Jadedrain_06
Aquarium Advice Regular
Hello all,
I am new to the hobby but have always loved watching friend's and families aquariums. I do know about the cycling process and have 2 10 gallon tanks that I am trying to cycle. I know the size limits the amount of fish and size of fish I can have being a military family I don't want to go too big since we move every couple years. I was trying to do a fishless cycle with fish food for about 4 weeks and got talked into adding 3 guppies to one tank and 3 glo fish to the other by a Petsmart employee. They dropped like flies. Clamped fins and some even have little red spots on them (ruptured blood vessels?). I felt absolutely horrible. I went today to a local family owned pet store and bought an established filter from them to seed our one tank and then I plan on moving it to the next to do the same. I do have the API testing kit and have been monitoring the water every other day, doing 20-30% water changes when a fish dies or atleast every other day. My pH in both tanks ranges from 7.4-8.5. The GH and KH are always maxed. No nitrites or nitrates yet and ammonia is always around .25ppm. So I am unsure why the fish died. I know there are typically casualities when cycling with fish but 6 in a 24 hour period does not seem right to me. Is it my pH? I have tried to use API pH down and it will drop to 7.0-7.4 but within a day it is back up to 8.0 atleast. Our tap water is typically around 7. I have read up on buffers and reverse osmosis but the RO systems are not only expensive but confusing. Be kind please! I am educating myself as best I can but I swear as soon as I finish reading one thing it adds another question to the mix. Thanks!
I am new to the hobby but have always loved watching friend's and families aquariums. I do know about the cycling process and have 2 10 gallon tanks that I am trying to cycle. I know the size limits the amount of fish and size of fish I can have being a military family I don't want to go too big since we move every couple years. I was trying to do a fishless cycle with fish food for about 4 weeks and got talked into adding 3 guppies to one tank and 3 glo fish to the other by a Petsmart employee. They dropped like flies. Clamped fins and some even have little red spots on them (ruptured blood vessels?). I felt absolutely horrible. I went today to a local family owned pet store and bought an established filter from them to seed our one tank and then I plan on moving it to the next to do the same. I do have the API testing kit and have been monitoring the water every other day, doing 20-30% water changes when a fish dies or atleast every other day. My pH in both tanks ranges from 7.4-8.5. The GH and KH are always maxed. No nitrites or nitrates yet and ammonia is always around .25ppm. So I am unsure why the fish died. I know there are typically casualities when cycling with fish but 6 in a 24 hour period does not seem right to me. Is it my pH? I have tried to use API pH down and it will drop to 7.0-7.4 but within a day it is back up to 8.0 atleast. Our tap water is typically around 7. I have read up on buffers and reverse osmosis but the RO systems are not only expensive but confusing. Be kind please! I am educating myself as best I can but I swear as soon as I finish reading one thing it adds another question to the mix. Thanks!