Need advice

shelbygracex3 · Jun 3, 2018

I've had my 10 gallon tank set up for about 2 months now. At first I didn't know anything about the importance of cycling the tank or any of that but after loosing several fish in the beginning I did my research and now I know. So now my tank it's 78 degrees, it consists of 3 guppies, a glofish, a sucker fish, & a ballon belly molly. I have the API water testing kit and my nitrite is 0 ppm, nitrate is 0 ppm, and my ammonia is between 0.25 ppm and 0.50 ppm. Ive been trying to lower the ammonia for a while now and nothing is working. I've done daily water changes, I've used ammonia reducer, I've cut down on feeding. I could really use some advice cause I'm not sure what else to do.

Colin_T · Jun 3, 2018

Reduce feeding to once every second day and do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean each day until the ammonia is back to 0.

--------------------------
What type of filter do you have on the tank?
When did you last clean the filter, and how did you clean the filter?

Power filters should be cleaned at least once a month and you squeeze/ wash the sponges and filter media in a bucket of tank water. Then clean them again in a second bucket of tank water. The clean filter media can be put into the tank while you wash the filter case and motor with tap water. Reassemble the filter and get it going.

If you have an undergravel filter then use a gravel cleaner (like the one in the link below) to clean the gunk out of the substrate. Even if you don't have an undergravel filter, you should still use a gravel cleaner each time you do a water change.
https://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html

NickAu · Jun 3, 2018

Hi

you have stocking issues.

it consists of 3 guppies, a glofish, a sucker fish, & a ballon belly molly

1 A glow fish, There are usually some sort of Tetra Barb or Danio and need to be kept in groups of 6 minimum,

2 A sucker fish. What sort?

3 A baloon Molly, A 10 gallon tank is too small for mollies, also mollies are very social fish and need more of their kind or they stress.

What sort of water do you have? Live bearers do not do well in soft acidic water especially mollies.

shelbygracex3 · Jun 3, 2018

Colin_T said:
Reduce feeding to once every second day and do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean each day until the ammonia is back to 0.

--------------------------
What type of filter do you have on the tank?
When did you last clean the filter, and how did you clean the filter?

Power filters should be cleaned at least once a month and you squeeze/ wash the sponges and filter media in a bucket of tank water. Then clean them again in a second bucket of tank water. The clean filter media can be put into the tank while you wash the filter case and motor with tap water. Reassemble the filter and get it going.

If you have an undergravel filter then use a gravel cleaner (like the one in the link below) to clean the gunk out of the substrate. Even if you don't have an undergravel filter, you should still use a gravel cleaner each time you do a water change.
https://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html

I have a Aqua-tech 5-15 filter, and I last cleaned the filter about 2 weeks ago and cleaned the sponge by rinshing it in tank water. I have been doing 30% daily water changes and vacuuming the sand each time with the python cleaning system. I will start cutting the feeding down to every other day and do 75% water changes instead and see if that helps

shelbygracex3 · Jun 3, 2018

NickAu said:
Hi

you have stocking issues.

1 A glow fish, There are usually some sort of Tetra Barb or Danio and need to be kept in groups of 6 minimum,

2 A sucker fish. What sort?

3 A baloon Molly, A 10 gallon tank is too small for mollies, also mollies are very social fish and need more of their kind or they stress.

What sort of water do you have? Live bearers do not do well in soft acidic water especially mollies.

I'm not sure

I just use tap water, but the sucker fish is a pleco & ohh okay, good to know. I didn't know that!

Colin_T · Jun 3, 2018

if you post a picture of the fish we can ID them for you

shelbygracex3 · Jun 3, 2018

Colin_T said:
if you post a picture of the fish we can ID them for you

Colin_T · Jun 3, 2018

The suckermouth catfish looks like a baby bristlenose catfish.

The 3 yellow fish are Guppies and it looks like you have 1 male and 2 female guppies.

The clear fish with green on its back is a coloured glass chanda (see following link). They are normally clear but the fish farms in Asia use kids to paint different colours on the fish. Eventually the coloured scales drop off and the fish ends up clear again.
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/parambassis-ranga/

The coloured glass chanda has a few small white specs on its dorsal (top) fin. These look like Lymphocystis, which is a virus that appears when the fish is stressed. As the virus spreads small white lumpy granules appear on the body and fins. If the fish is kept in good conditions the virus will clear up by itself over time, but it is very common in painted glass chandas due to the stress they are put under.

NickAu · Jun 4, 2018

The clear fish with green on its back is a coloured glass chanda

Size 3.2″ (8cm).

You need to keep this in a group of 6 minimum. Personally I think your tank is too small for them and a trio of Guppies, I would return the one you have.

I also think a 10 g is too small for a BN Pleco.

The coloured glass chanda has a few small white specs on its dorsal (top) fin. These look like Lymphocystis, which is a virus that appears when the fish is stressed.

Being on its own would play a huge part with stress.

Baccus · Jun 4, 2018

When yo say you just use tap water for doing water changes, do you also use some type of chlorine and chloramine remover? If not this could be what is stalling your cycle and throwing things out of whack. In a mature tank there will be beneficial bacteria all over the tank not just in the filter and can handle a small infrequent amount of chlorine or chloramine without killing the entire beneficial bacteria colonies. However in a newer tank such colonies are only just establishing and will be more susceptible to being wiped out by chlorine or chloramine found in tap water.

shelbygracex3 · Jun 4, 2018

NickAu said:
Size 3.2″ (8cm).

You need to keep this in a group of 6 minimum. Personally I think your tank is too small for them and a trio of Guppies, I would return the one you have.

I also think a 10 g is too small for a BN Pleco.

Being on its own would play a huge part with stress.

Okay thank you so much! I will definitely look into rehoming the BN pleco and the chanda. Is there any other fish that I can put with the trio of guppies then, or are they the only ones I should have in a 10 gallon?

shelbygracex3 · Jun 4, 2018

Baccus said:
When yo say you just use tap water for doing water changes, do you also use some type of chlorine and chloramine remover? If not this could be what is stalling your cycle and throwing things out of whack. In a mature tank there will be beneficial bacteria all over the tank not just in the filter and can handle a small infrequent amount of chlorine or chloramine without killing the entire beneficial bacteria colonies. However in a newer tank such colonies are only just establishing and will be more susceptible to being wiped out by chlorine or chloramine found in tap water.

Ohh yes I fill a bucket up with tap water and then I put in aqueon water conditioner

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