Water problems and others..........

[Cammie]

Hello!

My Molly is acting very "sad". Just floating in the same place, her dorsal fin is not up like the others.
She did have babies a few days ago.

I have done a water change today (20%) and just checked my water.........
The results are not great, the worst they've been actually.

Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 5-10ppm (inbetween the two colours)
pH 8.0 (Always been that high)

There does seem to be a lot of poo, which I am always sucking up every couple of days but then I have sand so it's quite visable I guess. And I probably am overfeeding (they always eat all the food and I'm worried they're not eating enough!lol) which would contribute to the mess.

Could it be because of the fry? Please can I have some advice as to get my water to the right parameters?

Also this evening, snails have taken over! There are hundreds of babies, everywhere! How do I do the cucumber trap?

Thank you x x x x

 

[phin]

sounds like your molly is suffereing from ammonia poisoning. anything over .1ppm is going to cause damage to the fish's skin, eyes and gills. Ammonia levels <0 ppm but less than .1ppm are generally not lethal levels but do act as an irritant and can cause stress problems and prolonged exposure even at low levels can lead to health problems.

You need to do a water change asap and continue with them as long as your ammonia levels are high.

How long has your tank been established? Did you cycle it? If so have you done anything recently that would cause it to go through a mini cycle?

What all do you have in your tank and what size tank do you have?

 

[phin]

Somehow I didn't notice your signature so I see the size of your tank and its inhabitants. Never mind the previous question.

 

[Cammie]

Thank you for your reply.

I only do one water change a day don't I?

I've had the tank for a little over a month, I only cycled it for a week (I didn't have the knowledge of levels etc) then added the fish gradually.

The levels have never been this high before and the only thing I can think of as making a difference, is the fry?

Don't worry I miss things which are in big letters right in front of me sometimes lol x x x x

 

[Newman]

tank is beginning to cycle. do your water change when you see ammonia and/or nitrite over .5ppm

at that rate you wont be slowing down the cycle too much and the fish should survive if they were not already weakened from the LFS...

 

[phin]

Like Newman said. It may take up to 4 more weeks until your tank stabilizes.