Hello,
First off, I am very sorry I did a fish-in cycle. I see and understand now how cruel it is and I regret it deeply. I will never do it again.
I can go into this more, but once again I am very sorry for my mistake.
Sadly, I am now in a unfortunate situation and I am hoping for some advice if possible.
I have 2 clownfish and 1 cleaner shrimp (we have the extra shrimp and clownfish because a eager relative showed up at our door with it as a gift. We weren't prepared for it and didn't want it (this was about a week ago). …I know its not a good situation).
The tank is a FO 75 gallon tank with a Fluval 407 canister and one small powerhead aimed at surface. Also, this is our first time with a salt water tank.
Water stats today - while the fish was not eating:
salinity (sg) : 1.023
temp: 77 F
pH : 8.2
Ammonia : 0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 5 ppm +/- *
Nitrate: 8 ppm +/- *
(* I am new to this and sometimes I struggle with the color charts; but they are attached below).
Situation:
Recently our first clownfish stopped eating. First he went two days without eating (I offered him frozen brine shrimp, soft clownfish pellets, fish flakes, bug bites, Mysis shrimp and all those foods soaked in garlic). We then did like a 47% water change because we were worried and it seemed to help. He started eating good again. Two days later we did another 1/3rd water change as we are very worried about the high nitrite levels - he was still eating good. 1 day later though (which is actually today); he stopped eating again - he didn't eat all day (he would approach the food then turn away at the last moment as before). I just did another 1/3rd water change (and since I did one yesterday; that's daily for 2 days). After the water change today, he ate a little. He ate about 2-3 bits of Mysis shrimp (but he used to eat tons - like 15-20 bits of it). After the water change today I also added a bunch of stuff to try to help (and hopefully not make it worse), I added Seachem Prime (the emergency dose amount of about 5x the reg dose), Seachem Stability, and some API Calcium as our calcium is low and our Hardness is high. My hope is that the prime detoxifies the nitrite and the stability speeds the cycling process which is clearly not complete (seems to be in the nitrite spike phase) .
Some questions:
Is it safe to do daily water changes?
Should I continue to do daily 1/3 water changes (because of the high nitrite)?
Should I buy a cheap 20 gallon starter kit and place the poor fish in there with uncycled water or some Nature's Ocean Live Nutri-Seawater from the Local fish store?
Any suggestions?
I have included pictures of water tests before and after the 1/3rd water change today.
I have also included a video of the fish.
Thank you for your time and help,
Jon S.
Tests before the water change today:
Tests after the water change:
Video of poor Grumbles:
Thanks again for your time,
Jon S.
First off, I am very sorry I did a fish-in cycle. I see and understand now how cruel it is and I regret it deeply. I will never do it again.
I can go into this more, but once again I am very sorry for my mistake.
Sadly, I am now in a unfortunate situation and I am hoping for some advice if possible.
I have 2 clownfish and 1 cleaner shrimp (we have the extra shrimp and clownfish because a eager relative showed up at our door with it as a gift. We weren't prepared for it and didn't want it (this was about a week ago). …I know its not a good situation).
The tank is a FO 75 gallon tank with a Fluval 407 canister and one small powerhead aimed at surface. Also, this is our first time with a salt water tank.
Water stats today - while the fish was not eating:
salinity (sg) : 1.023
temp: 77 F
pH : 8.2
Ammonia : 0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 5 ppm +/- *
Nitrate: 8 ppm +/- *
(* I am new to this and sometimes I struggle with the color charts; but they are attached below).
Situation:
Recently our first clownfish stopped eating. First he went two days without eating (I offered him frozen brine shrimp, soft clownfish pellets, fish flakes, bug bites, Mysis shrimp and all those foods soaked in garlic). We then did like a 47% water change because we were worried and it seemed to help. He started eating good again. Two days later we did another 1/3rd water change as we are very worried about the high nitrite levels - he was still eating good. 1 day later though (which is actually today); he stopped eating again - he didn't eat all day (he would approach the food then turn away at the last moment as before). I just did another 1/3rd water change (and since I did one yesterday; that's daily for 2 days). After the water change today, he ate a little. He ate about 2-3 bits of Mysis shrimp (but he used to eat tons - like 15-20 bits of it). After the water change today I also added a bunch of stuff to try to help (and hopefully not make it worse), I added Seachem Prime (the emergency dose amount of about 5x the reg dose), Seachem Stability, and some API Calcium as our calcium is low and our Hardness is high. My hope is that the prime detoxifies the nitrite and the stability speeds the cycling process which is clearly not complete (seems to be in the nitrite spike phase) .
Some questions:
Is it safe to do daily water changes?
Should I continue to do daily 1/3 water changes (because of the high nitrite)?
Should I buy a cheap 20 gallon starter kit and place the poor fish in there with uncycled water or some Nature's Ocean Live Nutri-Seawater from the Local fish store?
Any suggestions?
I have included pictures of water tests before and after the 1/3rd water change today.
I have also included a video of the fish.
Thank you for your time and help,
Jon S.
Tests before the water change today:
Tests after the water change:
Video of poor Grumbles:
Thanks again for your time,
Jon S.