Struggling for whats normal?

[My Fish Babies.]

I posted a thread a few weeks back about starting my first non goldfish tank. My main concern at that time was about what I could and couldn't keep in the tank. With help support and advice from AA I went with the following.

STOCK
3 Bolivian Rams
5 Diamond Tetras
1 Rubberlip Pleco
3 Mystery snails

Each species was added one week apart to this 29 gallon established tank.
Readings did not seem strange or high until the addition of the 5 tetras.

I do a 50% water change weekly every Monday. Prime treated temp matched.

My concern is my readings from this morning.
ph 8 "normal for my tap water"
Ammonia 2.0 ppm (not even my goldfish tank ever reads this high)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20 ppm.

(I know any ammonia reading over 0.25 is considered dangerous for fish)

What could I be doing wrong? Do I have too many fish in the tank? Possibly feeding too much? Are these readings normal for one week pwc?

Needless to say I did a 75% pwc to bring levels down.

The only thing I have changed chemically is I have started adding flourish to my water weekly for my plants (Which I am also new to keeping)

Kinda glad this happen this morning I was going to add a school of 8 neons to finish off my stock today. (Now I would be afraid to add to even add another snail)

Any experienced advice of guidance would be greatly appreciated as always.

 

[Bbush]

Do the fish seem distressed? Is the tank cycled? I would reduce feeding for sure.

 

[absolutangel04]

How did you cycle the tank?
I suggest just keeping an eye on it and seeing if the readings continue to go high. It may just be that the amount of bioload from the new was more than the bacteria colony was prepared for, the bacteria will catch up. For now, watch it and be dutiful about pwc.

 

[My Fish Babies.]

How did you cycle the tank?
I suggest just keeping an eye on it and seeing if the readings continue to go high. It may just be that the amount of bioload from the new was more than the bacteria colony was prepared for, the bacteria will catch up. For now, watch it and be dutiful about pwc.

Thank you for replying.
Previously this 29 gallon was home to three fancy goldfish. The goldfish moved to a 55 gallon and I cleaned up the 29. Same filter still running on it as before HOB penguin bio wheel 200. It sat with only the three mystery snails in it for about 5 days. Then the Pleco and a week later the Rams finally the diamonds last week. Upon further reading I think maybe adding the five diamond tetras at once may have been too much for the BB to take. I agree I need to watch levels closely for a while. I certainly hope the BB catches up. I am still unsure about stocking and caring for anything else other then goldfish, but I am learning.

 

[My Fish Babies.]

Do the fish seem distressed? Is the tank cycled? I would reduce feeding for sure.

They all seem to be acting normal as far as I can tell. Yes the tank has been running for about a year so I am pretty sure its cycled. I agree to that feeding maybe need to be reduced a bit. Thanks for replying.

 

[absolutangel04]

The Prime will neutralize the ammonia for awhile, so that will help you out in this situation. Just keep an eye on it, do extra pwc as needed, and let us know how it goes.

 

[My Fish Babies.]

Well, I am still a miss as to what may be going on. I did 2, 70% water changes yesterday and skipped feeding. This morning my ammonia level was still at 0.5 ppm better than the 2 ppm it was at. Nitrite was 0 Nitrate was at 40. I am really hoping my bb is just lagging behind since the last addition of tetras. This may be out of sorts to ask but could any of the plants I have added be causing ammonia levels. None of them appear to be dead. Just grasping at straws here I guess. I am just frustrated at the moment. Will do another big water change tonight when I get home from work. Thank you as always for your help and advice.

 

[Bbush]

My ammonia levels stay at .25. Relax, you're doing fine. How r fish? Sounds like trates r up! Hard for me to read those.

 

[My Fish Babies.]

Well all the fish appear to be doing fine. By fine I mean they are actively swimming. I do have a tendency to over worry. Maybe a little OCD Lol! I don't deny it. My tap is at 0.25 ppm ammonia. I guess it's just gonna take some patience. Plan on adding some more plants as well to help keep nitrates under control.

 

[absolutangel04]

.5ppm ammo isn't toxic. No worries.
Here is a guide to help figure out danger zones in ammonia levels: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html

 

[Cichlid Kid]

To answer your O.P. Imo your not overstocked but you shouldn't have seen that much of a decline in bb over a 5 day period. That kinda has me stumped.

 

[My Fish Babies.]

.5ppm ammo isn't toxic. No worries.
Here is a guide to help figure out danger zones in ammonia levels: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html

That has to be one of the coolest things I have seen here on AA. Thank You. So just so I understand an ammonia reading of 0.50 ppm is not toxic? I guess I have always thought anything over 0.25 is considered toxic. How about Nitrate levels? what is the safe zone for those readings? Think I may be getting a grasp on this. Thank you for your help.

 

[My Fish Babies.]

To answer your O.P. Imo your not overstocked but you shouldn't have seen that much of a decline in bb over a 5 day period. That kinda has me stumped.

Yea...Kinda strange. I agree, but this tank has been an entire new experience for me so far. First tank with plants although not that many yet and new species of fish as well. Well Fact or Fiction? (I don't know) Talked to a guy at a petsmart who I actually trust........seems to know his stuff and he questioned me at length about what I have been doing with this 29. His theory is that my use of "Flourish" may be contributing to the problem. He feels that since my tank is not very heavily planted the "flourish" could be increasing my nitrates and ammonia. I am not very technical understood about 50% of what he has explained. Tonight I came home and ammonia was at 0.50 ppm Nitrates at 40 ppm. did another PWC so I will see how things look in the morning. Thanks for your input as always.

 

[absolutangel04]

That has to be one of the coolest things I have seen here on AA. Thank You. So just so I understand an ammonia reading of 0.50 ppm is not toxic? I guess I have always thought anything over 0.25 is considered toxic. How about Nitrate levels? what is the safe zone for those readings? Think I may be getting a grasp on this. Thank you for your help.

Correct. .5 ammo is not toxic. I don't know of a good guide from nitrite or nitrate unfortunately.
People generally use .25ppm ammo as the threshold because it is a low, safe amount and not everybody has access to cool guides like we do.

 

[jetajockey]

Correct. .5 ammo is not toxic. I don't know of a good guide from nitrite or nitrate unfortunately.
People generally use .25ppm ammo as the threshold because it is a low, safe amount and not everybody has access to cool guides like we do.

Nitrate toxicity (like ammonia and nitrite toxicity as well) varies from fish to fish, some are more susceptible than others. In general though most people try to maintain a <20ppm concentration of nitrate, but I recall reading documents that claim that as low as 50ppm caused damage on certain sensitive species.

Some claim nitrite to be toxic at around 2ppm or greater, but I always suggest doing a PWC and treating the tank with a bit of salt if a test result comes up positive for nitrite at .25 or above, just to be safe. Nitrite toxicity is also pH dependent, it is more toxic in acidic conditions, but that doesn't mean its a-ok in basic conditions either.

 

[Steelhawke]

Hey there, I've been reading this and trying to figure out what the problem could be also, but, one thing that has been bothering me and needs a little clearing up, you said it was a cycle tank, fancy golds were living there before. But in your second post you stated you "cleaned it up" . I'm wondering how much cleaning you did and if you broke the cycle, in essence, starting the cycle over from start?

 

[My Fish Babies.]

Hey there, I've been reading this and trying to figure out what the problem could be also, but, one thing that has been bothering me and needs a little clearing up, you said it was a cycle tank, fancy golds were living there before. But in your second post you stated you "cleaned it up" . I'm wondering how much cleaning you did and if you broke the cycle, in essence, starting the cycle over from start?

Yup I did clean the tank and filter. Its a bio wheel penguin 200. I didn't touch the bio wheel nor the filter pad but rather left them submerged in tank water. I did rinse out the actual filter and intake arm as well as the propeller. They were all gunked up and it had been about a year since I had done so. (YUP) its possible I over cleaned it. I didn't really do much with the substrate in fact I just added more to the existing. I have decided that I am just going to have to treat this situation like a fish in cycle for a while until things calm down a bit. Daily testing and water changes are predicted for my future. Thank you for your interest!

 

[My Fish Babies.]

Interesting developments, for those that may have been following this thread. A dear fish friend of mine whom I met here on AA got me back to basics. It was suggested I test my tap water again. It has probably been about three months since I have done the last tap test. My ammonia levels use to be at 0.25ppm from my tap now they are testing at 0.50ppm Nitrates use to test at 0 and now test a little over 10ppm. Nitrites still test at 0 and high level ph close to 8. This sheds a little new light on the situation for me as I have been getting really high Nitrate readings in another tank as well. This tank even after numerous water changes still sits at 0.5 ppm ammonia. I know this is my tap reading now but I still at a loss as to why the BB are not kicking in to drop it to 0. (I may never know) Ohh well just wanted to give an update as I don't give up easily especially when it comes to my pets.

 

[Bbush]

I have heard that trates run high if u live in rural areas.