AlbanyFishGuy
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2023
- Messages
- 32
Hi there,
Gonna try to keep this brief as i can but sorry in advance for long story....
I have a 20 gal, a 10gal and a 5 gal. The 20 is about 4 years and established. The 10 gal used to be a hospital tank but was converted to be a fry tank after my honey guaramis bred for the first time. It is now home to 6 juvenile but near adult guaramis. Was cycled with seeded sponge filter from the 20gal. Both tanks have tons of plants and the 10g has a DIY filter that i made out of a breeder box just for fun. (On top of the sponge filter) Both tanks have been running fantastic. But this left nowhere for fry. Guarami fry are RIDICULOUSLY TINY! lol We use a plastic shoebox for the first 3 weeks, then transfer them into a breeder net in the 10 gallon. But they dont survive as well for too long in the net we have found that they do best if theyre freed into the full tank and skip the net. Buuut...the juveniles will eat them. So what does a obsessed fish person do? Accepts this as a reason to buy a new tank of course! Hence the 5 gallon. I set it up, cycled it. I fed a little food and used stability until tests read no ammonia, no nitrite and 10ppm. When i finally achieved this....a fish became sick and needed to be quarantined. We didnt have fry yet so i used the 5 gallon. I treated with a 5 day course of tetra life guard. Fish got better, seemed less shy than he was in the 20gal so i decided to leave him in there until i needed the tank for fry. Tank has a piece of an amazon sword that i had to cut out of the 20g and 4 cryptocoryne wenditti (i know the sword is too big for that size tank, but i didnt want to waste it and it actually looks really cool in there) I did water changes once a week. I would change only about a gallon and a half (shooting for 25%) continued tests and was all good for about 3 weeks. Test came back 6ppm ammonia!!! Crazy. Immediately did a large change and double dosed with Prime to detoxify ammonia. Tested again, down to 4ppm. Next day, i tested again before getting ready to water change again and ammonia was as high as it could be. Detoxified the ammonia with Prime again. Basically battled this for the next week and did not feed food except one day mid week (5 bug bite pieces that i dropped individually and watched to make sure none hit the substrate to rot). Im confused about what is causing the spike in the first place. Its been about 5 months and ammonia is still present! Fish is fine, no gasping or ammonia burns but obviously i dont want any at all for him and im certainly not putting fry in there. I never had issues with the cycle in the larger tanks and im just bummed about this one. I dont know if its actually because its only 5g and there is less room for error or what. Any tips!!?? Thanks!!!
Ps filter is a HOB that came with kit optimized with media bag from established tank, a new sponge AND established sponge filter from 20g.
Gonna try to keep this brief as i can but sorry in advance for long story....
I have a 20 gal, a 10gal and a 5 gal. The 20 is about 4 years and established. The 10 gal used to be a hospital tank but was converted to be a fry tank after my honey guaramis bred for the first time. It is now home to 6 juvenile but near adult guaramis. Was cycled with seeded sponge filter from the 20gal. Both tanks have tons of plants and the 10g has a DIY filter that i made out of a breeder box just for fun. (On top of the sponge filter) Both tanks have been running fantastic. But this left nowhere for fry. Guarami fry are RIDICULOUSLY TINY! lol We use a plastic shoebox for the first 3 weeks, then transfer them into a breeder net in the 10 gallon. But they dont survive as well for too long in the net we have found that they do best if theyre freed into the full tank and skip the net. Buuut...the juveniles will eat them. So what does a obsessed fish person do? Accepts this as a reason to buy a new tank of course! Hence the 5 gallon. I set it up, cycled it. I fed a little food and used stability until tests read no ammonia, no nitrite and 10ppm. When i finally achieved this....a fish became sick and needed to be quarantined. We didnt have fry yet so i used the 5 gallon. I treated with a 5 day course of tetra life guard. Fish got better, seemed less shy than he was in the 20gal so i decided to leave him in there until i needed the tank for fry. Tank has a piece of an amazon sword that i had to cut out of the 20g and 4 cryptocoryne wenditti (i know the sword is too big for that size tank, but i didnt want to waste it and it actually looks really cool in there) I did water changes once a week. I would change only about a gallon and a half (shooting for 25%) continued tests and was all good for about 3 weeks. Test came back 6ppm ammonia!!! Crazy. Immediately did a large change and double dosed with Prime to detoxify ammonia. Tested again, down to 4ppm. Next day, i tested again before getting ready to water change again and ammonia was as high as it could be. Detoxified the ammonia with Prime again. Basically battled this for the next week and did not feed food except one day mid week (5 bug bite pieces that i dropped individually and watched to make sure none hit the substrate to rot). Im confused about what is causing the spike in the first place. Its been about 5 months and ammonia is still present! Fish is fine, no gasping or ammonia burns but obviously i dont want any at all for him and im certainly not putting fry in there. I never had issues with the cycle in the larger tanks and im just bummed about this one. I dont know if its actually because its only 5g and there is less room for error or what. Any tips!!?? Thanks!!!
Ps filter is a HOB that came with kit optimized with media bag from established tank, a new sponge AND established sponge filter from 20g.