Blazed78's 20 Gallon Fresh Water Build

I don't think you should do the salt, it may stress the fish out and make them more susceptible to the ich attaching to them. I would just use the heat to kill them off. And daily vacuum/wc. As far as the snail, I would take him out and put him in a container of tank water and return the little hitch hiker to the store where you bought the plants. Depending on the type of snail they can lay dozens of eggs and take your tank over..if you don't mind keep him/her Post a pic, maybe someone can tell you what kind it is.

 

Here he is! Lol

 

Just a bitty baby! Did the plants say pest free or something like that?

 

No the lady at the fish store said we might have a little buddy hitching a ride... lol is this the type that mass produces?

 

I really can't tell, I've only had pond snails and they're just brown. Those are the ones that can reproduce a-sexually meaning they are boy and girl in one. They fertilize their own eggs, basically cloning themselves all over the tank! They won't hurt anything, it's just annoying. Start a new thread in the section called "fish ID" and post the pic to see if anyone else knows

They do poop a lot though, so it adds a lot to your bio-load when they multiply

 

After a little research I believe I have identified the little guy... a ramshorn snail. And it seems this little guy can be a blessing and a curse.

 

Eh, the only downside of ramshorns is that some people think they look bad all over everything. As long as you control the amount of food available (or get an assassin snail) then their population will self-regulate after an initial explosion. They make a great clean up crew and don't have too much of a bioload. They're pretty entertaining little guys too, they're like doofy little acrobats. I have yet to hear a legitimate reason for them being considered pests other than aesthetics.

 

Late night update, the family loves the little guy so he is staying... lol.... we will just be doing crowd control I guess....

 

Ok so these are the water testing results as of this morning.

Ammonia looks to be very close to 0

Nitrate 20ppm

Nitrite 3.0

Hardness 150

Alkalinity 180

Ph about 7.0

I finished up late last night setting up the tank heater and right now the temp has gradually been increased to about 80. I will raise it more when I get home from work and I'm going to pick up a more accurate external thermometer.
No meds or salt have been added to the tank and I running with no carbon. I plan on doing a water change this evening. Maybe another 25 percent. The fish look active and did eat again this morning.

 

Are you sure about that nitrite reading? That is really high!! Does your tap come out with nitrite?

Retest as soon as you can, It may be a spike because your towards the end of cycling, but if it's still that high I would do at least a 50% wc right away!

 

Agree your nitrite should be 0! 3 is really high! Test it again and see what you get! If it still 3 do a water change as suggested

 

Just got home and tested water again, going to do a 50percent water change since reading still show 3.0 on the test strip.

 

If you can test again about an hour after that to make sure it went down to a safe level..If not do another wc, like 25%..nitrite is more toxic than ammonia but it is the step right before you fully cycle. Let us know what happens..

How do the fish look? Are they eating and swimming around normally?

 

So far we have drained the tank 50 percent. I tested the tap and have 0 nitrate. Fish lol good and are swimming around. I think we are at the last spike before completing the cycle.

 

Fingers crossed Glad the fish are doing good! Just keep testing and don't let the ammonia or nitrite get too high, It is bad for the fish and the cycle actually, try to keep both below 1ppm. When they are both at 0 and nitrates between 20-40ppm you will be cycled!!!

 

Thanks for the well wishes! I can't wait to have the tank cycled. It's been a lot of work but well worth it. No signs of ick either on the zebras, but I think I need to calibrate my heater. My tank is showing 78 but I have it set to 81 on the heater? I'm going to buy a better thermometer tomorrow.

 

Good to hear there's no sign of the ich..like I said in another post, if you stress the fish out they have more of a chance of getting infected, and I think salt and medicine is probably very stressful! What do you mean by "the tank is showing 78"?

 

78 degrees and my heater is set higher. It said in the instructions I may need to recalibrate. The reviews are good on the heater and is strongly supported by good reviews.

 

Did you let the heater sit in the tank for 30 minutes before turning it on? I think that's how it calibrates itself, but I'm not sure about yours.. What I meant was do you have a thermometer on the tank already and it's reading 78, or did you mean you just want a better one?

 

Yes I let the heater sit for about 30 min yesterday. All I have right now is a thermometer sticker on the side of my tank. I don't think it is very accurate. And that's all I have to go off of at this time. So yea, they are not very expensive and I want one more accurate, or to confirm what the temp really is.

 

You know what, lol I was reading the thermometer sticker from an angle and I was reading the temp wrong. So right now my thermometer sticker says 82 and my heater is at 82.... that great. So how high should I take the temp over time.

 

Like 1 degree at a time, so in the morning raise it to 83 and then 12 hrs later to 84. I'm pretty sure ich start reproduction at 86f so make sure you vacuum good and wc. Check what the high temp for the fish in your tank is too, you may be able to go a little higher, but 86 should do it!

 

I did a vacuum today, .... I will do what you are suggesting tho. Do you still think the ick is in the tank? Any you said keep the temp up for a couple of weeks right? No meds, no salts.

 

Yup, you want to do a quick vacuum daily though because when you raise the temp they fall to the bottom to reproduce and you want to get as much of them out as possible even though they will die off anyway.It speeds the process, you don't want to keep the temp up that high more than necessary. Did you check your temp range for the fish you have?

The thing I read about ich is it can lie dormant in a tank for a long time, most fish have built up immunity to it..when fish are stressed or sick that's when it pounces and that's when you see the spots on the fish. So yes, I think it's in the tank..because the video of the shark was definitly ich..the guys you have left are healthy enough not to get infected right now.

I will try to post a link to the article I read tomorrow, it's off to bed for me..update in the morning!

 

Thanks!

 

Nitrite level down a little bit doing another vacuum and 50 percent water change today. Also picked up thermometer, just to be sure.

 

And we end the night with my new heater failing on me! I put in the same temp water unplugged when changing the water then when I plugged in nothing.

 

Did you return it to the store? How do you know it failed? If it has an indicator light that comes on when it's running, the new water may have been warmer than you realized so it didn't turn on..

 

Hello, been meaning to update, just been super busy. Yes I think the water was a little warmer but I tried turning the heater up even high and I was getting nothing, tried recalibrating the heater and got nothing. But long story short I put in a bucket of much cooler water to let it acclimate and a few hours later plugged it in and it started working. I know I messed with the red dial settings but it seem to be working just fine now. And it's been working properly ever since. I'm running the tank at about 84 degrees right now and my nitrate seems to be down around 2. So I'm planning a 50 water change for tonight.

 

Oh good, glad you got it working! How do the fish look? Are they eating and acting normal? A wc will be good, you should retest in the morning and post the results to see where you stand, how was your ammonia and nitrite?

 

Good morning! Just a little update, my nitrite is still about 2 so I did another big wc approx 55 percent. Fish are very active and eating like they were when I first purchased them.

 

Hey everyone, been gone for a min due to a crazy work schedule, but so far everything is looking great! My tank has cycled and is free from the ick, (so far). I ran higher temps for a few weeks and like I said, no sign of it. With that we have added a house decoration in the tank and added a few more fish. I added 2 more zebra danios and 3 platys. Man those platys poop a lot! Lol. But over all everything is great and the plant have really taken off as well. Check out this footage.
I really want to thank all of you for your help that has educated me and got me this far! .... so what fish would you recommend... I think I can add a few more!

 

Grab a couple more danios to get a proper school. If you want variety, gold, leopard and glofish danios are all varients of the zebra danio, and they will school together.

 

Agree with Persephones, and what about a dwarf gourami or a couple honey gouramis? And a nerite snail or two?

 

More plants! Also, from what I heard, pearl danios and zebra danios (includes the wild type zebrafish, leopard danio, and glo danios) are distinct species.