Autodidact
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Something is going on in there that I don't have a test for nor know what to test for next.
Here's a rundown of what's happened so far:
I have a 10 gallon tank. I've had it for probably 5? years with a Chinese Warty Newt.
The newt died (presumably of old age...although now I don't know). This was about a month and a half ago. He had only been dead overnight so I did a total water change without cleaning the gravel much and didn't touch the filter.
I picked up a Betta, 3 Otos, and a couple more plants at the local store. I admit I was excited to get a new tank going so I neglected to test the water parameters. The Otos were dead after a few days. I did the water tests and found that my ammonia was 0.5 and nitrites were 5.0! (dumbdumb!)
So I went about doing 25% water changes everyday and dosing with Prime. It took a couple of weeks for everything to get down to 0. It didn't help that the Anacharis that I had just gotten started to decay. I finally just pulled the whole thing out. The other plants are doing great. The Betta seemed healthy and active the whole time. I didn't even see him gasping at the surface.
Finally when all of the levels seemed right I picked up an Apple Snail, a Tiger Nerite and a Zebra Nerite. I did a very gradual introduction into the water with the bag floating and adding water to it over an hour. They were crawling around that first night but by the second they had shut their traps and didn't come out again. They were alive for several days but never moved. Finally, the Apple and the Tiger Nerite were dead about a week later.
The Zebra Nerite is still alive but has been stuck to the glass just above the surface for about a week now.
The tank is gaining a lot of algae so I just dosed with algae destroyer today(several things online said safe for snails) and I lessened the hours on the light timer.
I also just noticed today that the Betta's fins are just starting to have tiny tears at the edges where they hadn't been up until now.
Our tap water is hard and ph is 7.5 but my aquarium store says they use the same tap water and it shouldn't be a problem. -that messing with the ph would cause more problems than it's worth.
Here's a run down of everything in my tank at the moment:
10 gal
Fluval submersible filter - no carbon or anything, just the sponges
ViaAqua heater
thermometer: fluctuates between 74-78
1/4" gravel
5 year old piece of driftwood
2 granite rocks
Hairgrass (I think?)
3 Anubias
Pennywort
Banana Plant
1 African Almond Leaf (to lower ph. Didn't seem to effect it though)
1 Betta Splendid
1 Zebra Nerite Snail
Water Readings:
Water: hard
Ph: 7.5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: btween 0-20 "safe" on test strip
Here's a rundown of what's happened so far:
I have a 10 gallon tank. I've had it for probably 5? years with a Chinese Warty Newt.
The newt died (presumably of old age...although now I don't know). This was about a month and a half ago. He had only been dead overnight so I did a total water change without cleaning the gravel much and didn't touch the filter.
I picked up a Betta, 3 Otos, and a couple more plants at the local store. I admit I was excited to get a new tank going so I neglected to test the water parameters. The Otos were dead after a few days. I did the water tests and found that my ammonia was 0.5 and nitrites were 5.0! (dumbdumb!)
So I went about doing 25% water changes everyday and dosing with Prime. It took a couple of weeks for everything to get down to 0. It didn't help that the Anacharis that I had just gotten started to decay. I finally just pulled the whole thing out. The other plants are doing great. The Betta seemed healthy and active the whole time. I didn't even see him gasping at the surface.
Finally when all of the levels seemed right I picked up an Apple Snail, a Tiger Nerite and a Zebra Nerite. I did a very gradual introduction into the water with the bag floating and adding water to it over an hour. They were crawling around that first night but by the second they had shut their traps and didn't come out again. They were alive for several days but never moved. Finally, the Apple and the Tiger Nerite were dead about a week later.
The Zebra Nerite is still alive but has been stuck to the glass just above the surface for about a week now.
The tank is gaining a lot of algae so I just dosed with algae destroyer today(several things online said safe for snails) and I lessened the hours on the light timer.
I also just noticed today that the Betta's fins are just starting to have tiny tears at the edges where they hadn't been up until now.
Our tap water is hard and ph is 7.5 but my aquarium store says they use the same tap water and it shouldn't be a problem. -that messing with the ph would cause more problems than it's worth.
Here's a run down of everything in my tank at the moment:
10 gal
Fluval submersible filter - no carbon or anything, just the sponges
ViaAqua heater
thermometer: fluctuates between 74-78
1/4" gravel
5 year old piece of driftwood
2 granite rocks
Hairgrass (I think?)
3 Anubias
Pennywort
Banana Plant
1 African Almond Leaf (to lower ph. Didn't seem to effect it though)
1 Betta Splendid
1 Zebra Nerite Snail
Water Readings:
Water: hard
Ph: 7.5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: btween 0-20 "safe" on test strip