Is my cycle incomplete, crashed, or normal?

[xoHoneyBunny]

July 19 -

I bought -

new fish tank (10g)

sand (AquaNatural Sugar White)

some fake plants

heater (50W)

sponge filter for 10g

Aqueon QuietFlow 10

driftwood (Imagitarium)

API Stress Coat+

SeaChem Prime + Stability

FritzZyme 7 Beneficial Bacteria

I knew about the nitrogen cycle and in previous years had always done a fish in cycle but wanted to do it a bit different after finding out Fritz had BB in a bottle. I conditioned my water and waited about 24 just to be safe before doing anything else. I added in the recommended 1/2 cup of FritzZyme 7 BB and a pinch of fish food (flake). After waiting for about 3 days and adding a small pinch of food every day, what I thought I was going to need to feed my fish.

 

July 24 -

I used a master freshwater testing kit to check my water. The tests read as follows:

pH - 7.7

Ammonia - .50ppm

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - ~6ppm

GH - 12°/214.8ppm

KH - 6°/107.4ppm.

I headed over to my local pet store (Petsmart) and picked out a male and two female fancy guppies just to start. They seemed to behave normally and I waited until the next morning to feed them.

 

July 27 -

I felt the need to test my water again.

pH - 7.8

Ammonia - <.25ppm

Nitrite - 0ppm

Nitrate - <10ppm.

(10% WC)

 

July 30 -

I brought home 2 Nerite snails from petco.

 

Aug. 4 -

Guppy had 3 fry that are currently in a breeder basket inside the aquarium.

 

Aug. 5 -

I got some frogbit from a friend and added it to the aquarium. pH spiked to 8, I removed the frogbit because I got worried and did a 25% WC. One of the female guppies died.

 

Aug. 7 -

Tested the water.

pH - 7.8

Ammonia - 0ppm

Nitrite - 0ppm

Nitrate - 0ppm

I started wondering if my cycle had crashed or if my tank was completely cycled and something was eating the nitrate (possibly the frogbit or water change?) The remaining female died. (One male left). Added more FritzZyme 7 about 1/2 cup.

 

Aug. 11 -

Someone was rehoming baby Platy (about and inch) so I took them in. I put eleven of them in the tank with the two nerite snails, three guppy fry, and one adult male guppy. I know this is a lot for the 10g tank and am in the process of setting up and building the base for their permanent home (37g). This change happened before the platy were added. I know things can go wrong but I'm on top of care, water testing, and have backups if absolutely necessary.

 

Aug. 13 -

pH - 7.8

Ammonia - 0ppm

Nitrite - 0ppm

Nitrate - 0ppm

I'm not sure whats happening. All of the fish are acting fine, eating, and playing with each other, fry included.

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by xoHoneyBunny

[Zac]

On 8/13/2023 at 6:24 PM, xoHoneyBunny said:

July 19 -

I bought -

new fish tank (10g)

sand (AquaNatural Sugar White)

some fake plants

heater (50W)

sponge filter for 10g

Aqueon QuietFlow 10

driftwood (Imagitarium)

API Stress Coat+

SeaChem Prime + Stability

FritzZyme 7 Beneficial Bacteria

I knew about the nitrogen cycle and in previous years had always done a fish in cycle but wanted to do it a bit different after finding out Fritz had BB in a bottle. I conditioned my water and waited about 24 just to be safe before doing anything else. I added in the recommended 1/2 cup of FritzZyme 7 BB and a pinch of fish food (flake). After waiting for about 3 days and adding a small pinch of food every day, what I thought I was going to need to feed my fish.

 

July 24 -

I used a master freshwater testing kit to check my water. The tests read as follows:

pH - 7.7

Ammonia - .50ppm

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - ~6ppm

GH - 12°/214.8ppm

KH - 6°/107.4ppm.

I headed over to my local pet store (Petsmart) and picked out a male and two female fancy guppies just to start. They seemed to behave normally and I waited until the next morning to feed them.

 

July 27 -

I felt the need to test my water again.

pH - 7.8

Ammonia - <.25ppm

Nitrite - 0ppm

Nitrate - <10ppm.

(10% WC)

 

July 30 -

I brought home 2 Nerite snails from petco.

 

Aug. 4 -

Guppy had 3 fry that are currently in a breeder basket inside the aquarium.

 

Aug. 5 -

I got some frogbit from a friend and added it to the aquarium. pH spiked to 8, I removed the frogbit because I got worried and did a 25% WC. One of the female guppies died.

 

Aug. 7 -

Tested the water.

pH - 7.8

Ammonia - 0ppm

Nitrite - 0ppm

Nitrate - 0ppm

I started wondering if my cycle had crashed or if my tank was completely cycled and something was eating the nitrate (possibly the frogbit or water change?) The remaining female died. (One male left). Added more FritzZyme 7 about 1/2 cup.

 

Aug. 11 -

Someone was rehoming baby Platy (about and inch) so I took them in. I put eleven of them in the tank with the two nerite snails, three guppy fry, and one adult male guppy. I know this is a lot for the 10g tank and am in the process of setting up and building the base for their permanent home (37g). This change happened before the platy were added. I know things can go wrong but I'm on top of care, water testing, and have backups if absolutely necessary.

 

Aug. 13 -

pH - 7.8

Ammonia - 0ppm

Nitrite - 0ppm

Nitrate - 0ppm

I'm not sure whats happening. All of the fish are acting fine, eating, and playing with each other, fry included.

 

It sounds like things are a bit rushed to me. I wouldn’t have added any fish when theres ammonia presents. Even if it’s .5 because that alone can be stressful. Even with fritzyme 7 your cycle can take a month or so to finish. I cycled my tank with plants. I took care of them for about a month or so before adding any fish and the fish were fine (one died from shipping stress but that’s besides the point). Once you have well established plants, there’s going to be a fair amount of beneficial bacteria, especially if you had any melting when adding the plants first. Any extra ammonia from adding a small amount of fish will easily be taken care of. After that, you can add a little bit more fish, then a little more, etc. My guess is it’s a crash/incomplete cycle.

If you feed the fish lightly you can do a fish-in cycle. Just be careful to not over feed. Also be careful about an explosion in guppy population because an uncycled tank won’t be able to handle it 

Edited August 13, 2023 by Zac

[Galabar]

If you've got lots of fish in the tank with 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, you should be fine.  As for the nitrate, I'm wondering why it would be 0ppm (you mentioned you didn't have any live plants currently).

[xoHoneyBunny]

On 8/13/2023 at 6:20 PM, Galabar said:

If you've got lots of fish in the tank with 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, you should be fine.  As for the nitrate, I'm wondering why it would be 0ppm (you mentioned you didn't have any live plants currently).

I don't currently, no. I did have frogbit in there for about 20 ish hours and that's when my pH also went up which is, I assume, why two fish died because of the rapid spike and drop. Since then my Nitrate has been 0. It's only been a week+a day so maybe not enough time to tell? I've not had an ammonia spike at all and never a trace of Nitrite. My ammonia went down super fast as you can see so I didn't think much of it when adding my fish since it was only 3 gupps. It didn't change until the frogbit was introduced followed by a 25% water change.

[xoHoneyBunny]

On 8/13/2023 at 5:59 PM, Zac said:

It sounds like things are a bit rushed to me. I wouldn’t have added any fish when theres ammonia presents. Even if it’s .5 because that alone can be stressful. Even with fritzyme 7 your cycle can take a month or so to finish. I cycled my tank with plants. I took care of them for about a month or so before adding any fish and the fish were fine (one died from shipping stress but that’s besides the point). Once you have well established plants, there’s going to be a fair amount of beneficial bacteria, especially if you had any melting when adding the plants first. Any extra ammonia from adding a small amount of fish will easily be taken care of. After that, you can add a little bit more fish, then a little more, etc. My guess is it’s a crash/incomplete cycle.

If you feed the fish lightly you can do a fish-in cycle. Just be careful to not over feed. Also be careful about an explosion in guppy population because an uncycled tank won’t be able to handle it 

I don't have to worry about the guppies because both females died only 1 male remains + the 3 fry (a little over a week old). The platy are still too young to reproduce (about 3-4 months away from sexual maturity). I do understand the rushed bit. I was so excited and 3 days felt like 2 weeks when I found the fish I wanted so definitely a bad move on my part. The 37g is going to be a slow process since I don't want this to happen again and I could use some pointers as to what substrate, plants, and filtration I should use for that. Its a tall tank as well so I'm kind of lost about how to keep a low current kind of sweeping flow for mechanical filtration. The 37g is only for the platy, the snails and remaining gupps will be in the 10g.

[madmark285]

For new aquariums, I would add Dr Tim’s Ammonium and FritzZyme 7.  You dumped live bacteria (Fritz) into your tank with no food for them ie: ammonia. 

When I started up my tank, I added ammonia twice with monitoring. After the ammonia went to zero the second time, I was very confident that I had established the required bacteria colonies. I never saw a peak in nitrites which makes sense, Fritz provided the nitrite munching bacteria. 

 

[madmark285]

On 8/13/2023 at 7:56 PM, xoHoneyBunny said:

Its a tall tank as well so I'm kind of lost about how to keep a low current kind of sweeping flow for mechanical filtration. 

For a low flow, buy an oversized filter and turn down the water flow. Now you have a larger volume for your bio-media but a low water flow. In a perfect world, you really want a huge filter (5 gallon bucket size)  connected with a moderate water pump. I put a Tidal 75 on the side of an 29 gallon tank:

On max water flow, it's like a raging river in the tank, the barbs just hang around on the bottom parallel to the current. Of course they give me the flipper when I forget to turn it down.  On low flow, it's a very calm tank,

I prefer sump filters over anything else but I highly recommend the Tidal fiters. I tried the AquaClear but find it is a very outdated design. The Tidal will restart after a losing power, it has a skimmer and has a full basket which lifts out. The AquaClear has this stupid basket where the sides fold down, you have to use a bag for your bio-media! 

[Zac]

On 8/13/2023 at 7:56 PM, xoHoneyBunny said:

I don't have to worry about the guppies because both females died only 1 male remains + the 3 fry (a little over a week old). The platy are still too young to reproduce (about 3-4 months away from sexual maturity). I do understand the rushed bit. I was so excited and 3 days felt like 2 weeks when I found the fish I wanted so definitely a bad move on my part. The 37g is going to be a slow process since I don't want this to happen again and I could use some pointers as to what substrate, plants, and filtration I should use for that. Its a tall tank as well so I'm kind of lost about how to keep a low current kind of sweeping flow for mechanical filtration. The 37g is only for the platy, the snails and remaining gupps will be in the 10g.

You could always use a sponge filter for low current. I have one in my 29 gallon and it works just fine. I don’t notice any dead zones in my tank. I love frogbit. It’s amazing at cleaning water. You just need to make sure to expose it to little/no flow. I use a plant ring to surround the area that the sponge filter sends bubbles to at the surface. That way there’s still oxygenation without moving my plants around.

Other easy plants are valisneria, anubias, and cryptocoryne. Although crypts and Val won’t clean the water much because they’re root feeders. Sand is the best substrate in my opinion. Fish waste can settle and work its way into the sand to trap it. Then plants can take up the nutrients.

On 8/13/2023 at 7:47 PM, xoHoneyBunny said:

I don't currently, no. I did have frogbit in there for about 20 ish hours and that's when my pH also went up which is, I assume, why two fish died because of the rapid spike and drop. Since then my Nitrate has been 0. It's only been a week+a day so maybe not enough time to tell? I've not had an ammonia spike at all and never a trace of Nitrite. My ammonia went down super fast as you can see so I didn't think much of it when adding my fish since it was only 3 gupps. It didn't change until the frogbit was introduced followed by a 25% water change.

Another thing to keep in mind is that when your ammonia is 0, that means there’s enough bacteria to handle the current fish in the tank. If suddenly, there’s a large bio load added, your current cycle won’t be enough if that makes sense. Most cycles in an established tank can handle a small increase in bio load. But it’s sudden, large increases that cause issues 

I doubt it was the frogbit that caused pH issues unless you added a ton. I have frogbit and duckweed and don’t have any pH issues. If you added any shells that can increase pH. A large amount of dissolved oxygen without anything to consume it may increase pH like in blood. But I doubt that’s the case as well. Your KH is about the same as mine. Mines about 5 and it’s been enough to prevent pH swings. That’s odd to me that you’re having pH issues

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by Zac

[xoHoneyBunny]

On 8/13/2023 at 7:40 PM, madmark285 said:

For a low flow, buy an oversized filter and turn down the water flow. Now you have a larger volume for your bio-media but a low water flow. In a perfect world, you really want a huge filter (5 gallon bucket size)  connected with a moderate water pump. I put a Tidal 75 on the side of an 29 gallon tank:

On max water flow, it's like a raging river in the tank, the barbs just hang around on the bottom parallel to the current. Of course they give me the flipper when I forget to turn it down.  On low flow, it's a very calm tank,

I prefer sump filters over anything else but I highly recommend the Tidal fiters. I tried the AquaClear but find it is a very outdated design. The Tidal will restart after a losing power, it has a skimmer and has a full basket which lifts out. The AquaClear has this stupid basket where the sides fold down, you have to use a bag for your bio-media! 

I appreciate the info. I was actually thinking about the AquaClear but heard the same thing so I'll look into the Tidal filters for sure. As for sump, I haven't really considered it but have heard if you have the space and stay on top of maintenance its a good system for larger tanks.

 

On 8/13/2023 at 7:43 PM, Zac said:

You could always use a sponge filter for low current. I have one in my 29 gallon and it works just fine. I don’t notice any dead zones in my tank. I love frogbit. It’s amazing at cleaning water. You just need to make sure to expose it to little/no flow. I use a plant ring to surround the area that the sponge filter sends bubbles to at the surface. That way there’s still oxygenation without moving my plants around.

Other easy plants are valisneria, anubias, and cryptocoryne. Although crypts and Val won’t clean the water much because they’re root feeders. Sand is the best substrate in my opinion. Fish waste can settle and work its way into the sand to trap it. Then plants can take up the nutrients.

Another thing to keep in mind is that when your ammonia is 0, that means there’s enough bacteria to handle the current fish in the tank. If suddenly, there’s a large bio load added, your current cycle won’t be enough if that makes sense. Most cycles in an established tank can handle a small increase in bio load. But it’s sudden, large increases that cause issues 

I doubt it was the frogbit that caused pH issues unless you added a ton. I have frogbit and duckweed and don’t have any pH issues. If you added any shells that can increase pH. A large amount of dissolved oxygen without anything to consume it may increase pH like in blood. But I doubt that’s the case as well. Your KH is about the same as mine. Mines about 5 and it’s been enough to prevent pH swings. That’s odd to me that you’re having pH issues

 

 

I don't know what else it could be honestly. I never had a problem before the frogbit or after taking it out, only while it was in there. I have sand but nothing like shells or anything of that nature, I was pretty careful picking stuff that shouldn't raise the pH since my water comes out of the tap perfect for most fish I would even think about keeping. As far as oxygen in the water I could see about getting some dissolved oxygen test solutions.

 

Would 11 tiny platys be considered a huge difference in stock? I didn't think since they were still very young that they would produce that much waste for a spike. I do feed lightly and will definitely keep an eye out for an ammonia spike. I will continue to update when I do a test so there's more to go off of. I may be over reacting but I do want to make sure they are living their best life. I know it started bad but it doesn't mean it has to stay or end that way.

[Zac]

On 8/14/2023 at 12:48 AM, xoHoneyBunny said:

I appreciate the info. I was actually thinking about the AquaClear but heard the same thing so I'll look into the Tidal filters for sure. As for sump, I haven't really considered it but have heard if you have the space and stay on top of maintenance its a good system for larger tanks.

 

 

I don't know what else it could be honestly. I never had a problem before the frogbit or after taking it out, only while it was in there. I have sand but nothing like shells or anything of that nature, I was pretty careful picking stuff that shouldn't raise the pH since my water comes out of the tap perfect for most fish I would even think about keeping. As far as oxygen in the water I could see about getting some dissolved oxygen test solutions.

 

Would 11 tiny platys be considered a huge difference in stock? I didn't think since they were still very young that they would produce that much waste for a spike. I do feed lightly and will definitely keep an eye out for an ammonia spike. I will continue to update when I do a test so there's more to go off of. I may be over reacting but I do want to make sure they are living their best life. I know it started bad but it doesn't mean it has to stay or end that way.

I’d consider 11 small fish in an uncycled tank pushing it a little bit. I think like 5 or 6 smal fish would be good to start. Don’t worry too much and also don’t over stress and do too much. That’ll make things worse. Take things slow and all will be okay 🙂

[Tanked]

I agree with @Zacthat adding 11 small fish to a ten gallon tank was pushing it a bit. Except for the Ph levels, I fail to see a problem.  Is the Ph that high from the tap?  I don't keep guppies, but a quick read would indicate that 8 ppm is the upper limit and less than ideal. 

At this point, what's done is done. In a 10 gallon tank, good and bad things can happen very fast. I would test every other day for a week or two, following testing instructions to the letter.

[RennjiDK]

You can't really "stall" a cycle. At this point, you are finished, there's no question about that. As for your stocking choices and testing methods, both could probably use improvement. Api reagents settle out of solution. Make sure you are shaking those bottles for a solid 30 seconds each before testing, and holding them completely vertical when counting drops. Also double check that you are filling the test tubes correctly, with the bottom of the water curve touching the line.

[nabokovfan87]

hello @xoHoneyBunny welcome to the forums.

 

On 8/13/2023 at 4:56 PM, xoHoneyBunny said:

The 37g is going to be a slow process since I don't want this to happen again and I could use some pointers as to what substrate, plants, and filtration I should use for that. Its a tall tank as well so I'm kind of lost about how to keep a low current kind of sweeping flow for mechanical filtration. The 37g is only for the platy, the snails and remaining gupps will be in the 10g.

Air filtration is definitely your friend if you want to have slower filtration.  Simple method would be to just have a good size airpump (I highly recommend the Tetra AP150 pump, designed for deeper tanks) and you can run 2-4 drops on that tank without issue.  I have two tanks right now setup this way, one is running two tanks while the other is running my shrimp colony with 2 sponges and an airstone.

Ultimately, there's 2-3 ways to view your filtration: movement, mechanically, and surface movement.  Movement, or better stated circulation, is about having all of the water in the tank move around and be involved in that filtration process.  If you see large piles of debris on one side of the tank, it's an indication that you are lacking in some circulation.  Mechanically viewing your filtration is asking yourself how "clean" does the tank look visually.  Is the water clear and do you see debris in the tank or is it being moved into the filtration and easily removed?  The goal with filtration at pretty much every scenario is to be able to remove waste and then to be able to easily remove that waste with maintenance.  For surface movement what you're looking for is ripples and waves across the surface of the water.  This allows gas exchange, oxygenation, and will help to off-gas some things out of the tank as well.  Ultimately, you can have the best filtration in the world, but if it doesn't allow for proper oxygenation (gas exchange) then you will run into health issues in the livestock.

....and yes, I know that "no filter aquariums" are a thing.  Plants provide gas exchange and it's always going to be recommended to at minimum have an airstone in anything holding livestock.

If I was setting up a 37G aquarium with slow flow in mind, I would have 2 of the biggest sponge filters I could buy on either corner of the tank and an airstone (or bubble wall) in the middle-back of the tank.  Use a 3-way gang valve of of the pump above mentioned and you should have a very easy time adjusting the flow as you need to.  Set the sponges to the desired flowrate and then any remaining air pressure from the pump can simply be released through that airstone.

 

On 8/13/2023 at 3:24 PM, xoHoneyBunny said:

API Stress Coat+

SeaChem Prime + Stability

FritzZyme 7 Beneficial Bacteria

I knew about the nitrogen cycle and in previous years had always done a fish in cycle but wanted to do it a bit different after finding out Fritz had BB in a bottle. I conditioned my water and waited about 24 just to be safe before doing anything else. I added in the recommended 1/2 cup of FritzZyme 7 BB and a pinch of fish food (flake). After waiting for about 3 days and adding a small pinch of food every day, what I thought I was going to need to feed my fish.

 Just a note.  Stress coat is a dechlorinator as well as prime, so make sure you're not "doubling up".  Dechlorinator will remove oxygen from the water and adding too much can cause issues.  It is almost always save to use ~5x a normal dose, but it's just something to keep in mind.  Stability and FritzZyme also both are bacterial starters.  You'd only really need to use one.
 

On 8/13/2023 at 3:24 PM, xoHoneyBunny said:

(10% WC)

Especially on a 10G tank it's pretty easy to do larger water volume changes.  Don't be afraid to pull a 5G bucket of water when you do change your water.  It won't ruin the cycle in any way.  If you ever do have any concerns you can add some of the bacterial products following your water change and it would help out to keep the cycle going.  Ultimately, if you're showing ammonia like you were, you'd want to do ~30-50% volume water changes when you do them.  If you don't change enough water you can run into something called Old Tank Syndrome where you aren't able to remove waste fast enough and it will keep building over and over.
 

 

On 8/13/2023 at 3:24 PM, xoHoneyBunny said:

Aug. 11 -

Someone was rehoming baby Platy (about and inch) so I took them in. I put eleven of them in the tank with the two nerite snails, three guppy fry, and one adult male guppy. I know this is a lot for the 10g tank and am in the process of setting up and building the base for their permanent home (37g). This change happened before the platy were added. I know things can go wrong but I'm on top of care, water testing, and have backups if absolutely necessary.

 

Aug. 13 -

pH - 7.8

Ammonia - 0ppm

Nitrite - 0ppm

Nitrate - 0ppm

I'm not sure whats happening. All of the fish are acting fine, eating, and playing with each other, fry included.

There's definitely a lot of bioload on the tank.  Ultimately you just want to verify things.  You can take a water sample to the store and have them confirm your water test results.  The goal (regardless of seeing nitrate) is that you don't see ammonia or nitrite.  Once you see ammonia / nitrite it does point towards stocking issues as well as not having enough biological filtration.  I would just keep testing daily and monitoring your ammonia, nitrite, nitrates.  After about 7-10 days you should see some sort of a trend with what is going on.

On 8/13/2023 at 4:47 PM, xoHoneyBunny said:

I don't currently, no. I did have frogbit in there for about 20 ish hours and that's when my pH also went up which is, I assume, why two fish died because of the rapid spike and drop. Since then my Nitrate has been 0. It's only been a week+a day so maybe not enough time to tell? I've not had an ammonia spike at all and never a trace of Nitrite. My ammonia went down super fast as you can see so I didn't think much of it when adding my fish since it was only 3 gupps. It didn't change until the frogbit was introduced followed by a 25% water change.

I don't think the plants would cause a PH to spike like that.  I'm not sure why it did.  It could be due to added bioload and oxygenation issues.  (PH is tied to CO2 in the water as well).  The frogbit and floating plants can do wonders when it comes to using up nitrate (and ammonia).  So just keep monitoring the bad things and you should be doing just fine.  As long as you have that surface movement via an airstone (or your filtration) then you should be ok.  Given the stocking, adding an airstone is probably the move here to make sure you have enough oxygenation.  As a sidenote, it's often recommended to buy the "next size up" when it comes to your filtration.  The 10G you'd want to use the quietflow 20, etc.  There is a variety of reasons for this, but it's just a note for any future use when you decide which filter for the tank in question.  Making sure the filter has enough circulation is key.

[xoHoneyBunny]

On 8/16/2023 at 9:24 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

hello @xoHoneyBunny welcome to the forums.

 

Air filtration is definitely your friend if you want to have slower filtration.  Simple method would be to just have a good size airpump (I highly recommend the Tetra AP150 pump, designed for deeper tanks) and you can run 2-4 drops on that tank without issue.  I have two tanks right now setup this way, one is running two tanks while the other is running my shrimp colony with 2 sponges and an airstone.

Ultimately, there's 2-3 ways to view your filtration: movement, mechanically, and surface movement.  Movement, or better stated circulation, is about having all of the water in the tank move around and be involved in that filtration process.  If you see large piles of debris on one side of the tank, it's an indication that you are lacking in some circulation.  Mechanically viewing your filtration is asking yourself how "clean" does the tank look visually.  Is the water clear and do you see debris in the tank or is it being moved into the filtration and easily removed?  The goal with filtration at pretty much every scenario is to be able to remove waste and then to be able to easily remove that waste with maintenance.  For surface movement what you're looking for is ripples and waves across the surface of the water.  This allows gas exchange, oxygenation, and will help to off-gas some things out of the tank as well.  Ultimately, you can have the best filtration in the world, but if it doesn't allow for proper oxygenation (gas exchange) then you will run into health issues in the livestock.

....and yes, I know that "no filter aquariums" are a thing.  Plants provide gas exchange and it's always going to be recommended to at minimum have an airstone in anything holding livestock.

If I was setting up a 37G aquarium with slow flow in mind, I would have 2 of the biggest sponge filters I could buy on either corner of the tank and an airstone (or bubble wall) in the middle-back of the tank.  Use a 3-way gang valve of of the pump above mentioned and you should have a very easy time adjusting the flow as you need to.  Set the sponges to the desired flowrate and then any remaining air pressure from the pump can simply be released through that airstone.

 

 Just a note.  Stress coat is a dechlorinator as well as prime, so make sure you're not "doubling up".  Dechlorinator will remove oxygen from the water and adding too much can cause issues.  It is almost always save to use ~5x a normal dose, but it's just something to keep in mind.  Stability and FritzZyme also both are bacterial starters.  You'd only really need to use one.
 

Especially on a 10G tank it's pretty easy to do larger water volume changes.  Don't be afraid to pull a 5G bucket of water when you do change your water.  It won't ruin the cycle in any way.  If you ever do have any concerns you can add some of the bacterial products following your water change and it would help out to keep the cycle going.  Ultimately, if you're showing ammonia like you were, you'd want to do ~30-50% volume water changes when you do them.  If you don't change enough water you can run into something called Old Tank Syndrome where you aren't able to remove waste fast enough and it will keep building over and over.
 

 

There's definitely a lot of bioload on the tank.  Ultimately you just want to verify things.  You can take a water sample to the store and have them confirm your water test results.  The goal (regardless of seeing nitrate) is that you don't see ammonia or nitrite.  Once you see ammonia / nitrite it does point towards stocking issues as well as not having enough biological filtration.  I would just keep testing daily and monitoring your ammonia, nitrite, nitrates.  After about 7-10 days you should see some sort of a trend with what is going on.

I don't think the plants would cause a PH to spike like that.  I'm not sure why it did.  It could be due to added bioload and oxygenation issues.  (PH is tied to CO2 in the water as well).  The frogbit and floating plants can do wonders when it comes to using up nitrate (and ammonia).  So just keep monitoring the bad things and you should be doing just fine.  As long as you have that surface movement via an airstone (or your filtration) then you should be ok.  Given the stocking, adding an airstone is probably the move here to make sure you have enough oxygenation.  As a sidenote, it's often recommended to buy the "next size up" when it comes to your filtration.  The 10G you'd want to use the quietflow 20, etc.  There is a variety of reasons for this, but it's just a note for any future use when you decide which filter for the tank in question.  Making sure the filter has enough circulation is key.

I just want to start off by saying that I appreciate all of you taking the time to help me out with this. I'm really trying to be successful and plan on doing more tanks in the future but I have to get the basics down and find what works for me. I really didn't think this post was going to go anywhere and I was just going to get rude comments about how I'm overdoing it and its never going to work but you all have been patient and offered constructive criticism which is greatly appreciated.

As for the 10G I've done some more tests and am reading 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, and in between 5-10ppm nitrate I do indeed shake the living crap out of those bottles and test tubes for their amount of time stated and let them sit for 5 minutes.

I actually got the API Stress Coat+ first and found stability and prime bundled on sale so I got both. I then heard FritzZyme 7 was a good product to use so I got some of that which is cheaper right now than stability but have not double dosed either or used the stability at all yet for that matter. I took some advice and am going to use the SeaChem Tidal 55 alongside ACC large coarse sponge filter. I did do ~35% water change yesterday and the readings above are from about an hour before this post goes up. I do have a large bubble wall I can throw into the new tank but I want to put it all together and see how it looks with the stuff I've picked out. I'm going as fast as I can to build this stand so I can get everything started. Thankfully I have learned my lesson and won't rush it this go around.

The fish are also doing good from what I can see. None are acting strange and none have passed. I do have one concern, one of my guppy fry are half the size of the other 2. Its still eating and swimming normally. Could this be a runt?

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/17/2023 at 1:41 AM, xoHoneyBunny said:

I do have one concern, one of my guppy fry are half the size of the other 2. Its still eating and swimming normally. Could this be a runt?

Could be. Just keep an eye on feeding time. Sprinkle in a little bit of food for the main group and then find the little fish and try to target feed that one to make sure it does have a chance at the food.