Billbug68
Aquarium Advice Addict
Okay so I've had a mess on my hands starting up my first tank. Every time the fam and I would go to petco my three year old would love to look at the fish, so we finally decided to get a small freshwater tank. I had no idea how complicated it would end up being or how much I would actually fall in love with keeping fish! The guy sold us a 10 gallon starter kit with a female beta to get it started. Didn't really explain the cycle, just advised us to bring a water sample in about a week later to see if we could add some fish... UGGG!
So a week later we were out to eat, my fiancé wanted to get some more fish, so I agreed. Petco was closed so we just said screw it and went to Walmart. FAIL! We ended up with two male guppies, two glow lights, two neons, and a baby pleco(I KNOW, I KNOW,)
I was doing a weekly 50% water change and gravel vac. I started educating myself about the cycle, stocking, and how many of each fish to keep. The guppies eventually died, about a week apart. I purchased a few more neons, had a total of five. Two died .
Purchased four more glow lights for a total of six. Soon one of the neons seemed to come down with a case of ick. Started to treat the water with ick attack and removed the carbon, replaced filter with some cut to size bonded filter pad. I also took the pleco to petco because I knew he was creating too much waste, and my tank was way over stocked.
The sick neon died, added one more days worth of the medication and decided I was going to solely focus on the water quality and cycle.
Went and got myself the master test kit because i dont trust anyone at petco anymore... Replaced carbon filter with a 50% water change, and started doing Dailey 40-50% changes since then. I've been trying to keep the ammonia at .25ppm. Noticed my levels would go up a bit to .5 or 1 after a water change. Tested my tap water and it reads .5ppm out of the faucet.
So here's my situation now
10 gallon kit with the aqueon power filter
Adjustable heater
One air stone
Fake plants
A lava rock
Two small pirate decorations
1 female betta
6 glow lights
2 neons
Temp 82
Ph tops out low range drops and bottoms the high range so I figure around 7.5
Ammonia .25
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
I use aqueon water conditioner and AmQuel ammonia detoxifier if the ammonia goes above 1ppm.
So does anyone have any advise for me? Should I let the ammonia rise? I would like to keep the glow lights and betta. Should I sit and wait now? Will nitrites develop if I keep the ammonia that low? I finally think I'm on the right track now just hoping my tank will still cycle with the AmQuel, and wondering how often I should do a WC now!
I've been going through this since the beginning of March!
So a week later we were out to eat, my fiancé wanted to get some more fish, so I agreed. Petco was closed so we just said screw it and went to Walmart. FAIL! We ended up with two male guppies, two glow lights, two neons, and a baby pleco(I KNOW, I KNOW,)
I was doing a weekly 50% water change and gravel vac. I started educating myself about the cycle, stocking, and how many of each fish to keep. The guppies eventually died, about a week apart. I purchased a few more neons, had a total of five. Two died .
Purchased four more glow lights for a total of six. Soon one of the neons seemed to come down with a case of ick. Started to treat the water with ick attack and removed the carbon, replaced filter with some cut to size bonded filter pad. I also took the pleco to petco because I knew he was creating too much waste, and my tank was way over stocked.
The sick neon died, added one more days worth of the medication and decided I was going to solely focus on the water quality and cycle.
Went and got myself the master test kit because i dont trust anyone at petco anymore... Replaced carbon filter with a 50% water change, and started doing Dailey 40-50% changes since then. I've been trying to keep the ammonia at .25ppm. Noticed my levels would go up a bit to .5 or 1 after a water change. Tested my tap water and it reads .5ppm out of the faucet.
So here's my situation now
10 gallon kit with the aqueon power filter
Adjustable heater
One air stone
Fake plants
A lava rock
Two small pirate decorations
1 female betta
6 glow lights
2 neons
Temp 82
Ph tops out low range drops and bottoms the high range so I figure around 7.5
Ammonia .25
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
I use aqueon water conditioner and AmQuel ammonia detoxifier if the ammonia goes above 1ppm.
So does anyone have any advise for me? Should I let the ammonia rise? I would like to keep the glow lights and betta. Should I sit and wait now? Will nitrites develop if I keep the ammonia that low? I finally think I'm on the right track now just hoping my tank will still cycle with the AmQuel, and wondering how often I should do a WC now!
I've been going through this since the beginning of March!