flipture
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hello! This is my first post here, and my first tank, so bear with me!
I got this tank about 8 weeks ago, set it up, brought the water a few days later to the pet store, and came home with 4 neon tetras.
Problems: Water is a bit cloudy, one of the tetras almost always hides under a little mountain rock, nitrites read in the caution levels most of the time.
My goal: To get the tank to look clear and for nitrites to go down to 0
What I've done: I cleaned it every 2 weeks or so (vacuumed) doing a 50% water change and getting anything out of the rocks from the bottom that I could. I add water and condition it before putting it back into the tank. I make sure the temp is the same as the tank and slowly pour it in.
I've started doing more frequent water changes (25%) to see if that helps. It helps for a day maybe then it goes back to a little cloudy.
I have the filter that came with the tank which has a black filter media thing in the front and a bag with charcoal behind it. Once the water started pouring out the side where the water is pulled in (meaning the filter was too clogged), I cleaned it once, then replace it with a new one (after rinsing the charcoal dust off). I know the goal is to keep good bacteria in so not sure if replacing the whole filter bag is a terrible idea or not...
I have an automatic feeder that feeds 3x a day. I tested the feeder over a plate and a small pinch worth of food comes out so I don't think they're being over fed but maybe its keeping the tank from being able to cycle?
I'll include some pictures of test strips and pics of the tank if that helps. Please let me know what else I could tell you to help point me in the right direction! Thanks in advance for any help...
I got this tank about 8 weeks ago, set it up, brought the water a few days later to the pet store, and came home with 4 neon tetras.
Problems: Water is a bit cloudy, one of the tetras almost always hides under a little mountain rock, nitrites read in the caution levels most of the time.
My goal: To get the tank to look clear and for nitrites to go down to 0
What I've done: I cleaned it every 2 weeks or so (vacuumed) doing a 50% water change and getting anything out of the rocks from the bottom that I could. I add water and condition it before putting it back into the tank. I make sure the temp is the same as the tank and slowly pour it in.
I've started doing more frequent water changes (25%) to see if that helps. It helps for a day maybe then it goes back to a little cloudy.
I have the filter that came with the tank which has a black filter media thing in the front and a bag with charcoal behind it. Once the water started pouring out the side where the water is pulled in (meaning the filter was too clogged), I cleaned it once, then replace it with a new one (after rinsing the charcoal dust off). I know the goal is to keep good bacteria in so not sure if replacing the whole filter bag is a terrible idea or not...
I have an automatic feeder that feeds 3x a day. I tested the feeder over a plate and a small pinch worth of food comes out so I don't think they're being over fed but maybe its keeping the tank from being able to cycle?
I'll include some pictures of test strips and pics of the tank if that helps. Please let me know what else I could tell you to help point me in the right direction! Thanks in advance for any help...