Help :( All kinds of tank problems.

[bridgie]

First things first, I am still pretty new to the fish game. Please try not to judge too harshly - I'm really trying my best to treat my fish right and am having some major trial and error issues.

Okay, so I have a 30 gallon aquarium. Everything was fine (or so I thought) - We started with a few guppies and platys (5 fish total.) Water levels were fine, (ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrates < 20ppm.) Tank had been running for a couple months and cycled.

Then I added a few more and some started to get (what I thought was) nipped fins. Over several days, a few were lost. I assumed the Platys were the problem so I decided to quarantine the two of them in a much smaller tank for a little bit to see how things went (5 gallon - I know it's too small, but it's all the room I had left after the 30. and was definitely not meant to be permanent, just ruling out trouble makers.)

After moving them fins continued to look worse and more shredded, a couple more died. That's when I realized it wasn't nipping at all; it was fin rot. I can only assume one of the last ones I brought in had it when it came, because my levels had been pretty stable even though it isn't a super established tank. Got medicine to fix that but still lost one more.

So I came home from work, checked my water levels and everything was off the charts terrible. My amonia was like 5 ppm. Either a guppy had passed the night before and I didn't see it or it must have died right after I left for work that morning.

Either way I straight panicked. I dumped a ton of ammo lock in there along with conditioner (probably enough for 75+ gallons), stress zymes and the cloudy water fix from API. Also did a 50% water change and replaced the filter. The next morning things weren't much better, so I made the decision to move them all the the 5 gallon while I figured out the big tank. (Assumed being in a too small tank was better than sitting in ammonia)

I did another 50% water change and made sure the rocks were vacuumed out well. I added some of the quick start to hopefully replace the bacteria I know I inadvertently got rid of or killed off.

Now I have 7 fish (butterfly loach, 2 cory cats, 2 platys, and 4 guppies) in a 5 gallon tank. What I thought would be a couple day thing has turned into a week and I have no idea what to do. I've done several water changes and still the big tank is reading high amonia. I'm so worried that in my panic I have 100% killed every bit of the progress I had made with cycling. I know my fish cant stay in the tiny tank, but I also cant put them back in the big tank.

WHAT DO I DO? I am absolutely stressed over this. Do I just scrap everything and add completely new water to the big tank? Do I just empty most of the big tank and start funneling my water changes from the small tank into the big one (so that it's not just fresh tank water and has a little bit of bio in it)? HAve I already completely started a whole new cycle inadvertently by doing so many water changes and adding too many chemicals because of the ammonia?

Any advice is so, so, appreciated. Ive replaced the back carbon filter with with ammonia reducing "cut to size) filters and replaced the carbon media in the front filter with the marineland diamond ammonia killing media.

Also, the small tank is stable since I started it with water from the big tank before the fiasco. So far it's staying stable even with the large amounts of fish in a small area, but I doubt it'll stay that way for much longer.

Setup:

My pH stays about an 8 (down from 8.2, our water is just higher pH, but they seem to have acclimated well and it's not much higher than the pet store who is at 7.8 consistently.)
Filter: MarineLand Penguin Bio-Wheel Power Filter, Multi-Stage Aquarium Filter https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
(Decided to upgrade to the 200 for up to 50 gallons version and will soon be replaced with that one)

Substrate - The black and neon rock substrate you get for glowfish (leftover from my daughter's tank) Looking to replace.

Bubbler: Imagitarium Air Pump, 3.5W https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcos...arium-air-pump

Heater: Aqueon Preset Aquarium Heater, 150W - https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcos...et-heater-150w

I also have the Imagitarium Undergravel Filter, 29 Gallon (https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcos...lter-29-gallon)

Two plants - a water sprite in a small pot and some other small foreground plant.)

Any and all advice is appreciated.

[Aiken Drum]

Hi bridgie

Questions.

Your big tank has no fish in it any more, but water changes doesnt bring ammonia down?

Did you do anything other than add a few more fish before things started to go wrong? New decorations? Cleaned the filter?

[bridgie]

No, nothing else. I threw away the filter that was in there because I was in a panic. I had just added the water sprite and other small plant (don't remember what it was called) along with the driftwood. All that was in an effort to create stability and bring down my pH a tad.

The two plants are still in the big tank, but that's it. It's completely baffling to me why the ammonia levels would still be so high. The plants don't look exceptionally superb, but they definitely aren't dying. At this point, though, I have put a ton of water conditioner, ammo lock, quick start, etc. in the tank as well as chnaged the type of filter (from carbon to the ammonia reducing "cut to size" + replacing the carbon media in one of the marineland rite size filters with "Marineland Diamond Blend Carbon Ammonia Neutralizing Carbon Filter Media." So I guess I have done several changes trying to level it out. I may have damaged it beyond repair :/ I just don't know what my best option is from here.

[Aiken Drum]

Ammonia must be coming from somewhere. Might there be something thats died in there still? Possibly something coming out of your substrate? Have you tested your tap water?

[bridgie]

Well, I don't see anything in there. I haven't completely emptied the tank at one time (it's been no more than 50% each time), but there have been a lot. Yesterday afternoon I didn't do a water change. Maybe the ammonia has seeped deeply into the driftwood?

There's nothing else dead in there because I took all of the decor out temporarily while I was vacuuming out the gravel after everything. I guess there could be more stuff than I thought left stuck in the under gravel filter (that may have been a mistake to install), but it cant be much at all since no additional waste would have been put into the tank and it's been vacuumed at least 5 or 6 times over the last week.

Originally Posted by Aiken Drum

Hi bridgie

Questions.

Your big tank has no fish in it any more, but water changes doesnt bring ammonia down?

Did you do anything other than add a few more fish before things started to go wrong? New decorations? Cleaned the filter?

[bridgie]

Oh, and I bought the driftwood from a Petco tank. If that matters. Now I'm starting to think that's the likely suspect. Either that or my plants aren't doing as well as I think they are.

[Aiken Drum]

I wouldnt return fish to your big tank until you have sorted out where the ammonia is coming from. Keep up regular water changes on your holding tank, should be fine for short term.

On the big tank, i would take out all your aquascape, excluding substrate. Big water change. If ammonia comes back you know its the substrate. Try and narrow down what is causing your ammonia.

Once we have done that we can look at getting your fish safely back into their home.

[bridgie]

Thanks! I actually came home this afternoon, tested my water and ph is normal, ammonia is still 2ppm, but that’s down significantly from where it was, nitrites are 0 and nitrates are between 0 and 5. Maybe that means I did “reset” my tank accidentally and it’s going through the cycle again?

[bridgie]

Still going to do a water change but I’m hopeful!

[gilpi]

You are just doing too many things, adding stuff, removing stuff etc!

If your tank was cycled, the worse thing you did was to remove or throw away the filter, this is where your good bacteria lives. Adding bottled bacteria (in my opinion) is a waste, you need to establish a strong bacteria colony in your filter/filters without disturbing them. You can do that at this point without adding any more fish for a while and doing small frequent water changes. The fin rot most likely came from infected fish you put in the tank. My advice at this point... as I mentioned, keep doing small water changes, do not overfeed and don't mess with the filters, I would not use any carbon or ammonia reducing filtering material. All this might sound old school and it is but so am I. Good luck!