Katie&Daniel
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- Nov 20, 2018
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If anyone can read about our situation and give advice we would be so grateful! We are new to the aquarium world, but our problem has stumped even the girl at the fish room who seems to know everything.
We have a 20 gallon tank and 2 weeks ago we put in it a Red Spotted Severum (3 or 4 inches long), a small snail and a bristlenosed Pleco. The Severum was extremely skiddish at first but becomes more brave each week. About a week into having him, we noticed he was swimming at the surface on his side. His water was 72 degrees, so we quickly did our research and added a heater. It's now at 80 degrees. We have a filter that I keep having to change. I usually rinse it in the sink and then change it to a new one after 3 rinses. It gets dirty and needs rinsing every 3 or 4 days, and it seems clogged up with something I put in this tank nearly a month ago, before these fish were introduced. We have Seachem's Flourite, a red gravel for the bottom. It was advertised as really healthy for the aquarium, but even though we rinsed it thoroughly when we added it to the tank it was incredibly dusty and has been a challenge to get the water looking clear again. We didn't use any water clearifier, just kept doing water changes and using the gravel vacuum. Even though the tank looks clear now, the filter still has a reddish brown substance all throughout it each time I look.
Also at the one week mark, we thought he might want a cave habitat so we have a large piece of driftwood that we rinsed with warm water and put in with the heater. We have a smoother, white pebbled gravel mixed in to the more jagged, red clay flourite. We have been adding bacteria nearly everyday for over a week. We feed him small pebbled bug bites, tropical formula for medium to large fish. He isn't so good at seeing the food coming down and the pebbles are so small, a good amount were going in the water and sitting - he wouldn't get them off the bottom when they fell, only ate the ones he saw come down. There are also some white, smoother pebbles we added with the flourite but the bottom seems a little intimidating to him.
3 days ago we woke up and tested the water just to check on everyone.
Our nitrates, nitrites and pH were all so dangerously high! pH was over 8, and nitrites and nitrates were both extremely high. Also, there was 3 small pieces of zucchini floating at the top we had forgotten to take out. They had a little mold or white stringy stuff and were super soggy. We raced to the store and got a smaller piece of drift wood to bring levels down, a moss ball, and more water. We boiled this piece of driftwood twice before adding it. We took out the 3 small java fern plants that seemed to be dying for weeks. We always use the reverse osmosis water from the fish store and we did a 25 percent water change that first night. Then yesterday our levels were still high, we did a 25 percent change, and today we tested and things are a little better but not great. We will do a 25 percent water change again tonight. Our pH is down to 6.4 or 6.6, nitrates at 10-20, nitrites at .25. Last night I took the large driftwood out, boiled it twice and put it back in.
We finally figured out the fancy light that we bought that pairs with the phone app just last night. For the whole time we've had them, the lights would sometimes change suddenly to something high or low and seemed to scare him a bit.
The snail is moving more than ever, the Pleco hardly ever moves even before all this, and the Severum is gasping rapidly. He is very hungry when we put food out but we don't want to feed him too much because of our levels. What could be causing this?
Was it the old zucchini?
Does he need a bigger tank for the amount of waste?
Have we changed the tank decorations or pH too rapidly?
Could our java ferns have been affecting this?
Our filtered water is room temperature and we put it directly into the tank so I can only guess that temperatures are fluctuating the past 2 days for the Severum until the heater reaches it. Maybe that's too much change, mixed with the light that was going on and off suddenly too.
We've changed the filter 2x since we got him 2 weeks ago.
We have a 20 gallon tank and 2 weeks ago we put in it a Red Spotted Severum (3 or 4 inches long), a small snail and a bristlenosed Pleco. The Severum was extremely skiddish at first but becomes more brave each week. About a week into having him, we noticed he was swimming at the surface on his side. His water was 72 degrees, so we quickly did our research and added a heater. It's now at 80 degrees. We have a filter that I keep having to change. I usually rinse it in the sink and then change it to a new one after 3 rinses. It gets dirty and needs rinsing every 3 or 4 days, and it seems clogged up with something I put in this tank nearly a month ago, before these fish were introduced. We have Seachem's Flourite, a red gravel for the bottom. It was advertised as really healthy for the aquarium, but even though we rinsed it thoroughly when we added it to the tank it was incredibly dusty and has been a challenge to get the water looking clear again. We didn't use any water clearifier, just kept doing water changes and using the gravel vacuum. Even though the tank looks clear now, the filter still has a reddish brown substance all throughout it each time I look.
Also at the one week mark, we thought he might want a cave habitat so we have a large piece of driftwood that we rinsed with warm water and put in with the heater. We have a smoother, white pebbled gravel mixed in to the more jagged, red clay flourite. We have been adding bacteria nearly everyday for over a week. We feed him small pebbled bug bites, tropical formula for medium to large fish. He isn't so good at seeing the food coming down and the pebbles are so small, a good amount were going in the water and sitting - he wouldn't get them off the bottom when they fell, only ate the ones he saw come down. There are also some white, smoother pebbles we added with the flourite but the bottom seems a little intimidating to him.
3 days ago we woke up and tested the water just to check on everyone.
Our nitrates, nitrites and pH were all so dangerously high! pH was over 8, and nitrites and nitrates were both extremely high. Also, there was 3 small pieces of zucchini floating at the top we had forgotten to take out. They had a little mold or white stringy stuff and were super soggy. We raced to the store and got a smaller piece of drift wood to bring levels down, a moss ball, and more water. We boiled this piece of driftwood twice before adding it. We took out the 3 small java fern plants that seemed to be dying for weeks. We always use the reverse osmosis water from the fish store and we did a 25 percent water change that first night. Then yesterday our levels were still high, we did a 25 percent change, and today we tested and things are a little better but not great. We will do a 25 percent water change again tonight. Our pH is down to 6.4 or 6.6, nitrates at 10-20, nitrites at .25. Last night I took the large driftwood out, boiled it twice and put it back in.
We finally figured out the fancy light that we bought that pairs with the phone app just last night. For the whole time we've had them, the lights would sometimes change suddenly to something high or low and seemed to scare him a bit.
The snail is moving more than ever, the Pleco hardly ever moves even before all this, and the Severum is gasping rapidly. He is very hungry when we put food out but we don't want to feed him too much because of our levels. What could be causing this?
Was it the old zucchini?
Does he need a bigger tank for the amount of waste?
Have we changed the tank decorations or pH too rapidly?
Could our java ferns have been affecting this?
Our filtered water is room temperature and we put it directly into the tank so I can only guess that temperatures are fluctuating the past 2 days for the Severum until the heater reaches it. Maybe that's too much change, mixed with the light that was going on and off suddenly too.
We've changed the filter 2x since we got him 2 weeks ago.
