BAT

Ok. I moved him. Just easier to not stress and keep him in cleaner water to try and prevent him getting sick. I put salt in the QT. will let u know how it goes!

Ok. I will move him to QT. no other dead snails. I suppose there could b dead pest snails somewhere in the gravel. I will look for leaves but haven’t seen any. should I do a deep gravel clean or will that disturb bacteria?

Ok now I had a small ammonia bump 0.5 yesterday and today; managing it and we are moving through nitrite bump tonight (0 ammonia) and slightly raised nitrate 20. I continue to use low dose salt (2 tablespoons for 10 gallons) and water change and bacteria and stress guard. but I noticed that my betta is having some blackening of dorsal fin and some ratting of fins underneath. See pics. Can’t see underneath well. But top fin more concerning. He had a little flair fin coming off his top fin bc of past scarring but that fell off. I am trying to decide if I should move him to quarantine tank and treat w meds or leave him in here while I ride it out. thoughts? Eating normal. A little more agitated than normal. But not a lot.

The AC blog suggests using crushed coral to raise pH. Any tips on how to use? Or just follow blog instructions of 1 lb for 10 gallons in a bag.

Thank you all! I have a high GH. The guy at the LFS said if the pH is low they can’t absorb the minerals? Not sure how that works

Hi All, I went to my LFS to replace my dead snails and I was told that snails do not do well in low pH water - and that this may have contributed to their death. is this true? I have a betta and a resurgence of algae, so I would like to replace my snails. but I dont want to run a Kevorkian snail death camp. thanks beth

Hi All- here is the update… things have improved, somewhat. Now takes 1-2 days to get to nitrites of 1. I had a few days of no nitrites then a spike. Ammonia 0 nitrates 10 fins starting to look a little ragged but he is eating fine. i did some light gravel vacuuming and found some buried roots from some dying plants I had removed. Hopefully it will stop the blipping. Keeping up w salt and fritz complete. Adding stress guard just in case it’s helpful. feel free to add any comments you wish. Thanks for guiding me so far!

I have had to do back to back water to almost completely replace water to get nitrite to zero. I have been doing limited gravel vac to try not to disturb any bacteria in gravel. I have added back salt I removed proportionately.

I agree @sweetpoison all you nerms are awesome! Thank you! I woke up and the levels were high again. I removed any dead plant debris and did another 70% water change. I added 2 tbsp of salt and the fritz water conditioner. should I use prime instead of fritz complete? Or are they doing the same thing? also. I have to go to work and back in 8 hrs. Will he be ok until the w the salt and the conditioner even if levels rise? he looks ok. Not gasping. Color good. Hanging out in bottom in his usual spots and eating well.

Just checked. All 0 and nitrate 10 ill check in morning

Ammonia 0 but nitrite and nitrate still high (bright purple- looks like above 5 w master kit; and red for nitrite) doing another big water change now and will continue to add conditioner. anything else? Check again in morning? I guess it’s encouraging the ammonia went down.

Ok. Just changed. Will check in a bit

@xXInkedPhoenixX@JettsPapa I did the water change this morning. is it OK to do another water change this afternoon?

yes - I tested a strip after water change and circulation. looks to be Nitrite about 1, nitrates about 20

Hi Nerms, I recently had 2 snails die in the tank - and I think that this has contributed to a spike in my parameters. this morning I was horrified to see a reddish purple nitrite level - like at the highest level of the master kit. and when I used the AC strips nitrite lit up pink immediately as did nitrate (probably around 30-40). ammonia was around 0.5/0.75 I immediately did a 2/3 water change and added amquel. should I move the betta to a QT tank? do another water change? both? something else?

Thanks @Odd Duck! Good to hear. Thanks to you and all the nerms who have helped me learn about fishkeeping!! I decided to do another water change this morning (no gravel vac) bc the betta was acting a little frenetic. He does this when nitrates get to be about 20 so it prompted me to check even though I had just changed. I am a bit over protective bc he had a bad case of fin rot when I had elevated nitrates 20+ for long periods of time.

Nerms, I have a 10g planted tank w one betta and previous snails that died this week. I had a slight ammonia bump earlier this week and end of last week. I managed w Amquel and more bacteria and 1 water change. Nitrite remained 0. Nitrates were 5-10. now the ammonia and nitrite Re 0 but the nitrate is 20+ At 5p yesterday I did a 40% water change and it is still 20+ this morning. 0 for ammonia and nitrite. any idea what is going on? Could it be the converted ammonia from previous bump?

So it seems that I have been a neglectful snail mama. I bought 2 mystery and a nerite snail when my tank was plagued with algae. As it got cleaner I fed algae wafers but then I got a nitrate spike and. Backed off additional feeding. I have been keeping my tank really balanced and now my snails have died. I am wondering if it is starvation. I noticed they died in succession from largest to smallest in size. in the future how often do u feed snails vegetables?

Yay @Katie B.!! That is great news. Salt is a wonder!

@Mark Mhow did u figure out the phosphate problem?

@Odd Duckwhat do you mean by normal water changes? Based on time or nitrate levels?

Yes @Jennifer V only 1 betta. I had a nitrate spike a few months ago. But after that I added another sponge filter (2 now) and bamboo. And that seems to have helped.

Ok- so here is my next question. @xXInkedPhoenixX I made it through a minor ammonia spike w amquel and adding bacteria. Now it has been a week since changing water and like a week and a half since gravel vacuum. The nitrates are 10. Probably bc of the bamboo. The ammonia and nitrite are zero. Do I just keep checking? When do I water change? I added some water today bc 1. The water level was dropping and 2. I had heard that if you don’t replace water then there can even mineral deficiencies.

Anyone know what this is? I wiped it off about 10 days ago amm 0 Nit 0 Nitrate 10 planted 10g w gravel

@JoeQ can it outcompete other plants for nitrates? I noticed just when it started to thrive that my pogo started to dwindle.