Water level issues

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Scuba-Doo

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 4, 2020
Messages
11
Hi everyone,

I am new to this and have recently got my first tank - it is a 65L and has 3 mollies, 2 guppies, 3 tetras & 2 African dwarf frogs.

I have already been told it is already over-stocked. It appears I didn’t cycle it correctly before adding the fish but I did exactly what I was told to do my my LFS.

I unfortunately lost one guppy & have today tested my water levels and they are not good.

I have a high range pH level of 8.2
An ammonia level of 1.00ppm
A nitrite level of around 2.00ppm
And a nitrate level of between 20-40ppm

I am absolutely gutted as I have tried so hard to follow advice as best I can and have been obsessing over these fish - I really do not want to lose them all :(

Any help and advice on how I can get my water to safer levels would be greatly appreciated!

Please no judging I have just followed the advice I was given and I am very eager to learn!

Thanks
 

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Hi Scuba

Sorry you got some bad advice from the fish store. Thats a very common story.

Long term solution to overstocking is to either get a larger aquarium or reduce the stocking.

For now though, you need to do whats called a "fish in" cycle. Test the water daily, and if you see any detectable ammonia or nitrites then do a 25% water change. Over time, you should eventually see 0ppm ammonia and nitrite daily, and your nitrates rising. This is when your aquarium is cycled sufficiently for the fish/frogs you have in there. As your ammonia is quite high, I would do a 50% water change right off the bat.

To assist with the cycling you should consider the following.
- Use Prime as your water conditioner as it locks ammonia and nitrites into a safe form. This is a temporary solution, but should reduce the risk to the fish until you have a cycled aquarium.
- Look at whether your fish store will take back some of the fish or frogs to reduce your stocking level.
- If you have access to an established aquarium (maybe a friend keeps fish) ask for some filter media to add into your own filter.
- Use some bottled bacteria (eg Dr Tims One and Only or Seachem Stability) to top up the beneficial bacteria.

Have a read through some of the posts on here, you are not alone.

Hope everything turns out OK and dont be afraid to ask questions.
 
Hi Scuba

Sorry you got some bad advice from the fish store. Thats a very common story.

Long term solution to overstocking is to either get a larger aquarium or reduce the stocking.

For now though, you need to do whats called a "fish in" cycle. Test the water daily, and if you see any detectable ammonia or nitrites then do a 25% water change...

Thank you very much for your reply and advice! I have done the 50% water change with treated water & added some bio-boost. Would you recommend I do a 25% water change daily until the water levels are under control?

I was worried about over cleaning the tank so wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad idea!

Unfortunately my LFS are unlikely to take back any of my fish but they seem okay at the moment - all eating and moving around.

Thanks again
 
Do your water test daily. If you have detectable ammonia or nitrites then do 25% water change. You will probably be doing it daily in the short term, but dont do water changes for no need as you need some ammonia in there to fuel the nitrogen cycle. If your levels arent coming down at all from what they are now, then increase the water change amount from 25% to 50% until you see them falling.

When people say dont over clean the tank, they are talking about cleaning filter media and doing gravel vacs. Just for info, if you do clean the filter media, just rinse it under dechlorinated water or water from the tank. A gravel vac wont do any harm to an established tank, but i would hold off on a deep vac that until yours is cycled. If you want to clean up the gravel, for now just a light vac over the surface to hoover up poop.
 
Thank you so much for all your advice - it is extremely helpful! I will continue with that process and keep my fingers crossed!

One more question - I was thinking of getting a new/better filter as the one I have came with the tank and isn’t the best. Am I best to leave as is until my tank becomes more established/stable ?

Thanks
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Thank you so much for all your advice - it is extremely helpful! I will continue with that process and keep my fingers crossed!

One more question - I was thinking of getting a new/better filter as the one I have came with the tank and isn’t the best. Am I best to leave as is until my tank becomes more established/stable ?

Thanks
You have 2 options.

- If the filter media in your existing filter can be swapped into the new filter, then it should retain all the beneficial bacteria and have very minimal impact on your cycle. Squeeze out any sponges into the tank water as well. I dont really know what type of filter you have and what type you are thinking of getting and therefore if this is possible. Those filters with cartridges would be difficult to swap over the media (although you could cut them open).

- A better way in my opinion would be to run both filters alongside each each other for 2 or 3 weeks, so your new one seeds off the old filter. After a couple of weeks, take out the old filter, putting whatever filter media you can from the old to new as well. I see no reason why you couldn't do this straight away. Just be careful to check water parameters when you remove the older filter.
 
Brill, thank you very much for all of your help! Really appreciated.

My water levels have been a little better today so hopefully will continue to improve!
 
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