Please help Im having trouble with my water

So I've had my tank for over 2 months. I have added fish to the tank and water parameters were good. I was told to change my filter due to foamy bubbles at the top diagnosed as protein build up so I did. I tested my water with the API master kit 2 days later and now I have 0 Nitrites and 0 Nitrates but I believe I'm in between 0.25 and 0.50ppm for ammonia. I lost a cory cat today and now one of my molly fish is laying at the bottom of the tank! All of my other fish are ok eating and swimming normally. I added Prime and Tetra quick start plus because I believe I removed too much of the beneficial bacteria? I dont know what to do and I feel absolutely awful. If anyone can give me advice I'd really appreciate it. I have attached pic of ammonia test. My camera doesn't show the color well but it has to be .25 to .50ppm definitely not yellow like my tap water is.

 

Your tank isn't cycled. You say you had your tank for over 2 months. When did you add the fish and did you cycle it before adding the fish? If so how did you cycle it? What is your pH and Temperature?
Also it's terrible advise to remove a filter because of protein build up. A good chunk of your bacteria will be in that filter you threw away. Next time try to rinse it in tank water especially if you are about to add fish. Not all of the BB will be gone as some will stay in the tank on any surface area with good oxygen.
If you aren't dosing Prime correctly it won't buffer well. A normal dose of Prime will take care of 1ppm of Ammonia or 1ppm Nitrite. Not both. If you under dose it won't detox and you must dose every 24 hours or 48 if you want to live on the edge. If you are only dosing during water changes then you are just leaving your fish time bombs. After 48 hours all the toxins are back to being toxins. Prime must be dosed regularly until your cycle is done and you see nitrates with fish in the tank. This will help the bacteria re-establish too since the toxins are in the water just not harming your fish. You can overdose Prime up to 5 times. I've never gone that high and don't recommend it as some people say in higher doses it lowers oxygen levels in the water. I change water at 2ppm for Ammonia or Nitrites to be safe. That just a double dose. Right now fix that problem as this is more pressing but do some more research on your cycle if you care about your fish because small things like moving things out or in. A filter change. Adding certain fish can throw a tank off balance. You wouldn't want to live in your pee and ammonia either if it was going into your lungs. Good luck!

 

Your tank isn't cycled. You say you had your tank for over 2 months. When did you add the fish and did you cycle it before adding the fish? If so how did you cycle it? What is your pH and Temperature?
Also it's terrible advise to remove a filter because of protein build up. A good chunk of your bacteria will be in that filter you threw away. Next time try to rinse it in tank water especially if you are about to add fish. Not all of the BB will be gone as some will stay in the tank on any surface area with good oxygen.
If you aren't dosing Prime correctly it won't buffer well. A normal dose of Prime will take care of 1ppm of Ammonia or 1ppm Nitrite. Not both. If you under dose it won't detox and you must dose every 24 hours or 48 if you want to live on the edge. If you are only dosing during water changes then you are just leaving your fish time bombs. After 48 hours all the toxins are back to being toxins. Prime must be dosed regularly until your cycle is done and you see nitrates with fish in the tank. This will help the bacteria re-establish too since the toxins are in the water just not harming your fish. You can overdose Prime up to 5 times. I've never gone that high and don't recommend it as some people say in higher doses it lowers oxygen levels in the water. I change water at 2ppm for Ammonia or Nitrites to be safe. That just a double dose. Right now fix that problem as this is more pressing but do some more research on your cycle if you care about your fish because small things like moving things out or in. A filter change. Adding certain fish can throw a tank off balance. You wouldn't want to live in your pee and ammonia either if it was going into your lungs. Good luck!

Thank you for the advice. I did complete a cycle when I set up the tank I added ammonia and no fish in the tank until I saw Nitrates appear. I also used filter media from an established tank to help the process. I dosed with stability and prime for 8 days like I was told. I started with 2 cory cats and 2 dalmatian mollys. Then I waited a week and added 3 more fish. I had my water tested several times by an aquarium shop along with doing it myself. They confirmed my tank had cycled before adding in my first group. My temp is 76 and my ph is 7.4. I'm just confused on what I did other than removing a filter I shouldn't have to this ammonia spike.

 

Did you cycle for 8 days? Or 2 months. It's a little confusing. Even with media it takes 2-3 weeks to fully establish unless a majority of your stuff(Substrate, plants, decor, filter) was preseeded.
Your spike wasn't bad. May have literally been the filter change. What does worry me is the Nitrates being 0. It means your cycle has reset or you recently did a 100% water change and tested. Or you are heavily planted and it takes a moment for your nitrates to build up.

If the Molly was from a bigbox chain I've had trouble keeping them. I've been told they are imported from brackish water environments and have trouble from the stress of travel and acclimating to freshwater. Suggest purchasing from local or US bred Mollys that are raised fresh water. They also prefer harder water and higher pHs. I have soft water and live plants so no salts and I don't like messing with pH.
Corycats are pretty active. They seem pretty hardy but are especially sensitive to nitrite since they are active. They choke themselves to death with activity as nitrites bind in the place of oxygen. Were your Corys hovering at the top? Did you acclimate them?

 

After 2 months it should be cycled. It seems you are having a spike from the media change. The foamy white stuff is usually calcium from your water or biofilm. Either of which are not harmful. Just squish/swish the media in old tank water to rinse them off and you should be fine.

The ammonia spike is easy enough to take care of. Just do water changes any time it gets near .50 and use the prime and you should be fine. I would do 50% every time you WC.

Did you ever see yourself a nitrate reading? Im just curious if the test is being done correctly. You would be amazed how many times it is not.

 

The tank is not cycled when nitrates appear unless you can dose your tank with ammonia followed by ammonia and nitrite testing zero 24 hours later. Nitrates usually appear well before the cycle is done.

As stated, zero nitrates should raise questions. Unless you did a 100% water change, you will have nitrates.

You got bad advice about changing the filter pad. That's about the worse thing you could do to a freshly established biological filter.

 

Did you cycle for 8 days? Or 2 months. It's a little confusing. Even with media it takes 2-3 weeks to fully establish unless a majority of your stuff(Substrate, plants, decor, filter) was preseeded.
Your spike wasn't bad. May have literally been the filter change. What does worry me is the Nitrates being 0. It means your cycle has reset or you recently did a 100% water change and tested. Or you are heavily planted and it takes a moment for your nitrates to build up.

If the Molly was from a bigbox chain I've had trouble keeping them. I've been told they are imported from brackish water environments and have trouble from the stress of travel and acclimating to freshwater. Suggest purchasing from local or US bred Mollys that are raised fresh water. They also prefer harder water and higher pHs. I have soft water and live plants so no salts and I don't like messing with pH.
Corycats are pretty active. They seem pretty hardy but are especially sensitive to nitrite since they are active. They choke themselves to death with activity as nitrites bind in the place of oxygen. Were your Corys hovering at the top? Did you acclimate them?

I'm sorry I cycled my tank for 2 months. I've had fish for about 5 weeks or so now. The moly was from a big store unlike my others but she seemed ok the 5 weeks. I do have plants in the tank but it is heavily planted. I really think I reset my cycle. I added tetra quick start plus before I went to bed for the beneficial bacteria. I also added some prime. Everyone seems ok this morning, but I'm back to a cloudy tank and a mess of foamy bubbles at the top. So I'm lost to my understanding you shouldn't change water starting a cycle but I was told to do water changes to remove bubbles because it can be harmful.

 

Did you add the Prime the same time as the TSS+?

 

Any bloom or bubbles unless caused by contaminants aren't going to be harmful. The cloudiness is actually a good sign, means your bacteria are multiplying and your cycle is underway to account for the bioload. No need to worry. Biofilm across the surface would be bad as that would block any oxygen exchange. But those aren't anything to worry about as long as you are sure the bubbles aren't soap or anything else you can think of. Some medications will also make the water bubble. Pima/Mela fix.

When cycling fish in without Prime, you must do water changes to keep the toxicity down below .2 for Ammonia and Nitrite. Your fish will suffer regardless because any amount really stresses their quality of life and shortens their life span. With Prime, read the directions and do some research on your own, you can detox however much of it you want too up to 4-5ppm ammonia OR nitrite not both. Higher doses have been said to decrease oxygen but if you have bubbles and I've never dosed that high.

I can attest to it working, as all my tanks have cycled with many fish in. Check your fish health, make sure they're eating swimming around where they should be and active. If not something is wrong. Test water everyday. I test Ammonia/Nitrite and don't test Nitrates until those other two go down on their own. No sense in wasting tests for something that won't go up drastically. Just need a little patience.

 

Its different with the TSS+. The directions must be followed exactly or it will not work.

you can detox however much of it you want too up to 4-5ppm ammonia OR nitrite not both.

Is this a typo? You shouldnt ever have 4-5 ppm ammonia even with Prime.

 

Its different with the TSS+. The directions must be followed exactly or it will not work.


Is this a typo? You shouldnt ever have 4-5 ppm ammonia even with Prime.

Sorry, apparently they differ by how old the bottle is. Their website has differing directions. I would follow what is on the bottle as the formula has changed. Very important, thank you for pointing that out.

Seachem Prime Instructions: Note that one capful (5 ml) will treat 200 liters (50 gallons). Note: The two and four liter container's cap is 10 ml. This dose removes approximately 0.6 mg/l ammonia, 3 mg/l chloramine, or 4 mg/l chlorine. May be added to aquarium directly, but better if added to new water first. If adding directly to aquarium, base dose on aquarium volume. Sulfur odor is normal. For exceptionally high chloramine concentrations, a double dose may be used safely. To detoxify nitrite in an emergency, up to five times normal dose may be used. If temperature is >86 degrees (F) and chlorine or ammonia levels are low, use a half dose.

 

Sorry, apparently they differ by how old the bottle is. Their website has differing directions. I would follow what is on the bottle as the formula has changed. Very important, thank you for pointing that out.

I was just clarifying for myself mostly. I understood Prime detoxing up to 1ppm ammonia and nitrite combined. So .50 each.

TSS+ is an entirely different animal than other bacteria. The directions are to fill the tank and add the dechlor. 24 hours later add the TSS. Add fish. Then wait 14 days and it should be cycled. Some say it works some say it doesnt. It will depend on what they did to advise anymore I would say.

I would myself just check the ammonia and nitrite and do water changes and go from there.

 

Just my opinion but I think whoever gave you advice didn't understand the situation about the foam, in Salt water, sure it's proteins, in fresh water... nope.
Either way "clean the filter" isn't the correct answer to solving it in saltwater or freshwater.

When you cycle your tank, near all of the bacteria is in the filter and nowhere else really, like 99%+. It might take a month or 2 months to cycle completely, but it takes 3x longer than that for a cycle to "age" to where like 80% is in the filter and 20% is on the hard surfaces of the tank. Then it's sort of bulletproof but before then if you replace a filter or handle it improperly you can kill off all your bacteria in one shot, where when it's aged for 3-6-9 months even if you took out the filter, 20% of your colony would still be in the tank and doubling every day when it's reduced to meet the resources.

It's a simple mistake many people make, they cycle and think it's done and then mess with the filter. Yes the cycle is done, but it's not well established and stable.... that comes much later on. For the first half year about, its all in the filter and slowly establishing through the tank. It takes a long time to spread out from there and establish on other things in the tank to where it becomes near infallible to where you could pull the filter and if lightly stocked not skip a beat on the cycle.

You got some bad advice and I'm sorry for that.

FYI, foamy bubbles on the surface of a freshwater tank is usually a circulation and surface tension issue, a slack zone of surface without much water movement that can't break the small bubbles that collect there that are created in the spots where the surface tension is being broken and water agitated, it all kind of collects and builds up in the slack surface zones.

 

Any bloom or bubbles unless caused by contaminants aren't going to be harmful. The cloudiness is actually a good sign, means your bacteria are multiplying and your cycle is underway to account for the bioload. No need to worry. Biofilm across the surface would be bad as that would block any oxygen exchange. But those aren't anything to worry about as long as you are sure the bubbles aren't soap or anything else you can think of. Some medications will also make the water bubble. Pima/Mela fix.

When cycling fish in without Prime, you must do water changes to keep the toxicity down below .2 for Ammonia and Nitrite. Your fish will suffer regardless because any amount really stresses their quality of life and shortens their life span. With Prime, read the directions and do some research on your own, you can detox however much of it you want too up to 4-5ppm ammonia OR nitrite not both. Higher doses have been said to decrease oxygen but if you have bubbles and I've never dosed that high.

I can attest to it working, as all my tanks have cycled with many fish in. Check your fish health, make sure they're eating swimming around where they should be and active. If not something is wrong. Test water everyday. I test Ammonia/Nitrite and don't test Nitrates until those other two go down on their own. No sense in wasting tests for something that won't go up drastically. Just need a little

After 2 months it should be cycled. It seems you are having a spike from the media change. The foamy white stuff is usually calcium from your water or biofilm. Either of which are not harmful. Just squish/swish the media in old tank water to rinse them off and you should be fine.

The ammonia spike is easy enough to take care of. Just do water changes any time it gets near .50 and use the prime and you should be fine. I would do 50% every time you WC.

Did you ever see yourself a nitrate reading? Im just curious if the test is being done correctly. You would be amazed how many times it is not.

Thank you. I did see nitrates low but they were present on the strip I just got the ApI master kit yesterday and it had 0 . I think I need to do an emergency water change because my ammonia is reading what looks like to me at least .50ppm my tap definitely reads yellow at 0 PM for ammonia so I'm thinking I need to water change and add more stability and prime after?

Just my opinion but I think whoever gave you advice didn't understand the situation about the foam, in Salt water, sure it's proteins, in fresh water... nope.
Either way "clean the filter" isn't the correct answer to solving it in saltwater or freshwater.

When you cycle your tank, near all of the bacteria is in the filter and nowhere else really, like 99%+. It might take a month or 2 months to cycle completely, but it takes 3x longer than that for a cycle to "age" to where like 80% is in the filter and 20% is on the hard surfaces of the tank. Then it's sort of bulletproof but before then if you replace a filter or handle it improperly you can kill off all your bacteria in one shot, where when it's aged for 3-6-9 months even if you took out the filter, 20% of your colony would still be in the tank and doubling every day when it's reduced to meet the resources.

It's a simple mistake many people make, they cycle and think it's done and then mess with the filter. Yes the cycle is done, but it's not well established and stable.... that comes much later on. For the first half year about, its all in the filter and slowly establishing through the tank. It takes a long time to spread out from there and establish on other things in the tank to where it becomes near infallible to where you could pull the filter and if lightly stocked not skip a beat on the cycle.

You got some bad advice and I'm sorry for that.

FYI, foamy bubbles on the surface of a freshwater tank is usually a circulation and surface tension issue, a slack zone of surface without much water movement that can't break the small bubbles that collect there that are created in the spots where the surface tension is being broken and water agitated, it all kind of collects and builds up in the slack surface zones.

SoI must have gotten rid of the bateria because my tank has definitely not been established long enough to build the bacteria on the surfaces of my decor and rocks. I lost 2 fish and had an ammonia spike after changing the filter out 3 days ago. It's a 36gal tank so should I do a 50% water change and add prime and stability since my ammonia is reading now at what looks like .50ppm it got cloudy after adding in TSSplus last night. I wish people that dont know what they are talking about at these stores wouldn't give advice like that because it really messed me up and my fish are paying for my mistake.

 

Thank you. I did see nitrates low but they were present on the strip I just got the ApI master kit yesterday and it had 0 . I think I need to do an emergency water change because my ammonia is reading what looks like to me at least .50ppm my tap definitely reads yellow at 0 PM for ammonia so I'm thinking I need to water change and add more stability and prime after?

SoI must have gotten rid of the bateria because my tank has definitely not been established long enough to build the bacteria on the surfaces of my decor and rocks. I lost 2 fish and had an ammonia spike after changing the filter out 3 days ago. It's a 36gal tank so should I do a 50% water change and add prime and stability since my ammonia is reading now at what looks like .50ppm it got cloudy after adding in TSSplus last night. I wish people that dont know what they are talking about at these stores wouldn't give advice like that because it really messed me up and my fish are paying for my mistake.

I would just stick to changing water and adding the prime and stability. Dont add any more of the tss+. Those 2 things and water changes should be the only thing to add. That is some bubbles! I wonder if it is the tss?

 

Agree with stargirl. Thinking it's from the tetra safe start. not harmful at all, should go away with time and routine water changes. It happens I think if too much TSS+ is added to a tank at once,, I've also hear it happens if you don't shake it first.

I think that filter change is the reason for the ammonia spike and why you biological crashed though. It would have knocked out 98-99% of you bacteria on such a young tank.

You'll need to dose Prime and do testing and water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites low until it recovers. The prime acting as a safety net for like 1ppm ammonia or 1 ppm nitrite per dose and you can double dose it. That needs to be redone every 48 hours. I don't think you've lost all your bacteria, just most of it. It shouldn't take as long this time to get back up to speed, you should have at least some bacteria for ammonia and nitrites, just not enough.

 

I would just stick to changing water and adding the prime and stability. Dont add any more of the tss+. Those 2 things and water changes should be the only thing to add. That is some bubbles! I wonder if it is the tss?

Thank you! No it isn't the tts because they started before my ammonia spike. That's why I changed the filter like the lady said which was bad advice.

Agree with stargirl. Thinking it's from the tetra safe start. not harmful at all, should go away with time and routine water changes. It happens I think if too much TSS+ is added to a tank at once,, I've also hear it happens if you don't shake it first.

I think that filter change is the reason for the ammonia spike and why you biological crashed though. It would have knocked out 98-99% of you bacteria on such a young tank.

You'll need to dose Prime and do testing and water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites low until it recovers. The prime acting as a safety net for like 1ppm ammonia or 1 ppm nitrite per dose and you can double dose it. That needs to be redone every 48 hours. I don't think you've lost all your bacteria, just most of it. It shouldn't take as long this time to get back up to speed, you should have at least some bacteria for ammonia and nitrites, just not enough.

Thank you all for the tips and advice. I know the bubbles aren't from the tts because they started and the lady told me protien build up and to change my filter. Bad advice but I know now for next time. I'll continue water changes and prime like everyone recommended and hopefully these foamy bubbles will clear up!