Help Me

[Ficious]

i thought my small tank was cycled (didnt have a test kit then). well i have my halfbeak in there that i care about, as nitrites are at 1.0/ammonia is normal too. i just did a 33% water change. my tank is 3 gallons and am worried about my HB. would putting him in my tropical community be good? incase the tank goes nuts? i have a cherry and several ghost shrimp as well.

someone tell me if i should take out my HB and my cherry shrimp(since i care about him too) and put them in a safe environment?



thanks guys, btw the HB is swimming near the bottom which is off for him, he looks fine though..just not where he usualy is

 

[ox5477]

Well did you just add the HB maybe a week ago to the 3G? that is a small water volume and adding even a smaller fish could cause a mini-cycle to happen, especially since you only have shrimps as the other stocking (little to no bioload). Keep doing wc's until you see the nitrite dissappear and you should be fine

Ox

 

[Ficious]

thanks pal....i just took the halfbeak out but my shrimps look much happier. i ended up doing pry a 55% WC all in all.

 

[waterdrop]

Just for future reference: When you test and get results for ammonia or nitrite at say 0.50ppm or above (for either one) then those elevated poisons become the most important consideration for your fish. The recommendations of smaller water changes, the 50%, 30%, 25%, 20% ones we all get so used to seeing and thinking about are based on considerations that are different than these poisons. With the 0.50 and above levels it is more important to quickly dilute. So 50% and even above that and then repeating as soon as 1 hour is the way to go with your emergency water changes.

As always, if you have one of the rare situations where the tap/source water is bad (especially when it has significant ammonia in it itself) you would have to modify these recommendations to smaller percentages but just done in greater numbers with the hour in-between.

The familiar 20,25,35% water change recommendations we see are all about removing nitrate and other unmeasured trace elements and organic substances that build up. They also help provide insurance against changes in pH or temperature that might cause a shock. When you have ammonia or nitrite poisoning, all those concerns must be tossed aside for the time being and the fish are best rescued from the poisons as it were.

~~waterdrop~~