Tank not cycling?
 

My 20g tank has up for 7 1/2 weeks. I have 3 platys, 2 small anubias, and just added a 1'' apple snail. At 4 weeks, I added 2 platys and got Ich. I returned the 2 platys, treated with Quick cure for 6 days and raised temp to 90 for 14 days. After this 4 anubias died. I replaced them with 2 more and they have yellow edges on some of the leaves. I moved them into more light and they might be doing a little better. I do 50% water changes every other day. I vacuum gravel every other time. Ammonia-.25ppm, nitrite-0, nitrate-0, ph-7.5, gh-11, kh-3. Tested with api liquid and tetra laborett for the gh and kh. At this point, shouldnt I be reading 0 ammonia? The tap water I use has 0 ammonia. Thanks. P.S. I feed NLS once a day lightly, and every few days i feed peas, spinach or zucchini. That stuff ends up everywhere and hard to clean so I added the snail yesterday.

from what you have written your problem is too much left over food it will affect your water parameters .it's better to cut down the feeding feed slowly and make sure it all gets eaten.for 3 platys a few pellets will do.clean out any left over pellets or food.
make sure the water is clear.do not always disturb the gravel if you have rooted plants they need time to grow their roots underneath.when you disturb the gravel you are also releasing toxic gasses and dirt this is unnecessary if you have plants.just suck up and debris on the top layer of the gravel.get some malaysian trumpet snails and the will be part of the cuc that will eat up some debris and aerate your gravel as well.soon you will only see nitrate and the ammonia and nitrite should read 0.you might want to get a root tab for the anubias.

Will do as you say. thank you, Kitten. Nice tanks!

your welcome =)

I don't know about your cycle issue, but I wouldn't waste money on root tabs for an Anubias. Since they feed mostly from the water column, and since Anubias shouldn't be buried, a good liquid fertilizer would be a better option.
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Hi marshallsea! You are proubably over feeding your fish like kitten pinang said. You may want to add more than one snail, buy declorinator and artificial bacteria from your LFS ( local fish s.tore ), and don't do as many water changes because you are taking bacteria out of your tank!! Water changes should be done once a week to once every other week. If you follow all of that you will get rid of ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, and get the water cycle started.

i find having a root tab under the piece of drift wood my anubias is situated at helps with long term nutrition.as you stick it in and it dissolves slowly releasing a constant supply of nutrients.if you want to dose the water column use seachem flourish but keep in mind too much nutrients in the water column will give you a bacterial bloom or algae issues.mostly we get fast absorbing plants,8 hours of grow light and we balance how much liquid fert we add right after we do a wc.dosing is mostly done once per week and how much fert depends on how heavily stocked your tank is with plants

I agree with you and Kitten in that i had been overfeeding. Im dropping back to once every other day, lightly. As I understand the bacteria, it grows on hard surfaces like gravel, decorations, glass and filter media, but not so much in the water itself. I used to think it was in the water but was corrected by the big wigs on this forum. But when theres ammonia present its better for the health of the fish to change the water. I plan on getting another snail, as you suggested, but i want to make sure this one lives first. I only have 2 small anubias, I have killed 4 anubias so far. At some point I'll get this right. Thank You.

:lol:

Quote:

Originally Posted by marshallsea (Post 1119154) I agree with you and Kitten in that i had been overfeeding. Im dropping back to once every other day, lightly. As I understand the bacteria, it grows on hard surfaces like gravel, decorations, glass and filter media, but not so much in the water itself. I used to think it was in the water but was corrected by the big wigs on this forum. But when theres ammonia present its better for the health of the fish to change the water. I plan on getting another snail, as you suggested, but i want to make sure this one lives first. I only have 2 small anubias, I have killed 4 anubias so far. At some point I'll get this right. Thank You.

Ok good luck with your tank!!:-D

Water changes do not remove bacteria - the bacteria does not live in the water.....