Tony s

What is your secret? I struggle to get moss started. Of course mine comes in a betta cup at petsmart. But I have a couple of tanks I’d like to carpet with.

@DBrown918 if you want to know how ingrained the no chlorine thing is. Everything I see or hear tells me watch out for the chlorine. So I do. Constantly…. There is nobody putting chlorine in my water. We live in the country…. On a well…. It’s an impossibility of me having chlorine…. And yet I have to keep reminding myself “Hey you dingo, you don’t have chlorine “🤣🤣🤣 I think we’ve driven that point very well into all keepers. Which is helpful to most people.

This is it exactly. I think I came to this sometime yesterday. He did the typical new keeper thing and panicked about something. And changed his cartridge out a couple weeks after it finished the first cycle. Sometime towards the end of February. Yes, we’ve been doing this that long. So it was a new tank, with a new cycle. I think a fresh bottle of bacteria would help enormously. And patience. He’s been diligent on keeping his fish healthy for so long. Hopefully we can get this solved. I know right! I always heard that and always followed it. Doing it in tank water, but oh so much easier in tap. But possibly not for a new tank. Ranks right up there with using a mister clean magic eraser to clean algae inside the tank. Who knew🤣

Actually, that’s a myth. It can take the chlorine in tap water up to an hour to kill bacteria. A quick rinse in tap is often the easiest way to rinse filters out. Running water makes a ton of difference. Jason Adams, who’s a microbiology professor near Chicago and host of Primetime aquatics has done a video explaining this. I especially find it makes cleaning canister sponges sooo much easier. Yes, you will lose a small amount of bacteria, but not enough to damage a cycle

And that’s what I’m trying so hard to prevent. And he’s trying so hard, possibly too hard. I know he did have it cycled and like any new keeper he may have over reacted. Possibly changing out the cartridge sooner than necessary. Most of my tanks run on cartridges, but I just rinse them out. I probably go through 2 or 3 a year. Never had any issues with cycle failure from cartridges. Yeah, at some point we’re just going to have to assume it’s a dead cycle. Won’t actually be much extra work for him, he’s already doing the water changes. That’s one of the reasons I’d like to see a nitrate test in the morning. Although maybe we should just assume at this point and start over. I really would hate to see him give up after all of this.

Sorry for your loss. Losing fish like those hits at a whole different level than nano fish. I’ve been thinking about responding for a bit now. Shocking wells is just so imprecise. When we were fostering kids, we often had to shock our well just to pass specs. I remember the first time I tried. I used about a whole jug. My wife woke me up screaming in our shower the next morning. Smelled worse than a badly chlorinated pool. The water stayed running in our garden for 24 hours straight after that. I don’t really think there was much more you could have done. Everything you did I probably would have done the same. The only thing I can think of is did you use a regular bleach or a splashless one. Splashless leaves a residue behind. Which I didn’t realize until reading the forums. And it didn’t matter for kids. But it might for fish

Yeah. I’d follow the directions on the label exactly. I have only used maracyn2. So couldn’t tell you exactly what that is. But when the treatment course is done. Allow a bit of time for recovery

I generally start at about 120% of aqadvisor, just because I know they're conservative. And my tanks have plants. None of them are gardens, but I throw hornwort just about everywhere. Angelfish are as big as I get, although I would like to try some of the bigger cichlids, either African or SA. In which case I'd stick to around 90% until I got the feel for them. and they're total plant eaters. I saw someone describe them today as "Lawn mowers with fins", which I find completely hysterical.

I think a bit of patience (yes, I know it's hard to be patient having a sick animal.). the kanaplex is working, but some damage was probably done already. So it's just showing up now. At the very least, I'd give it a couple or three weeks to work and let him recover. or if it doesn't work, give his body a chance to clear the meds

as far as I remember, yes, you had a good cycle at one point. and usually a cycle just doesn't disappear. but, it's not impossible either. I guess we'll see when you do that nitrate test. You do enough water changes it should be low, but if it comes back negative, then it's a failed cycle. which is okay, you could just do a fish in cycle without a whole lot of extra work. you've been watching and doing water changes anyway. You know, maybe it's best if we think of as having failed anyway. See if you can find some Fritz7 and redose the tank with it. I would still like to see what the coop strips say though On that bottle of Fritz7 that froze on me, it took me forever to figure it out. when I went to use it it was already thawed out. so no traces

Ha! i know the feeling. I'm baffled by what's going on. It may very well by the test kit. but I use the same one, so..... But, really we appreciate you're taking the time and going over the issue. Fresh set of eyes and all that. I'm to the point I can't possibly imagine the cause.

rotting plant equal ammonia. Correct. But the bacteria should be strong enough to handle a tiny bit of dead plant roots. as for the super glue, it become inert the moment it hardens. that's what makes it great for aquariums. could you run a fresh set of nitrate tests for me. remembering to shake the containers and the test tube really hard for a minute before using or reading. and maybe a picture of the bacteria, the dr Tim's and see if it has an expiration date on it

For the most part that might be accurate. But the one that I use to cycle my tanks was not even tested against and article was at least 5 years old at this point. I find I'm very much a fan of Fitzzyme 7 and Fritz products to cycle tanks. The only time I've had an issue with it is when it was shipped in January and froze in transit. And absolutely thank you for your input, He's been trying to cycle this one since February? At this point we're ready to beat our heads against a wall somewhere. A new viewpoint is very welcome. Besides the coop test strips, one of my next suggestions was going to be a small bottle of Fritz7 to make sure we've good a good source of bacteria. seems like we've tried everything else.

Ph 7.6 is completely normal for the majority of the country, about half has ph even higher than that and the cycles are fine and stable. mine usually hovers around 8. so ph is not the issue. Yeah, I know. I desperately want that for you as well. We'll get you there

Honestly, i think i would. just to have a backup number and double check. Maybe a small container of the coop ammonia strips

Quite correct, still a significant addition of weight. but if true that the tanks are designed to hold 3x the weight of water, it should be good. I worry more about the weight finding a hotspot. where the rock has a tiny protrusion and all of the weight gets concentrated into a point. Mostly I've seen rocks placed directly on glass, but if it makes a person more comfortable, I think It's just a matter of choice.

That mostly looks acceptable. Less would be better. I'm still stumped as to why you're having to fight with it at all. It's like something is inhibiting your bacterial growth. 5 wcmm's shouldn't even produce a lot of waste. With all the water changes you do you should be at zero. I honestly don't think it's a problem with your filter cartridges. bb should be alive on every surface of your tank not just there. It's like you're continuously doing a fish in cycle. All of your decor and substrate are aquarium safe, so that's not it either. You have some healthy plants so your ammonia and nitrite levels should be being reduced. Your tap is fine as far as we know. and yet here we are. Do you have any info on where your water comes from before the tap. Could it be passing through a water conditioner somewhere? not necessarily a water softener more of a water sanitizer. I'm not saying you have anything like that. But when I did in my system. Installed by us to kill bacteria in the well. and it also killed the cycle on a regular basis. just throwing ideas out at this point

I found this fascinating, so I looked it up. a cubic foot of water weighs roughly 62 lbs. a cubic foot of rock weighs anywhere from 146 lbs to 186 lbs. I know the tanks are overbuilt to withstand extra pressure. but depending on the size of the rock stand, that's a lot of extra pressure. not to mention any hotspots from the rock edges.

From this discussion. Always issues By Cjbear087, 5 hours ago in General Discussion

You can try it, but honestly I’m not a fan of using meds at less than full doses. Doing that leads to antibiotic resistance. I much prefer to use meds at full doses and that eliminates the pathogen the right way. In my industry resistance is becoming a very serious issue, and the discovery rate of new drugs is not keeping up. I believe the same thing is happening in the aquarium industry as well. I do know the erythromycin in maracyn and petsmarts brand of erythromycin is no longer as effective as it should be. and always use your carbon to remove meds before dumping the water.

I thought you said that, but wanted to double check. I haven't had any luck getting guppies from there to stay alive. but I was reading a reply that @Cory gave to someone, and he mentioned his guppies. How he treats his batches of guppies with ich-x and maracyn to clear any issues. Presumably on getting each new batch. I haven't tried that but it does sound promising . Maybe it would work on Petsmart guppies as well. Or maybe not, but worth the attempt

Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about. If you can see changes, it might go fast. I don’t remember if I asked you this before, but where did you get him from?

Yeah, did you notice they had about an hour shutdown yesterday. I believe they fixed the system so it doesn't work that way anymore 🤣

clamped fins are usually a physical reaction to something. usually bad water quality, which you don't have. or a physical ailment. possibly a parasite? does he look like he's trying to get a breath of air at the surface? and his new tankmates, are they showing any sign of distress? And, yeah, the post about the bad cuttlebone was the one I was talking about. it may be that they have changed the manufacturing process for it. so what once worked great, doesn't work anymore. If you can get a small amount of crushed coral in a mesh bag, you can still put it in your hob to dissolve. for any parasites or possible other issues we need to ask the expert @Colu

I think I might just fill the tank and see if it dissolves on it's own. This would do 2 things. 1- it would dissolve the salt hopefully or at least soften it. 2- it would perform a leak check on the tank. Especially important for a used tank. as for disinfecting it. if it's been dried out for a while there is really no need. not much of anything is going to survive being dried out. or you could rinse it in a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution and dry it out again