Ok, So....i have a 29 or 30 gal aquarium. Dont remember the exact right off...but 2 weekends ago I cleaned out my aquarium from it just sitting with junk in it and old plants and rocks etc and evaporating water. I decided two weeks ago to clean it out...take it outside scrub it good and clean all the gravel really well. I decided to toss alot of the old gravel and dump in a bunch of new to mix with a little of the old. I filled up the tank cleaned out the filter..its a 30 gal power head using the cartridge filters that have carbon inside. A heater and the temp is holding around 76-77ish. I also bought a 12" airstone and pump. (never had in the past). I also put 3 small looks like java ferns back in my tank from what I had before.
Not knowing what I was really doing yet (for the 2nd time now), I had my wife go ahead and buy a pleco that night. He seems to be doing ok.
Then we slowly added 3 mollies and 3 platys. then came 2 small snails and 1 big mystery snail. Then came 3 guppys. and an african dwarf frog...all over two weeks. Only one red colored platy ended up dying over the past 2 weeks. The others seem to be doing great.
Well today we decided to stop at petsmart and get our frog a buddy...but when we got home with a second small african dwarf, we noticed that the current frog seems suddenly paralyzed up front and a weird clear colored bacteria or fungus covering him some. If you barely touch him with a tank tool he will kick his back legs..but he just seems paralyzed with his back arched.
I tested my water with test strips the by Jungle labs and thought all was going well. ..but today I decided to buy an API master test kit and do it the right way...and man were my strips wrong. My PH is showing around 8.0, my ammonia around 4.0, my nitrite around .25 and my nitrate at 0 or a little above.
Now ...I guess my cycle hasnt got up to par....
Anything I can do on the mean time to help? Also, I have noticed my carbon filter cartridge in the power head looks dirty, but I dont want to take it out or change it yet due to it being too soon......any tips for a newb??
Not knowing what I was really doing yet (for the 2nd time now), I had my wife go ahead and buy a pleco that night. He seems to be doing ok.
Then we slowly added 3 mollies and 3 platys. then came 2 small snails and 1 big mystery snail. Then came 3 guppys. and an african dwarf frog...all over two weeks. Only one red colored platy ended up dying over the past 2 weeks. The others seem to be doing great.
Well today we decided to stop at petsmart and get our frog a buddy...but when we got home with a second small african dwarf, we noticed that the current frog seems suddenly paralyzed up front and a weird clear colored bacteria or fungus covering him some. If you barely touch him with a tank tool he will kick his back legs..but he just seems paralyzed with his back arched.
I tested my water with test strips the by Jungle labs and thought all was going well. ..but today I decided to buy an API master test kit and do it the right way...and man were my strips wrong. My PH is showing around 8.0, my ammonia around 4.0, my nitrite around .25 and my nitrate at 0 or a little above.
Now ...I guess my cycle hasnt got up to par....
Anything I can do on the mean time to help? Also, I have noticed my carbon filter cartridge in the power head looks dirty, but I dont want to take it out or change it yet due to it being too soon......any tips for a newb??