So, the 3 year old thought the fish were hungry...

[rich311k]

Not much you can do but test and change water as needed. Keep the ammonia under 1 and you should be ok.

Good luck.

 

[papa_bear_21]

I will likely be doing a pwc again today with the vac. The good news is that the pleco seems to be doing better, his color has returned, and he's still alive...so thats a good thing. I will be doing a pwc on the small tank today, and getting the algae disc out of the tank...

Hopefully this spike doesnt last long...

Thanks to all for the help

 

[papa_bear_21]

so the nitrites, nitrates, and water clarity seem to be good still/now, all at 0ppm or clear. ammonia has dropped back down to .25, from being up to 1.0, did another 75% water change, and added an ammonia filter pack to the aquaclear hob filter. PH is rising, we're up to about 8.5 now...hopefully no problems will occur, but with the ph and ammonia I think pleco will stay quarentine...

 

[papa_bear_21]

So the ammonia is down to near 0, was a little past the 0 color, but not past it enough to be considered .25. Nitrites are at 1ppm, and nitrates were at 5ppm. Is 1 acceptable for nitrates, or do I need to be lower? I know that 0 is the level to be at for a cycled tank, but while cycling, can I be at 1 for a while? We will likely do a pwc tonite, around 75% prolly, with the python. should I vac the gravel, or just do a sweep over it?

 

[rich311k]

You should do a water change nitrites of 1 ppm is as high as you want to go. They are worse than the ammonia.

 

[papa_bear_21]

a planned pwc is tonite, I'm at work, an its nearly impossible to pwc this tank by yourself...thank you for the quick response

 

[papa_bear_21]

test today:
PH: 8.0 (no stabilizer added)
ammonia: 0ppm (ammonia remover pack removed last nite)
nitrite: 1ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

what I've read, this means approximately half way, am I correct? is 1ppm nitrIte a dangerous level, do I need to aim for .5 or lower? Another pwc will likely occur tonite...

 

[severum mama]

1 is a VERY dangerous level for nitrite. You need to change enough water to keep it under .25. It's highly possible that this will require large daily pwc's until the tank is fully cycled.

 

[papa_bear_21]

we will be doing that tonite, as there is no time before I go to work. What are some steps to take to try to keep that number down in conjunction with water changes? we are only feeding every other day, and its typically a cucumber or other similiar fruit and a very small amount of flake food...the cucumber is removed the following day, and another is not given for 2 days. we watch them closely to make sure no one is starving, or looking malnourished during this time. What steps other the pwc's can be taken to keep the numbers down?

thank you in advance,
Bear

P.S. atleast we're past the ammonia stage...one hurdle down, 1 to go...

 

[Menagerie]

PWCs are the best solution along with a low level of feeding. Having the tank cycle with fish is hard and requires a lot of work. Keep at it--you're doing a great job!

 

[papa_bear_21]

Yeah, it takes time to do all the testing and pwc's, but so far, we havent lost any other fish. I cant guarentee that it will stay that way, and if we do lose some...well atleast they tried their best. I just hope we dont lose the pelco, he's our favorite. The next tank we get will be cycled with no fish, I learned a valuable lesson the hard way. Fishless cycling seems to be so much easier...LOL

Thanks to all...

 

[severum mama]

Keep up the good work- I know it is difficult. Don't worry about feeding every other day. That is the best thing you can do right now, and I promise your fish will not starve. The good news is that you are showing a little nitrate, so it shouldn't be too much longer before you are cycled! Keep testing every day, and eventually you will see the nitrite drop down to zero, and the nitrate will rise.

 

[happygirl65]

I feel for your struggle. Not too long ago my two year old daughter thought the fishes were hungry and dumped the better part of a large bottle of flakes into the tank. Luckily I was there at the time and got right to work cleaning it out. Meanwhile my two sons got rambunctious while I was focused on the tank and broke our nice custom ordered window in the front of the house.....talk about your bad days!

I also have had to put all of the food up and away from the kids reach. Even still my little girl wanted to "pet the fishes" so we finally had to build a hood that she can't lift which solved future problems. By the time she is big enough to lift that she will be old enough to understand that she could kill them.

It is just not something I really thought about "child proofing" I thought of the heater and lights and all of those sorts of things and had it all hidden away and inaccessible, but the food.....DOH!

It is not nearly as convenient to feed them anymore, but it is for the best. Good luck to you. I am sure your water will clean up nicely when the beneficial bacteria catch up.

I had a mini cycle after that incident too though not as bad since I didn't have to replace all the gravel and such. The water was cloudy for a couple of days and I had to do daily pwc for a week.

Take heart, you are doing the best you can, soon you will be back to normal with a valuable lesson learned. I know I sure did.

 

[papa_bear_21]

So we went out of town yesterday, gone all day long, came home to 2 dead fishies We lost a Mollie, and a tequila guppy. Did a near full water change, water only a couple inches above gravel level...enough for them to swim in. Nitrites were down to .25 this morning when we tested. We will be feeding the fish today, as it has been a few days since their last feeding. We wont be getting any new fish until things are cycled. Will do another test tonite after work. I'm hoping the cycle is almost over, as we dont want to lose anymore fishies

*edit*

I feel for your struggle. Not too long ago my two year old daughter thought the fishes were hungry and dumped the better part of a large bottle of flakes into the tank. Luckily I was there at the time and got right to work cleaning it out. Meanwhile my two sons got rambunctious while I was focused on the tank and broke our nice custom ordered window in the front of the house.....talk about your bad days!

I also have had to put all of the food up and away from the kids reach. Even still my little girl wanted to "pet the fishes" so we finally had to build a hood that she can't lift which solved future problems. By the time she is big enough to lift that she will be old enough to understand that she could kill them.

It is just not something I really thought about "child proofing" I thought of the heater and lights and all of those sorts of things and had it all hidden away and inaccessible, but the food.....DOH!

It is not nearly as convenient to feed them anymore, but it is for the best. Good luck to you. I am sure your water will clean up nicely when the beneficial bacteria catch up.

I had a mini cycle after that incident too though not as bad since I didn't have to replace all the gravel and such. The water was cloudy for a couple of days and I had to do daily pwc for a week.

Take heart, you are doing the best you can, soon you will be back to normal with a valuable lesson learned. I know I sure did.

I just saw this post, forgive me for not responding quickly...

Yes, we did learn a valuable lesson, and all fish tank products are now stored on a high shelf in the closet. As you put it, its not convenient to care for the tank, but it will keep the fish alive, and the tank safe. At this moment, none of the kids are old enough to access the tank to pet the fishes, and I think once they start to nip at their little hands, it would scare them enough.

On a sad note, we lost a 3rd fish, one of our platy's was found this morning. We are down to 15, and we think the betta is not going to do too well. We are hoping that no more fish parish do to this, but I am forseeing a few more, as the colors on some of our fish is pretty bad, the guppies are very light in color, and the platy's are a very dark color.

Thus far, the pleco's color is the best I've seen it, ironically. He seems to be doing pretty good, but that doesnt really mean much. 1 mollie is looking a little rough, and may not make it through the cycle. The 2 Tetra's seem good, color is perfect. Some of the fish seemed to be swimming fast and bouncing off of some of the deco in the tank (flashing?). I also noticed some fin and tail rot on some of the fish including the pleco, added some melafix to the tank to see if that helps some. I hate seein my fish suffer like that, but really dont want to mess a whole lot up in the cycle. I will watch the conditions closely, and if all is good, I might reward with some cucumber or zuchini/squash...I am proud of the fish so far, they have survived so much, and hopefully the remaining ones will continue to thrive, and come out stonger because of this trial. I commend the ones lost in the battle, and can only say that they died for a good cause, to help the welfare of the fish kept in future tanks of our.

*EDIT TEST RESULTS*

ph: 8
ammonia: 0
nitrites: .25
nitrates: 0

the nitrates went down, is that bad? nitrites are staying in check so far...

 

[Corey]

Why don't you just buy some Bio-Spira?

 

[papa_bear_21]

thought about that, but havent been able to find a place that carries any here...

 

[7Enigma]

At this point in time I think you are doing about all you can do. I would just reiterate to make sure the water you are using in the PWC's is the same temperature and dechlorinated prior to adding to the tank. Matching temps is VITAL to limiting the stress level of the fish and dechlor is self explainatory.

What I would do in your case is to purchase some inexpensive plants and float them in the tank. Wisteria, hygro, watersprite, anacharis, and java moss are all cheap plants that will help alleviate the cycle. They also will have beneficial bacteria on them that can aid in ammonia/nitrIte removal.

I'd treat these strictly as a cycle helper, don't worry about fertilizers or getting enough light. Just prune them or throw them out completely when they start to look bad (otherwise they will create more ammonia).

The fish will also appreciate having some real plants in the tank and can break up the line of sight that should help to reduce aggression.

If this was my tank, I'd stay on top of the PWC's but get some plants. Go to your LFS and look for the above mentioned. If they don't have them take an inventory of what they have and post in the plant forum. There we can recommend a species (we are looking for fast growing ammonia sponges).

Goodluck and keep an eye out for dead fish. They can start a chain reaction of death due to the massive amount of ammonia they will release upon death.

 

[papa_bear_21]

well, found another tequila today...removed it, and checked for anymore. Its hard to see all these fish dyin, and not really bein able to do much. but once this tank gets cycled, and everything is good, we will be able to get more fish. We are not replacing the ones that die at this moment...Gave some food, as it had been a couple days since the last feeding.

I do appreciate all the advice and help, and to enigma, thank you for the tip about the plants. We will look into that.

*EDIT* found a place with some bio spira, will be going to get some tomorrow. Hope this stuff helps for 13 bucks...

 

[Corey]

As long as its kept cold and isn't expired, it should "instant cycle" your tank.
I use it to start up my QT when I have to isolate a fish, works for me.

 

[papa_bear_21]

As long as its kept cold and isn't expired, it should "instant cycle" your tank.
I use it to start up my QT when I have to isolate a fish, works for me.

Thats good, as I am hoping to not lose anymore fishies.we're up to 4 now...hopefully no more, and hopefully the biospira works...since we're going to a place with tons of fish according to their site...not to mention a 40,000 gallon show tank and other neat goodies...