Need help with tank : (

I need help with my tank. I cycled it for about a month, and it's still having issues. I have one beta and 2 gold rings. Before I put the fish in, the tank had gotten really brown. Brown particularly on the walls of the tank. I mostly scrubbed that off the walls before I added the fish. However the plants, the decor, and some of the walls are still really brown. Is that algae? Right before I put the fish in, all the test results were perfect. In the test results photo, this was from today. The far left is high range pH, the 2nd one is ammonia, 3rd nitrite, 4th is nitrate. How can I get my test results to get back to normal? I've been thinking about buying shrimp- would they help keep the test results normal and algae down at a normal level? I've been needing to put in floating plants and moss on the driftwood. The driftwood I actually detoxified long before putting it in. Any kind of help would be amazing. Going out right now to get some more plants and a few shrimp to help get the chemical levels closer to normal.

it appears that your tank is mid-cycle
are you sure that you did everything properly? cycling an aquarium doesn't simply mean leaving a tank empty for a month. you needed to add some source of ammonia.
if your fish are not showing any physical effects of the high ammonia and nitrites, they will soon. the best you can do right now is do water changes to reduce the levels. do you have anything to speed up the establishment of bacteria (substrate, filter media from an established aquarium)? if so, add it.
shrimp will not help you. if anything, they'll die faster than the fish. plants might help you though, if that's any consolation.

realzalio said:

it appears that your tank is mid-cycle
are you sure that you did everything properly? cycling an aquarium doesn't simply mean leaving a tank empty for a month. you needed to add some source of ammonia.
if your fish are not showing any physical effects of the high ammonia and nitrites, they will soon. the best you can do right now is do water changes to reduce the levels. do you have anything to speed up the establishment of bacteria (substrate, filter media from an established aquarium)? if so, add it.
shrimp will not help you. if anything, they'll die faster than the fish.

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Yes actually the gravel is substrate. The filter has beads from a friend's tank. The filter was from that tank as well, but I changed it a few days ago for the first time in a month, because it was so dirty.... I believe it's still in my trash.

bpd0110 said:

Yes actually the gravel is substrate. The filter has beads from a friend's tank. The filter was from that tank as well, but I changed it a few days ago for the first time in a month, because it was so dirty.... I believe it's still in my trash.

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what kind of source of ammonia? I was never told of this : (

did you throw away the old media? that's probably the reason because the majority of beneficial bacteria reside in your filter's biological media. if you can, i'd ask your friend for some more of his filter's media since it will already contain bacteria from an already cycled tank. the problem will resolve much, much quicker that way. you'll just have to hope that your fish survive.
edit: and do a big water change after, too.
edit 2: if filter media from your friend isn't an option, try to ask your local fish store for help, maybe they'll give you some of theirs.

realzalio said:

did you throw away the old media? that's probably the reason because the majority of beneficial bacteria reside in your filter's biological media. if you can, i'd ask your friend for some more of his filter's media since it will already contain bacteria from an already cycled tank. the problem will resolve much, much quicker that way. you'll just have to hope that your fish survive.
edit: and do a big water change after, too.

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So the one I threw away I still have. Should I throw it back in?

bpd0110 said:

So the one I threw away I still have. Should I throw it back in?

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what? the filter or the media? from the trash? all the bacteria is most definitely dead if it was out of water, even for a short period. putting it back in won't help, it'll only make things worse.

ask your fish store for help. bring a clean container, ask them to fill it up with some healthy tank water and established bio media, then put it into your filter as soon as you get home. it'll work, or at least make things much quicker, assuming that the bacteria survive the trip. there isn't much else you could do. on-the-shelf bottled bacteria works sooooometimes, if it isn't spoiled, but i don't recommend it.
oh yeah, and that's brown algae i think, it's common in uncycled aquariums.

realzalio said:

ask your fish store for help. bring a clean container, ask them to fill it up with some healthy tank water and established bio media, then put it into your filter as soon as you get home. it'll work, or at least make things much quicker, assuming that the bacteria survive the trip. there isn't much else you could do. on-the-shelf bottled bacteria works sooooometimes, if it isn't spoiled, but i don't recommend it.
oh yeah, and that's brown algae i think, it's common in uncycled aquariums.

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Thank you! Got a huge thing of bottled bacteria. Testing the water again soon....

bpd0110 said:

Thank you! Got a huge thing of bottled bacteria. Testing the water again soon....

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i never said that it would work, i only said that you'd have a small chance.

realzalio said:

i never said that it would work, i only said that you'd have a small chance.

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getting some bio media tmrow from the local fish shop. It's weird, the tank never started producing that brown algae until like a month after the tank had already been filled with water.... I'm hypothesizing it was the driftwood in combination with what you stated. I detoxed the driftwood a longgggg time ago but after that, I let it sit in a ziploc bag for awhile before I actually put it inside the tank. I THINK that's when the brown algae started up..... bought some good chemicals and good bacteria... but that biomdedia tmrow should help most. I'll see what the test results are again tomorrow (everyday.) Thank you.

bpd0110 said:

what kind of source of ammonia? I was never told of this : (

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I hate when this happens. I wish people at pet stores would educate new fish keepers better. I haven't read the rest of the threads but I will tell you how I cycled my tank.

I bought liquid ammonia at my local grocery store, it was called ammonia hydroxide.

We have an amazing thread written on here, look on the right side of your screen (you might need to scroll down a bit) and click on "Cycle A Tank". Use this step by step direction for cycling your tank correctly.

When you showed us your testing results, I see a .5 level of ammonia. This is too high for any fish to live in let alone thrive in. Please do a large water change and begin your cycle with the thread I mentioned.

Do not add fish, if you can, take your betta back or rehome him to a cycled tank/friend. Bettas are hardy but he will be permanently damaged (immune issues) if he has to go through a cycling. I am so sorry no one told you how to cycle your tank... I wish I had known as well when I started fish keeping.

I hope whatever I said and what the previous person said helps you!

carligraceee said:

I hate when this happens. I wish people at pet stores would educate new fish keepers better. I haven't read the rest of the threads but I will tell you how I cycled my tank.

I bought liquid ammonia at my local grocery store, it was called ammonia hydroxide.

We have an amazing thread written on here, look on the right side of your screen (you might need to scroll down a bit) and click on "Cycle A Tank". Use this step by step direction for cycling your tank correctly.

When you showed us your testing results, I see a .5 level of ammonia. This is too high for any fish to live in let alone thrive in. Please do a large water change and begin your cycle with the thread I mentioned.

Do not add fish, if you can, take your betta back or rehome him to a cycled tank/friend. Bettas are hardy but he will be permanently damaged (immune issues) if he has to go through a cycling. I am so sorry no one told you how to cycle your tank... I wish I had known as well when I started fish keeping.

I hope whatever I said and what the previous person said helps you!

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Basically I did cycle it for a month, however I never was told to buy ammonia in a bottle lol... anyways my ex gf (was gf at the time) gave me a betta because she had an extra one. I bought some other fish as well, then AFTER i put them all in a tank, she mentions "oh we should have cycled the tank first for two weeks, the fish could possibly die" : ( However that was a few months back on a different tank, that ended up killing two fish then having to rehome the rest to her. I tested my water and it was perfect, right before I put these fish in. I will check out the thread you sent. Hoping it was just the driftwood that accidentally got toxified again for being in a ziploc bag full of air....

If you did not add ammonia from a bottle, or add fish food and let it rot to make ammonia, you did not cycle the tank, you just let it run. The water was perefct before you put the fish in because there was nothing in the tank to make it non-perfect.

Cycling means growing bacteria, by feeding them. Your readings show that you are doing a fish-in cycle, using ammonia excreted by the fish to grow the bacteria. This is not easy and means a lot of work to keep the fish safe.

Fish-in cycling involves testing the water every day, and whenever there is a reading above zero for either of them, a water change needs to be done to get the levels back down to zero. This could well mean doing a water change every day for some weeks. After a couple of months, you realise you haven't needed to do a water change for a week - that's when the tank is cycled.

Essjay said:

If you did not add ammonia from a bottle, or add fish food and let it rot to make ammonia, you did not cycle the tank, you just let it run. The water was perefct before you put the fish in because there was nothing in the tank to make it non-perfect.

Cycling means growing bacteria, by feeding them. Your readings show that you are doing a fish-in cycle, using ammonia excreted by the fish to grow the bacteria. This is not easy and means a lot of work to keep the fish safe.

Fish-in cycling involves testing the water every day, and whenever there is a reading above zero for either of them, a water change needs to be done to get the levels back down to zero. This could well mean doing a water change every day for some weeks. After a couple of months, you realise you haven't needed to do a water change for a week - that's when the tank is cycled.

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****ing hate my ex. Never told me i needed to add ammonia and fish food. well ive been testing the water and doing changes everyday and will continue it. Thank you for the help.