Need help emergency! Betta and cardinal terra

[Ap97]

Hi

One thing you can do in the meantime is look on your water company's website at two things. The first is the water quality report. This will tell you some useful things such as the amount of nitrate in your tap water. They'll tell you the number of samples they tested, the lowest, highest and mean levels of those samples.
Next hydrogen ions - that's pH. Again lowest highest and mean.

Finally in a different section, hardness. They might just give it in words which can be misleading. If you are lucky, they'll give you a number. Make a note of that number and the unit of measurement - UK water companies often use different units from fish keeping so we have to convert the number.

Hi, it’s hard for me to type it out on here as I have to keep clicking n back to another tab then it comes up “submit form again”, but it says the ph (hydrogen ions) are an average of 7.37. I will attach screenshots of the hardness of the water (it was hard to screenshot the hydrogen ions section because the layout of the form)

 

[Ap97]

What chance do you think my fish have of surviving? As It’s going to take a while to fully remove the ammonia from the tank and I can’t do much with the plants and testing as I have to wait for deliveries and I already put 2 tsps of aquarium salt in a few days ago as advised by the pet shop (it’s probably mostly removed now after the large water changes Since), will this do any further harm ?

 

[Ap97]

Just noticed my tetras gills are bleeding from the ammonia this is horrifying

 

[Essjay]

Your hardness is in degrees Clarke while fish keeping uses German degrees, shortened to dH or dGH, and ppm.
7.63 deg Clarke = 6.1 dH and 109 ppm. This is what I mean about water company words being misleading - that is soft in fish keeping terms, not hard. So it's perfect for bettas and cardinals.
Your screenshot doesn't include nitrate or 'hydrogen ions' (pH) though.

Just noticed my tetras gills are bleeding from the ammonia this is horrifying

Water changes!! Lots and large.

 

[Colin_T]

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Reduce feeding to 2-3 times a week until the filter has cycled.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels to help the fish deal with the ammonia and nitrite poisoning.

 

[Ap97]

My tetras gills are now bleeding Thanks foreveryone’s advice, I am already doing all these things so it’s basically a race against time now to fix the water

 

[Byron]

My tetras gills are now bleeding Thanks foreveryone’s advice, I am already doing all these things so it’s basically a race against time now to fix the water

That cold be the salt (how much did you add?), or the ammonia, the nitrite, or all. Really, there is only one thing you can do now, and that is a massive water change with fresh (conditioned) water. Two-thirds to three-quarters of the tank volume.

And get a bacterial supplement which helps to seed the bacteria. Salt is advisable to nitrite, but not overdosed.

 

[Ap97]

Your hardness is in degrees Clarke while fish keeping uses German degrees, shortened to dH or dGH, and ppm.
7.63 deg Clarke = 6.1 dH and 109 ppm. This is what I mean about water company words being misleading - that is soft in fish keeping terms, not hard. So it's perfect for bettas and cardinals.
Your screenshot doesn't include nitrate or 'hydrogen ions' (pH) though.



Water changes!! Lots and large.

I will attach a photo of this now will get it up on my laptop so it’s clearer to read, also, could I do water change twice a day or is that over doing it? I only have stress coat and stress zyme I don’t have any prime which makes it safe against ammonia for 24 hrs. Should I get some do you think? Even though it might take a few days for delivery

 

[Ap97]

Hi I put 1 tsp a few days back then about 1/4 - 1/2 a tsp 2 days ago. In 30L tank plus I’d done a water change so it’s probably less than that left in the tank if any. I’ve been doing about 50-75% water changes matching temperature and adding stress coat and stress zyme it’s all I had in my cupboards. Do you recommend I buy a conditioner which protects against ammonia for 24 hrs? Or do you think by the time it will be delivered there’s no point really as the water changes and live plants will probably get rid of most of it

 

[Byron]

Hi I put 1 tsp a few days back then about 1/4 - 1/2 a tsp 2 days ago. In 30L tank plus I’d done a water change so it’s probably less than that left in the tank if any. I’ve been doing about 50-75% water changes matching temperature and adding stress coat and stress zyme it’s all I had in my cupboards. Do you recommend I buy a conditioner which protects against ammonia for 24 hrs? Or do you think by the time it will be delivered there’s no point really as the water changes and live plants will probably get rid of most of it

That little salt is doing no benefit at all. When you want to treat a problem where salt is helpful, it needs to be more than this. But don't jump off with the salt, as it will impact the fish more and that you do not want unless it is also the best "cure," for whatever is the problem.

StressCoat and StressZyme are not helping either, due to the additives and properties. For a basic conditioner, nothing beats API's Tap Water Conditioner. It may seem expensive but you use so little (it is the most highly concentrated conditioner available) it lasts a long time. In the short term, a conditioner that deals with ammonia and nitrite might help, and Prime or Ultimate both deal with these. A very small bottle, as once the cycling issue is solved, there is no need to continue these products.

If you have live plants and especially floating, and they grow, they will take up all the ammonia that could possibly occur in this tank. And that means no nitrite resulting, and no nitrate. But until that stage, daily water changes.

 

[Byron]

Just realized this issue is also being discussed in another thread, here:

Should I turn my air stone off? High ammonia levels!!

I have already made another thread explaining my issues, but I will keep it short here. 1 Betta and 5 cardinals in the tank, (tank is 2 weeks old and was left “cycling” for 2 weeks before fish went in) but the cycle wasn’t done correctly due to poor advice from the pet shop staff. Already lost 3...

www.fishforums.net

It might be advisable to combine (a mod can deal with this) to avoid confusion and missed posts. I just responded in that thread to the conditioner question, will copy over for reference.

That little salt is doing no benefit at all. When you want to treat a problem where salt is helpful, it needs to be more than this. But don't jump off with the salt, as it will impact the fish more and that you do not want unless it is also the best "cure," for whatever is the problem.​

​

StressCoat and StressZyme are not helping either, due to the additives and properties. For a basic conditioner, nothing beats API's Tap Water Conditioner. It may seem expensive but you use so little (it is the most highly concentrated conditioner available) it lasts a long time. In the short term, a conditioner that deals with ammonia and nitrite might help, and Prime or Ultimate both deal with these. A very small bottle, as once the cycling issue is solved, there is no need to continue these products.​

​

If you have live plants and especially floating, and they grow, they will take up all the ammonia that could possibly occur in this tank. And that means no nitrite resulting, and no nitrate. But until that stage, daily water changes.​

 

[Ap97]

Just realized this issue is also being discussed in another thread, here:

Should I turn my air stone off? High ammonia levels!!

I have already made another thread explaining my issues, but I will keep it short here. 1 Betta and 5 cardinals in the tank, (tank is 2 weeks old and was left “cycling” for 2 weeks before fish went in) but the cycle wasn’t done correctly due to poor advice from the pet shop staff. Already lost 3...

www.fishforums.net

It might be advisable to combine (a mod can deal with this) to avoid confusion and missed posts. I just responded in that thread to the conditioner question, will copy over for reference.

That little salt is doing no benefit at all. When you want to treat a problem where salt is helpful, it needs to be more than this. But don't jump off with the salt, as it will impact the fish more and that you do not want unless it is also the best "cure," for whatever is the problem.​

​

StressCoat and StressZyme are not helping either, due to the additives and properties. For a basic conditioner, nothing beats API's Tap Water Conditioner. It may seem expensive but you use so little (it is the most highly concentrated conditioner available) it lasts a long time. In the short term, a conditioner that deals with ammonia and nitrite might help, and Prime or Ultimate both deal with these. A very small bottle, as once the cycling issue is solved, there is no need to continue these products.​

​

If you have live plants and especially floating, and they grow, they will take up all the ammonia that could possibly occur in this tank. And that means no nitrite resulting, and no nitrate. But until that stage, daily water changes.​

Hi thanks for the advice, I have ordered seachem prime from amazon, they are delivered tomorrow along with the water testing kit. I really don’t think I can spend any more than what I have on these fish I obviously will if I have too but do you think I will be okay with these products I already have? (Including the prime once it comes, will do water change as soon as it comes), hopefully when I test my water ammonia levels may have dropped slightly I’m praying

 

[Essjay]

I have merged the two threads so this one will read a bit disjointed but all the information is now together.

 

[Ap97]

Hi all, just tested my ammonia was reading at 1-2ppm can’t really tell with the colour it was somewhere in between, done a water change added Seachem prime, rested again ammonia is showing at 0.25 now, nitrite is showing 0ppm and nitrate is about a 5ppm, PH is 7.6 haven’t done the high range PH yet.

 

[Byron]

Just some info on Prime here. It detoxifies ammonia, nitrite and nitrate by binding them chemically, and they are then harmless, but tests will still show the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate until it is no longer in the water. Prime is effective for 24-36 hours, so if these substances remain in the water after that period, they again revert to the toxic form. So using Prime at a water change will make them harmless for 24-36 hours, but test still detect them whether harmless or toxic.