GreenMan13

I got this tank and it had 5 feeder goldfish, an oscar, and two plecos in it. Since I have gotten it, I found a home for the goldfish and oscar. One pleco is in my 10 gal for now healing from jumping out of the tank for a few hours and the other pleco has remained in it. I have changed the gravel to sand and added CFLs to it. The water cleared up within a couple hours and stayed clear for a few days so I went and got 10 black neon tetras from the LFS. It remained clear for another day and has now become cloudy and the amonia has exploded.

Here are some pictures of it when it was clear.

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	55Gal.jpg (193.1 KB, 62 views)
	55Gal2.jpg (162.8 KB, 46 views)
	blackNeons1.jpg (167.0 KB, 22 views)
	blackNeons2.jpg (263.9 KB, 15 views)
	blackNeons3.jpg (99.5 KB, 15 views)

GreenMan13

More black neons...

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	blackNeons4.jpg (124.7 KB, 1 views)
	blackNeons5.jpg (88.6 KB, 3 views)
	blackNeons6.jpg (249.5 KB, 2 views)
	blackNeons7.jpg (147.3 KB, 2 views)
	blackNeons8.jpg (164.0 KB, 3 views)

GreenMan13

Here it is now, all cloudy and everything. I have been doing about 40% water changes daily for the past few days since I noticed the cloudiness and the high ammonia. I just got the nitrate and nitrite tests today so I will have to see how those change in the next few days. The ammonia though has gone up to about 8.0 this morning. I have been adding prime to the water though and the fish don't seem to be breathing any different so I have left them in there for now. Currently the readings are...

Nitrate: 10
Nitrite: 0.25
Ammonia: 8.0

Attached Images

	55GalCloudy.jpg (148.0 KB, 13 views)
	55GalCloudy2.jpg (131.2 KB, 10 views)

petz

sorry about your pleco (Im not just another person thats posting!,i have fish too!)

petz

that happens with my tank
yeah the water might be bad but thats just steam from the light and the water
dont worry about the steam

GreenMan13

I don't quite understand what you mean by steam. The tank is full and no condensation or steam forms on the outside of the tank.

The cloudiness has gone away though. The levels have not changed much other then the nitrate has gone up a little. I added another filter to the tank to try and help form more bacteria. I also bought a plant from my LFS. They labeled it as a Cabomba I think but it looks more like parsley to me. I'll get a picture posted of it later today hopefully.

Coryd55

The cloudiness might have been from the sand. Especially if you didn't rinse it previously and if it was play sand. It can make the water very dusty and takes a few days for the sand particles to settle to the bottom.

GreenMan13

It is play sand and I did rinse it a ton. I spent a large part of a day rinsing 100 lbs of it that went into the tank. I thought, how bad could it be to rinse off...well it was bad. It was clear at first when I placed it at the bottom of the tank so I thought that it was rinsed enough, but the fish could have stirred it up to get the last bit of fine particles floating in the water.

It has cleared up all the way now, but my readings have not improved much at all.

Nitrate: 5
Nitrite: 0.25
Ammonia: 8.0+

Does it cause problems if you use too much conditioner? Could that be keeping the ammonia so high?

Coryd55

You can never use to much conditioner. If your ammonia is that high your fish may die. But I dont know. Wait for someone else. You may have added to many fish at once and caused a mini cycle because of the overwhelming amount of fish poo the bacteria has to break down. You never mentioned but have you cycled your tank yet? Sorry if I was oblivious to somewhere when you said it.

Coryd55

I also just noticed that you had rock in the tank. Do you know what type of rock they are. You might want to take them out, well you should if you don't know what they are, and do the vinegar test. Basically dry off part of the rock drop a few drops of vinegar on it and if it fizzes it is bad for your aquarium. If not then it should be safe.

GreenMan13

The tank was cycled when it had 5 large feeder goldfish (7in to 3in) and one pleco (~5in) and one tetra (~2-3in).

I then got rid of the goldfish and the tetra and switched the gravel to sand.

After about 3 days it was still clear and ammonia was down so I bought 10 black neons and added them to the tank with the pleco.

Then after about 2 more days it got cloudy and the ammonia had started climbing fast.

It has been about a week and a half since I added the neons. The cloudiness went away about 3 days ago but the ammonia is still high. I have only lost one neon and have been feeding them once a day lightly to try and keep waste from building up and doing daily water changes.

The rocks have been there the whole time so I don't think they are the problem. And I added a plant 2 days ago to try and help.


I'm guessing it is going through a cycle again due to the change of substrate and adding the neons. Any idea how long it will take? And should I keep up with the daily water changes or do you think it would be better with less frequent ones?

GreenMan13

Thanks for the help also btw.

Coryd55

Since you have fish I would continue doing frequent water changes. Also, you have a good point because gravel contains a large portion of the beneficial bacteria that your tank needs. It should settle down in about a week or so if I'm correct. Keep us updated and your welcome.

GreenMan13

Here is the plant that I added to the tank.

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	plant.jpg (153.4 KB, 14 views)
	plantClose.jpg (119.9 KB, 7 views)

COBettaCouple

Nice looking plant - where did you get it?

GreenMan13

Got it from Pet World. They only have a small selection but I works for me since I am just starting with plants.

COBettaCouple

Cool. Not sure when we'll get a chance to venture down there, but I might pick up a couple of those when we do.

GreenMan13

Time for an update. The first picture is of the first plant I got, a Watersprite. It has been in my tank for 19 days now. I have broken off two new pieces to start growing more of it also. The next two pictures are of one of the branches growing behind the rock for a day now. I have also added one more type of plant; that is the next shot. Lastly is a full tank shot.

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	WaterspriteDay19.jpg (240.6 KB, 11 views)
	smallHidingWatersprite.jpg (40.0 KB, 4 views)
	smallHidingWatersprite2.jpg (106.8 KB, 5 views)
	newPlant.jpg (180.4 KB, 5 views)
	55GalFeb13.jpg (210.2 KB, 42 views)

GreenMan13

In terms of live stock...I have gotten rid of the pleco to help get the parameters back on tack faster and wanting more fish in the long term anyways. Only one of the black neons have died since I got them and that was shortly after I got them all. And just yesterday I got two small zebra angles. Also I got some MTS to help with the algae and stirring the sand. Picture time...

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	Scar1.jpg (150.5 KB, 5 views)
	MuShu1.jpg (145.0 KB, 9 views)
	ScarNMuShu.jpg (242.0 KB, 3 views)
	ScarNMuShuSyncSwiming.jpg (171.3 KB, 5 views)

angelfish220

I love your angels!!!

COBettaCouple

The tank looks great and I love those Angels!

GreenMan13

New Photos...

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	55GalMidMarch.jpg (230.6 KB, 18 views)
	ScarMidMarch4.jpg (235.5 KB, 1 views)
	ScarMidMarch5.jpg (198.8 KB, 0 views)
	ScarMidMarch3.jpg (124.0 KB, 0 views)
	ScarMidMarch2.jpg (289.7 KB, 1 views)

GreenMan13

And more...

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	ScarMidMarch1.jpg (194.3 KB, 0 views)
	blackNeonsMidMarch2.jpg (93.7 KB, 0 views)
	AngelsMidMarch.jpg (143.0 KB, 0 views)
	MuShuMidMarch1.jpg (193.2 KB, 0 views)
	plantMidMarch.jpg (285.3 KB, 0 views)

COBettaCouple

Looks like your angels are going great!

Lucy

Beautiful!

GreenMan13

And more...

So as you may have noticed I rearranged. This was because my girlfriend got me an arrow plant for valentines day along with two books on reef aquariums. She's a keeper.

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	plantSaplingMidMarch.jpg (243.0 KB, 0 views)
	ArrowPlantMidMarch.jpg (218.7 KB, 0 views)
	MTS.jpg (171.4 KB, 0 views)
	blackNeonsMidMarch.jpg (152.2 KB, 1 views)

COBettaCouple

Where did you pick up your black neons? I've not seen them around here.

GreenMan13

These are the ones that I got from Pet World on Colfax and 14th.

Thanks for the compliments.

COBettaCouple

I guess I wasn't as lucky, they didn't have any when I went down there.

GreenMan13

I think they have a pretty good amount of turn over so they get different types of fish in every month or so that is not the standard guppy, betta, and platy.