KateW
Fish Fanatic
Hi everyone
I think I may have screwed up my tank. After months of double zeros for ammonia and nitrite, and consistent pH and nitrate, today i did a pretty big tank clear out. Nitrates have also been steady at 40 - 80 ppm, pH 7.4, temperature 25 degrees. I use an API freshwater master test kit.
Having had a bad start with no proper advice (before i found this forum) and probably a fairly severe fish-in cycle, I also wasn't really gravel vacuuming or changing water enough.
So this afternoon I put the fish in another container for a while, took all the ceramic gravel (the main bio-media) out and rinsed it in old tank water Filter sponge was given only a quick swish out in the old water. Pretty much all the water had to come out because there was LOADS of poo and gunk in there. It is only a 35 litre tank, so it wasn't too bad. After all my being careful about rinsing the gravel in old water and temperature matching, I refilled put the gravel bad and refilled... and THEN dechlorinated. Have I killed all my good bacteria after being so careful about it?
I retested the water ten minutes after I finished, my log says 2.20 pm. I just realised all this when I woke up in a panic a few minutes ago so I have just retested at 2.04 am - pretty much twelve hours after the fish went back in. Ammonia and Nitrite are still reading as 0, but is this just the calm before the storm? No point in testing for nitrates, as tap water is 40 ppm anyway - generally it says under 80 ppm even after a week.
All the fish (5 guppies, 3 neon tetra) seem to be behaving as normal, although I can't see one neon - but he could just be hiding.
Am I going to end up in a fish-in cycle again, do you think? Because if so I will be straight to the LFS in the morning to beg for some mature media... any advice gratefully received!
I think I may have screwed up my tank. After months of double zeros for ammonia and nitrite, and consistent pH and nitrate, today i did a pretty big tank clear out. Nitrates have also been steady at 40 - 80 ppm, pH 7.4, temperature 25 degrees. I use an API freshwater master test kit.
Having had a bad start with no proper advice (before i found this forum) and probably a fairly severe fish-in cycle, I also wasn't really gravel vacuuming or changing water enough.
So this afternoon I put the fish in another container for a while, took all the ceramic gravel (the main bio-media) out and rinsed it in old tank water Filter sponge was given only a quick swish out in the old water. Pretty much all the water had to come out because there was LOADS of poo and gunk in there. It is only a 35 litre tank, so it wasn't too bad. After all my being careful about rinsing the gravel in old water and temperature matching, I refilled put the gravel bad and refilled... and THEN dechlorinated. Have I killed all my good bacteria after being so careful about it?
I retested the water ten minutes after I finished, my log says 2.20 pm. I just realised all this when I woke up in a panic a few minutes ago so I have just retested at 2.04 am - pretty much twelve hours after the fish went back in. Ammonia and Nitrite are still reading as 0, but is this just the calm before the storm? No point in testing for nitrates, as tap water is 40 ppm anyway - generally it says under 80 ppm even after a week.
All the fish (5 guppies, 3 neon tetra) seem to be behaving as normal, although I can't see one neon - but he could just be hiding.
Am I going to end up in a fish-in cycle again, do you think? Because if so I will be straight to the LFS in the morning to beg for some mature media... any advice gratefully received!
