10 gallon
- Thread starter Fishman1995
- Start date
i have failed...
I doubt that your tank is actually cycled - I don't think you have never posted the numbers and you have only had the tank set up a couple of weeks - in which case you should still be testing the water daily - if you wanted to succeed. Do you know which died first? Is there any chance the betta killed the snail? I can't understand why a dead snail would be any different than putting a dead shrimp in to cycle a tank - unless you weren't monitoring the tank. Its 10 gallons of water isn't it? And you only had the betta and a snail in it? Sounds to me like ammonia may be the cause?
I used that cycling agent and some of Alaric/Ferdnan's old water to cycle the tank. It got cloudy for a day, then was clear the next. Alaric was doing good, then i noticed the snail was sitting in his shell at the bottom of the tank for like 3 days, they do it in Ferdnan's tank sometimes but they move a TINY bit from night to night. By the time i knew the snail was dead, it was to late, he was already almost mush and smelt like putred milk, so im pretty sure that cause Alarics death. The other snail and Ferdnan are fine in the other tank. What would you guys recommened? Do a water change and cycle again?
As I asked - did you check your water parameters? There is no point in doing anything else until you are able to check your water parameters daily. I would change the water, but unless you are willing to do daily checks of the water parameters you can not do a fish in cycle and you have said before that you can't do a fishless cycle.
I use test strips Thyra, the next morning i went out, didnt get back til evening from school. When i got back, Alaric was dead, tested water and Amonia had went through the roof, the evening before, it wasnt bad, so i of course didnt expect anything. Even if i had did a water change, the snail being left in there would have continued to excel Amonia levels until i removed it. I need to be more careful from now on with snails.
There is math involved Robert!!! Perhaps I should make a Java app that you can use to put your test readings in, and it will tell you how to get the level down to acceptable levels?
IF you had done a 50% water change, you'd have had a reading of 2.5ppm.
ANOTHER 50% water change would have brought you to 1.25ppm.
ANOTHER 50% water change would have brought you to 0.625ppm.
A 10% water change would bring you from 5ppm to 4.5ppm. Not much of a change at all, as you can see.
When you saw the ammonia level, why did you not do an immediate gravel vacuum with at least 50% water change, stop feeding, and search for a source of the ammonia spike?
The tank was set up for only ONE WEEK!
IF you had done a 50% water change, you'd have had a reading of 2.5ppm.
ANOTHER 50% water change would have brought you to 1.25ppm.
ANOTHER 50% water change would have brought you to 0.625ppm.
A 10% water change would bring you from 5ppm to 4.5ppm. Not much of a change at all, as you can see.
When you saw the ammonia level, why did you not do an immediate gravel vacuum with at least 50% water change, stop feeding, and search for a source of the ammonia spike?
The tank was set up for only ONE WEEK!