inukawaii
New member
Heads up this is kind of a long one...But I'm super confused on what to do next...
So, I've had Meelo for about a month now and the tank running for about 2 months. Before Meelo arrived, I took some water to my local pet store and they said it had not cycled yet, not enough organic material, but not harmful. Meelo loved his little tank and was doing just fine.
Two weeks ago, I took the tank home to my parents (spring break) and left about 1/4 of the water in because I could not carry it. After it was refilled at home, it became cloudy for a few days and it went away. Meelo seemed unaffected and continued being a little submarine and eating is new favorite food, earthworms, from grandma's garden.
I came home last Sunday, refilled tank since it had to be drained again, and it has been super cloudy since. Yesterday Meelo was not being his happy submarine self and was lying on the bottom, not moving, and his gills were curled forward. I removed him immediately and filled up my largest tupperwear with water from my Pur filter and dechlorinator. Within a few hours he was up against the tupperwear wall watching my friend and I doing our homework as happy as he could be (cute picture included). I have the Pur filter because when I originally came back from winter break my tap water came out completely white and took ~5 minutes to settle. It went away after a week or so, but I still bought the filter.
As for the tank, I replaced the filter bag and rinsed the filter (I have my old fish tank filter from my 2.5 gallon). The cloudiness has gone down, but it is not perfectly clear again. It is more milky than yellow. I took some water today to our pet store and said I had no ammonia, no nitrates, not nitrites, and was slightly basic (don't remember the exact numbers). She told me it had not cycled due to my frequent water changes and that I should leave Meelo out until it does.
So my questions:
1) What is going on with my tank?! (just taken picture included)
I have read on this site about bacterial blooms, but there is no ammonia!
2) Should I leave Meelo in there? I put him back in after I got back from the pet store since there was nothing too dangerous at this time and he is just fine, swimming, eating and of course pooping.
3) Can Meelo survive a cycling? If I added a live plant, could it help control a large ammonia spike?
4) My mom, who knows a lot about fish, said it might be the sand, that I didn't boil it and sterilize it when I bought it....I just rinsed, rinsed and rinsed, but it wasn't enough. Will that help if I remove my sand and sterilize it? I know that would kill any bacteria I have in my sand.....but I wouldn't have anything to lose since it has not cycled...
.
Thank you for all your help!
So, I've had Meelo for about a month now and the tank running for about 2 months. Before Meelo arrived, I took some water to my local pet store and they said it had not cycled yet, not enough organic material, but not harmful. Meelo loved his little tank and was doing just fine.
Two weeks ago, I took the tank home to my parents (spring break) and left about 1/4 of the water in because I could not carry it. After it was refilled at home, it became cloudy for a few days and it went away. Meelo seemed unaffected and continued being a little submarine and eating is new favorite food, earthworms, from grandma's garden.
I came home last Sunday, refilled tank since it had to be drained again, and it has been super cloudy since. Yesterday Meelo was not being his happy submarine self and was lying on the bottom, not moving, and his gills were curled forward. I removed him immediately and filled up my largest tupperwear with water from my Pur filter and dechlorinator. Within a few hours he was up against the tupperwear wall watching my friend and I doing our homework as happy as he could be (cute picture included). I have the Pur filter because when I originally came back from winter break my tap water came out completely white and took ~5 minutes to settle. It went away after a week or so, but I still bought the filter.
As for the tank, I replaced the filter bag and rinsed the filter (I have my old fish tank filter from my 2.5 gallon). The cloudiness has gone down, but it is not perfectly clear again. It is more milky than yellow. I took some water today to our pet store and said I had no ammonia, no nitrates, not nitrites, and was slightly basic (don't remember the exact numbers). She told me it had not cycled due to my frequent water changes and that I should leave Meelo out until it does.
So my questions:
1) What is going on with my tank?! (just taken picture included)
I have read on this site about bacterial blooms, but there is no ammonia!2) Should I leave Meelo in there? I put him back in after I got back from the pet store since there was nothing too dangerous at this time and he is just fine, swimming, eating and of course pooping.
3) Can Meelo survive a cycling? If I added a live plant, could it help control a large ammonia spike?
4) My mom, who knows a lot about fish, said it might be the sand, that I didn't boil it and sterilize it when I bought it....I just rinsed, rinsed and rinsed, but it wasn't enough. Will that help if I remove my sand and sterilize it? I know that would kill any bacteria I have in my sand.....but I wouldn't have anything to lose since it has not cycled...
.
Thank you for all your help!
