The gravel in my tank has gone brown

[mrmuff]

Ok, I havent posted here in a long time but this is a emergency.

For a while now, I have noticed the gravel in my tank has gone brown and I am worried. My sword tail and 4 of my neon tetras have died since they have gone brown. I have a couple af very hardy wagtails who dont seem to care but I want to know if this is normal.

P.S the ammonia is quite high.

 

[smb]

The brown on your gravel, is it algae?

How long has this tank been set up? How often do you clean the gravel and do water changes?

Since the ammonia is so high, I would do a 10-15% water change now and do a 5-10% daily water change until the bacteria can catch up to the ammonia.

 

[mrmuff]

Actualy the ammonia is quite low but the nitrate is quite high (sorry about that I did a test just after I posted). And the nitrite is almost 0.1 mg/Ltr. The tank has been running since early Sept. It did have high ammonia for a while, when I put fish in around late Sept - early Oct the ammonia shot up and did not seem to drop for ages. After water changes it just crept up again. I had a couple of outbreaks of white spot which I treated and I think this is what killed the tetras. If the brown on the stones is algae, is there a fish that would eat it? Oh and I have plastic plants not real ones - if thats relevant.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi mrmuff

It's good to see that you're back on the forum. Just the other day, I was wondering what had become of you.

It's too bad that you're having trouble with your tank, though. Just follow smb's advice and do your water changes to get your chemicals back in line. And when you do, you should siphon the dirt up from the gravel at the bottom of the tank. Do you know how to do this?

No matter how busy you are, mrmuff, you must remember that fish are live creatures that need frequent attention. They are a commitment that you cannot neglect and expect that everything will go well. But, as you will see once you get things in order, they are so beautiful and rewarding!