I'm lost

[rorox98]

Hello friends, this thread will be a long, hot mess.

Back in November, I set up my heavily planted 20gallon tall tank. I've got a good bit of ramshorn snails in there thanks to the one or two that were attached to the plants from the store. Last Saturday, I decided I was going to stock it with fish. I noticed there was a ton of snail poop in the substrate, so I checked the parameters (which were normal), and then I did a 25% water change. My reasoning was so that I could get as much of the detritus out before adding more fish so I wouldn't have to do a water change immediately after adding fish, but apparently that was a bad move according to my LFS. I bought 2 balloon mollies (1 male, 1 pregnant female) and 2 angelfish (1 male, 1 female). Five hours later, the male angel died.

The next day, I brought him and a water sample to the store for a refund and to see if there were parasites or something in my water, and it turned out that my ammonia had risen to 0.25ppm, possibly a result of my disturbing the substrate during the water change. Long story short, I wasn't able to get that refund. Neither of them ate the day I got them. I did a 50% water change and added aquarium salt and the parameters were back to normal, but over the next 5 days, the remaining angel refused to eat.

Today, day 6, was crazy. I left for work this morning around 7am. Before I left, all the fish were doing fine. I'm 99% sure I saw the angel (Eileen, bc we kept encouraging her to eat, saying "Come on Eilieen!") take a tiny nibble of flakes. When I got back around 5pm, she had what looked like a tumor on her forehead and seemed off-balance. She was acting the same as she has the whole time I've had her, she was just tumored and off-balance. An hour ago, she was lying in my plants convulsing. She died around 9:30pm. I just checked the ammonia levels again, and they're back up to 0.25ppm. I'm sure this could be due to a million things, possibly even due to my balloon molly giving birth to a ton of fry.

Now, I'm unsure of what to do. I don't want to stress out the mollies by doing yet another water change, but I'm worried that my small amount of ammonia has turned me into a fish killer Should I leave the tank be for a bit? Have I been too much of a helicopter mom? Do y'all think I did this to the angels, or is this not enough time to have done this much damage to them? I've cried a lot today and need answers. This was my first time with angelfish and watching these poor beauties go through hell has really traumatized me. I don't think I'll ever get them again.

Also, I'm pretty sure I need to get a few more female mollies because I didn't know until literally 2 days ago that male mollies harrass females into abortion/death.

My pH is 6.6, temperature is 74 Fahrenheit. I have hard, city water. I'm using a HOB filter. I also use the API master test kit if that makes a difference.

 

[Caliban07]

Hello friends, this thread will be a long, hot mess.



Back in November, I set up my heavily planted 20gallon tall tank. I've got a good bit of ramshorn snails in there thanks to the one or two that were attached to the plants from the store. Last Saturday, I decided I was going to stock it with fish. I noticed there was a ton of snail poop in the substrate, so I checked the parameters (which were normal), and then I did a 25% water change. My reasoning was so that I could get as much of the detritus out before adding more fish so I wouldn't have to do a water change immediately after adding fish, but apparently that was a bad move according to my LFS. I bought 2 balloon mollies (1 male, 1 pregnant female) and 2 angelfish (1 male, 1 female). Five hours later, the male angel died.



The next day, I brought him and a water sample to the store for a refund and to see if there were parasites or something in my water, and it turned out that my ammonia had risen to 0.25ppm, possibly a result of my disturbing the substrate during the water change. Long story short, I wasn't able to get that refund. Neither of them ate the day I got them. I did a 50% water change and added aquarium salt and the parameters were back to normal, but over the next 5 days, the remaining angel refused to eat.



Today, day 6, was crazy. I left for work this morning around 7am. Before I left, all the fish were doing fine. I'm 99% sure I saw the angel (Eileen, bc we kept encouraging her to eat, saying "Come on Eilieen!") take a tiny nibble of flakes. When I got back around 5pm, she had what looked like a tumor on her forehead and seemed off-balance. She was acting the same as she has the whole time I've had her, she was just tumored and off-balance. An hour ago, she was lying in my plants convulsing. She died around 9:30pm. I just checked the ammonia levels again, and they're back up to 0.25ppm. I'm sure this could be due to a million things, possibly even due to my balloon molly giving birth to a ton of fry.



Now, I'm unsure of what to do. I don't want to stress out the mollies by doing yet another water change, but I'm worried that my small amount of ammonia has turned me into a fish killer Should I leave the tank be for a bit? Have I been too much of a helicopter mom? Do y'all think I did this to the angels, or is this not enough time to have done this much damage to them? I've cried a lot today and need answers. This was my first time with angelfish and watching these poor beauties go through hell has really traumatized me. I don't think I'll ever get them again.



Also, I'm pretty sure I need to get a few more female mollies because I didn't know until literally 2 days ago that male mollies harrass females into abortion/death.



My pH is 6.6, temperature is 74 Fahrenheit. I have hard, city water. I'm using a HOB filter. I also use the API master test kit if that makes a difference.

Hello,

Firstly don’t be too hard on yourself. This kind of thing has happened to all of us I can assure you.

Let’s look at the facts and start with your cycle. Judging by the length of time you have had the tank running it is more than likely your nitrogen cycle is complete or almost complete. That is unless you are:

1) heavily disturbing your substrate or
2) continually washing your filter sponge with tap water

Check your tap water using the ammonia kit. If it is the same reading as your tank then it’s safe to assume either a) the kit is telling you lies or b) your tap has a little bit of ammonia.

Whether your tap water has a little bit of ammonia or your tank has elevated levels of ammonia to 0.25ppm there is still some good news. We know that the lower the PH level the less toxic ammonia is. Read this link. If it is too confusing then scroll down to the charts and match your ammonia level with the PH and check to see if you’re in the green. I’m 100% sure you are.

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html

If you’re in the green it probably wasn’t ammonia that killed your fish but don’t rush back to the store with this info you still won’t get a refund.

Next thing, I have 3 stores local to me. Of the 2 that I would consider the more popular I have never been successful keeping fish I have bought from there. My ‘mom and pop’ store around the corner is dingy, with poorly lit tanks all incorrectly stocked. Yet every single time I shop from there the fish always survive and do well.

My hypothesis is that when using a Total dissolved solids (TDS) meter https://youtu.be/eRwLhoRB6JU I noticed from dipping the meter in to the fish bag from each store that the mom and pop store had a similar reading to my tank, yet both the other stores were very different. One being 800ppm whereas my tank was around 100ppm. I still believe that when a fish is acclimated to a certain TDS reading and is then suddenly placed in a very different TDS solution they can be stressed.

Fish can have some pretty terrible journeys before they make it to your tank so there is the possibility that they were already stressed. Stressed fish pick up diseases very easily.

Lastly. Aeration is important but particularly so in tall tanks. This is because it is more difficult for oxygen to dissolve in to water when the surface area of the water surface is small in comparison to the volume of the water. I like to use airstones to help make sure the water is highly oxygenated. This will be particularly beneficial for new fish which may have some gill function loss through poor conditions during travel etc.

 

[connor31556]

Do you know your nitrate/nitrite readings? Ammonia being at 0 is only helpful if you know that the tank would be able to keep that number at 0 with fish in it. If you are just testing ammonia and seeing it at 0 although the plants and snails help its pretty much the same as a newly setup tank and when fish (that produce higher amounts of ammonia) are added it starts the cy long process all over again. Also what products are you putting in the water during watch changes? Tap water can be toxic to fish.

Ps: new fish in a new tank for a new hobbyist are always going to give you some trouble my first tank I had 2 tetras die in hours and Angel's follow them a couple weeks later.