Please Help! Parameters Way Off!

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

Woody777

New Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2019
Messages
12
Reaction score
1
Hello,

I am new to the hobby and am just getting started. I have been cycling my tank for a month now and so far have had 10 fish die on me...

I have a 10 gallon tank with a basic Top Fin PF10 filter... nothing fancy as I have to move soon and did not want anything too complicated for now.

I set up my 10 gallon 4 weeks ago with the filter. Here is my setup and what I did:

10 gallon rectangular tank
Top Fin PF10 HOB filter
Standard temperature adjusted heater set at 78F.
Colored gravel (rinsed before setup)
Two cave-like decorations (rinsed before setup)
One airstone
1 Amazon Sword live plant (rinsed before putting in tank)
2 Moneywort live plants (rinsed before putting in tank)

*I used water conditioner and bacterial supplement and have used both again for each water change. (Also making sure the new water matches the temperature of the tank water)

I have been getting the water tested at petsmart and always get a generally decent water rating. However today I bought an API test kit and went through the process and it is NOT GOOD!

pH - 7.8
Ammonia - 1.5ppm
Nitrite - 2.0ppm
Nitrate - 0ppm

I have been cycling this tank for 4 weeks and doing everything I am supposed to do... not sure why my water is still so terrible. I just added a dwarf gourami because I read they are a hardy fish for during a cycle (which I thought was fine until I saw just HOW BAD my water actually is!)

I figured I was further along in this process and that I was only a little ways off from having a fully cycled tank.

The petsmart person told me I should just start over, but honestly I feel like that is just going to ruin whatever minimal progress has been made (if any).

I would appreciate some thoughts from experienced folks!

Thanks in advance!
 
When you go to petsmart, they test the water with strips that are usually not very reliable.

Your readings from the liquid test will give you the most accurate readings.

You are right about continuing the cycle as apposed to starting over.

A few questions here

1 - what fish were added and how large are they? You said 10 fish have died, that seems like a lot of fish to add to a 10 gallon tank, especially one that isn't quite established yet.

2 - How often have you been changing your water and how much do you take out?

3 - Have you been cleaning your filter? How do you clean it?

4 - What fish are in the tank now?
 
When you go to petsmart, they test the water with strips that are usually not very reliable.

Your readings from the liquid test will give you the most accurate readings.

You are right about continuing the cycle as apposed to starting over.

A few questions here

1 - what fish were added and how large are they? You said 10 fish have died, that seems like a lot of fish to add to a 10 gallon tank, especially one that isn't quite established yet.

2 - How often have you been changing your water and how much do you take out?

3 - Have you been cleaning your filter? How do you clean it?

4 - What fish are in the tank now?

1) -2 Green Tiger Barbs (<1")
-2 Albino Tiger Barbs (<1")
-2 Tiger Barbs (<1")
-4 Peppered Corys

*Yes I realized I overstocked... I had planned to limit to five but the employee said as long as I upgrade to a large tank within the six months (which I still plan on doing), it would be fine.... Lesson learned though... wit was way too much for that tank especially given the situation I am in.


2) I have only been doing water changes when my ammonia came back a little high at the petsmart. Which I check 1-2 times a week at the store, so about a 10-20% change once a week.

3) No I have not been cleaning the filter... I read that during the cycling process I should not clean the filter in order to not disturb good bacteria growth on the media.

4) The only fish in the tank right now is the Dwarf Gourami. I only put him in earlier today, but he seems to be doing very well. I fed a very small amount and he immediately gobbled it up. I took that as a good sign after being introduced to the tank so recently.

*Obviously made some mistakes along the way but I am trying to get it all right and done properly... certainly don't want any more dead fish...

Thanks!
 
1) -2 Green Tiger Barbs (<1")
-2 Albino Tiger Barbs (<1")
-2 Tiger Barbs (<1")
-4 Peppered Corys

*Yes I realized I overstocked... I had planned to limit to five but the employee said as long as I upgrade to a large tank within the six months (which I still plan on doing), it would be fine.... Lesson learned though... wit was way too much for that tank especially given the situation I am in.


2) I have only been doing water changes when my ammonia came back a little high at the petsmart. Which I check 1-2 times a week at the store, so about a 10-20% change once a week.

3) No I have not been cleaning the filter... I read that during the cycling process I should not clean the filter in order to not disturb good bacteria growth on the media.

4) The only fish in the tank right now is the Dwarf Gourami. I only put him in earlier today, but he seems to be doing very well. I fed a very small amount and he immediately gobbled it up. I took that as a good sign after being introduced to the tank so recently.

*Obviously made some mistakes along the way but I am trying to get it all right and done properly... certainly don't want any more dead fish...

Thanks!

Oh also the cory's were .5"
 
Sounds like you have a decent understanding of how things work.

Aside from adding fish too early, you're mostly on the right track

Do not add any more fish. Now that you have a fish, you need to get your ammonia down. Do bigger water changes, about 50% every other day. You want to keep the ammonia on the lower end so your fish doesn't die

You are right about the filter. Don't bother cleaning it until your tank is established. At that point, you can rinse it with tank water ever 2 weeks or so depending on bioload and so on.

Feed every other day to reduce ammonia production.
 
Okay I will start changing more of the water...Would it be beneficial to add more bacterial supplement or nitrifying bacteria? (the latter of which I have not used at all yet).
 
I have never used supplements like that so I really can't comment.

I don't add anything into my tank besides conditioner

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk
 
Another thing that I thought of, you probably haven't actually been cycling for a month. You need a source of ammonia to begin the cycle, so unless you were adding in food to an empty tank, or adding in pure ammonia, the tank didn't actually start to cycle until fish were added.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk
 
Fair enough. Currently in the middle of 50% change. Thanks for your help! I'll give an update in the near future!
 
Actually I cycled it for three days with nothing in it, and then bought two cichlids (electric yellow and demasoni... both 1")

The electric yellow died in a couple days, but the demasoni was fine for a week. The only time he seemed stressed was when I turned on the airstone... he seemed to get really stressed and lose a lot of his color then.

I returned him because I wanted more activity in the tank and even as juveniles it wouldn't be fair for cichlids in a 10 gal (like I said above, I plan to upgrade size soon so that's why I got the juveniles)

After I returned the demasoni that is when I went with the barbs and corys i mentioned above.

***I did the 50% water change and now my Dwarf Gourami is going nuts... glass surfing a lot and keeps popping up to the surface briefly***
 
You can improve your TopFin HOB filter by adding some sponges to it. You can buy square or rectangular sponges for other brands of filter (I use AquaClear but there are other brands). Use a pair of scissors to cut the sponges to fit in the filter.

Add as much sponge as possible and leave it there with the filter pads/ cartridges for 2 months. Do not replace the pads during that time. After 2 months you throw the pads away and do not replace them at all. Just put some more sponges in the filter.

The sponges will last 10+ years and only need replacing when they fall apart. You clean the sponges in a bucket of tank water at least once a month, and every 2 weeks is better. However, do not clean the sponges for the first 6-8 weeks otherwise you can wash out the good bacteria and cause the tank to cycle again.

---------------------
You can also get round/ cylindrical sponges for some brands of internal power filter. These round sponges have a hole through the centre and they fit over the intake strainer of most external power filters. They can be washed in a bucket of tank water every couple of weeks and help prevent small fish and plants from being sucked into the filter.

The following link has a video showing a modified TopFin HOB filter.
 

Most reactions

trending

Back
Top