Hi, everyone!
I just got my first tank--five gallons--about a month or so ago, more or less without knowing how much work it would be. I didn't know to do a fishless cycle, so I got two glowlight danios right away, and I have a few plants, too. I learned as I went along, and everything was going great for the first three weeks or so.
In the past week, I've had pH fluctuations from 6.0 to 7.6, which I learned from the LFS was due to my water being too soft. I used Seachem Acid Buffer and Alkaline Buffer together during a water change to fix that and put the pH back where I needed it, and everything seemed fine again. This was yesterday. Today I did another water change during the day, because I hadn't been able to finish vacuuming as much of the gravel as I had wanted to yesterday, and because I had a couple of plants I wanted to add.
Shortly afterward, the fish are hanging out near the top of the tank, they're breathing heavily, and one of them may or may not have a red spot on her head. This is a big "may or may not," it's hard to get a good look 'cause she moves around quite a bit. I just retested the ammonia, and it's either at or very close to 0, judging by the color. The pH is around 6.8-7.0, which is where I usually keep it. I don't have a test kit for nitrite or nitrate yet, because the tests are expensive, but I took a water sample to the LFS just yesterday and they tested it for me and said it was all good.
I'm really at a loss for what could be causing this. I guess I'll do another PWC tonight and hope for the best. If anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it.
Glad to be joining this community. Thanks for reading my novel of a post.
Amartha
I just got my first tank--five gallons--about a month or so ago, more or less without knowing how much work it would be. I didn't know to do a fishless cycle, so I got two glowlight danios right away, and I have a few plants, too. I learned as I went along, and everything was going great for the first three weeks or so.
In the past week, I've had pH fluctuations from 6.0 to 7.6, which I learned from the LFS was due to my water being too soft. I used Seachem Acid Buffer and Alkaline Buffer together during a water change to fix that and put the pH back where I needed it, and everything seemed fine again. This was yesterday. Today I did another water change during the day, because I hadn't been able to finish vacuuming as much of the gravel as I had wanted to yesterday, and because I had a couple of plants I wanted to add.
Shortly afterward, the fish are hanging out near the top of the tank, they're breathing heavily, and one of them may or may not have a red spot on her head. This is a big "may or may not," it's hard to get a good look 'cause she moves around quite a bit. I just retested the ammonia, and it's either at or very close to 0, judging by the color. The pH is around 6.8-7.0, which is where I usually keep it. I don't have a test kit for nitrite or nitrate yet, because the tests are expensive, but I took a water sample to the LFS just yesterday and they tested it for me and said it was all good.
I'm really at a loss for what could be causing this. I guess I'll do another PWC tonight and hope for the best. If anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it.
Glad to be joining this community. Thanks for reading my novel of a post.
Amartha