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I just set up my 29g. I put gravel and filter media from my other tanks in there. I have a few plants. The filter is an AC50. The tank has been set up for 2 days now with my 8 neons. They were fine until today. I just got home and found them gasping at the surface. They normally don't do that. I put some cycle in there when I set it up. There is cloudy stuff on the glass that flakes off when you wipe it. Also there is foam on top of the water and only came after I put the cycle in there.

Ammonia: 0.25ppm
Nitrites: 2ppm
Nitrates: 7ppm (between 5 and 10)
pH: 6.8

I just did about a 20% water change. I added some wisteria and more rotala indica (also in there is some bacopa caroliniana and corkscrew vals). I also added more cycle and an airstone. Fish are not gasping anymore.

How do you get nitrites down? Let the cycle finish and do water changes?

Last edited by GirlieGirl8519 at 19-Jan-2006 19:39

Last edited by GirlieGirl8519 at 19-Jan-2006 19:40

*Kristin*

Neons can be very sensitive. It is possible the tank has not fully cycled to their liking.

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Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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It is possible to reduce nitrite toxicity through the use of aquarium salt. At the recommended dose it has not been fatal to any of my plants. It may help get the neons through the cycle. Don't gravel vac, the cycle will be set back, lower temp to the lowest neons can tolerate( you may only need to do this if they start gasping again, if you do, do it gradually and wait to very slowly raise the temp after the cycle is done), it improves oxygen intake in most fish. Small water changes, use Prime if you have it, it is supposed to be able to reduce nitrite toxicity as well I believe.
Even with seeding the tank it can take as long as two weeks to fully cycle the tank, the nitrite spike will be tough to get through, when nitrates show up you're almost done!

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

Good news...they are not gasping anymore. I can only guess that there was not enough air near the bottom, where they stay. They are behaving normally now.

I know neons are sensitive, but my established 10g (where they were before the 29g) recently had some ammonia (actually 3ppm) and nitrite(.25ppm) and the neons were fine. They never showed signs of stress. That is why I decided to go ahead and transfer them to the new 29g. My neons are tough little guys.

This weekend I am going to do some rearranging and put the filter from my 10g on the 29g and see if that will help out any. I will also be putting even more plants in there so hopefully they will suck up the ammonia.

Also, I have decided to put one of my male bettas in there so, with all the fish and seeding, it shouldn't take too long to cycle.

I am going to keep the airstone in there, since they seem to do better with it.

I have a Versa-top on the aquarium. It is just a glass top that is split in the middle and the front half lifts up for feeding and stuff. When the top is closed there is alot of foam on the surface. I put more Cycle in today and I think it is contributing to the foam buildup, but when the top is closed it seems worse? Any reasons for this? There is about a 2 inch gap from the back of the glass top to the back of the aquarium (for my filter and heater)...so it is not totally covered. It is just weird.

*Kristin*

I think we all agree surface water movement in a small tank is extremly important, as it is in larger tanks.

My small Eheim actually sucks in air through an external air line tube this puts a very fine stream of air bubbles just below the surface. I also have a airstone set very fine. This is possibly why I can push my tank limit a bit higher than most.

Have a look in [link=My Profile]http://
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Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW