This tank is my first baby and seems to always have issues. I don’t know what to do at this point and frankly just want/need advice. I will attach photos of the water test and also videos of the hair like algae/diatom situation. Will also attach a video below.
I have one male betta, 2 mystery snails, 4 panda Cory’s (2 passed), 3/4 ramshorn snails, 5 kuli loaches, and 5 otocinclus.
Posted by Phillycherub
13 Comments
How old is your tank? What size? Can we have photos?
What size is the tank? What size/how much/what kind of filters do you have for your tank? It looks like your pH is 6.8-7.0, ammonia in between 0ppm and 0.25ppm, 0.25ppm nitrites, and 40-80ppm. Ammonia and nitrites should be 0ppm, and nitrates are incredibly high imo. I’d add lots of plants to help absorb all those nitrates. Duckweed works great but grows quickly
Depending on tank size that could be overstocked. And if the tank wasn’t cycled properly initially you’ll have a really hard time getting it to cycle that way. No ammonia which is great! But you still have a lot of nitrites which isn’t good. If possible I would move all the stock out of the tank and let it fully cycle then reintroduce slowly one by one as to not crash the newly cycled tank.
Would help if we had pics of the tank as well as size of tank and how long its been running!
Personally I would ditch the master test kit and get some strips , they are just as accurate and much easier to use. Also don’t be afraid to add.chemicals if you need too, they are made and sold for a reason. Algumin is effective at killing algae but you can also buy filter which have a uv light and kill algae and bad bacteria in your tank.
If you are having problems with you water. Keep doing water changes using pretreated water until it stabilises. Don’t fuss too much about things other.than chlorine etc and ammonia. As long as you water is pretreated with tap safe or similar there should be no chlorine or heavy metals in the water. If you are having nitrite/nitrate problems you could consider using seachem stability or API aqua essential and frequent water changes should bring this under control. If you can take the items with algae on them out and give them a good scrub (in water from your tank). You can gently rub leaves.. tetra algumin is good but the filters with the uv lights will kill it off too.
Stop panicking and enjoy your tank. I am in the UK, we are much less caught up in the other numbers (we’ll where i come from in Scotland) we have very soft water here. For the most part fish keeping is easy and a very popular hobby.. I have only ever lost 1 fish and have a wide variety… I know lots of people with lots of gorgeous fish and no problems.. I have a master test kit but have only used it to double check things and the readings are always identical, the strips are a lot more common here.
I think for people who do this as a “small” hobby its about enjoyment not numbers and as long as your water is ammonia free and your fish are happy, just enjoy them..
Hi! For that stocking I’d have a 20 gallon long or larger.
Your tank isn’t fully cycled but it’s close. If you don’t have one you can add a sponge filter (with air tubing and pump). In the current filter make sure to never replace the filter. You want it to be gross with brown sludge.
For the algae and higher nitrates I would get some floating plants like Frogbit, salvinia, etc. I hated duckweed it got on everything. They will suck up all the nutrients in your tank and lower algae. Though you may need to add liquid fertilizer.
Keep the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels below these ([aquariumscience.org](https://aquariumscience.org)).
https://preview.redd.it/sohh19oo4zcg1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8baf5c2dc737da457fdaf5914e7b8a4224a32a9
It looks like you have a 10 gallon and a 5 gallon tank in the pictures?
Need more info unfortunately. What’s the size of tank?
Obviously nitrites and nitrates are high.
What I generally do when a cycle won’t balance for me is more frequent/consistent water changes. They don’t have to be huge but a 20-30% would be adequate.
Then I look at feeding first if it’s a recurrent issue.
Bettas for example are notorious food wasters ime, yet they also need frequent feeding. That can lead to excess food waste if you aren’t careful.
I’d cut back on food if you feel you can. Numerous small feedings are much better than one large feeding per day for example.
Edit: you also have a decent mix of bottom feeders and those also always tempt me to overfeed! Maybe it’s just me but I’m much more inclined to overfeed my tanks with bottom feeding fish in them just to make sure they get food all the way to them.
Tank size? Are there live plants? How long are you leaving your lights on? Is the tank near a window?
Your ammonia cycle seems to be working a little slow (there are trace amounts of ammonia). Keep on top of water changes for the next bit, and maybe add some plants. Some floaters would probably be good, if you’re getting algae the tank is likely getting a bit too much light and floaters will break that up and also help with the ammonia cycle. I find amazon swords to be really good as well for helping with the ammonia cycle.
You already have fish in and need some cycle support.
1. Get some bottled bacteria. I personally have had the best results with Fritzyme. Stay away from Stability.
2. Get some ammonia neutralizer (eg Prime). Dose 1-2x daily until this is resolved. That is zero ammonia and zero nitrite.
3. Are those real plants? If so, make sure they get plenty of light and are growing. If not, you probably want to get some to help with nitrate which is contributing to algae.
4. Get a bundle of green onions or some fast-growing plant like pothos and emmerse (roots in water, plant in air). You should see your nitrate level plummet. I dropped an old tank from off the charts, kool-aid red to ~30 in a week with $1 worth of green onions. Also, fast growing aquatic plants like hornwort will really help as well as blocking some of the light from the algae
Plants plants plants. They soak to all that bad stuff.
Fill your fish tanks all the way up you don’t have rimless tanks. We should not have to look at your or anyone else’s dirty water lines that’s disgusting…lol
More pothos.
Your nitrates are stupid high. I suggest some DI water changes weekly until you get everything under control. As others have said, not sure how long the tank cycled, judging by your pictures? Not very long? Plant some plants to eat the nitrates.