Hey all,
<--- For reference to my current tank setup.
First, a little backstory. I got interested in joining the aquarium hobby about 3 months ago. Being the noob that I was - I was quickly lured in by BiOrb, Inc. and their "miraculously easy-to-use aquariums". I bought a 10gal version and stocked it all too quickly with 4 Black Mollies.
Needless to say, that aquarium was a maintenance nightmare. Their "passive airflow" under-substrate filters do hardly anything - and combined with my haste in completely missing the cycle - I had to upgrade.
So - I went ahead and dropped the cash on the setup in my profile, and got it running and was all gung-ho to do a fishless cycle. Unfortunately, conditions were getting so bad in the 10gal (the ammonia was noticably smellable within a 10-foot radius of the tank) -- that I decided the Mollies needed to move ASAP and I'd deal with the consequences using a bigger tank.
...well, now I'm dealing. The half-cycled 26gal received it's occupants about the 2nd week in July. Since then, babies were born, the Ammonia level has skyrocketed to beyond the maximum color of my API Liquid kit - and 3 of the four adults have passed on.
I've been doing daily 25-30% water changes, and I've gone through 3 different water conditioners (off-brand --> API --> Prime) and the levels don't seem to be dropping.
The mystery here is that none of the mollies that died showed any of the researched symptoms of Ammonia poisoning, and none of the babies have died in the 3 weeks they've been alive. (The mollies who died behaved like this: slightly sluggish --> constantly hovering over the submerged heater with slight shimmies --> constantly hovering in the inch of space between the heater and the substrate with serious shimmies --> X_x)
My tank is not brackish, but it is significantly "salted" (SG 1.002-1.004) with Aquarium Salt which I was told would help fight the shimmies.
So, anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to fight my ammonia level back down to the point where the cycle will get going?
(I should also mention that I added Fluval "Zeo-Carb" to my canister as another hope for cleaning it up.)
<--- For reference to my current tank setup.
First, a little backstory. I got interested in joining the aquarium hobby about 3 months ago. Being the noob that I was - I was quickly lured in by BiOrb, Inc. and their "miraculously easy-to-use aquariums". I bought a 10gal version and stocked it all too quickly with 4 Black Mollies.
Needless to say, that aquarium was a maintenance nightmare. Their "passive airflow" under-substrate filters do hardly anything - and combined with my haste in completely missing the cycle - I had to upgrade.
So - I went ahead and dropped the cash on the setup in my profile, and got it running and was all gung-ho to do a fishless cycle. Unfortunately, conditions were getting so bad in the 10gal (the ammonia was noticably smellable within a 10-foot radius of the tank) -- that I decided the Mollies needed to move ASAP and I'd deal with the consequences using a bigger tank.
...well, now I'm dealing. The half-cycled 26gal received it's occupants about the 2nd week in July. Since then, babies were born, the Ammonia level has skyrocketed to beyond the maximum color of my API Liquid kit - and 3 of the four adults have passed on.
I've been doing daily 25-30% water changes, and I've gone through 3 different water conditioners (off-brand --> API --> Prime) and the levels don't seem to be dropping.
The mystery here is that none of the mollies that died showed any of the researched symptoms of Ammonia poisoning, and none of the babies have died in the 3 weeks they've been alive. (The mollies who died behaved like this: slightly sluggish --> constantly hovering over the submerged heater with slight shimmies --> constantly hovering in the inch of space between the heater and the substrate with serious shimmies --> X_x)
My tank is not brackish, but it is significantly "salted" (SG 1.002-1.004) with Aquarium Salt which I was told would help fight the shimmies.
So, anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to fight my ammonia level back down to the point where the cycle will get going?
(I should also mention that I added Fluval "Zeo-Carb" to my canister as another hope for cleaning it up.)
...) And I'll keep at it.
