Did I kill my Beneficial Bacteria?

[Fishperson]

I have had my tank cycling for about 2 weeks. slowly, the ammonia dropped from 6 to 3, and for the past 4 days it has stayed at 3, no changes at all. A few days before this, I had some temperature fluctuation, the temperature went from 85, to 90, to 70, then I threw out my 100W heater and used my old 50W heater. Now, even on the setting "high" the temp won't get above 77. So, did I kill the bb? Should I get a new heater? And if I killed the bb, should I dose the ammo back up to 5ppm?
oh, and my tank is a 20 gallon high

 

[jlk]

You may have upset your bb a bit with the temp fluctuations but you didnt kill them. If your ammonia is sitting at 3 and your ph stable, just leave things be and wait to see if your amm starts to drop over the next few days. No need to dose to 5ppm on a 20g- this is overkill.

In respect to the heater, if you plan on keeping tropicals, you may want to invest in a more reliable heater.

 

[Mrs.h2012]

You may have upset your bb a bit with the temp fluctuations but you didnt kill them. If your ammonia is sitting at 3 and your ph stable, just leave things be and wait to see if your amm starts to drop over the next few days. No need to dose to 5ppm on a 20g- this is overkill.

In respect to the heater, if you plan on keeping tropicals, you may want to invest in a more reliable heater.

+1 to this. I had the tetra brand from Walmart. Mainly because all of my tanks have luckily been given to me and the heaters that came with them were made by tetra. I had one go out on me and I had to buy one ASAP and LFS was closed go figure. I bought a 30-60 adjustable heater.. It's a piece of crap. Don't even waste your money on the Walmart heaters. I just got an eheim jäger heater, and I LOVE it! They are really cheap on drsfosterandsmith.com. I got mine when they were having a sale, it's a 200w that I paid $19.99 for. I think the sale ends tomorrow, so you may be able to get one on sale! My eheim has kept my 55g at a steady 80 degrees and we had snow yesterday and below freezing temps and it's still at 80 degrees

 

[Fishperson]

cool, but i think a 200watt would be too much. What wattage (is that a word?! ) should it be?

 

[Mrs.h2012]

cool, but i think a 200watt would be too much. What wattage (is that a word?! ) should it be?

It definitely would be for your size tank. If your interested in the eheims if you go on the drsfosterandsmith website when you click on the eheim heaters somewhere in the description it should have a chart that tells you what wattage you need.

 

[Fishanatic]

200 is definitely not too much. Just adjust the temperature. It will heat a lot faster though.

 

[Rare]

What are you using to read your temps?

 

[Fishperson]

@rare - im using a glass topfin thermometer
my temperature recently went up to 80, so I think that this will be sufficient. It probably just heats rrreeeaaalllyyy slow.

 

[Fishperson]

my ammonia is still at ~3

 

[twoodrough]

Don't stress! Remember...this is supposed to be a fun hobby! The cycle will happen, you just gotta be patient. I read somewhere once that nothing good happens quickly in a fish tank. So, slow may test your patience, but it might not necessarily be bad.

 

[Fishperson]

Yeah, yeah, i know, but i just am so sad that my ammonia went down, then stopped. If the bb grew, and ate the ammonia, it seems like they should be killing the ammo. oh well, maybe the ammonia didnt actually start at 6, maybe i tested wrong, and it was actually 3.

 

[Fishperson]

Has anyone heard of a clear version of brown algae? It looks just like brown algae, but it is clear. What is it? someone else found something like it too, because they made a thread about it.