Schwack

That is quite a bit of light! Try dropping down to 6-8 hours for a few weeks. I'm willing to bet that'll knock the algae way back.

I'd agree with @Jungle Fanin that I'd continue to dose with Prime during water changes in case your water supplier varies treatment by season. As far as keeping a betta and some snails, your water should be fine. Betta's are hardy little fish and generally able to adapt to a wide range of conditions. You could add something like crushed coral to your substrate if you want to bump your pH/KH a bit higher. Realistically, as long as your tank is cycled when you add fish you'll be in good shape. Snails are pretty straight forward. Be aware that nerite snails won't breed in your tank, but may leave small white dots all over the place. Mystery snails can breed in freshwater and will also need food beyond the algae they can scrape from surfaces in the tank. Bladder snails are great because they don't need anything AND they clean the tank top to bottom. Also, they're typically free!

I've had good luck with amano shrimp keeping hair algae under control, but I think the easiest way to control it is to change the photoperiod in your tank. Cut light by an hour or so and see if the algae responds. So far, this method has yet to fail me. Typically, I've been able to return my lights to 8 hours/day after the algae dies back and the plants in the tank grow enough to out compete for nutrients. You can also try something like Easy Carbon from the Coop. When my last 10 gallon was going through its awkward post-cycle shuffle I had a large hair algae bloom and no critters to consume it (outside a few bladder snails.) A few days of Easy Carbon knocked it way back to the point I could just pull it out by hand. It did cause a small ammonia spike, however, but that's more my fault than anything.

Yeah, I saw that earlier. That's why I'm suggesting even less tank water:tap water. If ammonia is really that far off the charts, a few drops in a vial of tap should give you a more useful reading.

Briefly poking around the internet and other folks have had similar results. Had you been dosing Prime regularly for some reason? Have you tried heavily diluting some tank water in your tap water? Like, 4-5 drops to 4.5mL to see if you can get a more "normal" color? I was inclined to believe there was a problem with the test, but seeing other people report the same color with sky-high ammonia readings makes me lean toward this being an accurate result.

Something like this makes the most sense. Some kind of contaminant in the tubes/caps? I just mixed up two tubes of ludicrously concentrated ammonia water (1/32 tbs in 5mL. This amount brought my 20 gallon up to 2ppm.) Trying the ammonia test was super underwhelming. It... doesn't react at all. The water gets a bit cloudy/yellowed but I was expecting a deep green. I'm guessing the concentration is just too high for the kit to provide any result. I even tested some tank water with 0 ammonia just to be sure my reagents were still good. Think you could post a picture of the result? I'm really curious how this could come about.

Having the ammonia kit turn blue is... Strange. I've seen ludicrously high levels of ammonia result in deep green while fooling with NHCL, but never anything close to blue. In your case, I'd probably pick up another ammonia kit and see what results it spits out. With no symptoms from your fish at 8+ ppm ammonia, I'd bank on something being up with your kit OR method. To be clear, you're using the API liquid test kit, yeah? Not somehow mixing up the nitrite bottle with one of the ammonia bottles?

I typically give any lighting changes ~2-4 weeks before tinkering again. Gives time for everything to settle. If I can see algae starting to die back, I'll wait a bit longer and reassess. I don't know if there's a hard and fast amount of time. Nature moves slowly, from our perspective, so I tend to err on the longer side of things whenever I make changes to my tanks.

I think Select Aquatics has modified their dosing instructions, but not updated the web page. The instructions I received from them ~3 months ago were: 25% water change, dose, wait 24 hours. 25% water change, dose, allow medication to be removed through normal water changes. He does mention occasionally doing a second treatment after 2-3 weeks to ensure everything is dead, but says that is rare. Are you using Fritz Expel P or a goat dewormer to dose? edit: Ooh, looks like they did update their dosing instructions. Best of luck with the treatment.

As an FYI, if you're struggling to find ParaCleanse, API General Cure is nearly the same. Looking at the SDS for each, it looks like there's more salt in each API packet. They're both dosing metronidazole and praziquantel at 250 mg/packet and 75 mg/packet. Possible substitution if you're struggling to find Fritz products and suspect you might be dealing with parasites. In my area, Fritz products are very difficult to come by, while API stuff is in every big box Pet* store.

I've gotten a similar algae when cycling in the past. I was able to clean it up by dramatically reducing the photo period in the tank. Typically I'd drop down to 5 hours or so of light until the algae cleared up. The last time I started a brand new tank, I dosed with easy carbon early on and that took care of it. Be aware that killing a bunch of algae at once might result in a bit of an ammonia spike unless you suck all the dead organics out of the tank. If you don't care about the tank being temporarily icky, I'd play with the lighting a bit and let your tank find its balance. Some shrimp or snails will take care of any detritus that crops up during the cycle.

Shrimp are the only critters I drip acclimate. Mostly because they seem to have the most issues within the first 24-72 hours. It seems like if I buy 15 shrimp, I'll lose 2-4 in the first couple days. Shrimp I've bred just get moved about between tanks without any real acclimation since the water parameters are fairly consistent across all my tanks. For fish, I typically float 'em for 30 minutes while mixing a turkey baster or two of tank water into the bag. Since I only purchase fish locally I'm not super concerned about the water quality going south, but I can see the logic behind getting shipped fish out ASAP. I'm sure my method is unnecessary, but it makes me feel like I'm doing something.

Every bottle of Seachem Prime I've ever used has had an eggy smell to it. I'm guessing the API conditioner is functionally the same. It sounds like it's a luck of the draw sort of thing, combined with exposure to air in the bottle. I found a discussion from a few years back where someone actually contacted Seachem about the smell. Unless they're using an extremely old bottle, I'd put money on it being a particularly smelly batch.

I haven't found a video on the process, but it's pretty simple. Just give their bellies a bit of a squeeze. If something comes out that isn't poop, it's a good bet that you've got parasites in the tank.

Water conditioner, at least Seachem Prime, dechlorinates using sodium thiosulphate. Sulphur smells like farts/rotten eggs. It's totally normal. If I were in your shoes, I'd drop the weekly water changes. It sounds like you've already got fish in the tank, so you may want to dose the tank with something to temporarily ionize the ammonia/nitrite, like Seachem Prime/API equivalent. I'd reduce their feedings dramatically and let it ride for a few weeks. Assuming all the necessary ingredients are present, tanks want to cycle. You've got the ammonia to kick the whole thing off, your best bet might be getting out of nature's way for a while. Maybe see if you can pick up another handful of cycled media or grab some plants from the coop/your LFS and keep the rockwool on em for a while. Do you know if your water is treated with chlorine or chloramine? You might want to pick up a 2mL syringe to use exclusively for dosing your water conditioner. You'd be able to get much more precise with it, although in your shoes I'd be more concerned about under-treating than over.

Thanks for the update, sorry to hear you lost a few more fish. I know from firsthand experience how frustrating it can be to have something wipe out huge swathes of your tank. Any chance you were able to check the dead fish for worms? I lost most of my school of rainbowfish to parasites and a quick squeeze is really all it takes to see the worms. CPD size might make the procedure a bit more difficult. I think General Cure recommends a second dose 48 hours after the first. That might be worthwhile, but I imagine it would be more effective to dose 5-7 days after the first to ensure you eradicate any eggs which may have been unaffected by the first dose. This is just a gut feeling, however, and you may want to perform your own research. I found this post on a salt water forum while typing this up. Might be useful for your case. edit: I saw someone mention that prazi/metro will only hang around in the water column for 72 hours or so. I'd still probably run carbon for a few days once you've complete the treatment course. Wait 1-2 weeks and then begin the process of re-stocking.

If you're familiar with Foo the Flowerhorn on YouTube, I think they've designed lids exactly like this! Not for sale, of course, but it looked very simple assuming you've got a few tools. I think at one point they were growing strawberries out of the top of the tank. The effect can be really beautiful.

1. I wouldn't do a water change. Let the tank naturally process the ammonia. I think you'll be better off in the long run letting things run their course. 2. I've had a nerite survive in 2ppm ammonia without any issue. I wouldn't intentionally add nerites because they aren't free, but if you did I'm guessing they'd get through OK. 3. My experience is you get an explosion of snails and then a slow population reduction back to an equilibrium. I wouldn't go nuts plucking them out, but some people are really anti snail. Bladder snails do a great job breaking down organics, like the stuff you've probably got in your gravel. They'll turn that into nice, fine snail poop for your filter to eventually suck out of the water.

It appears to be the same medications in the same amounts. I can't imagine you'd have any trouble interchanging the two. I'd just keep the paracleanse sealed up and go through the General Cure, but someone who knows more about fish meds might have a reason to switch. Don't be surprised if you lose some fish after deworming. If indeed they are infected with parasites, some may pass from internal damage done by the parasites.

Based on a quick search, metro and prazi appear to be safe for inverts.

I don't think I'd euthanize any fish at this point, there's always a chance they could recover. You might be able to get some dewormer ASAP from a big box store. Paracleanse is a combo of metronidazole and praziquantel which is also in API General Cure, something you can typically get at big pet stores.

Based on the experiences of other people keeping them, I can't imagine it being a problem if they're hovering around 68F. Any chance you checked the two that died for parasites? It's not a particularly fun task, but I wish I had done it when I ran up against mystery deaths. I don't see any obvious mistakes you've made. The only thing to consider is that they had some kind of infection/parasite when you purchased them and it's only after 2 months of progression that you're seeing the results. It may be worth your while to treat with Paracleanse/Maracyn/salt, but without more symptoms it's gonna be tough to nail down exactly what's going on. Any chance of a contaminant, like hand sanitizer, getting in the water?

I'm not sure I'd worry about chasing pH too much. I'm keeping, and breeding, CPDs in 8.0 to 8.2 pH water without issue. It is almost certainly worth your while to ID what is causing the pH swing once the water goes in the tank. How confident are you in the pH reading? Are you using a liquid test kit? Chasing pH is going to be a constant battle AND there's a risk to the rest of the tank not adapting well to the shift. You might try pulling some water out of the tap and letting it sit for a few days. That'd give it a chance to off-gas and might shed some light on the pH swings. Other Questions: Have you measured your water temperature directly? What are you feeding the CPDs? Were they quarantined and treated for parasites and bacterial/fungal infections? Are they the most recent fish added to the tank?

If I remember your last post, this is totally in line with what I would expect from a tank starting to cycle. Ammonia is increasing as more food rots/snails poop/organics decay in the water and the bacteria which consume ammonia are trying to keep up. Nitrites are on the rise as a result which ultimately bumps nitrates up. Definitely a case of overthinking. Stop checking daily! It'll just drive you nuts. Check ammonia every other day. Once it starts plummeting (.25-.5ppm) take a nitrite reading. Once nitrites are toward zero, then I'd bother testing for nitrate. Save water changes for right before you add fish. Snails, especially bladder snails, are hardy little buggers. The hitchhikers in my tank survived ammonia spiking to over 4ppm as I figured out how to dose the stuff at a reasonable level. Changing the water isn't going to hurt your cycle, but it can make it harder to see changes. Nature is often slow, but it'll get there.

You're unlikely to see any gain just getting water. Like you said, that's just not getting much of the bacteria you need. Based on your levels, you've probably got a bit more waiting to do. The last tank I cycled from nothing took ~10 days to get to 0 nh3/no2 from about the same point. Be patient, I'd check every other day, if that, for the next week. If you've got snails or fishfood in the tank, it's unlikely you'll run out of sources of ammonia. Just waiting on your bacteria colonies to grow out. Filter squeezings are a whole 'nother story! If you can get your hands on some gross, brown filter squeezings go for it. edit: I attached a picture of my tank's progress. It's slow. I was using ammonium chloride instead of fish food but the principles are all the same.