abw0004
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Well I need to swallow my pride on this one and admit a HUGE mistake I should have never pulled because I definitely knew better, and feel dumb for doing it.
As everyone probably knows because of my multiple threads, I am rebuilding my tank. I have a German Blue Ram in it, among Neon Tetras, Honey Gourami, Clown Pleco, and Nerite Snails.
When I tore down and rebuilt the tank two weekends ago, I kept a good 5" of tank water that was full of detritus and (I thought) BB. I put the plants I was going to reuse in a 10 gallon QT tank I have with the fish.
With the main tank I put the new gravel in with the tank water I left in so it was mixed in with the BB. Once it was all set up, I also took an extra step and put two Solo cups full of the old gravel in the tank to further help the tank not cycle. The new filter had also been running for a week prior and had been used with a few old pieces filter media with the new media to jumpstart it as well.
"This will not cycle," I thought and put all of the fish in the tank the next morning after I did a 70% water change. Well, for the past week it has been at .25 PPM (never gone higher than that) ammonia, and yesterday has finally registered Nitrates. With that, I kept the GBR in the tank, knowing well enough GBR's do not tolerate cycling tanks. I did 50% water changes everyday to try and help her out (she is 2 years old by the way).
Saturday morning I noticed she was at the bottom of the tank with some stress bars showing, and seemed to not know where she was going and would run into things. She would also not eat.
I immediately set up the QT tank, put her in with the temperature at 82 degrees, half dose of aquarium salt, and Prime as the conditioner. She would just lay on the gravel upright with the stress bars, and would keep bumping into things when she did move around. Her breathing is normal, and will not eat. What have I done, and can I reverse the damage? I love this fish to death, and am kicking myself so don't harp on me too bad. Thank you.
EDIT: The other fish are fine, eating, and acting normal. The ammonia has never been above .25 PPM. Strangely, Nitrites have never once registered, but Nitrates are registering now like I stated.
As everyone probably knows because of my multiple threads, I am rebuilding my tank. I have a German Blue Ram in it, among Neon Tetras, Honey Gourami, Clown Pleco, and Nerite Snails.
When I tore down and rebuilt the tank two weekends ago, I kept a good 5" of tank water that was full of detritus and (I thought) BB. I put the plants I was going to reuse in a 10 gallon QT tank I have with the fish.
With the main tank I put the new gravel in with the tank water I left in so it was mixed in with the BB. Once it was all set up, I also took an extra step and put two Solo cups full of the old gravel in the tank to further help the tank not cycle. The new filter had also been running for a week prior and had been used with a few old pieces filter media with the new media to jumpstart it as well.
"This will not cycle," I thought and put all of the fish in the tank the next morning after I did a 70% water change. Well, for the past week it has been at .25 PPM (never gone higher than that) ammonia, and yesterday has finally registered Nitrates. With that, I kept the GBR in the tank, knowing well enough GBR's do not tolerate cycling tanks. I did 50% water changes everyday to try and help her out (she is 2 years old by the way).
Saturday morning I noticed she was at the bottom of the tank with some stress bars showing, and seemed to not know where she was going and would run into things. She would also not eat.
I immediately set up the QT tank, put her in with the temperature at 82 degrees, half dose of aquarium salt, and Prime as the conditioner. She would just lay on the gravel upright with the stress bars, and would keep bumping into things when she did move around. Her breathing is normal, and will not eat. What have I done, and can I reverse the damage? I love this fish to death, and am kicking myself so don't harp on me too bad. Thank you.
EDIT: The other fish are fine, eating, and acting normal. The ammonia has never been above .25 PPM. Strangely, Nitrites have never once registered, but Nitrates are registering now like I stated.
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