pH, Ammonia, Cloudy Water, Nitrate, Nitrite Problem...

[dinokath]

Hi all,

Been in the hobby for about 20 years or so and I am stumped. I am in no way saying I am an expert, please understand that, but I know about cycling a tank and the fundamentals. The particulars:

Freshwater - established since 2005
55 gallons
Magnum 350 canister filter with dual bio-wheels
All fake plants and rocks.
pH - Normally 6.8, now <6.0 (tap water pH is 7.0)
Ammonia - between 1.0 - 4.o ppm (I know...)
Nitrite - 1.0 - 3.0 (used to be 0 before all this)
Nitrate - 40 ppm (used to be 0 before all this)
GH - 75 (tap is 75)
KH - 80-120 (tap is 80)
Last filter media change - 3 weeks before this episode.
I use Marineland charcoal. Always have.
Fish in the tank:
3 bala sharks (2-3 inches each)
2 zebra danios (1.5" each)
2 kissing gouramis (3" and 4")
1 blue gourami (used to be two, but one disappeared.
No body, nothing. I suspect the cat, but no proof.)
1 pleco (7 inches or so)
Clearly the tank is no where near over stocked.

Here's the saga to date:

Noticed the pleco swimming upside down about a month ago. Didn't think much of it, they do that sometimes. Noticed a couple weeks ago that I never saw him down low. Checked closer and he seemed to be a bit distended at the gut. Did some reading and he has a blockage per most materials. Checked the water, all was good. No issues. Cut back on the food, tried to give him a pea, no go.

A week or so ago, all of the sudden, water went from crystal clear, as it always is, to cloudy. Not super cloudy but enough. Checked the water. Water was:

pH - 6.0 or less. The color was lighter than both tests I have for pH would allow.
Ammonia - 4.0ppm
Nitrate - 80ppm
Nitrite - 3.0 ppm

I did an immediate dose of Ammo-lock to treat ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I NEVER have had to use this stuff but keep it around just in case. Did a controlled dose of pH buffer, again, never have to use this stuff but keep it around. Next day, cloudier and same levels as above. I know the chemicals remove the toxicity and the danger but the kits still read the same. The pH was still 6.0. Did another bump of buffer. Got it up to 6.4 after one hour of circulation. Also cleaned the gravel and changed filter media and carbon. Mixed 1/2 ammo chip and 1/2 carbon chip to filter. Next day, water was cloudier and pH was back down below 6.0. Ammonia tested higher, at 6.0 ppm Nitrate and nitrite still the same. Did a 50-60% water change. Ammonia dropped to 2.0. Did a dose of Prime (just got it at the LFS) for ammonia, etc. Nitrates and nitrites still the same. The next day, ammonia is back up higher at 4.0 ppm.

Also worth noting, throughout the process above, I have been adding bacterial culture used to start a tank and maintain a tank. Biozyme and a product by Top Fin.

I have done daily water changes and cannot get the pH and ammonia to come under control. Yesterday I removed everything from the tank except the gravel and fish, just in case for some reason one of the fake plants or rocks was leeching something. I did a 80% water change, and am right back where I started from with pH and ammonia levels. Nitrites and nitrates seemed to have stablized. Last night I also added two 18" air wands to boost oxygen levels and the fine particulate filter in the canister to catch all suspended materials to eliminate that decay in the water. Temp is stable at 76F. Levels as of this posting are:

pH - ?? below 6.0 for sure
Nitrate - 10ppm - safe
Nitrite - 1.0 - not great but better
Ammonia - 2.0ppm - I know!
GH - 75
KH - about 20 (this is a drop!? ?????)

Does anyone know if the bio wheels could have 'died' and that is what is causing the problem? They are, and have been, turning fine. I check them at least once a week. Anyone know how to test and see if beneficial bacteria are dead?

The good news - No one has died. I don't know how, but they seem ok. The gills look good, they don't seem to be stressed, don't know HOW but they look OK. They are pissed I took all the cover out though, and that may lead to stress but I need to eliminate causes here!

I am at a total loss here. Never had this kind of issue before! I have had pH drops related to driftwood in the tank for the pleco, but never an ammonia, nitrite and nitrate problem. I guess I am lucky.

Any suggestions are welcomed. Thanks in advance!

Dean

 

[missileman]

Are any of the decorations hollow?
Is it possible the missing fish found his way inside anything?
About all I can think of.
I do know that a very, very, high nitrate level can stall a cycle but it should catch back up fairly quickly once you get it back down to normal levels.
One last thought, is it possible that your water conditioner has gone bad and is not removeing the chlorine from your tap water?

 

[neilanh]

Welcome to AA! That is quite an odd situation you've got going on here.

First, if you haven't already, take a sample of water to an LFS and have them confirm your results. I'm with you, something seems odd for a tank to go bonkers all of a sudden. perhaps your test kits are going bad, albeit extremely strange they would all crap out at once.

Assuming that's all good...
The pH being out of whack you can ignore. if you truelly do have all that ammonia and nitrIte in the tank, it's affecting the pH measurement, so it's not valid.

Once concern I have is towards your use of Prime, stating you have never had to use this stuff. Normally, when you do your water changes, do you use a good dechlorinator? Chlorine can completely wipe out your bacteria, killing it all off very quickly. If you're using municple water, perhaps they changed their dosage of something which is why you've never had a problem before. It is extremely important that you're using a good dechlorinator and using it every time you add water to the tank. If this is what happened, then it matches everything you're seeing, and your tank is really cycling again.

 

[dinokath]

Hi missleman and neilanh,

Thank you both for your responses.

Missleman - Yep, the hollow parts were the first place I checked! Lost a clown loach that way! No go there. Thanks for the advice though! I thought the same thing on the water conditioner and went and bought new stuff, so we are good there. The Prime states it handles everything too.

neilanh - Let me further clarify the remark that generated your concern about usage of chemicals. I use Stress Coat for water changes and have for years. About six months ago, we were notified that the water supply would begin to be treated with chloramine instead of chlorine. I did some reading on Stress Coat and it stated it removed chloramines as well, so we were good there. In my typing up of the problem, I misstated the product I had around for a while to deal with ammonia even though I never had a problem. That chemical was Ammo-lock and I will edit my first post to correct that statement. I have since purchased Prime as it specifically states it removes ammonia from the water, as opposed to Ammo-lock stating it 'converts ammonia to a safe form, but will still register as positive for ammonia'. I tested this with my kit and sure enough, my sample that was positive for ammonia with a dark green color changed to negative for ammonia after introducing a single drop into the 5ml tube. I was impressed! I know that is a higher ratio of chemical to water than the Prime label states (5ml per 50 gallons), but it did change the sample from postive to negative, so I have hope!

Thank you for the tip on pH and its relation to the results I am reading. It is comforting to know. I just hope I haven't buffered it to 7.0+ after all that I have done to it!

On a side note, I did a check of my tap water. Actually, I tested my tap water to see if my ammonia test kit was working, as my tap water would certainly NOT have ammonia in it, right? Well, WRONG! It tested positive for ammonia right out of the tap! I did some reading and it seems ammonia and chloramine are closely related when it comes to the NH3 and NH4 test, so a sample with chloramine will test positive for ammonia with this test kit. I took it one step further and used my ammonia test kit to test distilled water and, as expected, there was NO ammonia present. I am confident my ammonia test kit is working as intended.

I have not taken a sample to the LFS, but I am pretty confident in my results, but I will do it today just to be on the safe side.

Thank you both for the replies. I am hoping that my beneficial bacteria are fine and just overworked at the moment!

Dean

 

[missileman]

Chloramine is very closely related as any pool keeper will tell you.
Chloramine in pools form when amonia is bound during the sanitation proccess with Chlorine. In a pool chloramine is considered unusable and the only way to clear is with super chlorination which breaks the amonia bond.
I can see why some aquarium keepers may be reading amonia if their conditioner does not remove all of the chloramines.

 

[dinokath]

Yep! Been doing more reading on chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. Turns out that a slow trip through a carbon based filter will get out most of the chloramine. I brew beer as (another) hobby and have a good water filter I use for my brew water. I did a little testing:

DI water - 0 ppm "ammonia" (duh)
Tap water - 1 ppm "ammonia"
Carbon filter @ 1 GPM - .50 ppm "ammonia"
Carbon filter @ 1/2 GPM - .25 ppm "ammonia"

I use "ammonia" here since I assume that the positive reading I am getting is from the chloramine and not 'true' ammonia.

Filling my tank right now @ 1/2 GPM. I drained it (again) to about 80%. I was still getting 4.0 ppm ammonia reading on the tank water using a salicylate ammonia test. This should, from what I have read, test only the 'dangerous' ammonia. I am not too sure, based on my tests above, but it is all I have to go on!

As a good measure, I dosed it with Prime just to be sure what remained of the chloramine, chlorine and ammonia were inert. Also did some stress coat, as I am sure the fish are stressed out. They still look OK, but I have really taken them for a ride these last few days! They are tough littler buggers, so I really hope they are going to be fine. After all, I am doing all this for them!

The pleco worries me the most. I have it in a breeing unit and he's in there with a chunk of fresh broccoli. I hope he get hungry and eats. His belly is looking thin at the stomach and distended at the anus. He needs to take a good crap...

Thanks again. Will post a follow up. If anyone else out there has an opinion, I am open to suggestion! Does anyone know of a way to test for live beneficial bacteria? Thanks!

 

[missileman]

Give him a couple of frozen peas, skins removed.
My plecos love them and it acts like a natural laxative.

 

[dinokath]

Yeah, I have tried that already and he's not going for them. Even tried to smash them up, add a bit of water and 'force feed' them with a medicine dropper. No go there too. They just got spit out, which I figured would happen.

He's not interested in eating at all. I'll try them again since I have him in the isolation chamber though. Thanks for the advice!

 

[jsoong]

Dinokath, welcome to the site!!

I have been scratching my head over your results .... Something definitely is screwy ... I think you have been doing a pretty good job keeping things under control so far ....

My suspicion is that the water co. had done something to the water, in addition to switching from chlorine to chloramines. I think it is worthwhile to run tests on your tap water ....

My thoughts so far:
1. The presence of ammonia & nitrites would indicate a failure of the bio-filter. Something must have killed the bacteria off. Maybe the water co. had overdosed on the cholramines when they switched over. <Or maybe they use both the chlorine & chloramines together for a while during the switchover.> Prime (& other dechlorinators) has a limited ability to detoxify water. <the bottle has a formular to calculate the dose needed if the level of chloramines is higher than usual.> It may be that you got some free chlorine into the tank at some point.
At any rate, the thing to do now is to reestablish the cycle. I would think you need to do lots of pwc's to keep levels under control. It is OK to use Prime as a stop gap. However, Prime last only 24 hrs or so in the tank, so you need to redose daily to keep the ammonia bound. <Personally, I think it is safer to remove the ammonia than to try to bind it.>
Also, Ammo-lock (& carbon) will bind ammonia or chloramines. But, when the pores are saturated, they have a nasty tendency to leech the stuff back out. It is a bit of a balancing act to remove ammonia/chlorine, etc with these products.

2. You pH drop is coupled with a drop in the KH. This is more than just the tank cycling. Usually, a drastic drop of the KH is from somthing decaying in the tank & giving you a pH crash. But you seemed to have removed all sources of decaying material. Again I wonder if the water co had changed the water composition ... perhaps they ahve started liming the water?
A side note, pH adjusting chemicals do not have enough buffers to hold the pH, you end up with yo-yoing pH. To buffer the water, I would suggest either a commercial buffering salt (like R/O rite) or crush coral or baking soda. However, I don't think you should doctor the water until we figure out what is going on.

3. In goldies, if the fish won't eat & is obstructed, epsom's salt is the next thing to try. I have never done this with my pleco, but I think it should work. This is something you may consider if the fish is not getting better. <1/4 teaspoon per gallon for a couple days.>

To sort out your water woes, I would suggest checking the tap's composition:
1. See if you can get the latest water quality report ... maybe compare to an old one to see if anything drastic had happened.
2. Test tap's pH & KH, both immediately out of the tap & after the water had sit for 24 hrs.
3. Get an idea of the chloramine levels - The salicylate test should read only unbound ammonia. If the tap is reading an ammonia level after you added an appropriate amount of Prime, the chloramine level might be higher than usual. <The water co. here often do that during spring melt because of the high organic contents in the water ...>

Good luck with the fish ... I hope things settle down soon!

 

[dinokath]

Thanks jsoong,

The water company changed to chloramines about a year ago. I mentioned it to my wife and she pulled up the article from the local paper on the internet (time flies!), but it is possible they changed dosing schedules recently. What puzzles me is that the last water change was 3 weeks ago and I usually dose higher than normal with Stress Coat because I just think slime is a good thing on a fish and have never been told otherwise that higher than usual doses of Stress Coat is a bad thing. Plus I want to make sure all the chemicals in the tap water are gone so I can avoid this kind of problem!

Immediate tap water test is as follows:

Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
GH - 75
KH 20-40 (this is a big drop in the usual from 80 or so)
pH - 6.2 (this is also a big drop from the usual 7.0)
Chlorine - 0

Current tank reading as follows:

Nitrate - 0-10 ppm
Nitrite - .5 ppm
GH - 75
KH - 0 (wow)
pH - Too low to measure with my kits, below 6...
Chlorine - 0

I just pulled a tap sample to sit for 24 hours and will report back on those results tomorrow evening. I will check with the local water company on the liming.

For the epsom salt, should I dose the entire tank or just a small tank with the pleco? I don't have a second tank already established is why I ask. I have a 10 gallon tank handy but need to get a new filtration system for it.

How often should I change the carbon out during this process? I have been dosing with shots of bacterial supplement to kick start the system.

Do I dose daily with Ammo-lock like the Prime?

Thanks so much for the reply and advice. The pleco is hanging in there, but is looking like he's losing color. There is some feces in the breeding tank, which is another reason why I wanted to isolate him; to see if he pooped! I bought some peas last night and stuck them in there too.

 

[dinokath]

Tap water results after sitting for 24 hours:

Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
GH - 75
KH 20-40
pH - 6.2
Chlorine - 0

No change.

Tank is still VERY cloudy and ammonia reads 2 ppm. Tank water results are as follows:

Nitrate - 10 ish
Nitrite - .5
GH - 75
KH 0
pH - lower than 6
Chlorine - 0

No changes. No fish dead. Pleco is still hanging in there.... Dosing daily with Prime and bought a Nitra-Zorb pillow today at LFS (they confirmed my results BTW). It states it will remove 4ppm ammonia in 24-48 hours. We shall see...

 

[jsoong]

That KH is definitely dangerously low. I think your water co. must have done something new to the water.

I read lately that some water co. are now precipitating out all the dissolved solids (mostly Mg, Ca & CO3), then adding back a small amount of Ca(OH)2 to maintain pH to prevent corrosion. <This can account for the discrepancy between KH & GH readings.> The problem with that is that almost all buffering capacity of the water is stripped out, and the water is prone to pH crash. <Also noted that a tap KH of 20 should give a pH of 6.8, since the pH remained under the theoretical number after sitting out, there might also be a secondary buffer present. This complicates calculations when you doctor the water.>

I can't remember the exact number, but the bio-filter can also die with extremely low pH (5 or so). I wonder if you pH is low enough to be a factor. <Since it is less than what your kit can read, it might be really low!>

I think you need to be buffering your water. A KH of 0 just don't make for a stable tank. If you have a wide range kit (or a pH meter) in your lfs, it would be worth while to see what your actual pH is, so you can plan a slow increase in the pH to avoid stressing the fish.

I am a fan of using CaCO3 as a buffer. <That would be crushed coral, crushed shells, or limestone.> The idea is to add enough cc so that you have a reservoir in your tank. The cc will drive the water towards its equilibrium pH of 8, but no more. As the buffer is used up in the water (or with water changes), more will dissolve in so will keep your pH rock stable. This is about the most fool-proof way to doctor your water.

If you don't want to have that high a pH, you have 2 choices:
1. Get a commercial buffer that will buffer the water to a specific pH. There are buffers for neutual pH, ones for discus (pH in the 6's) & even one for cichlids at 8 (but then cc will do just as well).
2. Add baking soda (NaHCO3). 1/2 tsp in 20 gal will raise the KH by 1dKH (=18 ppm). This is what I would use in your situation, even if I planned to go the cc route. With a very low pH, you want to gradually raise it (no more than 0.2 a day), and adding a known amount of baking soda will do that with much more control.

This is more reading for you:
Beginner FAQ: Water Chemistry

By my calculations, pure water without KH should have a pH of 6.0 with atmospheric CO2. <Your pH is prob lower with additional acids.> Raising the KH by about 8-10 ppm will increase the pH by ~0.2. <That would be around 3/4 teaspoon in your 55 gal.> That is the amount I would add daily to raise the KH & pH. <Don't forget to match to the current KH when doing pwc's.> I would think that you would want to get the Kh back to at least 50 (pH of 7.5) to maintain stability. I am hoping that once you get your pH up to some semblance of normal, the cycle will be re-established.

As for MgSO4 & constipation. In principle, it is better to treat in a seperate hospital setup, just so the other fish are not needlessly exposed to the meds. However, a small dose of Mg should be OK with your other fish if you are stuck.

And carbon don't interfere with MgSO4, so you can leave that in.

 

[dinokath]

Thank you for all that advice and research, it is GREATLY appreciated.

I am in the process of setting up a hospital tank now, trying to get pH similar but safer than the current tank.

I bought some API Proper pH 7.0 and will use that in both tanks for now. I checked my tap chemistry just now. Here's what I got:

Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
GH - 75
KH 40-80
pH - 6.8
Chlorine - 0

Something is screwy with my tap water for sure. My past reading were:

Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
GH - 75
KH 20-40
pH - 6.2
Chlorine - 0

Strange stuff going on there. I got some epsom salt, but I am not sure how much to use. 1 TBSP per gallon is what I read. Does that sound right?

I am going to buffer the main tank tonight. It is still very cloudy. I used a fine particulate filter on it and got it pretty clean, but once I moved back to the carbon/ammo chip combo, clouded right back up.

Thank you again. I have some reading to do!! I will follow up with a posting tomorrow.

Dean

 

[dinokath]

Something I have been meaning to ask:

I have changed everything out in the tank except the fish, gravel and bio-wheel. The gravel is as clean as can be. The filter components, tubing, etc. is squeakly clean.

Is it possible that the bio-wheel, where all the bacteria live, has 'died' and the ammonia is coming from there? Would it be wise to bleach the bio-wheels, clean them up, soak in a heavy concentration of dechlorinator and start my tank as if it were new all over again and re-establish it?

 

[dinokath]

Quick update:

Did a 80% water change again on the main tank. Ammonia was at 4.0ppm again but pH stabilized at 6.4 with KH 40. Did the baking soda dose posted above. Water is still clear (sorta) after 4 hours and pH is at .50ppm right now. We'll see how it is in the AM. Tank is only 12 inches deep and at the time of the water change, you couldn't see the back and the cloudy substance was almost brown/yellow in color. It just didn't look healthy. All the fish seem OK. I am holding on feeding them for now.

If the pleco makes it through the night, it would mean that God intervened. He's looking really bad. I did the bath in epsom salt and have not noticed a change. Did 1/2 TBSP in one gallon water for 15 minutes. He wasn't too active this morning, but at least he was sort of swimming around. Now he is floating around with the current of the water. Still breathing and will kick every now and then. Color still looks good though, which is the only encouragment I have right now, but I will be surprised if I wake up in the morning to a living pleco. He looks so bad I am considering putting him down but really can't bring myself to do it. If he looked all pasty, then yeah, no problem, but the coloring looks good. He was pale on Tuesday but since moving him to the hospital tank, color has rebounded, so I hope he is just so weak and spending all his energy in the healing process that he chooses not to swim.

Will update tomorrow.

 

[jsoong]

If you bleach your biowheels, you will have to cycle the tank from scratch with fish in, not really the best. If the biowheels are heavily loaded with crud, that might be a source of decaying matter, in that case I'd rinse in a bucket of tank (or dechlorinated) water to get rid of most of the crud. That should clean it up and still keep some of your bio-filter intact to speed the recolonization.

Cloudy water is likely a bacteria bloom from the high ammonia. I wouldn't worry too much at this point. That should go away once ammonia gets under control.

Your water co must have been playing with your water. That last reading is pretty good if it stays that way. Maybe you should monitor the tap for the next while to see if there are more surprises!

We'll keep our fingers crossed for the pleco ..... good luck with that!

 

[dinokath]

Update:

Pleco did wind up dying. Poor fellow. He's in a better place now.
The tank never stabilized and I couldn't get the ammonia under control. I had a buddy with a RO system and took eight 5 gallon jugs over there and filled up. That didn't help at all. Could never get the ammonia under control. I cleaned the bio-wheels before adding the new water, cleaned the gravel well and still had ammonia in excess of 4ppm.

Wound up saying screw it and bleached the bio-wheels. While they soaked, I emptied the tank to the gravel and filled again with tap water filtered slowly through a quality carbon filter as described above. Basically started all over again like it was a new tank. Bought some Stress Zyme and Cycle and dosed it. Filled it all back up, put it all back together, cleaned the heck out of the gravel (again), cleaned all the tank filter lines. I am telling you, this was a NEW tank again.

It has been a week and ammonia is 0 ppm, nitrites and nitrates are O, pH is 6.8, KH is 20 (strange with that pH but that is what it is reading) and all seems stable at the moment. Water is crystal clear and I just added all the 'decor' back in a couple hours ago. It looks normal again!

I have a healthy dose of 'ammo chips' in the canister along with some fresh carbon. The only casualty (thus far) was the pleco who wasn't in the greatest shape to begin with, but maybe the water quality had something to do with it. What is strange is that the bala sharks are fine. I always thought those were pretty sensitive to pH and all...

Thanks again for all the advice. I am now looking at a lighting upgrade and doing a planted tank. I have a line on a good T5 HO setup and have been dying to do a planted tank again. The REAL plants would have helped this not happen to begin with. After doing some reading, it appears I have some more questions to ask and post in another section of the forum!

Dean

 

[semibfy]

Hi! Dean,

Sorry to hear you went thru such troubles.

I am also from OLD SCHOOL, lol.
If it was my tank, I would just let the tank settle rather than constantly disturbing unnecessarily. Even when ammonia (NH3) is present in water. At your pH (6.8), most of NH3 is in the form of non-toxic Ammonium ion (NH4+). Thus no need to worry at 4 ppm. I would NOT let it go too high but if you let the tank mature, it should go down on its own as tank establishes nitifying bacteria. I woulod NOT mess w/ pH as long as it is NOT EXTREME. I would even avoid unnecessary partial water changes (PWC). As you said, tap has chloramine and when one use waterconditioner which claims to detox Chloramine, I think what they mean is that water conditioner will break the bond b/n chlorine and ammonia. Thus new water going in has ammonia. I dont see a point in adding more NH3 when fish themselves produce NH3 during cycling process.

Nitrite (NO2) is another matter though. As one part of nitrifying bacteria controls NH3 (conveerts to NO2) establishes, will see increase in (NO2). You can cut down on feeding to keep the NO2 down or do pwc using water conditioner. You can also add some Aq Salt (follow the directions) to minimize Nitrite poisoning.
If memory serves, it should take on the average of 6 weeks to complete the cycling process w/ fishes. Once established, should not have problem with NH3and NO2 as long as pH does not crash too low (below 6.0).
Once the tank is well established, now comes the battle with Nitrate (NO3) which can be easily control w/ live plants and/or pwc.
Just remember NH3 at 4 ppm at pH of 6.8 is nothing to worry about. Dont disturb the tank unnecessarily (more work anyway). I would not waste money on Ammo chip either when bacteria does for FREE once established.
Hope this help a bit and good luck!

 

[dinokath]

Hi Semi,

This tank was well established at 4 years and never had an issue like this before. The last PWC I did was three weeks before all this happened if I remember correctly. I dip a test strip about an hour after PWC and check levels, and NEVER have a problem! Water is always crystal clear, never a smell, no fish had died in well over a year. It defies all logic, but of course, something went wrong. All I could figure is that the cat pee'd in the tank, but with the small openings I have, that cat would have had to have GREAT aim!

Thanks for the advice. It is appreciated.

Update:

Tank seems OK now. All levels are back to 'normal'. I am wondering if it is cycling now. Ammonia is 0ppm and it has been a week since the bleaching of the bio-wheels. I did not bleach the gravel, so I am assuming that that bacteria in there are alive and kicking. I am getting an ever so slight reading on the nitrate. Current readings are:

pH - 6.8
KH - 140
GH - 75
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 10ppm

From what I know and understand about cycling, ammonia should register before nitrate and nitrites register. Anyway, everyone seems happy and healthy. I am 'cooking' them up a treat of brine shrimp as I type. Still haven't resumed regular feeding schedule just in case there is a cycle going on, but they all appear happy!

Thanks again,

Dean

 

[semibfy]

Glad to hear tank is back to normal. As long as NH3 and No2 and pH are OK, shouldnt have problems as Nitrate will be kept in check via water changes.
Whatever you do, avoid extremes, even massive water changes at once.

Hope all goes well!