So i started off on the wrong foot. I was given a 30 gal tank which i brought home and after a little reading had set up to cycle for a week. It has two under gravel filters as well as a tank filter hanging on the back with Chem/Mech/Bio media in it. Sadly i didn't do enough reading and didn't know about the ammonia or mature media so all i was doing was circulating water. I went to the LFS and picked up 3 palties and a sword tail and brought them home and put them in. I also have four live plants and a piece of Malaysian wood in the tank.
I headed back to the fish store with my water sample a week later than a week after that to get more fish and was told both times that my nitrite and nitrate levels were too high so no new fish. Then I found these boards and learned about cycling and doing the water changes.
So on Tuesday night i bought my own dip strip test kits (i know i should get the other one) and found my Nitrite and Nitrate levels to be very high. One of the platies was hiding under the wood and not coming out or eating very much. So i did a 70% water change and than an hour later a 50% water change. This brought the levels down to 0. But during the change I notice two of the platies have ICK and I also broke the heater. I bought a new heater last night along with ICK clear tablets. I put the new heater in and popped in two tablets.
I awoke this morning to one of the platies dead on the bottom.
My nitrate level is below 20ppm and the nitrite levels are below .5ppm. The one platy still has some ICK... it doesn't seem to be as bad as it was. I'm going to do another treatment tonight (24hours) after the first one.
Any thoughts? I think i'm on the right road now.
I headed back to the fish store with my water sample a week later than a week after that to get more fish and was told both times that my nitrite and nitrate levels were too high so no new fish. Then I found these boards and learned about cycling and doing the water changes.
So on Tuesday night i bought my own dip strip test kits (i know i should get the other one) and found my Nitrite and Nitrate levels to be very high. One of the platies was hiding under the wood and not coming out or eating very much. So i did a 70% water change and than an hour later a 50% water change. This brought the levels down to 0. But during the change I notice two of the platies have ICK and I also broke the heater. I bought a new heater last night along with ICK clear tablets. I put the new heater in and popped in two tablets.
I awoke this morning to one of the platies dead on the bottom.
My nitrate level is below 20ppm and the nitrite levels are below .5ppm. The one platy still has some ICK... it doesn't seem to be as bad as it was. I'm going to do another treatment tonight (24hours) after the first one.
Any thoughts? I think i'm on the right road now.
