Mid Cycle ?

[quote=Gill Passman]"kiwitetra" wrote in message
.. .

Hi Guys,

I have a recently setup planted 25g hex tank. I started with 5 neons, a
week later added 5 more and 1 week after that added 5 rasboras. Each
week I monitored the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate lvls and each week
they came back at 0. I posted as such and decided from feedback that
any wastes the fish were creating were being used up by the plants.

Then I had an outbreak of ich. I struggled with this for 3 weeks before
getting rid of it with a combination of high temps and medication. My
plants suffered with the medication and I lost all but a couple. Mid
way through battling the ich some of my tetras looked like they had a
fungal/mildew type growth so I changed meds to one that treated both
ich and common fungal type stuff. (This was the stuff that killed my
plants.)

I tried to test the water a couple of times while medicating but was
not convinced I was getting true readings because the water had a blue
tinge to it and I thought this may effect the final colour of my
test.(My tests are the type you add 8 drops of this and that to a 5ml
water sample and shake.)

Towards the end of treatment I had to euthanise a couple of tetras for
what I think now was dropsy. I also 'lost' a tetra... he has
dissappeared, he either jumped out and was eaten by a cat, (highly
unlikely as it is a 2 inch jump) or he died and was eaten by the other
tetras or died and rotted away. I have never found any trace of him.
Once the ich cleared up I added carbon to clean the water. I also had
to euthanise another 2 tetras at this stage. Of the five that are left
only 1 looks like he will last. Surprisingly to me the rasboras have
come through the entire thing without missing a beat.

Now that the water is clear I have tested it on 3 consecutive days.
Ammonia is sitting between 0.25ppm and 1ppm. Nitrite = 0ppm and Nitrate
= 5ppm.

My questions are... has my tank cycled and is now having an ammonia
spike? Is it possible the ammonia is from the missing dead tetra, if so
how long would that last? He has been missing for about 7-8 days. Or
have the meds killed off my good bacteria and i'm going through the
cycle again?

What affect does alot of dead plant matter have on these readings? I
was removing alot of leaves everyday while the meds were in my tank.

The remaining plants are an amazon sword and a bunch of Cabomba.

Thanks

Mark


--
kiwitetra

Hi
Sorry for your losses ;-(

I had a very similar experience a couple of weeks ago with a stubborn
outbreak of Ich that took almost 4 weeks to clear - I lost 2 Platys, 1 Neon
and 2 Guppies either in the treatment or the aftermath. Like you once the
treatment was complete I saw a spike in the nitrite reading. Like you I had
a lot of dead plant matter and I never did find the Guppies.

I dealt with this by removing all of the plants and debris from the tank
(this included some decimated algae which wasn't a bad thing). I then did a
thorough gravel vac and a 30% water change. I cleaned up what plants I could
making sure that I removed any dead matter from them (again this included
any algae). I put those plants which were salvagable back in and added a
couple more. I also washed the filter medium in tank water to remove any
dead debris within there - in particular the inlet valve was getting blocked
with the dead algae.

Tested the water a few days later and all was back to normal - 0 nitrite and
ammonia, 10 nitrate and pH 7.5

Without knowing what meds you used I wouldn't know if these affected your
bacteria.....but the above is just my experience

Gill[/QUOTE

It has been 2 weeks and nothing much has changed. Ammonia = 1ppm, Nitrite = 0ppm and Nitrate = 5ppm. I do a 20% water change once a week.

How long does it 'normally' take before I will see an increase in nitrites?

My fish load is down to 5 rasboras and I only feed a small amount once per day.

Thanks