Schwack

I'd slow down the water changes and ditch using Ammo Lock and the pH adjusting chems. If you're concerned about your fish being exposed to ammonia as it rises in the tank, a dose of Seachem Prime/API Equivalent will bind with NH3 and give you 48 hours of NH4, which is significantly less toxic for fish. I would also stop gravel vaccing during the water changes you are performing. As far as the pH Down goes, why are you bothering? Bettas are hardy and thrive in a wide pH range. Keep things stable and they're happy. All of mine have been in 8.0-8.2 pH water without issue. If you're really concerned you could pull the water 24 hours in advance and let it settle and off-gas to see how that affects the pH. I'm not an HVAC expert, or a biologist, but I suppose the air scrubber could be slowing things down. I figure a trace amount of bacteria might come with livestock, but bettas probably don't come from cycled water. Can you go to a fish store and get some filter squeezings or a mesh bag of gravel? I put very little faith in bottled bacteria. Give me some squeezings from a nasty, brown sponge any day. Do you have any live plants in the tanks? To summarize, here's how I'd try to get things moving. 1. Get your hands on some sponge squeezings or cycled substrate. I'm not sure if big box pet stores are cool with this or not, it might depend on the person manning the aquariums. If you manage to get some filtered material you'll be able to say with absolute certainty that you have live bacteria in your tanks. 1a. Cut out the pH Down (optional, I suppose, but tinkering with pH for every water change is... less than ideal) 2. Feed every second, or third, day and feed sparingly. Being hungry is a normal part of life as a fish. A hungry fish is a happy fish. 3. Keep an eye on ammonia. As things start to approach 1ppm, dose with something like Prime to convert the ammonia to ammonium. 4. Water change some amount less than 50% every 5-7 days or as ammonia starts to crest the 3-4ppm mark. I saw you mentioned hitting 8ppm in two days, which would get me dialing my feeding way back. Either something is rotting in the tank, or the fish is generating a boat load of waste. Don't gravel vac during these. If you're feeding lightly there shouldn't be any food to to remove. Leave all the gunk on the bottom for a while. Hopefully something in that wall of text is helpful!

Look an awful lot like detritus worms, but without a microscope it's tough to say. Regardless, they're a normal part of many aquariums and as @RockMongler said, they're free fish food. They don't look like the typical planarians, which many people will treat to remove. No eye spots or arrow shaped head. If you find them unsightly, you can probably reduce their numbers by reducing the amount of food you add to the tank.

More likely the bio load from the snails is so tiny that any no2/no3 generated from their waste is quickly absorbed by the plants in the tank. You're probably good to add a fish or two, but I'd test every second day and feed lightly for a week to let things catch up to the stark increase in bio load.

Planaria have a very distinctive head shape with readily visible eyespots. Compare some pictures from Google to your pictures and the difference will be immediately obvious.

The good news is that if you ran a course of Ich-X, you ran them through a formalin treatment! I'm with you that copper sulfate is probably the last readily available treatment to try. Fortunately you've already got them in a QT tank so you don't need to worry about harming any inverts. It sounds like the KMnO4 treatment is typically used in ponds, but is available if you're looking for a hail mary. Good luck, I hope you're able to find a treatment that works.

I've had lots of luck with Nicrew lights from Amazon. Their SkyLED+ compares favorably to a Stingray in terms of design (and anecdotally, light output.) I've also got a Finnex Stingray on a 10 gallon, and it does very well. My understanding is that Finnex, and the Coop if you buy through them, is much more likely to stand behind their product than Amazon/Nicrew. For that reason, I keep lids on all my tanks to avoid splashing/drops into the tank.

I don't have much experience dealing with protozoa, so forgive me if my suggestions are things you've already tried. I couldn't find any information on using levamisole to treat protozoa infestations. My understanding was that it was only effective on roundworms and some nodular worms, but I'd be interested to learn other potential uses. Looking through your post history, seems like you've tried the easy stuff in IchX, salt and Paracleanse. http://fisheries.tamu.edu/files/2013/09/Introduction-to-Freshwater-Fish-Parasites.pdf I found this document which has some recommendations for treating protozoa. Copper sulfate seems readily available online. It might be tricky to dose, but they suggest it's effective in treating protozoa. Copper sulfate is found in Fritz CopperSafe. They also recommend potassium permanganate for use in ponds. I was able to find pond medication so I'm assuming it can be used in aquaria but this is way outside my realm of experience. https://www.pvas.com/post/aquarium-use-of-potassium-permanganate Might be a good source of more information if you choose to go this route. They also recommend treatment with formalin, but since you've already run a course of IchX I'm guessing we can cross that one off the list. Edit to add: Make sure to research any new treatments before dosing. I just did a bit of cursory googling and am by no means an expert.

Based on the SDS for Neutral Regulator, I can't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to combine the two. However, I'm wondering why you're ending up with so many water changes. The dosing from Select Aquatics only calls for two per course of treatment. The LD for levamisole is quite high, for fish, but putting ~100mg a day into the tank adds up quickly. What is the actual pH swing you're seeing? I'd err on the side of not fiddling with pH. If your changes are happening gradually, the fish are likely to adapt fairly well.

If it were me, I'd leave your fish at home. Moving a fish tank, even a 10 gallon, can be a huge PITA. Doing it once is bad enough, needing to do it twice a year? Yuck. I'd also be concerned about how things will go over spring break, winter break etc. At least at home you've got folks consistently around to feed and what not. I've seen people move huge tanks, and large numbers of fish, but it never looks like a lot of fun. I'm not sure if 12 hours in a bucket would necessitate an air stone/heater in there with em, but I'd probably err on the side of caution and try to keep his parameters stable. As I understand it, get em in a bucket to give them some water volume and then do your best to avoid sloshing things around too much. Tank and equipment should be fairly easy to move. If you slide a piece of plywood under the tank you could probably keep some water in there to keep the substrate/plants moist for the trip to keep bacteria alive.

I'm surprised you're seeing any pH dip with levamisole. I've dosed it in 4-5 tanks now without seeing any movement in pH, only ammonia spikes from die offs. Are you sure it's the levamisole causing the change? A quick bit of Googling doesn't readily turn up any other folks experiencing a pH dip while dosing, but there's a first time for everything.

Hydra won't bother anything except baby fish/shrimp. They're a snack for some fish too. If I had to guess, you're looking at detritus worms crawling about on the glass. They're a normal part of every tank I've seen and also provide occasional fish food. However, if you see worms that have clearly arrow-shaped heads, you might be dealing with planaria. There are plenty of pictures online to compare against your worms. They stand out from detritus worms very clearly.

If you aren't enjoying them, I'm guessing you'll have no trouble rehoming them. I bought a school of emerald corys for my community tank and... just didn't like them. They weren't a fish I enjoyed keeping. I put out a rehoming message to my local aquarium group and had them in a new 65 gallon filled with corys within 2 hours. I don't think it makes someone a bad aquarist to "give up" on a particular fish, especially when you're feeling like you aren't giving them the best possible care. For me, fish keeping is most enjoyable when it's relaxing. That is, when I'm not stressed about all the things I'm doing wrong and can just sit back and enjoy the fish. Having said that, I agree with @Fish Folk that you might find enjoyment in solving the problem and creating that best possible home. Journey rather than destination sort of thing.

This is very similar to the stand design I've seen, and copied, from the King of DIY's YouTube channel. I opted to use stacked 2x4's in the corners since it's only holding a 40 gallon, but massive tanks obviously need more strength. He has several videos on his channel, including a build for, if I recall correctly, and 800 gallon tank stand. Skinning the stand is obviously optional, but looks a whole lot better. After building one tank stand, I'm just going to purchase them in the future. I certainly didn't save any money going the DIY route, but at least I know it's built like a damn tank. As far as building an aquarium goes, that sounds trickier. Sourcing glass at the thickness needed for 150 gallons seems like it would be the biggest challenge. Building bracing and assembling the stand wouldn't be exceptionally difficult, especially if you've got a friend who can weld. Are you looking into custom building to fit a specific space in your house?

Do you think it'll be closer to two weeks or two months away? If it's only a few weeks, and you have a trusted friend or neighbor, you could probably leave them detailed feeding instructions to get through. I wouldn't ask non-fishkeepers to do any water changes, but a lightly stocked 15 gallon can go a while without strictly needing a water change. For the shrimp, you could try some banquet blocks in order to get minerals into their diet. Longer than a couple of weeks and I might make inquiries within some local fishkeeping groups to see if anyone would foster the animals/tank for you. It's certainly not ideal, but I can't think of a ton of better alternatives.

You might want to check the manual that came with it. Some heaters will only push the water temp to room temp + 10F. If I recall, the Fluval E and M series share this feature. I'm assuming this is to prevent creating a massive power draw or cooking fish due to careless use.

I can say with 99% certainty that water conditioners won't have an impact on levamisole. Fritz Complete looks like a sodium sulfate based conditioner, similar to Prime's suspected composition. I'm certain, considering the number of people combining water conditioners and levamisole we'd see more reports of the medication interacting with the conditioner. Best way to remove the levamisole from your tank is probably to throw some carbon in your filter or just do weekly water changes and slowly but surely reduce the concentration.

The Select Aquatics options start at 10mg Levamisole + measuring spoon and case. It's the best value if you can't get your hands on goat dewormer directly.

If you're certain it's camallanus, fenben and prazi aren't gonna do the trick. You'll need Levamisole for sure. It's available in fish stores as Fritz Expel-P or from Greg Sage at Select Aquatics. You can also check your local Tractor Supply Co/Farm Store for PROHIBIT. PROHIBIT is a goat dewormer, but it's the same stuff. Dosing is a bit trickier, but unless you've got inverts to worry about it's tough to OD levamisole with fish. Which you go for really depends on how urgently you need it. If things are dire, tracking down some Expel-P might be possible if you call local fish stores in your area. Only one of the 3 fish stores with ~50 miles from me carries it. Goat dewormer was a dead end for me, but I'm in a fairly urban area. if you're in a more rural spot, you might find some that way. Best bet, if you can wait a few days, is to order from Select Aquatics. They ship quickly and theirs comes with a measuring spoon and case. http://www.selectaquatics.com/Levamisole.htm That's where I'd start. Best of luck beating these things, they're easily the nastiest critters I've come across in my aquarium. They managed to waste all my rainbowfish away over the course of 3 months and I'm still a bit gun shy about restocking. Follow the instructions from Select Aquatics and you'll be fine, but be prepared for potential fish losses after medicating. Some fish, particularly small fish, will have too much internal damage to survive the worms detaching. It's also a good chance to thoroughly clean your substrate between doses.

Easiest way I've found to get rid of hydra is to stop feeding tiny foods, particularly baby brine shrimp. I had a bit of a hydra explosion in the 6 gallon tank I was using for growing out CPD fry and once I cut off their daily brine shrimp feedings, the hydra naturally resolved. They shouldn't cause you many problems if you don't have itty bitty creatures you want to keep alive (fry, baby shrimp.) They don't seem to bother baby snails.

Boy, you aren't kidding about this. I bought a box filter online because I wanted to tinker with them. I was gifted one from the 70's, which still works, and was sort of intrigued by the idea. The modern version is... cheap. It really makes me appreciate the Coop's sponge filters, which obviously had some thought put into their design outside, "make it as cheaply as possible." Getting the stupid thing just to sit on the bottom was a chore, in spite of loading it with substrate and plant weights. I like their performance, especially when it comes to filtering the finest particles, but their build quality is so poor that I don't see myself buying another. Even mating an Aquarium Coop sponge filter base to a cheap box filter would make a difference to me. Aquarium Coop box filter when?

Not the same, but close enough to be helpful! By all accounts they're relatively peaceful fish. You and @CorydorasEthan are confirming my research. I didn't want to end up in a position where I wanted something to work so badly that I started ignoring potential warning signs. I was hoping to get the gourami as juveniles as well, in order to let them grow with the CPD in the tank. I was hoping that might cut down on any aggressive behavior.

Hopefully this is an easy question for people who've kept pearl gourami in the past. Long story short, I started building a tank stand for a 29 gallon. Realized as I was getting started that I'd only need to stretch things a tiny bit to fit a 40 breeder. Petco has 'em on sale at the moment, so voila, I'm down a 29 gallon and trying to stock this 40 breeder. I'm a big fan of pearl gourami and was hoping to keep 3-4 as the "centerpiece" fish of the tank. My plan was 1 male and 2-3 females to keep breeding/territorial aggression to a minimum. After picking the largest fish, I went through a bunch of smaller species to help fill the tank out and then it hit me: I've got 40+ celestial pearl danio that are basically ready to sell! If I put them all into this large tank, I could run a giant school of ~50 CPD alongside the larger pearl gourami. Water parameter wise, they seem like a good fit. I'm just a bit nervous about putting such a large fish in with such little guys. I've seen folks recommend neon tetras with them, which makes me think they could coexist without too much trouble. Any more experienced fish keepers, especially those who've kept pearl gourami, able to weigh in on this stocking? Is my all pearl all the time tank idea doomed from the start?

You'll likely benefit from doing a bit of reading on the nitrogen cycle (https://fishlab.com/fish-in-cycle/). Your tank wasn't ready for fish, but fish-in cycle isn't the end of the world. You can dose the tank with something like Seachem Prime which converts ammonia to ammonium, a much less harmful chemical, for 24 hours or so, but you'll be doing that for several weeks. Long story short, it takes quite a while for beneficial bacteria to grow in your tank to convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. You then remove nitrate through water changes or plant uptake. In your position, I'd dial back to feeding lightly once every other day. Make sure you're not overfeeding during this time. Your fish should be able to eat everything you give him. If you're feeding betta pellets it's easy to make sure he eats everything you put in the tank. Keep an eye on your water parameters and consider a water change when ammonia starts to creep into the 1ppm range or nitrite hits .5ppm. Both of these can be harmful to fish, but bettas are pretty tough. You'll be doing this for... a while, probably 3-4 weeks. You're not the first person to end up in this spot, and it's not a difficult problem to solve, but it is kind of a pain. Just keep an eye on your parameters, and your fish's behavior, do water changes when necessary and wait for ammonia/nitrite to consistently read 0. Once they're both 0'd out each day, you'll be able to sit back and let your tank do most of the work. Water changes from then on can be scheduled around keeping nitrates in a reasonable range. Good luck!

I'm stumped. If it were me, I'd go grab another test kit to test against. If your ammonia was really that far through the roof, you think you'd start seeing signs in your fish at some point.

12 hours seems like an exceptionally long photoperiod to me, especially considering how crazy bright lights are these days. IMO the ideal amount of light varies by tank. It's about finding a balance between light and fertilizer to minimize growth of undesirable plants/plant-like organisms while maximizing growth in others + providing viewing time. For me, around 8 hours has been ideal. I've just purchased my first CO2 regulator, so I'm curious to see how the addition of CO2 will change things. Keep in mind, that plants can make use of blue/green/red light, so a colored light bar is still light as far as they're concerned. I've also read that algae tends to thrive on red light, so that may make the problem worse!