MommaOlenik

Here you go… all of the floating plants died. Not sure what happened just one by one they got brown and started to sink so I got them out before they sunk to the bottom never to be found again. But all of the other plants are still doing really well. Thank you for trying to help with this.

Awe thank you. I’m happy to hear that and appreciate it. It has been awful especially like today… yesterday was great among was swimming, dancing, and even was even jumping for his food like he used too. Now I come home and he’s staring out the back of the tank again and won’t even come out to greet me and his water is a mess again… 😭😡🥺

I’m so happy I could cry! Fingers crossed I think we are finally at the end of this very long, stressful, expensive road!!! And Moby can finally live a healthy peaceful life!!

Thanks! Figured it was fitting considering my other betta’s name is Moby ☺️

On a lighter note too… the fish tank that I cycled and added a fish to the other day is doing really well. We are even getting some brown algae growing! He still needs a name so I’m open to suggestions. I’ve been calling him (F)Ishmael. Like Ishmael but with an F. I thought it was clever but my kids wanted to name him Dumbo because he is an elephant ear betta or something like that. Again… thank you all for taking the time to help me through this. I really appreciate it!!

Don’t get me wrong… I’m happier with todays results than yesterdays that was super high with nitrites. However, is it weird or indicative of anything that the nitrites are still high but the nitrates are registering 0 and the ammonia is slightly back?

Yeah I just shook all 10 gallons of spring water and tested them. Everyone had significant amounts of ammonia. I can’t believe I didn’t think to shake them. I always test water from the bottom of the tank but never put two and two together. Since the ammonia is almost zero and the nitrites and nitrates are spiking I think I’m just going to dose with the prime because I think I must have a good amount of bacteria considering how much ammonia it has actually been processing. The nitrites are super high right now but that happened before. Also the other tank I started just to play around and experiment without putting a fish through the trauma- has completely cycled and I’m sure that’s due to me not doing near as many water changes. I actually added a fish about three days ago and it is still going strong. The nitrates are at about 10-20 but I’m gonna just keep an eye on it. Can I just say… really? Spring water has that much ammonia in it?!?! Honestly my tap water has a fraction of what this stuff is testing. So frustrating but I think we are getting there.

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while. I’ve been beside myself about this whole thing. So… I think I may have figured out the problem. I was testing every bottle of spring water but just from the top and syringing a bit out. Everyone was coming up free of everything but still used a water softener and let it aerate at least an hour before using it. But then I’ve gone through like 5 bottle #2 ammonia solution so I started doing every few. Still all coming up clean. However, yesterday I forgot so I just poured what was left in the very bottom of the jug into a test tube and it was off the chart HIGH. So… is it possible all the ammonia was sinking to the bottom of the jugs?!?!?! Here is the test tube compared to where his tank water is currently. So now I’m not sure where to go from here. If I should try a different brand of spring water or just go back to my tap water which was fine for the past two years until I crashed the cycle.

I alternate do one for a few days and another for a few. But never at the same time. The fish store recommended doing that for whatever reason but I may look into it.

Thank you all of your advise is really helpful I appreciate it. Everything is still super high today even with the maximum dose of prime 😞 This is awful I really thought after everything I’d be nearing the end by now. Is there any reason why I couldn’t double the dose of QuickStart or stability?

Mine is the second one that you can’t open the bottom. I am really scared to take any steps backward at this point. But I did start cycling another tank about 2 weeks ago that I’m basically experimenting with so I can trial and error without worrying about a fish. It had tons of ammonia from a sick fish I rescued and tried to save but ultimately lost. Right now it has no ammonia and high nitrates and nitrites. So as soon as it gets to the point where it seems fully cycled I’m going to try the suggestions in this video and per others on this feed and see how it affects the bacterial filter. Thank you for sharing that one. I like that it was about my specific filter so it reduces the room for error ☺️ Unless you think I should do something different. Honestly I’m just terrified at this point to do much of anything. This whole thing has humbled me realizing that I don’t know as much as I thought I did or should know owning a fish.

Here is a photo looking down into the filter. There is the charcoal cartridge and ceramic bio beads or whatever they’re called. There’s also a sponge in the bottom that I took a picture of the box. The flow seems the same and is moving the floating plants around and causing some current. I’d like to remove the cartridge or replace it but I’m afraid to with the bacteria shortage right now. Hope that helps. Let me know if you want me to do something different. I took a whole video but it wouldn’t let me upload it. I’m going to watch your video now. Thank you

I have been dosing the stability and QuickStart alternating for over two weeks now daily. I bought a huge bottle, so I still have plenty. But I’m only doing a 1/2 a cap per day per bottle’s instructions for a 5 gallon tank. There is NOTHING in the gravel. I did what you suggested twice already and nothing comes out of the gravel. I’ve been doing multiple water changes a week per everyone’s advise but this is the third time it’s cycled like this where I get the big spikes and then it’s good for a day or two and then back to high ammonia and then the spikes, repeat. I slowly transitioned him to spring water (which I test every time I open a bottle for everything and it’s free of anything). There’s no way there’s any tap water left in the tank now. I know his water is clean I just can’t figure out why it keeps doing this and it is killing me that my poor fish is having to go through this. I bought more plants and floating plants and have put in a tbs of salt. I have bought everything on the market per suggestions but then stopped because I worried I was doing too much and causing the spikes. I even stopped feeding him for almost 5 days per one of the co-op videos and it continued to rise. I used to feed him three small pellets a day and now am feeding him 3 pellets every 2-3 days.

Ok so now what?!?! It was seeming to get better and now everything is so high! He is looking out the back of the tank and won’t come out and his little fins are starting to look tattered. What am I doing wrong? The lady at the fish store suggested that I just continue adding the Stability or Quick Start daily until there is no more ammonia showing up on the kit and then do a water change is that good advise? She said I didn’t need to continue using Prime but I did tonight just with everything being so high. Do you think I’m doing the right thing?

Oh gotcha. Thank you all good to know!!

Thank you! It actually is a 20L tank or 5 gallon. But I was considering getting something a little bigger. Then all this happened. Still something possibly for the future.

So… I removed the water lettuce. It just wasn’t going to work long term. I couldn’t find anywhere to even order the dwarf variety. So I bit the bullet and took the 2 hour drive to the closest fish store. I got 2 different kinds of floating plants and some new additions. Finally looking more like it did before that guy told me to throw out all of my beautiful plants 🫠.Plus, Moby was super intrigued and seemed to like the new decor. Always a bonus ☺️ Anyway, I think it is setup much better for long term. I’d love to hear what y’all think. Also, today there is much less ammonia, no nitrites and more nitrates (after a small water change to vacuum up the gunk the lettuce left behind) so fingers crossed we are coming to the end of this nightmare.

Thank you. I really hope so!! This is the third time in a month I’ve watched this happen and be good for a day or two and then start all over again.

Ok so good news… I put in the water lettuce and banana plants and skipped the water change yesterday and did a larger one as suggested today. However, potential bad news… there’s a large spike in nitrites and nitrates today. What does this mean? I appreciate everyone taking the time to help me. I’m getting frustrated. I don’t know what else I can do. Thank you all! Here’s some pictures. I think the water lettuce may be a bit much? I didn’t realize that I didn’t order the drawn variety. I tried to look for some but couldn’t find any. Anyone have any suggestions for vendors that I might order from?

Is this how water lettuce is supposed to look???

Thank you everyone. I guess I’ll be researching a new filter this weekend. I always had layered filters in my larger tanks with just a tiny refillable bag of charcoal and the rest was sponges and ceramic somethings. I swear these smaller tanks are harder to maintain imo. Moby wasn’t looking out the back of the tank as much today and greeted me with a happy little dance when I came home from work. I thought today was Thursday so I was disappointed when I realized the plants won’t be here until tomorrow. But I’m just doing a dose of prime until then. The kit is still measuring about .25 ammonia but a few people said that can happen since it basically is just binding and detoxifying it. Still better than the 1 and 2 ppm I was having before though. Thank you all so much for the advise. I was getting desperate so you saved me from spending hundreds on a psychic hotline until I found someone who could connect with my fish so he could tell me what to do ☺️ I am that person who will stop traffic for a chipmunk so the thought that I am hurting my fish is making me lose sleep at night. If anyone has any suggestions on a good filter that would work on a 5 gallon I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks again!!

Thank you for taking the time to explain all that. This has been a month long process. I have been careful not to change too much quickly. But also I was operating off of some bad advise for a while. I put the old cartridge back. I will have more plants tomorrow including the dwarf lettuce and have no nitrates or nitrites in the water. Thankfully that was a few weeks ago. Now Just ammonia. I have a large sponge in the filter that has been there for a over a week or two now. I have coral and seashells mixed in the substrate that I put in when I started slowly transitioning him to the spring water in 5% increments. Do you think that’s good enough or do you mean something crushed more finely? It has definitely helped bring the ph up and keep it steady I think.

My betta is absolutely still in there. I need to figure out where and how to move him into another tank. If it’s not better by this weekend then I will go buy another tank I guess and move him. Just seems I may end up with the same issues. Just with two tanks then but I don’t know. Again I’ve never had this happen and I have never been without an aquarium in the past 20 years.

Unless y’all think o should put the dirty filter cartridge back in? I have a sponge in there. But I didn’t the last time I changed or any of the other times I did once a month for the past 2 years.

I just went through the cycle. The whole thing and now just have high ammonia for almost a week now. So something is causing the high ammonia and that’s what I’m trying to figure out. Thank you for the advise tho I appreciate it!