Need Total Assistance With A Two Week Old Tank

[Nic84]

Hi Guys,

I have now come to the conclusion that LFS are only selling fish for profit and not for the love of fish. I've had nothing but bad advice so I'm turining to the real experts (you guys) who enjoy fish and have nothing to gain except making me and my fish happy

Not sure how important my initial setup is but here it is anyway.

So heres my situation. I bought A fluval edge around 6 months ago with the vision of having it in my kitchen. I finally got around to setting it up on Sunday 25th April, I layed a fine gravel as a base (which I had pre-soaked and washed several times), stuck both my heater and thermometre to the side of the tank, placed my tank where I wanted it and filled it with luke warm tap water. Once the tank was full I started the filter and added the tap water addative (to remove clhorine and heavy metal). I then added the cycle additive as directed and began to add three live plants and two large rocks to the tank. I left this for 3 days only adding the cycle as advised by the literature.

Then I began to stock my tank (under the advise of my LFS) which I now realise was a big mistake.

Tuesday 27th April - I added a single orange platy, luckily so far he has proven to be hardy and still swims, seemingly happy to this day. To add the fish into the water, I placed the fish, inside the bag into my tank for around 20 minutes with the top of the bag open for oxygen, I then added a small ammount of the water from the tank and left it again for around 10 minutes, repeating this process for around 45 minutes until the bag was full of water and then let the fish swim out of the bag into the tank in its own time. This is exactly how I have added each of my fish, if this is wrong, please advise.
Thursday 29th April - I was advised to add another platy, so the first did not get lonely. I added a black and white platy, not sure of its official name but he is also still swimming, seemingly happy as I type. Something else to point out is that they seem constantly hungry but I understand platys are a greedy breed.
Sunday 2nd May - I was advised again (by a different LFS) that a school of fish and some algae eaters would finish my tank off nicely. He told me that Harlequin rasboras were hardy and would be perfect for my situation. He also sold me two little "shark" looking algae eaters. I do not remember the name as it was slightly unusual, again I was told they were hardy and fairly rare. The reason he told me they were rare was because I actually questioned adding all these fish due to the immaturaty of the tank but he told me if I didn't buy two, I wouldn't find them again. Once added to the tank they swam around and seemed fairly happy but gradually became distressed and after 3 days, the rasboras and algae eaters have unfortunately all died. Obviously I feel terrible about this but I can't help but think if I was given the correct advice, they would still be happily swimming in someone elses tank.

The platys are still happily swimming around and I have grown quite attached to them. They come to the front of the tank at feeding time and they happily fight over crumbled food flakes. I have also obtained a small piece of wood that a friend was getting rid of that had been in his tank for 6 years, so I have added this which gives them somewhere to hide and play in.

Obviously I'm not into animal cruelty and feel I have made far too many mistakes already so I'm asking for help from you guys to help me to keep the platys alive and happy. I'm purchasing a water testing kit tomorrow (after reading the advice for starters on this site) and would like to start doing water changes as appropriate. I also have a syphoning pipe with a 'hoover' device on one end, an algae magnet and yet another plant that was added last night.

All advice welcome and please try not to accuse me of fish cruelty or neglect as I feel bad enough already
Thank you in advance for your help and sorry its such a long post!

 

[MBOU]

Sounds like you have had a bit of naff advice from you local fish shops!

I have a Fluval Edge set up as a display tank and its really starting to grow on me! I have modified the filter slightly and im doing a 40% water change every two weeks and dragging the algae magnet over it every few days and thats all the maintenance there is

In the filter I didnt set it up as suggested in instructions and i hadded 2 new types of media...

Here is how i set up the filter from the base of the tray upwards:

Bottom: Ceramic Biomedia
Next: Carbon (i used a pair of tights to make smaller bag and about 2/3rd of the carbon in the normal sachet)
Next: Polyfilter (costs about £14 for a small sheet of it and i cut out squares and replace it every 2 months, will be in marine section in shops, removes nitrite, nitrate and phosphate)
Next: Fluval 2+ Polyfilter pad
Top: Edge Sponge


That way, you have a poly filter to remove a lot of the nasties that build up very quickly in such a small tank and will help as the tank cycles with new fish in.

I would just keep your two platies and regular waterchanges etc for a couple of weeks until the water is as stable as possible, there are some much better bacteria supplements on the market than cycle these days Bactuurgel from ADC or supafish and JBLs FilterStart are an excellant one for new tanks, cycle is better aimed at more mature tanks.

I would consider my edge tank happily full with 9 Copper Harlequins and a Siamese Fighter, i also have a good sized Anubias and a java fern on two bits of bogwood that are easy to remove when gravel cleaning I might add 1 shrimp and 1 otocinclus to help with algae as the tank is near a window.

I think with changing the filter around a tad, add some bacteria supplement and just waiting a bit (testing your water too of course!!) you will be ok

 

[meguro]

do a 50% water change (dont forget to use dechlorinator) and when u've finished have a read through the links in here
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

the 1st four are more important for now (u only need to read the 1st post of each thread really)

the black and white platy is probably a mickey mouse platy, the catfish i would guess at being chinese algae eater (though i wouldnt expect them to die so soon), otocinclus (they die easily in new setups) or siamese algae eater (shark-like in appearance)

when u add fish its generally better to net the fish out after the acclimatisation period to avoid contaminating ur tank water with lfs water, otherwise u added the fish in ok

 

[Nic84]

Thank you for your advice.

I wanted a Betta Splenden in the Edge but was told the labrynth valve wouldn't be able to get oxygen from the surface due to the waterfall style flow in the tank, Betta's being weak swimmers and nowhere for the fish to breath on the surface. I guess that must also be naff info too then!

With water changes, is that worth doing everyday until the cycle settles? I will pruchase some of the other additive you have suggested tomorrow too then and maybe look into modifying the filter as you have suggested. How often do I need to change the media in the filter?

Thanks again.

 

[Nic84]

Otocinclus was the fish he sold me. I guess that means they are far from hardy then!
50% water change with my two platys still in the water? I shall do that tonight, refil with dechlorinated water and then test the water first thing tomorrow.
It's not a mickey mouse platy, it has black fins, black tail, little black spotty face and a white body. From looking on google images I'm guessing its a gold wag tail platy. Both have lovely personalities and I really don't want them to die. Is it right that they are always hungry too?
Is it OK to add the cycle or similar additive with fish in the water?

Thanks again.

 

[meguro]

u want to change the media in ur filter as little as possible, basically when it breaks/disintegrates. rinse off ur filter media in tank water (that u syphon out when changing water) and not in tap water, then place back into ur filter

a betta splendens can breath from the surface of the water as long as there is air above the surface ie. it isnt touching glass etc. It has nothing to do with what filter u use.

short fin bettas (plakat, wild, female etc.) can handle stronger currents better than long/fancy fin bettas

 

[Assaye]

Read the link provided by meguro first of all.

Right now your objective is to manually keep your water toxin free while allowing the bacteria to grow in the filter that will naturally filter the toxins out of your water. This requires daily water testing and generally daily water changes. You need a good liquid test kit for ammonia and nitrite and you need to use these on your water every day and change as much water as necessary to get the levels from a positive reading to zero. These chemicals are very toxic and must be removed to undetectable levels to keep the fish healthy.

After 1-2 months you should notice that you need to change the water less and less. After a while, you should see that apart from a weekly water change to remove nitrate (you can get a test kit for this as well) and some other, untested chemicals in the water, you won't need extra water changes as ammonia and nitrite are always zero. This is means your tank is cycled!

Stocking - do NOT add any new fish until the tank is cycled.

Platies are not ideal for these small tanks. They should really be in 10 gallons. However, if you love thoses two and do not add anything else (except for maybe some shrimp) you could have a shot at keeping these two platies happy. See them as pets rather than just some fish in a tank full of other fish. I would advise upgrading them to 10 gallon or rehoming them but if you resist the temptation to add more fish then you could be OK. Keep their water clean and food in their bellies.

However, there is a complication. What sex are they? If both male, you could keep them. If both female, you could keep them together but they may still produce babies as they can store sperm from when they were with males in the shop. If male and female, you need another female to stop the females getting harassed too much and a larger tank due to breeding or you need to rehome one (or both) of them.

So basically, uless you have two males who don't bully each other you need to consider rehoming them. Platies (like molies, swordtails and guppies) breed like rabbits and can very, very quickly over run a small tank.

Forget about the cycle stuff. It is almost certainly useless and may contain dead organic matter that will rot in the tank and make yur problems worse. These "cycle" products are a scam, 90% of the time. They make you think you are doing a good thing for your fish and help set aside your worries about immature tanks, while actually doing very, very little.

Make sure you have a good water conditioner that removes chlorine, chloramine (if your water company uses it), heavy metals and ammonia associated with chlormines. A bad water conditioner can leave extra ammonia in your water.

Otocinclus - total lie from the shop on those. They are fragile and certainly not rare. They are suited to smaller tanks BUT require very mature tanks.

Harlequin rasboras are cute little fish but at 1.5-1.75 inches as adults, are NOT suited for tiny tanks. If you want a shoaling fish, look at fish that don't exceed 0.8 inches as adults, such as chilli rasboras.

Good luck!

 

[Nic84]

It seems as if these LFS should require a license of some kind to be allowed to trade in such delicate animals, and regulated on the information they give! I had no idea it was such an indepth thing, not that thats a bad thing as I love a challenge.

So tomorrow I will buy some Bactuurgel or similar as stated by MBOU, a liquid water testing kit and obviously no more fish. I have sexed the pair of platies and it appears they are both females due to the lack of an anal fin (however I could be wrong). I will keep a close eye on any fry swimming about in the future but I do intend on getting a second tank once I have this one under control. If I notice any 'bullying' or rabbit like breeding I will be sure to split them up. I originally purchased the tank for a betta but I was told many bad things about new tanks, the fluval edge's design and difficulty of keeping one so I decided against it for now. Not to say it won't come in the future.

My water additive is the same one that comes as a free sample in the Fluval Edge packaging. Until tomorrow I have no way of testing if it removes all the chlorine and heavy metals etc (but it does claim to do so on the packaging). I will be certain to make sure it does though.

I did look at chilli rasboras but was told that they would make a tasty meal for the platies. However, as you suggest, I am going to keep it a tank just for the two platies unless they get moved into the other tank once it is set up.

I have read over the link provided by meguro and found some very useful stuff. I'm still unsure about the testing and water changing scenario but I'm sure it will become clear once I start to test the water.

The only other question I have is regarding feeding. I am putting around 3 medium sized flakes of food in every day. I have also heard that you should not feed them at all one day a week to give their digestive systems a rest. This info was from a LFS so I'm not sure how much to trust it, what do you guys think?

 

[Assaye]

It seems as if these LFS should require a license of some kind to be allowed to trade in such delicate animals, and regulated on the information they give! I had no idea it was such an indepth thing, not that thats a bad thing as I love a challenge.

So tomorrow I will buy some Bactuurgel or similar as stated by MBOU, a liquid water testing kit and obviously no more fish. I have sexed the pair of platies and it appears they are both females due to the lack of an anal fin (however I could be wrong). I will keep a close eye on any fry swimming about in the future but I do intend on getting a second tank once I have this one under control. If I notice any 'bullying' or rabbit like breeding I will be sure to split them up. I originally purchased the tank for a betta but I was told many bad things about new tanks, the fluval edge's design and difficulty of keeping one so I decided against it for now. Not to say it won't come in the future.

My water additive is the same one that comes as a free sample in the Fluval Edge packaging. Until tomorrow I have no way of testing if it removes all the chlorine and heavy metals etc (but it does claim to do so on the packaging). I will be certain to make sure it does though.

I did look at chilli rasboras but was told that they would make a tasty meal for the platies. However, as you suggest, I am going to keep it a tank just for the two platies unless they get moved into the other tank once it is set up.

I have read over the link provided by meguro and found some very useful stuff. I'm still unsure about the testing and water changing scenario but I'm sure it will become clear once I start to test the water.

The only other question I have is regarding feeding. I am putting around 3 medium sized flakes of food in every day. I have also heard that you should not feed them at all one day a week to give their digestive systems a rest. This info was from a LFS so I'm not sure how much to trust it, what do you guys think?

Rest days are a good idea =) I like to give my fish a cooked, de-shelled and chopped pea every week or so. This is very tasty for them and also encourages them to poop.

Chilli rasboras are best for when there are no larger fish in the tank - would be something to look at for when/if you move the platies to a larger tank.

Female platies DO have a normal anal fin. It's the males who have am oddly shaped anal fin. This is because it is actually their boy-parts.

If a water conditioner says it removes everything then it generally will. Poor quality water conditioners only tend to mention some of the functions or just say "treats tap water for fish" or something else vague.

The only thing to worry about with bettas and Fluval Edge is their need for air. They will want to come to the surface to breathe and unless you lower the water level in the Edge, this is hard for them. They can be scared away from the air hole due to the filter outlet being there as well.

They are not particularly hard to care for, although a lot of shops like to say they are (which is weird). I know my local P@H tends to tell people that bettas are only suited for mature tanks. All fish want a cycled tank but bettas are perfectly capable of getting through a controlled fish-in cycle (as are many fish).

 

[waterdrop]

Nic wrote:
"I have read over the link provided by meguro and found some very useful stuff. I'm still unsure about the testing and water changing scenario but I'm sure it will become clear once I start to test the water."

Hi Nic and Welcome to our beginners section!
Since you've received some excellent advice and have been pointed to the Beginners Resource Center, I'll just try to follow up on your query above.

Within the BRC, the Nitrogen Cycle article and the Fishless Cycling should give you some key background understanding about the nitrogen cycle (reread them again if you can) which is the more core beginner thing to work on and what is behind most of your problems. A third article, the Fish-In Cycle, is the one that is describing your situation.

Most people simply have had not access to the nitrogen cycle information itself, much less anyone looking over their shoulder to mention how key it is. The LFS unfortunately is not only a place that rarely gives this info out (if the particular employees even know it, which can be rare) but is also a source of confusion and actions that go counter to the cycle.

You are definately in what is known as a "fish-in cycling situation" (I especially call it a situation as opposed to a cycle when its not entered in to out of choice or knowledge of how to do it, but is a situation one finds ones self in and where perhaps too many fish or too large a set of fish are involved to have made the process go easily!) From the standpoint of the comfort of the fish and their longevity, a fish-in situation is always urgent on some level.

As you've been advised, the two most key action components for you are first of all emergency water changes (with good technique) and secondly to obtain a good liquid-reagent based test kit. Water changes should always be performed with conditioner (it can be dosed at 1.5x or up to even 2x but not more of whatever dose the manufacturer instructs) and with rough temperature matching (your hand is good enough for this when done carefully.) Until the kit is advising you of your ammonia and nitrite(NO2) levels, water changes can and should be large (such as 50 to 75% daily.)

The test kits we are talking about are to measure ammonia, nitrite(NO2), pH and nitrate(NO3) and have little testtubes and reagent bottles. Most of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit but there are others. The Salifert individual tests are the best and Nutrafin makes another kit that many do well with. In the beginning of a fish-in situation you need to measure ammonia and nitrite(NO2) twice a day and get a few pH and nitrate(NO3) results in to your log, all posted up for the members to see and comment on.

In a fish-in situation you need to investigate what your water changes are accomplishing as reported by multiple test results. Your goal is to figure out what percentage and frequency of changes will keep both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) at or below 0.25ppm until you can be back home again to test and potentially change water again. (That sentence is the key one.) In a tank where the number and size fish is ok for proper fish-in cycling, you won't need many water changes. In a tank where the "bioload" (number and size of fish) is getting a bit high, the water changes can become quite numerous and difficult. A gravel-cleaning siphon needs to be used to get the water out (although not having one yet would not be an excuse to not actually do a water change!) The gravel cleaning cylinder should go deep in to the substrate (unless its too much like sand and would siphon out) and be given time to extract debris.

A fish-in cycle typically takes more than a month and the test feedback you get as you go should not be confused as being in a clear progression like the "fishless cycle" technique talks about. A fish-in cycle often does not give many progress signs other than that there are still enough toxins there that you've got to water change yet again. But finally, eventually, there will come two days in a row where both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) are zero ppm and you have not changed any water and you will know the end is near. At that point you should watch it repeat this "double-zero" performance for a week and after that you are considered cycled and can change your maintenance routine and consider taking slow tank stocking actions. All the while that this is going on you should be learning about stocking and other things from the members.

Good luck and I hope to see you around reading and learning in other beginners threads!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Nic84]

Hi Guys,

Thank you all for your assistance. I also travelled to three more LFS yesterday and got lots of information on my tank. I also purchased some API Stress Zyme+ (which is an in water additive for new tanks), a Nutrafin test mini master test kit and some tetra fresh delica as a treat for my fish.

I ran through a few points with all the assistants at the LFS and told them about the 50 - 75% daily water changes to which each one laughed. Their argument is that if you are taking out 75% of the water each day, you are only leaving 25% of water with the bacteria required to turn the nitrites into nitrates. If this continues daily the 25% will be watered down until there is no good bacteria left in the water at all. If it takes a long while for the bacteria to build up, surely doing daily water changes will not give the bacteria chance to develop before it is taken out of the tank again by another water change? This is how it was explained to me by the LFS and logic does tend to make me wonder whether they are correct or not. However I have been misled by LFS before (as above) so would it be possible to compromise and carry out 40% water changes every 2 days? That way the bacteria will have more chance of developing and the nitrites will still be diluted.

I tested the water before the first water change and found that I had a reading of 7.5 pH, 0 Ammonia, 0.8 Nitrite and 8 nitrate. I then carried out a Nitrite test straight after a 50% water change and found it to be around half (0.4) of its previous reading which I would have expected. The nitrate level was also around half at 5. I then tested it again today (around 16:30) and got the following readings - pH 8.5 (slightly higher?) Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0.5, Nitrate 10. Are these results expected? I must admit, there not really what I was expecting!

Have I done the right thing so far? My Platies seem slightly happier I suppose so thats a plus. The plants are really rooting well though and look very healthy indeed.

 

[meguro]

ammonia and nitrite readings above 0.25 ppm are harmful to fish. the bacteria tends to not exist much at all in the water but instead grows on objects that have oxygenated water flowing over them, such as filter media. this means that large water changes will have minimal affect on the growth of bacteria. the water changes are done to reduce the concentration of ammonia and nitrite (as u saw for urself when ur 0.8 nitrite became 0.4)

edit: could u test ur tap water and post the results plz

 

[OldMan47]

If you are doing a 50% water change to keep the poison levels down, you are doing the right thing. Those idiots will laugh all the way to the bank if you start believing their story and slow down the water changes and add their dubious chemical and bacterial concoctions instead.
We have yet to see any real evidence of any of the bacterial additives working at all. What happens, and I have tried it using Cycle, is that a fishless cycle takes the same amount of time with or without the "live bacteria" that is in the bottle. The bacteria that we are trying to grow, far from the only bacteria in a tank of water, form colonies on surfaces that have good flows of oxygenated water. That best describes the surfaces in a filter or right where the filter flow returns to the tank. It really does not matter much what that surface is made from. Sponge filters have a sponge that presents lots of growing surface. So does a ceramic biomedia, a bag of carbon media, ceramic noodles, a pot scrubber stuffed into a canister filter or many other media. I change water at the rate of over 90% daily when I find that a filter clone is not ready and a tank already has fish in it. A few days later, the tank is fully cycled and the fish are never exposed to high levels of ammonia or nitrites.
I usually find myself in a bind like that when I attend a fish auction and buy more species than I should. Some of the fish get a new clone and need to merely go through a fish-in version of a filter clone. Those fish get a bit stressed when there is barely enough water left in the tank daily to keep them wet, but each day they look far better after the change than before it and each day the raw test results are far better than they were the day before.

 

[Nic84]

I shall continue with the 50% daily water changes until my nitrate tests read as close to 0 as I can get without having to change the water for 7 days. I'm assuming this will be around 2 months? I've been reading into the actual molecular structure of the bacteria itself and am starting to understand a little better exactly what is happening. I will also do a water test on my tap water tomorrow when I get home from work. Should I test it before it is treated for chlorine or after?

This may just be me being paranoid but both platies now seem to have red behind their gills. This may have been there before but I might not have noticed it. Is this something I should be worried about?

Thanks again.

 

[Assaye]

Hi Guys,

Thank you all for your assistance. I also travelled to three more LFS yesterday and got lots of information on my tank. I also purchased some API Stress Zyme+ (which is an in water additive for new tanks), a Nutrafin test mini master test kit and some tetra fresh delica as a treat for my fish.

I ran through a few points with all the assistants at the LFS and told them about the 50 - 75% daily water changes to which each one laughed. Their argument is that if you are taking out 75% of the water each day, you are only leaving 25% of water with the bacteria required to turn the nitrites into nitrates. If this continues daily the 25% will be watered down until there is no good bacteria left in the water at all. If it takes a long while for the bacteria to build up, surely doing daily water changes will not give the bacteria chance to develop before it is taken out of the tank again by another water change? This is how it was explained to me by the LFS and logic does tend to make me wonder whether they are correct or not. However I have been misled by LFS before (as above) so would it be possible to compromise and carry out 40% water changes every 2 days? That way the bacteria will have more chance of developing and the nitrites will still be diluted.

I tested the water before the first water change and found that I had a reading of 7.5 pH, 0 Ammonia, 0.8 Nitrite and 8 nitrate. I then carried out a Nitrite test straight after a 50% water change and found it to be around half (0.4) of its previous reading which I would have expected. The nitrate level was also around half at 5. I then tested it again today (around 16:30) and got the following readings - pH 8.5 (slightly higher?) Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0.5, Nitrate 10. Are these results expected? I must admit, there not really what I was expecting!

Have I done the right thing so far? My Platies seem slightly happier I suppose so thats a plus. The plants are really rooting well though and look very healthy indeed.

What the lfs employee said sounds exactly like what my manager used to tell people, and as far as we know, it is wrong.

Here is why:

The bacteria does exist in the water but in tiny amounts. Doing large water changes will deplete the 'floating' bacteria levels but the tank won't notice because all the essential bacteria is in the filter. You can't remove those bacteria without killing them or removing the media they are living on.

Another myth you might here is that the bacteria need high levels of ammonia and nitrite in order to grow. This means that every water change reduced their food and increases the length of the cycle. This has also show to be false and it does take a while to understand why. Basically, the bacteria can only process as much as they can process. Say they can process 0.5ppm in 24 hours, and your fish produce 1.0 in 24 hours. So you do a test, and get a reading of 0.5ppm. This means that the bacteria have done their job on the 1.0 and reduced it to 0.5, right? So, the 0.5 you see on the test is excess and the bacteria are not ready to handle it. Which means that you can remove the 0.5 and the bacteria have still had their dinner, so to speak. So the bacteria (with their bellies full of ammonia) reproduce and the next day, they can handle 0.6 and the fish are still producing 1.0. So, the bacteria eat the 0.6 and you test and get 0.4. And so on, and so forth. Plus, even if you test and get zero, there is a very good chance (due to the imperfect accuracy of the test kit) that there is still a teeny trace of ammonia (and nitrite) in the tank which the bacteria can keep feeding on. Someone on here tested this theory in practice and with a computer simulation and showed that a fish-in cycle involving daily water changes will not stall or slow the cycle to a noticeable degree.

In general, lfs employees don't understand the subtleties of the nitrogen cycle and how it applies to fishkeeping. This sounds harsh, but often they only get basic training ("fish produce ammonia, bacteria in water eats ammonia, sell the customers some Stress Zyme and a test kit") and they often are not really bright enough or have the curiosity to actually go and research it properly for themselves. So they just repeat what they get told. Obviously there are exceptions - the people who do bother to research and the people who know what they are doing before they take the job. Certainly where I worked, there was only one of us (me). The manager at my store firmly believed you could cycle a tank by adding Stress Coat for a week and putting fish in. It's not just what he told customers, it's what he did to the in-store tanks. When we lost several large angel fish in a row from a newly set up display tank he wasn't going to admit that it was the poorly conducted cycle that was the blame.

If you tell an lfs that you are cycling your tank with ammonia, or doing large daily water changes or in fact anything that goes against their mythology of "set the tank up for a week and then use some danios to cycle", expect to be laughed at and told not to listen to silly people on the internet. Been there.

And even if they were right and everything you were doing was slowing down your cycle, you're still saving your fish because ammonia and nitrites are very, very harmful.

In fact, I would be doing larger water changes. You said you brought the levels from 0.8 to 0.4 with a 50% water change. The maths is right on but you need to be aiming for 0.8 (or whatever) to zero, or at least undetectable. That might mean 75% or more. If you don't want to do one massive water change, try to smaller ones spaced out. It isn't as effective but it is arguably easier on the fish if done smoothly.

Chin up, you're doing the right things.

I shall continue with the 50% daily water changes until my nitrate tests read as close to 0 as I can get. I'm assuming this will be around 2 months? I've been reading into the actual molecular structure of the bacteria itself and am starting to understand a little better exactly what is happening. I will also do a water test on my tap water tomorrow when I get home from work. Should I test it before it is treated for chlorine or after?

This may just be me being paranoid but both platies now seem to have red behind their gills. This may have been there before but I might not have noticed it. Is this something I should be worried about?

Thanks again.

Yes, red behind the gills could be a sign of ammonia damage. The flesh there is naturally pink but if it suddenly goes a brighter or darker colour, it could be ammonia burns.

Keep an eye on them and keep up the large water changes. You can't reverse any damage but you can stop it getting worse.