I have a 10 gallon tank. It's planted, with a 2 inch sand substrate. 6 "bundles" of plants from the LFS, separated out a bit so that they have room to grow. Wisteria, java fern, and some fast growing plants that were recommended to me by the LFS.
Tank has been set up from the get-go with the plants, and one betta to help get the cycle going... or so I thought. It's been up for 6 weeks, the betta was fine, the plants were growing, and all was well. Ammonia levels were 0, nitrites were 0, and nitrates were just hinted at above 5. My assumption, since the tests were fine, was that the plants were doing their job as a biofilter. So, I got a few cardinal tetras (6) on Monday. Did a 50% water change that day before they went in.
Two of them died overnight, so I had the LFS test the water. Ammonia levels were pegged at 8 ppm. Nitrites are also pegging at 5 ppm. I go home, and get the same thing.
I immediately start in on the water changes and dosing with Prime. Doing 50% water changes, once in the morning, and once at night, dosing a 10 gallon dose of Prime each time to try and get the levels down. Nothing. It's been 4 days now, with no slowdown in the ammonia levels or nitrites. They both still peg the scale. The ammonia does take a few minutes to go to completely dark green, so I'm told that the Prime is doing its job. Is that true?
Luckily, I haven't lost any more fish, and they seem to be acting "normal," if not just a bit stressed out. I'm very concerned. I don't know where this is coming from, or why it hasn't calmed down. I don't use any chemicals to clean the tank and never have. There aren't any chemicals or ammonia within 200 feet of the tank. I didn't rinse the filter media in tap water. I'm not overfeeding, and there's no mulm trapped in the sand (it gets vacuumed once a day during a water change). I'm currently feeding very sparingly once a day. I don't get it. Did I not get ANY cycle started at all in the 6 weeks the tank was up?
My tap water has chloramine, and just a tap water test reads about 5 ppm on the Ammonia scale. Could that be a contributor, even after dosing with Prime? Am I doing the right thing by trying to manage this with Prime to protect the fish? Right now, it's just the 1 betta and 4 cardinal tetras. I'm a bit concerned that I'm dosing so much Prime, but then again, I'm changing the water so much and so often that I don't see how it could be building up to a toxic level for them. Do I just have to keep up with the water changes and ride this out?
Tank has been set up from the get-go with the plants, and one betta to help get the cycle going... or so I thought. It's been up for 6 weeks, the betta was fine, the plants were growing, and all was well. Ammonia levels were 0, nitrites were 0, and nitrates were just hinted at above 5. My assumption, since the tests were fine, was that the plants were doing their job as a biofilter. So, I got a few cardinal tetras (6) on Monday. Did a 50% water change that day before they went in.
Two of them died overnight, so I had the LFS test the water. Ammonia levels were pegged at 8 ppm. Nitrites are also pegging at 5 ppm. I go home, and get the same thing.
I immediately start in on the water changes and dosing with Prime. Doing 50% water changes, once in the morning, and once at night, dosing a 10 gallon dose of Prime each time to try and get the levels down. Nothing. It's been 4 days now, with no slowdown in the ammonia levels or nitrites. They both still peg the scale. The ammonia does take a few minutes to go to completely dark green, so I'm told that the Prime is doing its job. Is that true?
Luckily, I haven't lost any more fish, and they seem to be acting "normal," if not just a bit stressed out. I'm very concerned. I don't know where this is coming from, or why it hasn't calmed down. I don't use any chemicals to clean the tank and never have. There aren't any chemicals or ammonia within 200 feet of the tank. I didn't rinse the filter media in tap water. I'm not overfeeding, and there's no mulm trapped in the sand (it gets vacuumed once a day during a water change). I'm currently feeding very sparingly once a day. I don't get it. Did I not get ANY cycle started at all in the 6 weeks the tank was up?
My tap water has chloramine, and just a tap water test reads about 5 ppm on the Ammonia scale. Could that be a contributor, even after dosing with Prime? Am I doing the right thing by trying to manage this with Prime to protect the fish? Right now, it's just the 1 betta and 4 cardinal tetras. I'm a bit concerned that I'm dosing so much Prime, but then again, I'm changing the water so much and so often that I don't see how it could be building up to a toxic level for them. Do I just have to keep up with the water changes and ride this out?