Twoapennything
Aquarium Advice Freak
I should warn people that I'm talking about the various ways my fish have kicked it. Just so you know.
I really suck at this aquarist thing. I'm frustrated and feeling like a moron about everything having to do with fish right now.
I cannot get my tank to cycle. I have followed 7Enigma's directions and I have wildly fluctuating levels of EVERYTHING, all the time. I haven't had a single 24 hour period where the levels remained consistent, except when ammonia was up and everything else stayed at zero FOREVER AND EVER. grr. For example, this morning? My levels were: ammonia 5, nitrites 1.5, nitrates 80, pH 7.8. Eleven hours later? I have: ammonia 0.25, nitrites 0.25, nitrates 0.0, pH 8.2. I'm really, really frustrated.
I want to get my 40 gallon tank cycled! The 10 gallon QT is beginning to resemble a clown car.
My two 10 gallon tanks seem to have stalled cycles - everything is just zero. No nitrates at all. Low pH. It's just so stagnant. I do PWCs several times per week to try and alleviate the low pH, but it just keeps crashing in all of my tanks.
And then yesterday I bought 4 little neons, because I know neons are schooling fish and I only had one - well, Lady my goldfish ate them. >.< I also bought a little black and white guppy so my yellow guppy Lemons could have a friend (my orange guppy died), and when I went to find Lemons, I couldn't find him . . . and then his dead body just popped up out of nowhere, and of course Lady had eaten his fins off - it was like that horrible scene from Jaws when that guy's head comes rolling out of the hull of the boat. UGH.
My betta has fin rot.
My snail won't stay out of the uptake tube of the filter.
My black molly has . . . I don't even know what he has. I've treated him for everything involving white spots, but he still has them. None of the other fish have gotten the spots, though, as far as I know.
And I was so sad because I thought one of my African frogs had died - he'd been sickly for over a week, wouldn't eat, wouldn't swim, wouldn't move unless poked . . . he just floated up at the top of the tank with his legs hanging down. Well, he finally died . . . except not. Which I discovered as I was flushing him and he reacted to the cold water. I couldn't save him I feel soooooooo guilty about this. I would never ever flush a live fish or frog.
I really love this hobby, but I'm not getting the hang of anything, it feels like. Please tell me that I am not alone, and that one day I will be knowledgeable about and successful with my aquariums!
Thanks for letting me emote! I appreciate it.
Is there a thread dedicated solely to complaining about how one's fishless cycle is just made of fail, and it's just not working? I notice it's not an uncommon topic -.-