New Memeber

Hi there,

I am new to fish keeping and just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Margot and i am from Cape Town.

I am currently in the process of cycling my 20l tank - its taking a long long time though and my ammonia levels will not get to zero.

I have a male betta and 2 pepper cory who are doing well. I am currently using prime to help with ammonia levels etc and am using the nutrafin ammonia test for my daily testing. I have yet to purchase a test to test nitrites and nitrates.

I was at once stage also using nutrafin cycle to try and cycle quicker but that does not seem to be working or perhaps i'm no doing it propertly. So have stopped.

I do water chages and gravel cleaning but not to sure if this should be done or not - during the cycling phase. Have done lots of research and have received mixed answers.

Any ideas would be great.

I plan to eventually get a slightly bigger tank too

Thanks everyone .

 

Hi and Welcome. :shakehands: First question is what filter do you use? Do you have the fish in the tank already? Then yes you have to vacuum the gravel. Give us some specs of the hardware and also any plants or ornaments?

 

Hi there and thanks.

I am using the Penn Plax Cascade 170 submersible filter (do you think it is sufficient?). I do have the fish in the tank since the first week of December. I started off with a Betta (which they had in bowls at our staff party as centre pieces for the tables) so i bought him but thought it was cruel to keep him in a bowl so i upgraded him to a 20l tank. Then about 2 weeks later i got the two cory's as a tank mate as i read people have the wrong impression of a betta in that they are solitary and that they like company as long as it's the right company - hence the cory as they are peaceful fish. I have 2 silk plants, a bridge and another ornament that they can go through and out. My tank never came with a lid so my husband made me something for the top. I also have an air pump with an airstone for aeration during the very hot temperature to help with the oxigination of the water.

Thanks for the response re the gravel vac.

I am just wondering why my ammonia level won't go to zero.

 

Hi Margot,

Welcome to TASA!

On the Penn Plax box, does it give a lph (litres per hour) rating? I have never used that filter, but I looked it up online and found a review that said it would be adequate for a small tank with a low bioload so that seems to match! What bothered me though is that the reviewer said that the carbon provided was of an inferior quality. We usually recommend exchanging cheap carbon for a better medium OR fresh carbon every 3 weeks or so. That might be contributing to your problem.

Personally, I don't like filters that require constant purchase of filter cartridges... I just think its a bit of a ripoff and have rather customised mine to take better filter media instead. The reviewer I mentioned also said he'd done the same thing - prised open the cartridge and replaced the carbon that comes as standard.

Also, can you tell us what your feeding regime is? What food and how often?

 

Hi, the filter that i have does not have the carbon filter media section. I was told that it was not necessary so i only have the one filter media which is the sponge.

I give the betta one tiny betta pellet which he gobbles up at the surface and then one tetra tabimin floating tablet (i alternate between one tetra tabimin and one tetra plecomin (which has the spirulina algae) as i know cory's love that) which sinks to the bottom for the cory which the betta also has of - it kinda dissolves into the water and in between the gravel at the bottom and the cory and betta go crazy for. I let it dissolve for about 15 minutes and then i remove the leftover tablet. The bottle says to leave if for 30 minutes though.

I do this every second day as i worry about ammonia.

 

Righto, and how and when are you cleaning the sponge?

And the feeding regime?

 

It's not a huge sponge in the filter so i am having to clean it quite often - every week or two. I usually check the water flow weekly and when its very slow i know it's time to clean the media. I rinse it in water that i remove from the tank. Maybe i need to get a better filter even though the one i has is for tanks up to 30L and mine is only 20L.

 

Is there any available space in the filter? You might be able to add more media?

You are cleaning it correctly - but that sounds like a lot of waste from 3 small fish which is why I'm asking about your feeding.

 

Hmm - I'm not sure. I am going to check this evening. The filter is two parts so i might be able to add some sponge to the top part - if it's possible. Do you think it may be the tetra tabimin/plecomin tablet food? Its not a pellet or a flake - but a tablets that floats to the bottom and dissoves - into the gravel and into the water. Could that be the problem maybe?

 

Yes, that might well be the problem. I dont know plecomin, but I do use tabimin. How often are you feeding those and how many? That's a LOT of food in one tablet.

 

Welcome @Margot

You might wanna switch over to Tetra Prima. It's a granule type food that's made to float for a bit and then sink to the bottom. Very good food and it's kind of hard to over-feed with granules.

TM

 

I usually put in one tablet and then let it dissolve for about 15 minutes and then remove the leftover tablet. This i do every second day.

 

I will try the tetra prima - i am just worried that the betta will not give the food a chance to sink to the bottom.

 

Welcome

 

Thanks

 

Welcome to the site. Enjoy your time and I can see you are already in good hands. Lots of good advice here and people willing to share.

 

This may be your problem with high ammonia levels, you are washing away the biomass on the filter needed to get your nitrogen cycle going. Presently your filter is acting purely as a mechanical filtration unit. I would suggest washing half of the filter medium so that the remaining half retains some biomass on it.

 

Thanks for all the feedback. I will definately give it a try and only wash half of the filter medium. I am eventually going to upgrade my tank and get a better filter .

 

i would advise to maybe get a bio in a bottle product which will help increase your bacteria in the tank, im pretty sure you are over cleaning your media, you need to give the bacteria a chnace to multiply and that will take care of your amonia/nitrate/nitrite. maybe add a nice java fern or other plants, that also help use up nasties in the water. i would maybe stick in a buble filter as extra until you get your water right. they do a good job.
welcome and keep us updated.

 

I think so too. I have tried nutrafin cycle but that did nothing. What other bio in a bottle do you recommend...that actually works? Where can i get this buble filter? Besides the filter i do have an air pump with an airstone.