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I've got a 35g tank with about 12 baby mollies and a pleco. My understanding was that NA dissipates naturally over time but for some reason mine keeps going up and a 50% PWC is the only way to reduce it. The problem is my tap water is 10ppm so even in a best case PWC, this is the lowest I can...

A complete cycle can take 6 weeks or more depending on various factors. Ammonia at 0 means you've made progress and you're in the 2nd 1/2 of the cycle. Keep checking every day and pretty soon the nitrites will drop to 0.

Yeah, same idea. I don't know how porous the individual strands are, but it just seems like they would be a really good harbor for bacteria.

Either one of these: Scouring pads from Scotch-Brite

Anyone ever tried this? I don't want to leave my QT tank set up all the time so I'm thinking about soaking a piece of scotch brite pad in my main tank to use in the QT tank (UG filter) when I set it up.

What about getting purified water or an R/O system? It's a pain, but with your water situation, I don't see any alternatives short of adding a bunch of crap to your water

Is he pooping?

The only way 'biozyme' could contribute to colonizing beneficial bacteria is if they managed to find a way to make the bacteria go dormant (instead of killing them which is what normally happens) when drying them out. I'm no expert, but I would imagine if this were possible it would be well...

If you don't have a reduction from a larger tube to a smaller tube (~70% reduction) it's very difficult to pinpoint a flow rate that sucks up the crud but doesn't pull the gravel all the way. You can make your own vac with a trip to Home Depot or your local hardware store to get some thick-wall...

Sad news. Molly didn't make it. I went in to do her PWC last evening and she was dead. I have no idea what was going on with her caved in belly, but I'm guessing it was some kind of internal organ failure and and I'm pretty sure whatever it was is what finally did her in.

Well, things are not good with the molly. The spot/patch on her side was still visible so I decided to leave her in QT a couple more days. The patch got worse and her belly deflated again. Now she has Ick. I didn't get a heater for the QT tank and tried to use the hood light to control tank...

Molly is doing great! Yesterday morning there was some dead skin or scales that was sloughing off the spot on her side and now that that's gone, the spot on her side is barely visible, her color is great, her belly is back to normal shape & size and her fins are growing back. I think she'll be...

You can get a basic gravel vac for $7.

What are you using to test your water? Strips can give you a ballpark, but if the readings go beyond what the strips can read (which sounds entirely possible based on your symptoms) you won't get an accurate reading. Best to stop buying fish for a while and get the API Freshwater Master Test...

Good news. It seems I jumped the gun by a couple days. My ammonia is reading only trace amounts now, so it seems my methods did not interfere with the biofilter. Now my nitrites are spiking pretty high as expected, so I'm still doing daily PWCs until these go down.

I've been seeing nitrites in the .25-.75ppm range from the time I started the tank up, but this was a dirty tank that I restarted, so I'm sure there's all kinds of reasons for the nitrites. I'm using API Stress Coat + (Stress Coat® - API) when I do my PWCs. It's a dechlor with stress coat...

I started thinking about something and I haven't seen it mentioned yet. Some of the water conditioners convert harmful ammonia. I understand most don't actually eliminate the ammonia but is the ammonia that's left still consumable by the ammoniabactors (or whatever the ammonia eating bacteria...

Last evening the spot on her side was looking worse and her finrot had worsened, although she was more active than ever. Her belly also started looking deflated, so decided to add some Jungle internal and external parasite treatment I had around as well as a little aquarium salt into the mix...

Update Ok, so this is an update since yesterday. I picked up some API Triple Sulfa. As I thought about it, I realized treating a single fish in a 37 gallon tank with this stuff would get pretty expensive. I picked up a small one gal. tank complete with filter, pump and light for $15 at...

Yeah, makes sense! Thanks!

Both good ideas. Thanks!

Photos and update. Ok, I managed to get a couple decent photos so they're below. I also have an update on her condition. I did my daily PWC (50%) about 2 hours ago and now she's now just resting on the bottom of the tank. The two mollies and the platty are breathing about 2 breaths per...

Yeah, I know I screwed up, but I'm committed and aside from the spot and fin rot on this one fish, they're active and seem to be doing well with the PWCs every day.

I started up a tank that I had run before. There was a lot of crud in it when I started it and (before I found these forums) I decided the crud from the old installment of the tank would benefit the bio-system of the new installment so I didn't clean anything. I ran it for a week before adding...

The test kit you want is called "Master Test Kit" made by a company called API. I got mine at PetsMart. Any local fish store should have it. The target readings are 0's for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. The pH reading is not critical so long as it remains constant. You can expect to do...