Please help-- in head over heels at this point

I don't know of any Front Range Colorado water that would be considered soft. The best you could do is not be liquid rock, so I wouldn't worry about that at this time.

More so than dirtied gravel, see if you can swipe a bit of filter media. If he doesn't have "that kind" of filter media, give the filter media a good squeeze into the bag you are transporiting the gravel in. The highest concentration of good baceteria is in the filter media because the filter is seeing the best flow of water.

Denver Fish Den is where you want to go locally for advice. More so than the big boxes. I know of one big box in the metro area that has a good fish dept, and that is because the general manager is a "fish guy".

Depending on your location, the Colorado Aquarium Society is also a good local place for advice. They do have a forum, but its pretty sparse on content. Their meetings, I hear, are usually pretty well attended though. They are also having their spring auction this weekend.

Keep at it, keep us posted.
 
Just got home. Whew what a day! My car decided to let me know just how she feels about driving up and down the mountains!

I just tested my water so I can get an idea or where I am at prior to adding the goop media and gravel I dug out of Kevs tank!

All in one:
pretty much the same as before however it looks like my alkalinity is going down and nitrates are still creeping as of 7:36 mst.

master key shows:)
ammonia steady at 1 ppm
Nitrites 0
NitrAtes steady at 5 ppm
master ph looks like it may be heading south it is a shade or so lighter than the grape box on my card. Hoping this is a good thing.
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I have about 4 pounds of gravel, scraped the goodies from the filter and kept it pretty wet in a zippy baggie. His fish did not appreciate me screwing with his tank. The dominate male dwarf guarani decided to try to nibble my hand to death when I moved his plant out of the way. His ghost shrimp were utterly fascinated with the "finger fish" moving things around and tried to catch a ride with me. Master D the ginormous pleco battle rammed my hand every time I came near his log, fanning his sail fin and letting me know just what he thought of a lady messing with his pad. The neons weren't sure what to make of me;/ his tank is tall so i was worried about falling in lol

hopefully its just up from here!
 
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Ammonia steady for about 36 hours never went up never went down. 1 ppm
nitrates flat at 5ppm
nitrites 0
ph is still about 8.0

I just did a 50 percent change, no amquel+ as it seems like things are starting to stabilize. My fish still look great. No eye pop, redness, nada. I added a little of the good stuff for thier slime coat to help buffer away the crap in my water while everything stabilizes. We've decided once this pans out to remove the large cory and put him in kevs tank and settle one of his baby julians into my tank. I am also going to see if I can do a small set up for Hannahs gold fish in her room to take the bigger ammonia producers out of our main tank.
 
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I generally don't bother with the slime coat stuff. From what I understand it mostly irritates their sink until they produce a thicker slime coat in response, hence "helping" them all over the bottle. All may not agree but my thinking is the last thing a fish needs if already stressed is further irritation, no matter how well-meaning. All that said, I don't think the stuff does any real harm.
 
Stress coat+ all the way rofl. Take it how ya want it :)

:cheers:
 
Still seeing good movement in my tank chemistry
12 hours after my 50% change:
Ammonia is down to .5
Nitrates are between 5-10 ppm
nitrites 0
high level ph looks like it is creeping to the 7s-- my all in one strip puts it at 7.5

It appears the ammonia spike is on the down hill, will nitrates spike? What should I be watchful from here while I get my amm. down to 0?
 
Keep a close eye on the nitrites, they are arguably more toxic than the ammonia - the key thing you can do at this point is change the water regularly, it never hurts to have fresh water in the tank.
 
So far I have never seen any reading what so ever for nitrates so I am hoping that stays that way!

Seeded Media? please explain. When I switched gravel with the established tank I did take the gooey goodies from his filter for mine- what is seeded media?
 
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