Cicibrown171

The heater, intake, and output are all next to each other on one side of the aquarium. I have some java fern and jungle val. I had some anubias but all of the leaves fell off. The jungle valley was bigger but most of those leaves fell off. I wasn't sure if this was the melting, the ammonia, or the fish nibbling at it.

The water conditioner I use is API Turtle Water Conditioner. I have the API ammonia test kit and the 5 in 1 test strips. I was using the API Quick start but was told that didn't really have beneficial bacteria so I switched to the aqueoun pure beneficial bacteria. I do have an bubble wall (?) My PH was higher a few weeks ago, about an 8. I went to a local fish store and they gave me some ammonia lock. So I've been using that. And when I went in Saturday they suggested some pH Up. So I've used that a few times along with the ammonia lock. Should I stop using the chemicals? My tap water: Ph: 7,KH: 40,GH: 30 Aquarium water today: Ph: 6, KH: 0, GH: 0

Let me start off by saying that I was told by a pet store employee that I just needed to run my filter for 24 hours and then I could add fish. And we were originally going to get an aquatic turtle which is why I started out the hobby with a 75 gallon tank with a fluval fx4. But the turtle didn't work out. So we went out and bought some neon tetras, tiger barbs, mystery snails, and Molly's. I did 2 water changes in the first month but I did not have a ciphen. I got a ciphen 2 weeks ago and I did a water change last weekend and this weekend. I recently removed a fake hollow tree because the paint was coming off. I can not seem to get the ammonia levels to drop. I've never see the nitite or nitrate levels go up. I've added beneficial bacteria a few weeks in a row. Also we went on a 4 day vacation and when i came back there was algae everywhere. I assume this is because the lights were left on the whole time. So i did clean the fake plants off. Today the pH was down to 6.0 and the ammonia was at a .5 . I'm at a loss of what to do to get my tank to cycle. I don't think the tank is over stocked. Any help or advice would be appreciated.