VioletEmber
Aquarium Advice Freak
So I've had this tank up and running for almost a year. I did a fish-in cycle before I knew about fishless. It started out with just plastic plants.
20g high
Marineland 200 penguin filter
I originally had a little dinky filter rated for 20g but it didn't seem like it was cutting it once I learned that many people recommend having a stronger filter... So I added the 200 bio wheel filter (rated for 50g I think)
I let those two run together for a month before taking some filter media from the original filter to seed another tank and eventually moved the filter out completely to set up a qt tank.
At that time I was using a red sea water testing kit someone gave me. I now believe it had expired and wasn't giving me accurate readings. No matter what what water from what tank or tap, it said I was at .25 ammonia...
So I got an API test kit. Right before that I lost a zebra danio and long story short when I tested for ammonia with my fancy new kit the test tube turned a terrifying emerald green. I correctly diagnosed (duh) two other danios with ammonia poisoning though all other fish seemed unharmed.
Yikes!
Over the last few months I began adding live plants and moving out the plastic. At this point it is only live plants. I also pulled out some of the ugly blue gravel and put in sand, but only in one corner... Just planning in doing a corner at a time. (looks kinda cool actually, like a little underwater beach, and the cory loves it!) But these changes were gradual over several weeks, not all at once.
I have been doing 25-50% PWC every day or every other day and the ammonia is slowly coming down. I am now at .25ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0-5 ppm nitrates.
So did the filter change cause my tank to have to re-cycle? That is the only explanation I can think of... But I let it run for a month and also have some if the original filter media in there.
What else could have caused this ammonia? I was doing weekly PWC of 40-50%.
1 female Betta
5 glowlight tetra
1 Cory (he has friends coming in qt now)
3 zebra danio (moving them to my 20 long once it's up and running)
I had 4 endler's in there but they died in the ammonia. So sad and guilty feeling!
Although I think I have a handle on it now I am wondering if I have missed something that might have caused this. Any ideas? Anything I have left out?
20g high
Marineland 200 penguin filter
I originally had a little dinky filter rated for 20g but it didn't seem like it was cutting it once I learned that many people recommend having a stronger filter... So I added the 200 bio wheel filter (rated for 50g I think)
I let those two run together for a month before taking some filter media from the original filter to seed another tank and eventually moved the filter out completely to set up a qt tank.
At that time I was using a red sea water testing kit someone gave me. I now believe it had expired and wasn't giving me accurate readings. No matter what what water from what tank or tap, it said I was at .25 ammonia...
So I got an API test kit. Right before that I lost a zebra danio and long story short when I tested for ammonia with my fancy new kit the test tube turned a terrifying emerald green. I correctly diagnosed (duh) two other danios with ammonia poisoning though all other fish seemed unharmed.
Yikes!
Over the last few months I began adding live plants and moving out the plastic. At this point it is only live plants. I also pulled out some of the ugly blue gravel and put in sand, but only in one corner... Just planning in doing a corner at a time. (looks kinda cool actually, like a little underwater beach, and the cory loves it!) But these changes were gradual over several weeks, not all at once.
I have been doing 25-50% PWC every day or every other day and the ammonia is slowly coming down. I am now at .25ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0-5 ppm nitrates.
So did the filter change cause my tank to have to re-cycle? That is the only explanation I can think of... But I let it run for a month and also have some if the original filter media in there.
What else could have caused this ammonia? I was doing weekly PWC of 40-50%.
1 female Betta
5 glowlight tetra
1 Cory (he has friends coming in qt now)
3 zebra danio (moving them to my 20 long once it's up and running)
I had 4 endler's in there but they died in the ammonia. So sad and guilty feeling!
Although I think I have a handle on it now I am wondering if I have missed something that might have caused this. Any ideas? Anything I have left out?