LiamCH
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Nothing ever goes according to plan with me...
When I got my fish, I'd thought that it was already cycled, as I had been using fishfood and the ammonia levels had dropped down to about zero. It turns out I got it totally wrong, and my tank wasn't cycled at all. I found ammonia at 0.25ppm last week, with zero nitrite and nitrate.
This greatly worried me, as I'm going on holiday in about two and a half weeks, and I obviously want my tank to be stable before then. So I decided to seek out one of the few ways I've seen online makes the cycle speed up - introducing old filter media.
Anyway, yesterday I managed to get hold of some filter media from a tank which had been set up for about four years. I stuffed it into my filter and today, the water readings were as follows:
Ammonia: 0.05ppm
Nitrite: 0.10ppm
Nitrate: 0.3ppm
Does that mean that the cycle is now almost finished? As ammonia has greatly fallen and nitrates as now present for the first time, is it almost done?
Also, I noticed my PH level is now at 7.6 - up from 7.5 last week. Is there anything wrong here? I don't know the first thing about PH I'm afraid. What is making my water become more alkaline?
Now for the really bad news... Less than 24 hours after putting in the old filter media, I noticed the dreaded white spots on a couple of my neon tetras. Of course, I immediately went out and got the treatment... What is the chance of them making a full recovery? I'm quite worried now. Also, what would have caused the parasite to enter the tank? It seems suspicious that it appeared less than 24 hours after introducing the old filter media... But could the infection really take hold so quickly? The fish in the tank looked fine, anyway... Definitely no white spots. Do you think this is connected? Should I warn the owner about the disease in her tank?
Anyway, thanks for your help. I'm really worried about all this now. Just when I thought everything was fine, these horrible white spots have to come up and ruin it all...
When I got my fish, I'd thought that it was already cycled, as I had been using fishfood and the ammonia levels had dropped down to about zero. It turns out I got it totally wrong, and my tank wasn't cycled at all. I found ammonia at 0.25ppm last week, with zero nitrite and nitrate.
This greatly worried me, as I'm going on holiday in about two and a half weeks, and I obviously want my tank to be stable before then. So I decided to seek out one of the few ways I've seen online makes the cycle speed up - introducing old filter media.
Anyway, yesterday I managed to get hold of some filter media from a tank which had been set up for about four years. I stuffed it into my filter and today, the water readings were as follows:
Ammonia: 0.05ppm
Nitrite: 0.10ppm
Nitrate: 0.3ppm
Does that mean that the cycle is now almost finished? As ammonia has greatly fallen and nitrates as now present for the first time, is it almost done?
Also, I noticed my PH level is now at 7.6 - up from 7.5 last week. Is there anything wrong here? I don't know the first thing about PH I'm afraid. What is making my water become more alkaline?
Now for the really bad news... Less than 24 hours after putting in the old filter media, I noticed the dreaded white spots on a couple of my neon tetras. Of course, I immediately went out and got the treatment... What is the chance of them making a full recovery? I'm quite worried now. Also, what would have caused the parasite to enter the tank? It seems suspicious that it appeared less than 24 hours after introducing the old filter media... But could the infection really take hold so quickly? The fish in the tank looked fine, anyway... Definitely no white spots. Do you think this is connected? Should I warn the owner about the disease in her tank?
Anyway, thanks for your help. I'm really worried about all this now. Just when I thought everything was fine, these horrible white spots have to come up and ruin it all...