fishtime!
New Member
Hello everyone! I have a northern pipefish who has been doing really well for over a month and a half, but I didn't realize how bad decaying plants can be in an aquarium. I had a lot of plants that were dying and leaving particulate matter. I have taken them out now. But in the past couple days he has started breathing very heavily, he still seems to be hunting baby brine shrimp and swimming normally but his gills are definitely moving fast. The only other tankmates are some barnacles and lots of very small baby brine shrimp.
My nitrite and ammonia levels were fine before, but now nitrite is 5 or greater , ammonia is around .25 , nitrate is 10 , and pH is 7.8 .
I am going to do a 50% water change while vacuuming about 1/3 of the gravel, i also got fluval biomax that I'm going to put in, and im taking the carbon out of one filter cartridge and putting a sponge, and leaving a smaller filter cartridge in the filter.
My question is: should I move him temporarily to seawater with no nitrite + ammonia? It would be seawater straight from the ocean, so I assume it has some good bacteria already in it, but he wouldn't be in a cycled tank environment. This fish was rescued and I had to do this when I first got him, he was able to do it for a few days.
My nitrite and ammonia levels were fine before, but now nitrite is 5 or greater , ammonia is around .25 , nitrate is 10 , and pH is 7.8 .
I am going to do a 50% water change while vacuuming about 1/3 of the gravel, i also got fluval biomax that I'm going to put in, and im taking the carbon out of one filter cartridge and putting a sponge, and leaving a smaller filter cartridge in the filter.
My question is: should I move him temporarily to seawater with no nitrite + ammonia? It would be seawater straight from the ocean, so I assume it has some good bacteria already in it, but he wouldn't be in a cycled tank environment. This fish was rescued and I had to do this when I first got him, he was able to do it for a few days.
