As I said in my original post, I've had the tank for over a year now. I recently switched out the substrate and decor, which is why I think it's cycling again. The readout from the color chart may not have been that high; if there is any green it means it's more than 0 ppm, and it looked to be only slightly greenish, but hardly noticeable (heck, I might be imagining things due to my paranoia). The filter I'm using has been running for about 4 months now, and the media is the same age as the tank. Just did a 50% water change, I'll keep monitoring him...now I'm conflicted on whether or not he's marbling or sick ><
Is he gasping at all? Check his gills for a red, or inflamed look.
The liquid API one. The gills don't appear red or inflamed, but he seemed to be breathing heavy before the water change. Here's a video of him before I changed the water.
The video is showing me that he likely responding to the ammonia. Could be generally sensitive. Could be he's seen traces of it a long time and now he can't handle it at all. I've seen it said that the white scaling can also be caused by long term ammonia exposure, but I really don't know as I've never seen a fish do that before.
I would do 50% water change daily until ammonia hits zero. From there I would test daily and do 25-50% change any time you see any ammonia show up at all. Hopefully eventually it will stay at 0. At some point, with all that ammonia, you're likely to also get nitrites start showing up. So I'd be testing that as well and changing water when you see signs of it too.
You must have had a lot of your bb in your gravel.. can I ask what filter you're using?
As long as he's eating and breathing normally and not acting stressed I would say just keeping on top of his water would be all he needs. You could put a touch of epsoms at around 1/4-1/2 tsp per gallon predissolved if you want as they can help with ammonia poising. Needs to be 100% pure magnesium sulfate. They also have some mild antifungal properties in case there's something going on. Predissolve it in a cup and add it slowly over an hour as it might cause a ph shift. Your plants will like it too. It's a fertilizer for them. When you don't want him in the ES anymore just stop adding it during water changes (won't ever evaporate or break down so no need to redose until you do a water change).
Also using prime as your conditioner (or AmQuel Plus) during cycling can help render some of that ammonia non toxic and help your bioload break it down faster.
The video is showing me that he likely responding to the ammonia. Could be generally sensitive. Could be he's seen traces of it a long time and now he can't handle it at all. I've seen it said that the white scaling can also be caused by long term ammonia exposure, but I really don't know as I've never seen a fish do that before.
I would do 50% water change daily until ammonia hits zero. From there I would test daily and do 25-50% change any time you see any ammonia show up at all. Hopefully eventually it will stay at 0. At some point, with all that ammonia, you're likely to also get nitrites start showing up. So I'd be testing that as well and changing water when you see signs of it too.
You must have had a lot of your bb in your gravel.. can I ask what filter you're using?
As long as he's eating and breathing normally and not acting stressed I would say just keeping on top of his water would be all he needs. You could put a touch of epsoms at around 1/4-1/2 tsp per gallon predissolved if you want as they can help with ammonia poising. Needs to be 100% pure magnesium sulfate. They also have some mild antifungal properties in case there's something going on. Predissolve it in a cup and add it slowly over an hour as it might cause a ph shift. Your plants will like it too. It's a fertilizer for them. When you don't want him in the ES anymore just stop adding it during water changes (won't ever evaporate or break down so no need to redose until you do a water change).
Also using prime as your conditioner (or AmQuel Plus) during cycling can help render some of that ammonia non toxic and help your bioload break it down faster.
The tank is still recovering from an algae outbreak a few weeks ago; the amount present now is about 20% of what it used to be I have black sand now, but the black beard algae has pretty much disappeared now.
I'll keep up with those water changes daily then until I notice a pure yellow on the test and some nitrates. Unfortunately, I don't have any epsom salts with me now, but I should be able to get some this weekend.
Thanks for the information, I'll keep you all posted!
The tank is still recovering from an algae outbreak a few weeks ago; the amount present now is about 20% of what it used to be I have black sand now, but the black beard algae has pretty much disappeared now.
I'll keep up with those water changes daily then until I notice a pure yellow on the test and some nitrates. Unfortunately, I don't have any epsom salts with me now, but I should be able to get some this weekend.
Thanks for the information, I'll keep you all posted!
Whoops, just realized you meant beneficial bacteria and not black beard algae :P I guess I had more in my substrate than I thought...
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I have black sand now, but the black beard algae has pretty much disappeared now.
