Hey there folks. Had a bit of an issue getting post privileges on the forum, but looking good now! Thanks Daniella for getting me hooked up.
I'm new to fish keeping. I've got a small 3ish gallon sized cylindrical aquarium. Struggling to get it to cycle. Put fish in way too soon, I know, but don't understand why the good bacteria (aka bio filter? correct?) hasn't settled in yet. Started tank around the first of the year, added fish maybe 4 days later. 2 guppies, still 4 PPM ammonia. Doing occasional water changes to try to help keep the water manageable, but why won't the ammonia drop?
Test your tap water to see if it has any ammonia in it. I suspect your test kit may be wrong, simply because such high ammonia is highly toxic to fish. The guppies should be dead with it that high. I also suggest you do a very large water change, daily to bring those numbers down. Are you testing for the nitrite and nitrates as well?
I know it's a shot in the dark, but what sort of bucket are you using for your water changes? I had the same issue starting out and it ended up being that I was using my mop bucket to change water, the same bucket I was mopping the floor with Lysol...yeah....not my brightest moment.
The testing of the tap water to verify the kit was a good idea. And I did a water exchange tonight, I am probably changing almost 50% each time. So the tank must be about a 2.5 gallon tank.
Anyhow, I tested the tap water tonight, and the water stayed a pale yellow, indicating no ammonia. I've lost my darn color booklet, but I recall green being 4 PPM, a dark green being worse, and yellow being the 0 side of the scale. I did the nitrate/trite tests about 2 weeks ago, and the worse of the two was low to medium, and the lesser of the two evils was quite low. I know these numbers suck, but without that color chart I'm flying blind right now.
I'll sneak down in a minute and retest the fish water to see where the ammonia color is at.
As to my water exchange mixing bucket, I used a rinsed out milk jug. I doubt there's much happening in there. I do 1 mL of the API Stress Coat+ (seemed to be the popular stuff on Amazon) stuff, and a gallon of water.
Welcome to the forum. How is your setup doing since you posted on 03-13-2017 ? I hope your setup is doing better now.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Aquarium Forum
288.1K posts
34.3K members
Since 2006
A forum community dedicated to Aquarium owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about collections, displays, product reviews, accessories, classifieds, breeding, health, behavior, housing, care, and more!