Rachell
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2013
- Messages
- 10
Hi my name is Rachel. I have a 10 gallon freshwater tropical aquarium. I have one large male (I think) ****ation Molly fish. I also have 4 Dalmatian Molly fry in a breeding net.
My friend was the original owner of the fish. I took the fry when they were born because she didn't have anywhere to keep them away from the bigger fish in her tank. Then I took one of her large Dalmatian mollies about 2 weeks after I took the fry. (I'm now at about a month since I've had any fish in my aquarium)
I've been removing the fry from the tank into a small tupper ware bowl every couple days to feed them baby brine shrimp because I know it helps them grow faster and it's good for them etc. Usually though I just feed them ground up tropical fish flakes in the tank about 3-5 times daily.
Since I got the large Molly my nitrite levels have begun to rise extremely fast. When I feed the large fish, he barely ever goes to the top to get the food and only catches a few of the flakes when they eventually sink to the bottom. I bought some algae wafers because I thought he might like those a bit more and he does eat them but no matter how small of a piece I break off and put in the tank there's always some left a few hours later.
Obviously the excess food and waste sitting on the bottom of the tank is what's making the nitrite rise, I've performed a full water change and scrubbed the tank which worked at first but in a week the nitrite levels were higher than they were before I did the water change. Today I performed a 40% water change and used a net to try and fish out some of the particles of waste sitting on the bottom of the tank. The nitrite level is still high and in the "danger" zone so I'm afraid to leave my fish in there for too much longer.
I've tried everything I can find on the Internet to solve this problem but nothing works. I plan on doing water changes daily for the next week or so and seeing if that helps.
My questions are, am I going to have to do daily water changes for the entire life of my aquarium? When will the nitrite level finally drop? And how can I restrict the level of waste in my aquarium besides cutting down feelings (which I've already done, it didn't help)?
My friend was the original owner of the fish. I took the fry when they were born because she didn't have anywhere to keep them away from the bigger fish in her tank. Then I took one of her large Dalmatian mollies about 2 weeks after I took the fry. (I'm now at about a month since I've had any fish in my aquarium)
I've been removing the fry from the tank into a small tupper ware bowl every couple days to feed them baby brine shrimp because I know it helps them grow faster and it's good for them etc. Usually though I just feed them ground up tropical fish flakes in the tank about 3-5 times daily.
Since I got the large Molly my nitrite levels have begun to rise extremely fast. When I feed the large fish, he barely ever goes to the top to get the food and only catches a few of the flakes when they eventually sink to the bottom. I bought some algae wafers because I thought he might like those a bit more and he does eat them but no matter how small of a piece I break off and put in the tank there's always some left a few hours later.
Obviously the excess food and waste sitting on the bottom of the tank is what's making the nitrite rise, I've performed a full water change and scrubbed the tank which worked at first but in a week the nitrite levels were higher than they were before I did the water change. Today I performed a 40% water change and used a net to try and fish out some of the particles of waste sitting on the bottom of the tank. The nitrite level is still high and in the "danger" zone so I'm afraid to leave my fish in there for too much longer.
I've tried everything I can find on the Internet to solve this problem but nothing works. I plan on doing water changes daily for the next week or so and seeing if that helps.
My questions are, am I going to have to do daily water changes for the entire life of my aquarium? When will the nitrite level finally drop? And how can I restrict the level of waste in my aquarium besides cutting down feelings (which I've already done, it didn't help)?