did fine, until 2 neons disappeared! (see last sentence). I moved out the Raphs, and put in 2 cories. The Raphs got there own little tank to settle that issue. Everything at this point is fine. I believe it was another week and I thought, this is going good and added 2 guppies and 2 mickeys (gold platys). This is also when I noticed by nitrates going up. One of the guppies and one of the mickeys died. So did a neon. I thought they died awful fast (1 day) and returned them to store. Got 2 more mickeys, 2 more guppies, and 3 neons. The match might not add up, but the fact is, I had 3 guppies, 3 mickeys, 8 neons, 2 plecos and 2 corys. I was told the plecos and cats don't count against my fish total, so I thought, I'm pushing the envelop of nice and slow, but every thing is going fine so why not. Then it happened, the nitrites when through the roof. My sea lab kit only goes to 1 ppm and I was beyond that, my test strips show between 5 and 10 ppm. I have been doing water changes pretty regularly the whole time, and probably stupidly cleaning too much and hurting my bacteria levels. I researched what to do for high nitrites and didn't really find much, it's nowhere near as documented as the ammonia spikes. But I did find water changes and so I did a 30% daily with no effect, everyone is dying. I increased to about a 50% daily with no effect. Still high nitrites, death after death. I didn't want to break down to chemicals as that seems to be a newbie mistake. With no one left but my pleco's, I finally added chemical. Too much fish death guilt already. So I added it at 9:30 am and find 1 pleco dead at 8 pm. I have 1 pleco left, and very little hope for him. A strange behavior my fish had was swimming up to the top and right back down. They went doing the gasp for air thing (I did get some of that during the ammonia spike!) But I read nitrites my the fish listless. So I didn't expect activity and it doesn't seem like they are trying to escape the poor conditions. I don't get it. Let me add that I have a Bio wheel power filter and heater. I haven't changed cleaned or touched the filter. I believe that I'm supposed to leave it alone until my cycle is finished. I have 1.5 to 2 inches of gravel, as recommended by the tank maker, but not by anyone else after some reading. Some of the fish were swimming somewhat drunkenly prior to death (the neons) floating along upside down death like then swimming away naturally from the net. One of the mickey's was swimming madly before the end. The others just went, one I didn't find till later, and one just kinda sat there and died. So, I think I have given as much info as anyone could need, and probably then some. But I have been wanting to post since the first deaths and built up a lot of questions. One thing I forgot: I have fake plants, not live. And even though it's been a rocky start, I think I could really get into this hobby. Thanks in advance for the help, and wading through this lenghty post! Questions follow.
General Questions:
PUR filtered water, good for the fish or not? I was using it + water conditioning, then thought, maybe it's filtering out useful hardness buffers.
Do I have too much gravel?
How many fish? I've heard the dreaded "inch per gallon" and used an online calculator that pretty much came out the same (23"), so I won't ask the old how many, but how about this, maybe it's another myth to dispel: Cats and plecos don't count. Should they? That makes sense to me, they poop.
Another related question: I read Cory Cats are schooling fish too, and they like a group of 6. Is that realistic in my aquarium? As you can see from the above, I do give everone a pal, and try to keep a good school for schoolers, but 6 cats? I don't have a problem with it, they are nice looking fish, but I don't want to take up my whole tank with any one type.
Specific Questions:
I am having a HUGE promblem with nitrites.
How often can I do a water change?
I am using AMQuel plus (removes nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia) as of today.
How soon should I see results?
Should I keep adding till I see results? (I'm guessing no)
With all the fish gone, should I do anything or just wait till my nitrite readings are good and then (slowly) add fish? The basic question is, will the cycle continue properly without fish?
Should I remove some of my gravel?
Assuming no fish, is it safe to remove a good chunk from a certain area and then give it a day or so and remove some in another
area?
Eddie
"There are only two kinds of creatures: predator and prey."
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