Hello everyone, I'm a bit new to the aquarium world. I admit that it's a lot more work than I thought.
I'm having trouble with a new tank. It's about 3 months old. The first two weeks were fish free. I wanted to get things cycled in and established before adding fish. It is a 29 gallon with 12 Tiger Barbs and one Mollie.
Everything looked great until my ammonia levels spiked. Found for some reason it was my Marimos. I removed them and all went back to normal. About a month later my Nitrites and Nitrates spiked. I've been doing daily pwc's (usually 25%) and barely making a dent in it. I cut way back on feeding, removed all plants, cleaned the tank in stages as not to disturb too much of the bacteria beds at once. I can't for the life of me figure out why my levels are so high.
I prepare my water before I start my water changes. I use Seachems prime and safeguard and some stresscoat+ to treat the water. Then I test it with my master test kit.
What am I doing wrong or missing?
Photos show before water change, after 75% water change and 4 hours later after another 50% water change.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I'm having trouble with a new tank. It's about 3 months old. The first two weeks were fish free. I wanted to get things cycled in and established before adding fish. It is a 29 gallon with 12 Tiger Barbs and one Mollie.
Everything looked great until my ammonia levels spiked. Found for some reason it was my Marimos. I removed them and all went back to normal. About a month later my Nitrites and Nitrates spiked. I've been doing daily pwc's (usually 25%) and barely making a dent in it. I cut way back on feeding, removed all plants, cleaned the tank in stages as not to disturb too much of the bacteria beds at once. I can't for the life of me figure out why my levels are so high.
I prepare my water before I start my water changes. I use Seachems prime and safeguard and some stresscoat+ to treat the water. Then I test it with my master test kit.
What am I doing wrong or missing?
Photos show before water change, after 75% water change and 4 hours later after another 50% water change.
Thanks in advance for any help.