My 28 gallon tank is still in the early cycle stages with 4 zebra danios, 3 mickeys, 3 catfish and 1 fish that the clerk at Petsmart (Yeah, I know!) told me would eat the black ramshorn snails that infested my tank. I removed the plants that had snail egg sacks today and bought new plants.
I was told that plants would help speed up the tank's cycle and cut down the ammonia and nitrite levels. I did a 25% water change yesterday too. Do I do a daily 1-2 gallon water change for the next 3 weeks? Also my carbon filter gets gross about every 3-4 days. Do I change that often too? Here is what the Petsmart clerk told me to do: add 3 capfuls of Cycle every day for 3 weeks and do a weekly water change of only 10%. I dosed the tank with Prime instead. I have to be patient I know while the tank finishes cycling for what, the next 3-4 weeks? My ammonia detector is at "alert" and the NH3 detector is light green "stress." Daily 1-2 gallon water changes? Prime once a week? What should I do?
Answers:
Water changes will be the key to fix your problem.
Second do not add any more fish to your tank until you get it cycled.
Do 10% every day until you get the levels down; prepare your new water with Amquel and Cycle.
Amquel reduce ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, chlorine and chloramines without interfering with your bio filter like some other product do (so it won't set you back on cycling your tank)
Cycle helps you with the nitrifying bacteria.
Remember that first you get ammonia, then it is converted to nitrite and then to nitrate.
If you add bacteria everyday it will help you with the ammonia but it will create more nitrite when the bacteria process the ammonia.
Also don't feed you fish that much, the more they eat the more ammonia they will produce, so you may have to feed them very little for a few days until you get the tank to cycle. Also uneaten food can be what is causing your filter to get gross so often.
A far as I know plants actually eat nitrate not ammonia neither nitrite.
Do not change the carbon from your filter that often because you are removing good bacteria that has already attached to it.
Very important when you do your water change look at your fish for a while to see how they react when your water conditions are not at its best they might get shock when you add new water. Also look for any white spots, clamped fins because your fish are under a lot of stress with your ammonia and nitrite levels high and you might have to treat them for something at the same time.
I hope this will help you and your fish.
About the snails, I am sorry to have to tell you that once you get them it is almost impossible to get rid of them, but hey clean your tank from uneaten food so they will improve your water quality.
K.F.G.
Add Ammo-lock to get rid of the ammonia, and they sell something to get rid of nitrite, but I forgot what it's called. The plant will get rid of the nitrite.
~ZTM
The products to speed up cycling don't do much. You shouldn't have bought all of those fish that quickly. It's better to buy a tough fish like a goldfish and let it tough out the cycling before adding more. You can't keep adding chemicals to the water...there will be too much build up of other unwanted things like phosphates. You can do small daily water changes to alleviate it a little...but your tank really needs to go through cycling. If you keep adding products and start using things like ammonia clear...it will never cycle correctly, the bacteria won't have time to build up. You should do the water changes and hope that the fish tough it out. You'll just have to buy more later.
Where to start?! EEK! What a mess!
Ok, products that WORK to bring down nitrogen cycle components:
SeaChem De*Nitrite - MIRACLE STUFF, worth every penny
Dr. Wellfish AP denitrite rechargeable cartridge.
Products that help to bring it down:
Cycle (waste control is an aid)
Ammonia Lock
Any other "biological" or "enzyme" additive.
You do not need to add it for 3 weeks, he's trying to get you to spend more.
Plants do little to interact with the nitrate cycle. It is bacteria dependent.
STOP doing daily water changes, this will make the problem MUCH worse. Your tank needs to establish itself. Do a 25% water change once a week. NO MORE!
Prepare yourself to lose everything alive in the tank. About three weeks after everything dies, or 6 weeks from now, THEN add living things.
Once you have a snail problem, you have a snail problem. FEW fish will irradicate snails, at best, they MIGHT keep them in check. Dead snails are toxic.
DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING IN YOUR FILTER FOR AT LEAST 2 MONTHS. Your cartridges will get gross, that's ok. Its good. When the water flow is restricted or when they have been there for 3 months, then change it. Only change one cartridge a month.
What type of filter do you even have?
There is to much information you need to have to be able to tell you here. If you need more, send me a message.
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