Cory catfish is dying

[luis_j]

Hello,

I have a 15 gallon tank and i'm currently going into my fourth week with trying to cycle my tank with fish.

Water parameter:

pH - 7
Ammonia - .25
Nitrite - 5
Nitrate - 5

I've been doing water changes everyday now to try to lower the nitrites levels, but for some reason is not working. My dwarf gourami died three days ago and one of my cory julii catfish is about to die (he's on his back and barely moves)

I have 2 red patys and 3 cory catfish ( 1 of them is dying) My water is very cloudy and it wasn't like that three days ago.

Anyone has any thought on what I can do to save my cory catfish please. Thank you.

 

[Sambo7475]

A Nitrite level of 5 is extremely deadly to your fish, and is probably why you're losing them rapidly.
I would do 2 50% water changes an hour apart, to get the nitrIte level down to about 1. I would add 5x the recommeded dose of Prime to the tank each water change, treating for the whole tank volume (to bind the nitrite).
Test again tomorrow morning, and see where you're at in the cycle. My guess is you're almost done, since you have some nitrAte readings at this point.

 

[librarygirl]

How much water are you taking out when you do a water change? As Sambo said, your nitrites are at toxic levels, so larger water changes are needed to get them down quickly (also it might be a good idea to test your tap water just to make sure it isn't high in nitrite). Do a couple of 50% water changes an hour or two apart. You'll probably have to do a couple more tomorrow too. Ideally you want to keep ammonia and nitrite under .25.

 

[Cynic]

Sorry but your fish is unlikely to survive for long even if you get your nitrItes down due to the damage likely already done. One of the risks of Fish In Cycling.

 

[luis_j]

Hi,

I've been doing 30 percent water changes and I use RO water. My cory catfish just died right now ...I'm going to try to do the 50% water changes and also I noticed that my filter is really dirty. Any thought on the right way to clean it? I read that changing the filter pad is bad so I'm hoping someone can help me what is the right way to do it.

 

[Sambo7475]

if the pad is really dirty, just swish it in a bucket of tank water, otherwise let it be, because that's where most of your beneficial bacteria that process the nitrogen (ammonia, nitrite) live.
Don't rinse it in tap water, you'll risk killing off the bacteria.

 

[luis_j]

Help will be greatly appreciated to an answer to the previous question. Also, I just recently did a 50 % water change and I used primed it x5. Hope it helps

 

[luis_j]

if the pad is really dirty, just swish it in a bucket of tank water, otherwise let it be, because that's where most of your beneficial bacteria that process the nitrogen (ammonia, nitrite) live.
Don't rinse it in tap water, you'll risk killing off the bacteria.

What if I poured the tank water into the pad? does that count? or did I just killed all of my bacteria?

 

[Sambo7475]

that should be fine, you just don't want to use tap water that's untreated, because the chlorine will kill the bb.