u/Own-Pen6671

First pic is my boy the day I got him and the second one is from today. He is still very active and happy, but fins are declining and I’m not sure whether to start treating for fin rot. I took out the hammock and the little floating cave in his tank (attaching pic) worrying that might be catching on his fins but now I’m getting worried. I also added a catappa leaf and adding stress guard. I rescued him from petsmart.

Parameters:
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 5 ppm
PH- 6.7
Temp- 78°

(Please be kind, I am still in my first few months of owning a fish tank and I know I should have already had the proper precautions and been more educated, but I’m trying my best and have put my whole life into these fish the past few months.)

To make a long story short, over 2 months ago, my (first ever) display tank was hit with a bacterial infection that managed to kill off 10 out of my 15 fish. Treated with Kanaplex and Nitrofurizone straight into the display tank which helped tremendously and saved my remaining 5 fish. Since this, I have added major improvements and precautions to my tank to take the best care of my little friends as possible. My remaining 5 fish look amazing, are extremely, eat like they have never been fed before, and any signs of the past infection have completely disappeared. My tank has been replaced with all live plants, multiple airstones, a brand new Aquaclear filter, and I now have a completely cycled quarantine tank that I just added some juvenile barbs to because I finally feel comfortable to start rebuilding my schools that I lost. My one remaining issue is my ammonia, and I am so beyond frustrated with it and completely at a loss on what to do. I am going to attach a photo above, but my ammonia has been sitting at this exact level for weeks now, and nothing (and I have tried EVERYTHING) is bringing it down. As I said earlier, my fish are acting completely fine with no signs of any ammonia poisoning. I have read up a bunch on the API test and how it measures all types of ammonia and not just the toxic kind, so I got one of these badges and it has also been sitting at the “Alert” stage and has not gone up or down at all. I am just so confused by this and so unsure of what next steps to take. I want to get this figured out in the next month before I add my new fish in, but I’m just at a complete loss. I added in a picture of my nitrite as well which was at 0 for a while but just recently this week went up to 0.25. My nitrate is fine and has been stable around 20 ppm. I know the cycle can sometimes take a bit to catch up, but I am just so confused as to why everything else seems to be perfectly fine but my ammonia is not budging. I could add so much more to this but in order to not make this an entire book for yall to read, let me know if you have any specific questions and I will gladly answer. TIA for any help.

(Please be kind, I am still in my first few months of owning a fish tank and I know I should have already had the proper precautions and been more educated, but I’m trying my best and have put my whole life into these fish the past few months.)

To make a long story short, over 2 months ago, my (first ever) display tank was hit with a bacterial infection that managed to kill off 10 out of my 15 fish. Treated with Kanaplex and Nitrofurizone straight into the display tank which helped tremendously and saved my remaining 5 fish. Since this, I have added major improvements and precautions to my tank to take the best care of my little friends as possible. My remaining 5 fish look amazing, are extremely, eat like they have never been fed before, and any signs of the past infection have completely disappeared. My tank has been replaced with all live plants, multiple airstones, a brand new Aquaclear filter, and I now have a completely cycled quarantine tank that I just added some juvenile barbs to because I finally feel comfortable to start rebuilding my schools that I lost. My one remaining issue is my ammonia, and I am so beyond frustrated with it and completely at a loss on what to do. I am going to attach a photo above, but my ammonia has been sitting at this exact level for weeks now, and nothing (and I have tried EVERYTHING) is bringing it down. As I said earlier, my fish are acting completely fine with no signs of any ammonia poisoning. I have read up a bunch on the API test and how it measures all types of ammonia and not just the toxic kind, so I got one of these badges and it has also been sitting at the “Alert” stage and has not gone up or down at all. I am just so confused by this and so unsure of what next steps to take. I want to get this figured out in the next month before I add my new fish in, but I’m just at a complete loss. I added in a picture of my nitrite as well which was at 0 for a while but just recently this week went up to 0.25. My nitrate is fine and has been stable around 20 ppm. I know the cycle can sometimes take a bit to catch up, but I am just so confused as to why everything else seems to be perfectly fine but my ammonia is not budging. I could add so much more to this but in order to not make this an entire book for yall to read, let me know if you have any specific questions and I will gladly answer. TIA for any help.

Hi all! About a month and a half ago, I had a massive columnaris outbreak in my freshwater tank with 8 checker barbs, 6 golden skirt tetras, and a honey gourami. This is my first ever community fish tank, I have been wanting one my whole life and waited until I had the money to afford my dream tank. I really thought I had done all the proper research, but unfortunately I had not done enough research on disease outbreaks so it ended up wiping out over half of my tank. I went from 15 fish to 5, also losing all 3 of my snails as well. My tank is officially in recovery finally and my remaining 5 fish (4 tetras and 1 barb) are stable and looking better every day. I got a brand new filter (Aquaclear 30) and followed the process completely (moved filter media over from my old filter and had both filters running up until yesterday when my old filter decided to finally give out). my tank parameters look good, I have recently added more live plants also and my tank is finally coming together. The issue that I am still having is with my PH/KH/GH levels and my ammonia levels, which is worrying me the most. My PH/KH/GH is pretty low, and I’m working on getting it up right now I just added crushed coral to my filter yesterday to slowly raise it. This has been an issue because of the massive difference in my tap water and tank water, and the past few 30% water changes have stressed my fish to no end because of how different the levels are. I am in the process of raising my tank numbers a bit but would love any other advice if anyone has it. I also wanted advice from any fellow barb or tetra owners on what their PH/KH/GH levels are that keep their fish the most comfortable and happy. My fish seem fine and happy, it’s just the water changes that seem to be getting them with this. Now on to my bigger issue- the ammonia. After having to dose my entire display tank with both kanaplex and Nitrofurizone for the columnaris, I knew my beneficial bacteria was going to be a little out of wack. It has been a month now since all treatment has been done, medicine is completely out of the tank, and the new filter is cycled thoroughly but for some reason my ammonia levels are still high. I use the API liquid ammonia test which I’ve heard can be controversial, but I don’t know what else to use. I also did an entire 7 day course of seachem stability, added live plants, have used seachem prime multiple times, and Sunday after having it recommended to me I added a dose of the Fritz turbo start. My levels are still looking the same and nothing seems to be raising them. Again, my fish seem totally fine and do not seem like they are dealing with any sort of ammonia issues (I watch them like a hawk), but seeing a green test tube is just not comforting at all. I am really taking any advice I can, even just general fish keeping advice. I’m still within my first 2 and a half months of having fish and very new to the hobby. I feel like I have learned an insane amount just from dealing with a disease outbreak so early on but I just feel like there’s still so much to learn. Any advice or suggestions on my ammonia levels, my PH/KH/GH levels, or again just any general advice is much appreciated. These fish are my babies and I want to rebuild their schools soon but obviously want a stable tank first. I have spent a tremendous about of money in the past month as well on medication, upgrades for the tank, plants, new filter and equipment. I’m just running out of options and feel helpless staring at this stupid test tube daily. 🙁

Hi everyone. I am very new to the aquarium world and am desperately in need of some help. I recently started a community tank with 8 checker barbs, 7 golden skirt tetras, and 1 honey gourami with the plan of adding some panda corys in the near future. I have done an extensive amount of research and have tried to follow everything to a T. Monday morning I noticed two of my barbs were on the bottom of the tank on their side unable to move but still alive. I noticed they both had white patches on their body/face. I immediately quarantined them but was unable to do much before work. By the time I got home, they were both dead and majority of my fish were showing symptoms of the illness too. I did as much research as I could and went to my local fish store to get aquarium salt and kanaplex as I read it was probably a “fungal infection” and did a 30% water change before dosing the entire tank with salt and kanaplex. It continued to get worse and my fish were dropping left and right. By the time I realized I needed to be dosing their food with kanaplex as well, my fish were really no longer interested in eating. I have lost 6 fish in a total of 4 days and I am utterly devastated. It is now day 4 of this illness and things seem to be turning around slightly with the dosing of kanaplex and water changes, with the last dose of kanaplex being tomorrow. But there is still two fish that seem to be struggling pretty bad. I feel horrible and feel like I am not doing enough to help them, and they will not eat at all. I’ve come to the conclusion it is either Epistylis or Columnaris or both, and I need help identifying which one so I know how to continue treatment if the last dose does not work tomorrow (and if the fish make it). I have a hospital tank arriving in the morning, but am really trying to not have to remove the last affected fish unless absolutely necessary to prevent further stress on them. I am looking for absolutely any advice I can get please, I have put so much time and money and love into this and it’s breaking my heart to see them suffer. Please help, I’m begging. (I’m sorry the pictures aren’t great, it’s really hard to get good ones)

Hi everyone. I am very new to the aquarium world and am desperately in need of some help. I recently started a community tank with 8 checker barbs, 7 golden skirt tetras, and 1 honey gourami with the plan of adding some panda corys in the near future. I have done an extensive amount of research and have tried to follow everything to a T. Monday morning I noticed two of my barbs were on the bottom of the tank on their side unable to move but still alive. I noticed they both had white patches on their body/face. I immediately quarantined them but was unable to do much before work. By the time I got home, they were both dead and majority of my fish were showing symptoms of the illness too. I did as much research as I could and went to my local fish store to get aquarium salt and kanaplex as I read it was probably a “fungal infection” and did a 30% water change before dosing the entire tank with salt and kanaplex. It continued to get worse and my fish were dropping left and right. By the time I realized I needed to be dosing their food with kanaplex as well, my fish were really no longer interested in eating. I have lost 6 fish in a total of 4 days and I am utterly devastated. It is now day 4 of this illness and things seem to be turning around slightly with the dosing of kanaplex and water changes, with the last dose of kanaplex being tomorrow. But there is still two fish that seem to be struggling pretty bad. I feel horrible and feel like I am not doing enough to help them, and they will not eat at all. I’ve come to the conclusion it is either Epistylis or Columnaris or both, and I need help identifying which one so I know how to continue treatment if the last dose does not work tomorrow (and if the fish make it). I have a hospital tank arriving in the morning, but am really trying to not have to remove the last affected fish unless absolutely necessary to prevent further stress on them. I am looking for absolutely any advice I can get please, I have put so much time and money and love into this and it’s breaking my heart to see them suffer. Please help, I’m begging. (I’m sorry the pictures aren’t great, it’s really hard to get good ones)