Bristlenose pleco

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How long has your tank been running?

Ok please read this: The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle
Your pleco likely died from ammonia or nitrite being present in your water. I would advise you purchase a freshwater master test kit right away. It's impossible to properly maintain an aquarium without one.

Your tank is 15 gallons. Sadly that is not appropriate for plecos. They get too large, even a bristlenose reaches 4-5", and they have a huge bio-load (meaning they create large amounts of waste). Too much waste = ammonia/nitrite in the water.
 
Oops we also do have the professional testing kit

Oh you do, great. Please give us the readings for Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. If your tank is not yet cycled, and you have ammonia and nitrite present in the water, it's likely your pH is elevated from that. Your pH will not stabilize until the cycle is complete. This is one of the many reasons fishless cycling is recommended, since a stable pH is crucial for your fish. There's a couple great articles on the site here you should read.

The (almost) Complete Guide and FAQ to Fishless Cycling

I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?!
 
Thanks for your help and advice and link attachments. My last test of water was about a week ago where ammonia was 0.25 Nitrite was 0 and nitrate was 5.0ppm. The ph was reading 8.2. Our guppies and danios seem unfazed and are acting and feeding as per usual. I am going to do a 40 pwc today and take out old filter.
 
Ok so at that point your tank was still cycling. Do not throw away your filter media and stuff...there is nothing wrong with the tank, this is totally normal. Guppies and danios have been popular cycle fish forever..they are hardier for the most part. Gouramis are just much too sensitive to be able to live through it, typically. Now here's the problem - you have no ammonia source in that tank right now which you must have to keep the cycle going. You need a bottle of pure ammonia (per the fishless cycling instructions) so you can finish up your cycle fishless. We don't want the tank sitting there any longer with no ammonia so get that ammo and a test kit today if you can! You don't want to lose all of your progress and the bacteria isn't going to live long unless you feed it.
 
Yeah, BN's do tend to be rather shy, so make sure that they have some places where they can hide and feel secure. They will get a little more active as they become comfortable in the tank, but generally come out more at night. Which is the best time to feed them, at lights out time. And as has been mentioned, driftwood is a must. Not sure how it works, but somehow it assists their digestion, I believe. I feed mine all that has been mentioned, cucumber, peas, romaine, spinach....I think I've tried carrots in the past but can't remember if they ate it or not. And zucchini, I'll buy a few pieces of it, peel it, blanch it and then put it in a ziplock in the freezer so I always have some available. Take out a piece or two, defrost it in tank water (sometimes I'll add garlic drops to the water) and use a veggie clip and stick it to the side of the tank. Its usually gone by morning. Also, when I clean the glass in the tanks, I only clean the front glass (if it needs it - usually it doesn't!) and leave the rest of the glass alone. I believe that there is probably "microscopic" algae that you can't see, that they get nourishment from
 
Sorry to hear about you losing your first BN. I have been keeping and breeding them for quite a while, and personally I wouldn't suggest using the powder. Mine still live and breed just find even in my brigg grow out tank where the PH is like 8.5 or something close to that. I think it's just a matter of acclimating them to your water when you get them home vrom the pet store so that they are not shocked by the suddent change in ph and other parameters as well.
If you get a chance, I highly recommend getting another BN. They are a lot of fun to keep and to breed, and really entertaining once they get less shy about you being around and come out more. :) Good luck.
 
Ok I will get some ammonia for the cycle. At the moment I am using 2 filters as the one we got with tank (marina slimfilter) wasn't very effective and didn't really oxygenate the tank well so we got a fluval u2 free of charge from our local lfs. The fluval has been in as well as the marina filter about 10days now so should I not remove marina filter and just work with the one? I would like a plec but really dunno if it will be wise at the moment
 
wait a minute! Siva, I thought the gups and danios were still in her tank?? If so elaine, you can't use ammonia as you already have an ammo source. The fish! Or did I miss something? Do you still have fish in that tank or no? If so, don't add ammonia.

I have very strange ph in my tap water too. It comes out of the tap at too high to test, above 9, then in a few days will drop to below six. So what I do, rather than use the powder stuff, is I have a little mesh bag of coral gravel that I keep in all of my filters. It helps to keep the ph stable and you don't have to worry about adding chemicals as it natural. The ph in all of my tanks is 7-7.2 by using the coral gravel. Just a thought.

But as siva said, don't take out the filters as they are a beneficial source of bacteria, as long as you DO have fish in that tank. I'm confused at this point! LOL.
 
wait a minute! Siva, I thought the gups and danios were still in her tank?? If so elaine, you can't use ammonia as you already have an ammo source. The fish! Or did I miss something? Do you still have fish in that tank or no? If so, don't add ammonia.

I have very strange ph in my tap water too. It comes out of the tap at too high to test, above 9, then in a few days will drop to below six. So what I do, rather than use the powder stuff, is I have a little mesh bag of coral gravel that I keep in all of my filters. It helps to keep the ph stable and you don't have to worry about adding chemicals as it natural. The ph in all of my tanks is 7-7.2 by using the coral gravel. Just a thought.

But as siva said, don't take out the filters as they are a beneficial source of bacteria, as long as you DO have fish in that tank. I'm confused at this point! LOL.

Yes, yes, yes. If you still have fish in your tank you cannot add ammo. You will get ammo from the fish poop and leftover food. Crushed coral is a good way to stabalize ph, and don't take your filters out since all your good bacteria lives in there. Basically, I agree with everything in this post lol. *also confused*
 
I do have fish in tank so I will try some coral gravel from lfs don't want to use powder if that means it's chemical and will alter things.
Will it be ok to keep using two filters?
 
Definitely. Two filters are fine. You cannot overfilter the water. The only problem would be if you have fish that are sensitive to water current produced by filters. But gups and danios are fine with water movement. You're good!
 
Thanks Jason great article I will keep in mind when get a new bn plec

Beavismom I've done a 40 pwc today so going to test water later, is it about 6hours I should leave water after doing a water change before testing?
 
Huh. You know, I seriously don't know how long to wait, if you even need to, after a water change. I was having trouble with ammonia in one of my tanks and posted about it. I did w/c's and used extra Prime to bring it down, which did help. But I was told on this forum that Prime can affect the ammonia reading for 36-48 hours. Also, depending on the ph in your tap, it might take a while to stabilize in your tank, so you may not get a correct reading on that either. I'm pretty sure you would get an accurate nitrate reading right after a water change. But as I said, I seriously don't know. I do know if I am having trouble with my water, I do go ahead and do a test afterwards anyway, just to get an idea.

Hey! Someone with more knowledge than me? Could you please clarify or correct my response for me? It will help me as well. I don't want to give incorrect info here.
 
Thanks Jason great article I will keep in mind when get a new bn plec

Beavismom I've done a 40 pwc today so going to test water later, is it about 6hours I should leave water after doing a water change before testing?

For smaller tanks 1 hour should do the trick..of course pH may still be adjusting but it should give you accurate ammo, nitrate, and nitrite :)
 
Test ph after 1hr and again next day if you are having non-stable water condition. Also, don't do too much pwc, let the filter build up it's bacteria level. The filter and water carries the good bacteria, but it concentrates in the filter. When you do pwc's, put the fresh water back into tank, not directly through the filter, otherwise, you are washing the bacteria out and it will have to recolonise in the filter.
 
Test ph after 1hr and again next day if you are having non-stable water condition. Also, don't do too much pwc, let the filter build up it's bacteria level. The filter and water carries the good bacteria, but it concentrates in the filter. When you do pwc's, put the fresh water back into tank, not directly through the filter, otherwise, you are washing the bacteria out and it will have to recolonise in the filter.

Ammo levels must be kept under .25ppm no mater how many water changes it takes. Almost none of the beneficial bacteria is in the water column. Back-to-back water changes, multiples in one day, can sometimes be necessary
to keep ammo levels low enough if you are cycling with fish, not too mention nitrite which needs to kept as close to 0 as possible.
 
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