Should I be worried about my danios??

lharpster

[INFO: 5 gallon tank, (6th week of cycling) 4 zebras, 2 long finned, 50% weekly water changes, heated tank with a bio wheel filter (I've not yet changed the filter) water params: PH 7.6, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 10, Nitrate 80. Also, I noticed a kind of slime or something hanging off my ammonia alert card that hangs in the tank.]

All but one danio are hanging out at the top of the tank in the flow of the filter - the other one is chasing everyone else around the tank like crazy and some have a reddish tint to their gills. I'm worried - are my danios sick and what should I do?
Thanks for any help
Lori

Tyyrlym

Wait, nitrites 10? As in 10 ppm? If so you need to do some water changes. At least 50% a day until the nitrites are below 0.5 ppm. I know when my tank cycled the nitrite spike came on about ten times faster than the ammonia spike did. It sounds to me like you're spiking your nitrites. Your nitrates aren't that great either. You should increase your water change schedule and try to do them often enough to not let the nitrates get over 40 ppm.

iamntbatman

Tyyr's right; 80 ppm of nitrate is dangerous, and 10 ppm of nitrite is lethal. You need to do water changes to bring those levels down.

Those indicator cards are a complete waste of money. They're expensive, inaccurate and can fall apart in your tank and really make a mess. You're much better off with a liquid test kit like API's Freshwater Master Test Kit.

lharpster

My thanks to both of you. I plan to do a 50% water change every day until those levels come down. How soon after a water change should I test the water again? I do test with the API test kit - the ammonia card was a throw in from my LFS.
Thanks again
Lori

emwalt

Hi, I'm pretty new to this but i had the same problem as what you're having with your water parameters being all outta whack. When i did my water change i would usually wait about a day before i tested my water again. That way i knew that my filter had plenty of time to mix up the new water and also if my water was still bad off since a day had gone by i knew that i could go ahead and do another water change if i needed to.