Chad2000k
Aquarium Advice Activist
I used to have a 10 Gal fresh water stocked with several neon tetras, a plec, and 2 Tiger Barbs. Also had 2 live plants and did a pwc of about 10% a week. That was about 10 years ago. My girlfriend got me a 5.5 Gal tank for Valentine's day this year and I was quite baffled because I mentioned getting my 10 Gal tank out of storage from my parents. Nevertheless I laid about 7lb of gravel and 2 fake plants and got a heater set to about 76°. Runs on a top fin 10 with a black foam and then the carbon filter media. It's been a long time away from this so some of the lingo is either new or going to need to be refreshed in my mind. Long story short I've actually been reading through a lot of the posts on this site and it actually helped me so far but yet still left me in sort of a situation that I have several options with. I believe the cycle has completed and then took the water for testing at the store and did my own as well and all levels were normal. We picked out 3 guppies to our liking and everything has basically chasing our fins from there. Nitrite fired up to 1 to 3ppm and Ammonia went to about 3 to 6ppm, (everything else remained normal with a 7 ph roughly, 120 Alkalinity, soft 75 hardness, Nitrate at 0). I know that's not exactly specific but still a good idea that these ranges are a little high beyond comfort. I did a 15% water change, I know we started off overfeeding with a different kind of food than I'm used to, Tetra Crisps Color Enhance. We've cut back on the amount at twice a day. There was a cloudiness in the water, added some more "Quick Start" after another water change to the dechlorinated tap. This cleared up the water for a short term but was still high... After a few days I did another water change of about 30% or so. This time I added distilled water and changed the filter media and added more quick start. The next morning I checked the levels and it was still high so I added an Ammonia Tab to help detoxify the levels. Tested it after a few hours and Nitrite finally fell to 0 but Ammonia remains strong at that same about 3 to 6. I know sometimes the Ammonia tabs can give false readings on the tabs but I still have a cloudiness to the water and with the light off its got more of a green shade. This is basically caught up to what is happening right now. I've been running the light nightly for about 6 hours since I first started the tank 2 weeks ago. With the green cloudiness, its more of an algae boom which I think is a good thing in the direction of this tank in terms of progress but still a little bit of work to do. Therefore I've blacked out the tank for almost a full 24 hours and I will continue it until morning. I'm also going to buy some live plants tomorrow morning, I saw a moss ball as an option as well as several other plant options. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas as to what's going on and causing the cloudiness with a high ammonia still. Thanks in advance and the guppies are still swimming strong in all this.