rich815
New Member
First off thank you to all who took the time to respond. All excellent advice and help. What a great group of people. I am glad I found you guys!Now, I know this should most likely be moved to another forum but it is follow-up so I post it here. Good news is no more fish have died. Bads news is I picked up a test kit and my ammonia is through the roof (no surprise really, I guess). I've gotten it down to less fish now and am seeing if I can get this tank cycled. I did find a source of Bio Spira (at a competitior down the road from the jerks who got me into this mess in the first place) and when I bought my test kit bought 1 oz of the bio spira. I came home, did an ammonia and nitrite test (ammonia through the roof, nitrite high but not over the top), then did a 40% water change (conditioning the new water of course). After this water change I poured in the bio spira. I also was able to get a small handful of gravel from a friend's small tank (which has been up and running with white clouds since last April) and "seeded" my own gravel with his. So, the beneficial bacteria growth is set (I hope). After the water change I tested the ammonia again and although not at "deadly" levels, it was still pretty darn high, even after changing 40% of the water! I let it go a day and then tested my ammonia again today. Very high once again. I did another 40% change and tested again. Better but still a bit high. Now, here's my question. I added the bio spira yesterday AFTER my water change. But it seems until I get a good cycle that I'll be changing 30-40% of the water each day. Will I in essence be throwing away the bio spira this way? Or has the bio spira bacteria already settled in with my filter, plants and gravel and is not being removed with these water changes? Thanks again.
Regards,
Richard (San Francisco)
