I've been thinking about tropical fish for over a year and have been reading books and followed forums for ages. My husband bought me a 64 Litre interpet fish tank for Christmas and on Boxing Day 2015 I added the water and the Interpet filter start and planted it heavily and left it a week before I bought my Betta fish. My Betta fish loved the tank and I was doing regular water tests with dipsticks for nitrates and nitrites and Amonia liquid tester.
Everything was working great nitrites went up and back down and nitrates were produced (although I never actually saw any ammonia in my test kit) and I was doing regular water changes. So after about 3 weeks everything was great and I thought I'd buy him a tank mate so I bought him a bristle nose Pleco and this was the point everything went tits up!
So after about a week I was still doing tests and everything was great (or at least I thought), and I was really pleased that my homework had paid off. Then my Pleco died and my Betta got really poorly with fin rot and I was really confused as all the numbers had been great, so I must have bought a poorly Pleco that contaminated my Betta.
I then went and bought a temporary hospital tank (which he is still in) for the Betta so that I could medicate him without it affecting my usual tank and thought I'd use this opportunity to put stock my tank with 6 rasboras. This went on for about another week, no problems with ammonia (or so I thought) and I'm thinking, this is a lot easier than I thought it would be.
......So I bought 5 red cherry shrimp and 5 Armano shrimp as I had read they have really low bio loads and I worked it out in an online fish calculator that even after my Betta had been reintroduced this should still be well within stocking parameters.
But then at some point the penny dropped and I couldn't work out why I was seeing. Nitrates and nitrites but no ammonia when the ammonia was supposedly the 1st stage of the cycle. So I went back to the instructions and found that I had been doing the ammonia testing wrong and that I should have waited 5 minutes for the colour to develop in the vial.... Oops! So I tested the ammonia levels properly and it came out as 2. So I started daily 25% water changes and a couple of times did it twice a day. Gradually the ammonia levels have increased, so I went to the fish store for help and they advised ammolock which they said would turn the ammonia into ammonium but would not affect the cycle and he also said not to change so much of the water in go.
Last night for the first time the fish were gasping at the surface so I tested the water the ammonia was 8 and so I did a 50% water change and added ammolock, took out most of the plants and binned them invade this was adding to the problem and had a good check all around the tank. I found 2 dead red cherry in the filter. There was only 1 red cherry in the tank and 2 Armano shrimp. So I'm thinking that 7 shrimp have perished (not surprising) without me realizing.
This big clean up resolved the gasping issue but not the ammonia issue. Today I did a small water change, only 8 litres as I do not have enough interpet tap safe for any more.
So about 30 minutes ago I noticed that the fish are again gasping at the surface and the ammonia is still 8. Searching the forums someone has previously been advised to double dose on the ammolock as if it gets to 8 the ammonia is too high for a normal dose. Which I did, but this has not stopped the gasping.
I am about to leave the house now for some more tap safe so I can do another water change and I will also get the API master test kit as the dip sticks are crap!
Anyway I was just wondering if anyone could give me some thoughts here on what action to take as I'm at my wits end now.
Everything was working great nitrites went up and back down and nitrates were produced (although I never actually saw any ammonia in my test kit) and I was doing regular water changes. So after about 3 weeks everything was great and I thought I'd buy him a tank mate so I bought him a bristle nose Pleco and this was the point everything went tits up!
So after about a week I was still doing tests and everything was great (or at least I thought), and I was really pleased that my homework had paid off. Then my Pleco died and my Betta got really poorly with fin rot and I was really confused as all the numbers had been great, so I must have bought a poorly Pleco that contaminated my Betta.
I then went and bought a temporary hospital tank (which he is still in) for the Betta so that I could medicate him without it affecting my usual tank and thought I'd use this opportunity to put stock my tank with 6 rasboras. This went on for about another week, no problems with ammonia (or so I thought) and I'm thinking, this is a lot easier than I thought it would be.
......So I bought 5 red cherry shrimp and 5 Armano shrimp as I had read they have really low bio loads and I worked it out in an online fish calculator that even after my Betta had been reintroduced this should still be well within stocking parameters.
But then at some point the penny dropped and I couldn't work out why I was seeing. Nitrates and nitrites but no ammonia when the ammonia was supposedly the 1st stage of the cycle. So I went back to the instructions and found that I had been doing the ammonia testing wrong and that I should have waited 5 minutes for the colour to develop in the vial.... Oops! So I tested the ammonia levels properly and it came out as 2. So I started daily 25% water changes and a couple of times did it twice a day. Gradually the ammonia levels have increased, so I went to the fish store for help and they advised ammolock which they said would turn the ammonia into ammonium but would not affect the cycle and he also said not to change so much of the water in go.
Last night for the first time the fish were gasping at the surface so I tested the water the ammonia was 8 and so I did a 50% water change and added ammolock, took out most of the plants and binned them invade this was adding to the problem and had a good check all around the tank. I found 2 dead red cherry in the filter. There was only 1 red cherry in the tank and 2 Armano shrimp. So I'm thinking that 7 shrimp have perished (not surprising) without me realizing.
This big clean up resolved the gasping issue but not the ammonia issue. Today I did a small water change, only 8 litres as I do not have enough interpet tap safe for any more.
So about 30 minutes ago I noticed that the fish are again gasping at the surface and the ammonia is still 8. Searching the forums someone has previously been advised to double dose on the ammolock as if it gets to 8 the ammonia is too high for a normal dose. Which I did, but this has not stopped the gasping.
I am about to leave the house now for some more tap safe so I can do another water change and I will also get the API master test kit as the dip sticks are crap!
Anyway I was just wondering if anyone could give me some thoughts here on what action to take as I'm at my wits end now.
