Red_Ribbons
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I just spent nine weeks cycling a 5 gallon planted aquarium. When the cycle completed it was able to process 3ppm of household ammonia in 24 hours. I ran it like this for five days and then stocked it with two Amano shrimp and two male Platy fish.
My water parameters were and still are:
0% Ammonia
0% Nitrite
30 ppm Nitrate (I recently discovered that's the level in my tap water and started doing 20% water changes with bottled water).
(Using API liquid test kits)
One of the Platys always had clamped fins but I put this down to stress. As it didn't improve within 48 hours I treated the tank with API Pimafix and Melafix, during the time of treatment I stopped doing water changes.
A couple of days later the Platy died and the other one just died this evening. Both fish were eating and the poop looked normal. There was no inflammation of the gills, no reddening of any extremities, they were also breathing normally. The signs of illness included clamped fins and tail, disorientation and an inability to balance. The whole process of introduction to the tank to death took eight days.
I went to the pet store, where I originally purchased the fish, today to pick up some food for my other pets. There was a big quarantine sign on the Platy tank, so I asked the lady what was wrong with them. She said she didn't really know but thought it was a fungal infection. I explained to her what happened and asked her if my tank was safe or if I had to take any precautions for the shrimp. She just said do a 70% water change and it would be fine.
I don't believe her.
I would ideally like to get some more shrimp and one Betta fish but I don't want to risk putting anything else in there if my carefully prepared tank has now become some sort of fish Bio-hazard.
Any advice would be appreciated and can I still keep the cycle going with fish flake food whilst there is nothing in there to provide an ammonia source?
Sorry for the length of the post and thank you for taking the time to read it!
My water parameters were and still are:
0% Ammonia
0% Nitrite
30 ppm Nitrate (I recently discovered that's the level in my tap water and started doing 20% water changes with bottled water).
(Using API liquid test kits)
One of the Platys always had clamped fins but I put this down to stress. As it didn't improve within 48 hours I treated the tank with API Pimafix and Melafix, during the time of treatment I stopped doing water changes.
A couple of days later the Platy died and the other one just died this evening. Both fish were eating and the poop looked normal. There was no inflammation of the gills, no reddening of any extremities, they were also breathing normally. The signs of illness included clamped fins and tail, disorientation and an inability to balance. The whole process of introduction to the tank to death took eight days.
I went to the pet store, where I originally purchased the fish, today to pick up some food for my other pets. There was a big quarantine sign on the Platy tank, so I asked the lady what was wrong with them. She said she didn't really know but thought it was a fungal infection. I explained to her what happened and asked her if my tank was safe or if I had to take any precautions for the shrimp. She just said do a 70% water change and it would be fine.
I don't believe her.
I would ideally like to get some more shrimp and one Betta fish but I don't want to risk putting anything else in there if my carefully prepared tank has now become some sort of fish Bio-hazard.
Any advice would be appreciated and can I still keep the cycle going with fish flake food whilst there is nothing in there to provide an ammonia source?
Sorry for the length of the post and thank you for taking the time to read it!