Shope.hannah
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- May 3, 2013
- Messages
- 277
I am new to this website.
I set up a 20 gallon tank about a month ago or more. I have had it for a while but it hasnt been used in years. Cleaned it with just water. Gravel as well. i have well water that had been tested and all levels are fine. I put in a new filter and filled it up. I put in 5 fish. 4 tetras and a bottom feeder. One tetra was sick when purchased and I didn't realize this until it had infected 2 of the others. 3 ended up dying even though I treated for the ick and fin rot. That left me with 2 fish. I then got a water test kit because I didn't want to run into any more problems. My ph is perfect at 7.0. But my ammonia was at 0.05. In the alarm section on an in tank tester. My nitrate and trite were slightly high but nothing toxic. I took a sample of the water to my local pet store where they could help me out. That was a couple days after I had tested myself. I had put nothing in the water. My ammonia trate and trite levels were sky high. I then added aquarium salt at the right dosage and some start Zyme. A few days later they tested the water again. It was still high. Almost higher than the first time. The man had no idea what was going on. The fact that I have only 2 fish and a clean tank considering it hasn't been set up long doesn't explain the ammonia issue. I don't overfeed. The fish seem to be fine. Not stressed and eat well. A week later I added 3 neons. Two died the first night. I immediately thought it was the water. But I have had the remaining one for about 2 weeks now and it is thriving. Maybe I just got two bad fish? I haven't added any more, because I want to make sure everything is perfect. I have been doing small water changes which is what he pet store recommended. They said not to add any medication or ammonia fixers because that might be throwing off the tests which could be why they are reading so high yet my fish are still alive... I am at a loss of what to do and I think the pet store is as well. Please help!
I set up a 20 gallon tank about a month ago or more. I have had it for a while but it hasnt been used in years. Cleaned it with just water. Gravel as well. i have well water that had been tested and all levels are fine. I put in a new filter and filled it up. I put in 5 fish. 4 tetras and a bottom feeder. One tetra was sick when purchased and I didn't realize this until it had infected 2 of the others. 3 ended up dying even though I treated for the ick and fin rot. That left me with 2 fish. I then got a water test kit because I didn't want to run into any more problems. My ph is perfect at 7.0. But my ammonia was at 0.05. In the alarm section on an in tank tester. My nitrate and trite were slightly high but nothing toxic. I took a sample of the water to my local pet store where they could help me out. That was a couple days after I had tested myself. I had put nothing in the water. My ammonia trate and trite levels were sky high. I then added aquarium salt at the right dosage and some start Zyme. A few days later they tested the water again. It was still high. Almost higher than the first time. The man had no idea what was going on. The fact that I have only 2 fish and a clean tank considering it hasn't been set up long doesn't explain the ammonia issue. I don't overfeed. The fish seem to be fine. Not stressed and eat well. A week later I added 3 neons. Two died the first night. I immediately thought it was the water. But I have had the remaining one for about 2 weeks now and it is thriving. Maybe I just got two bad fish? I haven't added any more, because I want to make sure everything is perfect. I have been doing small water changes which is what he pet store recommended. They said not to add any medication or ammonia fixers because that might be throwing off the tests which could be why they are reading so high yet my fish are still alive... I am at a loss of what to do and I think the pet store is as well. Please help!