Help Me

[Ficious]

i finally got myself some nitrate and nitrite tests today. my tank has been running for a couple of months full of fish.

my test colors for my API test were...for nitrate its either 40ppm or 80ppm...(bad huh??)

and nitrite which is freaking me out was at 1.0 or 2.0

am i going to lose my fish?? when i got home i realize two things..my convicts eggs hatched (3/4 of em) and my convicts looked as if they were dying. well i had JUST turned on the lights...and well i guess they were sleeping or something? theyre 100% normal now...but where are the fry??

questions

1: is my tank done for?? bad test results?? things i can do?? just did a water change too
2: where did the convict fry go? could the rents eat all of them already? they appear to be looking for them still...or something..odd behavior(looking deep in the rocks).

i "thought" the tank was cycled...and the fish have seemed healthy. is it possible they will live with these scary results?? ill get some nitrate and nitrite lowerer. do i need to really take care of this asap?


please help me guys! im somewhat a noob still.

 

[Corleone]

Don't panic, just do water changes. Either the tank wasn't fully cycled or has gone into a minicycle for some reason - either way. It might take several partial changes to get nitrite down under 0.25. You'll want an ammonia test kit, too, if you don't have one - ammonia is the real killer. Nitrite reduces the fish's ability to absorb oxygen, but ammonia can cause permanent damage if it gets too high. You'll want to keep that low, too. Keep testing and doing as many water changes as it takes to keep ammonia and nitrite down until it settles back to 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, after that weekly water changes should keep nitrate down.

The tank's not done, yet. It's definitely bad, but the new to the hobby section's full of threads where people came here with far worse readings and still pulled through.

Edit: I noticed you mentioned the convict fry recently hatching, maybe there's some dead fry buried in the gravel. I read a thread earlier today where dead platy fry were suspect for an ammonia spike.

 

[Ficious]

thanks for your help...i just did two 10% water changes....


if your still on and could help me, i would do much larger water changes...but im worried about them getting ich from the temp flux. i add the start right each time but i cant get the temp to 78 degrees. is it ok to be a little off



as for the convict fry, i found them in the gravel! theyre still wrigglers and i managed to suck them out, the parents appeared to be munching on them.

i know somethings fishy with my nitrites/nitrates too because my tiger barbs. 2 or 3 of them are swimming nose down. i heard this is an indicator.

i just hope my fish make it!! thanks to anyone who helps!!!

 

[Corleone]

The temperature swing shouldn't be bad. You can play with the hot and cold tap and get it around the same - I match it by hand (i'm used to about where the taps need to be turned so I usually don't even have to do that), but you can float your thermometer in the bucket. Get it +/- 10 degrees and you won't change the tank's temperature by much.

Poor water quality can lead to worse things than ich, so don't let a minor worry lead to a major one.