New to plants

[Dwohlge1]

I have had a 25 g with two fantails and a large blue snail for 3 weeks. 5 days ago I got a cabomba. My water is 68 degrees and I am using the light that came with the tank and hood. Am I doing it all wrong?

My ammonia keeps spiking and I am not sure if it is from cycling or the plant dying? Please help

Thanks,

Dan

 

[mfdrookie516]

I'd say your ammonia is coming from the fish. Did you cycle the tank before adding fish? What kind of lighting do you have? I've seen numerous times from goldfish guys that plants+goldfish=food.

 

[Dwohlge1]

I didn't cycle the tank prior to adding the fish. I just did a 30% water change and my ammonia barely dropped. I have done water changes daily now for 4 days.. I did a 15%, 18%, 20% then today I did a 30%. After the change the ammonia tests at .5ppm

Is this an acceptable level? It was 1ppm before i started my water changes.

 

[Dwohlge1]

Oh and the light is just the ones that came with the tank. I am not sure what kind.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I have had a 25 g with two fantails and a large blue snail for 3 weeks. 5 days ago I got a cabomba. My water is 68 degrees and I am using the light that came with the tank and hood. Am I doing it all wrong?

My ammonia keeps spiking and I am not sure if it is from cycling or the plant dying? Please help

Thanks,

Dan

I have Moors and they're like all Goldies, pooping machines lol. IMO that's where all the ammo is coming from and with your tank still cycling you don't have the bacteria to eat all the ammo produced. I would suggest 2X25% PWC each day (AM/PM) until the ammo stay at .25ppm or lower. Are you testing for nitrites and nitrates too? Knowing what they are is helpful too.

Cabomba is a med to hard plant to keep and with kit lighting you'll be struggling to keep it going IME. I'd suggest anacharis, its easy to keep, grows fast and Goldies love to munch on it.

Do you use a gravel vacuum to do PWC? If not you should add it to your equipment list and clean your gravel at each PWC.

Sent from my Epic 4G using Aquarium Advice App

 

[roydooms]

I didn't cycle the tank prior to adding the fish. I just did a 30% water change and my ammonia barely dropped. I have done water changes daily now for 4 days.. I did a 15%, 18%, 20% then today I did a 30%. After the change the ammonia tests at .5ppm

Is this an acceptable level? It was 1ppm before i started my water changes.

You should do another 50%PWC to lower down your ammonia to <.25ppm. Since you already have fish in the tank, you should keep your ammonia and nitrite below 0.25ppm until your tank cycles. What are your nitrite and nitrate levels?

 

[roydooms]

Or 2-25% PWC as Mr.Limpet said.

 

[Dwohlge1]

Thank you for the advice. I order the freshwater test kit online until then I picked up an ammonia test kit until the full test kit gets here.

Would it be ok to add an anacharis while the tank is cycling? If the fish eat it won't it raise the ammonia?


Also should I be worried about tempature fluctuations when doing a large water change?

 

[roydooms]

Thank you for the advice. I order the freshwater test kit online until then I picked up an ammonia test kit until the full test kit gets here.

Would it be ok to add an anacharis while the tank is cycling? If the fish eat it won't it raise the ammonia?

Also should I be worried about tempature fluctuations when doing a large water change?

What I do with PWC is I use a thermometer and make sure that the water from the faucet is the same temp as my tank or close to it then I put it in a big container add Prime then put it in my tank. So there is not much temp change. I had plants when I was cycling my tank. My brother has mollies in his planted tank and he doesn't have any problem with them messing with the plants. I have a gourami in my planted tank and I don't have any problem either. Which gourami do you have? Male and female? If yes, the male might start building a bubble nest using some plants. I only have a male. I'm not sure if they will start spawning though because of the ammonia and nitrite in your tank.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Thank you for the advice. I order the freshwater test kit online until then I picked up an ammonia test kit until the full test kit gets here.

Would it be ok to add an anacharis while the tank is cycling? If the fish eat it won't it raise the ammonia?

Also should I be worried about tempature fluctuations when doing a large water change?

Liquid test kits are the best IMHO. Not sure what you're using to treat your tap water, but I'd suggest Seachem's Prime. It also help eliminate some ammo and you can dose up to 5X norm and not hurt the fish.

Plants will use some ammo and thrive on nitrAtes, just remove anything that looks dead/rotting so it doesn't add to the ammo spikes.

Sent from my Epic 4G using Aquarium Advice App

 

[Dwohlge1]

That's a good idea with the thermometer. Also I have 2 fancies (FGF) and a large blue snail.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Or 2-25% PWC as Mr.Limpet said.

I may be wrong, but my theory in a situation like this that PWC are a med treatment and twice a day keeps the "meds" constant over a full day rather than letting it build up over a 24hr period then dropping down with one big change. Not sure if it's valid, but like pH ups/downs it's harder on the fish.

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[mfdrookie516]

the problem with that is two 25% pwc's dont equal one 50% pwc. In these situations, its better for the fish to get the ammonia out quickly, vs reducing it slowly. You're right about pH, and even nitrates (OTS), but not ammonia/nitrite

 

[Mr. Limpet]

the problem with that is two 25% pwc's dont equal one 50% pwc. In these situations, its better for the fish to get the ammonia out quickly, vs reducing it slowly. You're right about pH, and even nitrates (OTS), but not ammonia/nitrite

You're right that 2X25% doesn't equal 1X50%, but do you mean it's not a problem letting the ammo build up higher over a 24hr period with one big PWC?

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[mfdrookie516]

Sorry, I don't get where 24 hours is coming in to play. If ammonia gets above .25ppm, a 50% pwc needs to be done... that's my opinion on it. It doesn't matter if it's been an hour, a day, 3 days, whatever... I guess it would all depend on the bioload in the tank.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Sorry, I don't get where 24 hours is coming in to play. If ammonia gets above .25ppm, a 50% pwc needs to be done... that's my opinion on it. It doesn't matter if it's been an hour, a day, 3 days, whatever... I guess it would all depend on the bioload in the tank.

Like the OP, they're Goldies. So a 25% PWC won't remove any/enough ammo? Guess I better get a bigger bucket .

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[mfdrookie516]

No, a 25% pwc is certainly better than none. Think of it this way. If you have a 100g tank (assuming it had 100g of water, just for comparison sake). You have 10ppm ammonia. You do a 50% pwc (remove and replace 50g), you're going to have 5ppm ammonia. If you only did a 25% PWC, you're going to have 7.5ppm ammonia. Another 25% pwc you're going to have ~5.6ppm. So, it's not quite as much as a 50% pwc. But... if you're only doing twice daily, your ammonia is going to go back up between pwc 1 and pwc2... if you do 50% as needed, you won't run in to this issue as bad. make sense?

 

[Dwohlge1]

No, a 25% pwc is certainly better than none. Think of it this way. If you have a 100g tank (assuming it had 100g of water, just for comparison sake). You have 10ppm ammonia. You do a 50% pwc (remove and replace 50g), you're going to have 5ppm ammonia. If you only did a 25% PWC, you're going to have 7.5ppm ammonia. Another 25% pwc you're going to have ~5.6ppm. So, it's not quite as much as a 50% pwc. But... if you're only doing twice daily, your ammonia is going to go back up between pwc 1 and pwc2... if you do 50% as needed, you won't run in to this issue as bad. make sense?

This makes sense and looks to be my problem. As have done daily water changes with no real results.

I have an established 10 gallon could I take the filter cartridge out of it and put it in the 25g (floating) to speed things up?

Also I have a dropper test kit for ammo the full litmus in the mail.

 

[AggieMel]

Would it be ok to add an anacharis while the tank is cycling? If the fish eat it won't it raise the ammonia?

I've never seen a fish eat Anacharis, but my fish are tiny, so I digress. I can't imagine they'd devour enough for it to make a difference. I wouldn't really worry about it raising the ammonia unless your lighting is so bad that it can't grow and starts decaying. If anything, plants will help use up ammonia. (Ammonia is widely used as an agricultural fertilizer; they will, however, use nitrates more.) Adding an Anacharis should be fine as long as your light is good enough to sustain it. If you can give us more info on what kind of light exactly came with the tank, we should be able to give you a better idea of if your plants will do alright.

Best of luck!