hey guys...i was wondering what my levels should be at for 3 young fish in a 55 gallon... i have 9 sticks of bamboo and 5 community fish as well... oh and 2 algae eaters...one of my fish has black on him... had a small spot yesterday and now its noticable...the ends of the fins are also darkening...should i be concered that he is sick or do you think its my levels...all i currently have is ph and ammonia tests... ammonia is 0 or very close to it... test comes back as clear yellow... i do not know much about nitrates and such... can someone explain some of this chemistry stuff to me please...thanks...
Gazoo is now answering questions. Click here for more details
| User | Points |
|---|---|
| shaz | 1064 |
| sunnysdad | 550 |
| vikasdata | 244 |
| parrot cichlid man43 | 153 |
| Peanut | 153 |
| Kolton | 146 |
| maccaroni | 125 |
| butterflikissies | 120 |
| waldoparrot | 111 |
| pinkmandie | 102 |
| Tonga | |
| Spain | |
| Switzerland | |
| China |
Comments
Re: water levels...
My ph is at 7.2 and I keep my temp at 81 degrees. I feed flakes in the morning and cichlid pellets at night. I give a small treat during the day of a couple cut up shelled peas or a cube of frozen brine shrimp. But, you should be careful not to over feed at this point. Cycling a tank with fish and not losing any of the fish in the process, is quite a difficult job. You'll probably end up doing daily water changes a lot of days during the process and you'll need to check the water every day. Ammonia spikes can happen very quickly. The link in the earlier post will explain it all to you. Don't be fooled by your water looking clear and thinking it's fine. You have to do water changes and test the water. When I cycled my tank I didn't use fish the entire time. So, I'm not the one to give you a lot of advice on that process. But, I know other people on this blog recommend a product called cycle to help build the beneficial bacteria. Hopefully, one of them will give you some more in depth information on that process.
thanks
my tank is only about a week new... i am new to the tank world so i doubt it is cycled... water is clear and it looks good... i will do a water change tomorrow... and make a run to the pet store for more test kits...where should ph be?how much does everyone typically feed? morning and night?
tank cycling
when your tank is cycling,doing too frequent water changes can keep putting you back to square one, do a 50% water change when your nitrates approach 40,and keep doing them if the nitrates stay up, once your tank is cycled aim to do as advised by previous comment and keep them as low as poss and do changes if they reach 20, if you do regular changes you will probably never notice a problem, dont bother about PH yet, parrots can cope with a range of PH, dont overfeed, I feed mine twice a day but only as much as they can eat in 2 mins and if any reaches the floor, stop feeding, no matter how much they beg
Re: water levels...
No matter how many fish you have, the ammonia and nitrites should be kept at zero. Some people say you should keep the nitrates at 40 or below. However, I try and keep mine around 20. If the nitrates get much over 20 for my fish, they will sometimes develope black spots. When that happens, I will use Stress Coat to dechlor my water. It seems to help with the black spots. They will disappear within a few days provided the water quality is good.The black spots are normally from stress or poor water quality, could be both. I do 20% bi-weekly water changes to keep the water quality within the above ranges. I have to do them twice a week to keep the nitrates at such a low level. I suggest you do weekly water changes and do one today since you don't know where your nitrites and nitrates are. It might be a good idea to do more than 20% water change today. Just don't do more than 50%.Try using the API Master Kit for testing your water. I use it and really like it. How long has your tank been up and running? Has it already cycled? Here is a link provided by an earlier post that explains the nitrogen cycle. http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ciclo.php Hope this helps.