Brittany K.
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- Joined
- May 9, 2019
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Hi Everyone!
Hoping someone can help. Long story... We have a 5 week old 20 gallon tank. This is our second tank...three months ago we started out with a 10 gallon. We had 3 platys and 2 guppies, and one of the platys had babies. 4 survived. We had one platy that seemed sick for several weeks - couldn't swim well, flopped around, stayed on the bottom. But he hung on!
A few weeks later, the pH fell to below 6, and the ammonia was hovering around .5ppm. No nitrates or nitrites. I did frequent water changes but nothing seemed to help and the other fish started looking...pretty poor. All our ghost shrimp died, then our black racing snail. The pet shop said we was overstocked - the babies had gotten too big. So we upgraded to a 20 gallon 5 weeks ago. Used the same gravel and decorations to help with bacteria.
Did the transfer really slow. Lost the sick platy in the transfer, but everyone else seemed to do really well. Added 5 neon tetras (mistake - thought everything was kosher!) Still couldn't keep ghost shrimp alive though. Last week, one of our platys (the mom!) started showing the same symptoms - couldn't swim, stayed on bottom. A few days later she died. Last night we lost one of the babies (same symptoms but happened much quicker.) This morning one of the guppies was chilling on the gravel, but seems to have perked up.
I do weekly cleanings of 25% but am getting ready to do a bigger one now. Water measurements:
pH stays right around 6.8
ammonia - stays around .25. Might be creeping up now though
Nitrites/Nitrates - 0
We have:
-3 guppies
-5 neons
-1 adult platy, (now) 3 babies - 2 months old
Thoughts??
Hoping someone can help. Long story... We have a 5 week old 20 gallon tank. This is our second tank...three months ago we started out with a 10 gallon. We had 3 platys and 2 guppies, and one of the platys had babies. 4 survived. We had one platy that seemed sick for several weeks - couldn't swim well, flopped around, stayed on the bottom. But he hung on!
A few weeks later, the pH fell to below 6, and the ammonia was hovering around .5ppm. No nitrates or nitrites. I did frequent water changes but nothing seemed to help and the other fish started looking...pretty poor. All our ghost shrimp died, then our black racing snail. The pet shop said we was overstocked - the babies had gotten too big. So we upgraded to a 20 gallon 5 weeks ago. Used the same gravel and decorations to help with bacteria.
Did the transfer really slow. Lost the sick platy in the transfer, but everyone else seemed to do really well. Added 5 neon tetras (mistake - thought everything was kosher!) Still couldn't keep ghost shrimp alive though. Last week, one of our platys (the mom!) started showing the same symptoms - couldn't swim, stayed on bottom. A few days later she died. Last night we lost one of the babies (same symptoms but happened much quicker.) This morning one of the guppies was chilling on the gravel, but seems to have perked up.
I do weekly cleanings of 25% but am getting ready to do a bigger one now. Water measurements:
pH stays right around 6.8
ammonia - stays around .25. Might be creeping up now though
Nitrites/Nitrates - 0
We have:
-3 guppies
-5 neons
-1 adult platy, (now) 3 babies - 2 months old
Thoughts??