sherry
Aquarium Advice FINatic
the whole thing again
I learned about cycling AFTER I put the fish in my little six gallon tank.
So I raced to local fish store, actually they raced to me.. anyone in NY go to Petqua they are cool folks.. anyway they gave me some dirty filter floss and within days and a few water changes, the ammo was down to zero and so were nitrites.
a week later, I figured the tank was fine, and got rid of their old filter floss thinking my sponge filter was now full of bacteria.
The ammonia spiked to .75. I threw in some bio spira (I had ordered it before and then didn't need it) .. and did a water change. Ammonia, which had gone down to .5 with water change was again .75 next day.
I went back to Petqua for more dirty filter.. did another water change... but every morning the ammonia is back to .75 after being .5 with each water change.
I am using Prime to declorinate the water. Could that be giving me false high readings? Or is the ammo really that high.
also. the first time I had high ammo readings, the fish looked frantic. But the last few days, the fish look great, despite the high readings. Is the prime protecting them?
I can add more bio spira, but it seems a waste since it hasn't helped.
what more can i do.
tank has four columbian tetras, 2 zebras, 2 dwarf corrys and is planted, but nothing is dead or rotting.
I learned about cycling AFTER I put the fish in my little six gallon tank.
So I raced to local fish store, actually they raced to me.. anyone in NY go to Petqua they are cool folks.. anyway they gave me some dirty filter floss and within days and a few water changes, the ammo was down to zero and so were nitrites.
a week later, I figured the tank was fine, and got rid of their old filter floss thinking my sponge filter was now full of bacteria.
The ammonia spiked to .75. I threw in some bio spira (I had ordered it before and then didn't need it) .. and did a water change. Ammonia, which had gone down to .5 with water change was again .75 next day.
I went back to Petqua for more dirty filter.. did another water change... but every morning the ammonia is back to .75 after being .5 with each water change.
I am using Prime to declorinate the water. Could that be giving me false high readings? Or is the ammo really that high.
also. the first time I had high ammo readings, the fish looked frantic. But the last few days, the fish look great, despite the high readings. Is the prime protecting them?
I can add more bio spira, but it seems a waste since it hasn't helped.
what more can i do.
tank has four columbian tetras, 2 zebras, 2 dwarf corrys and is planted, but nothing is dead or rotting.