Practical Fishkeeping Forum - Water quality

Filter advice and water quality for a rookie please!!!

d14vd_h — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:51:17 GMT

Hi Guys,

i have a 60L tank with 1 large lionhead goldfish in it.
I have recently added live plants, including a mossball and some malaysian trumpet snails.

Nevertheless i cant seem to get the water quality or control i and probably my fish desire.

I have never once had crystal water, ranging from milky when everything was new or i erroneously took out too much water or rinsed the filter in tap water through to bloomed with bacteria when my household heaters were turned on last month and raised the water temprature.

I have tried all chemical resources, i bought the test kit suggested my members on here and have used additives to maintain correct levels and i have added seachem clarity all to no avail.

I believe it must be the internal filter is not of large enough capacity. I would therefore like to upgrade. and need your advice.

I will likely not have a bigger tank than 60l due to the space contraints, Max 100l
i would once the lionhead has gone like to have tropical fish

I am looking at the tetratec ex600. I would love your advice both on the filters and my current situation. Also i cannot yet access the marketplace so if someone has a suitable filter for sale that would be excellent.

Many thanks
David

water changes and additives

karenandchiclids — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:36:21 GMT

at the moment when doing water changes we add tetra aqua safe to the tap water which we are not to keen on we would rather find a natural way than using chemicals

can we leave the tap water for a period of time so it will de chlorinate naturally or any other suggestions would be helpful thanks

this is a 5ft fish tank and a 3ft fish tank doing weekly water changes of 10% to 20% depending on water quality

testing NO3 testers

Yardbent — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:18:14 GMT

Has PFK ever done a comparison test ?

yesterday my LFS only had Tetra Test NO3, which I bought

community tank
pH = 7.4 NH4=0, NO2=0, PO4=2ppm, KH=9, GH=13

1... using an old bottle of API #2 which has been shaken repeatedly for past 4months ..... NO3=10
2.. using API new bottle manufactured 02/09...................NO3 = <5
3... using new Tetra Test...............NO3 = 0
this is hard to understand as my tank is somewhat overstocked and should be showing NO3

has anyone carried out comparison tests on Nutrafin and JBL ??

NitrATE rise & brown algae overload

rachyw82 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:40:21 GMT

Hi

My Juwel Rio 180 with Eheim 2213 external canister filter has been fully cycled & totally stable for the past 5 months. I've never had any spikes. The readings have always been ammonia/nitrITE 0, nitrATE 10 & pH 7.6.

I bought a Fluval Roma 125 on Sunday to house my male fantail who was terrorising my 3 female fancy goldfish. It came with a Fluval U3 internal filter, which I'm using as a temporary measure until I can get hold of another external.
It has 3 compartments for media, so I removed the media from the middle section & filled it with Substrat Pro from my mature Eheim filter, and put some plants & stones from the Juwel tank into the Fluval to help seed it. I replaced the media in the Eheim filter with brand new media, but to be honest I didn't take much out at all. The readings since Sunday in the new tank have been ammonia/nitrITE 0, nitrATE 5, pH 7.6.

The issue I have is a rise in nitrATE in my established Juwel tank which has always tested at 10. Last night it tested at 20, tonight it's inbetween 20 & 40, and some of my plants are almost covered in brown algae. I've always had a bit of all types of algae which I don't mind at all, but this stuff looks bad!

Any ideas what could have caused this? Could it be the removal of some media & other bits? I didn't take much media out at all as the U3 filter hardly has any room to put media in. The ajuwel tank is due it's weekly water change tomorrow night so I'll do a 75% water change to see if that lowers the nitrATE. I just wonder if I've had a spike of nitrITE that's caused the nitrATE increase, as this is the by-product of nitrITE.

help!!

tropicalff — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:47:55 GMT

i am fishless cycling a 140 ltr tank ready for a Malawi set up, everything was going good until 3 days ago when it is stuck on .25 ammonia and 1.0 nitrite. i am still adding 1mlr of 9.5% ammonia but nothing seems to be happening. all other parameters are good - gh - 10, kh - 7, ph - 8. this is day 18 now. can anybody help??

My glistening water surface

rat0042 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:40:16 GMT

Hello,

Tried a few searches on here and have been unable to find help.

Over time the surface of my tank gets a slight sheen too it, I can only imagine that it is fat/protein from the food I feed as its worst in the feeding ring. I assume it's not a good thing as it probably reduces oxygen exchange. I'm pretty sure it's not from aerosols as we don't use any.

Other than dropping kitchen towels on the surface, how else can I deal with this build up? My 50% weekly water changes don't touch this surface film.

Thank you for ideas,
Graeme

Ideal temperature for Ranchu goldfish?

Freckles25nw — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:44:11 GMT

Hi, anyone know what the ideal temperature is for Ranchu goldfish? I've looked on a few websites but opinion seems to vary quite a lot, I don't know who to trust!! My tank temperature has been around the 24 degrees celsius mark, but creeping towards 25 now that the flat is warmer with winter heating.

Nitrite and Ammonia Levels Advice Please..

foxtink — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:52:20 GMT

Hello guys:
I have only just signed up today to the forums but have looked around.
So apologies if this answer is already somewhere but I can't find it.

I have had this tank set-up for about 18 months so its not new new..
On the weekend i lost 2 male guppies which was a real surprise.
I have since spoken to my very helpful stockist and explained what i have done to the tank in the past two weeks.
I did wrongly i now know - i cleaned all the gravel and did a 50% water change.
I always do a 15% - 20% water change once a week.
Now i bought today API Nitrite & Ammonia test kit:
Results of my tap water both show 0 thought i should do this so i have a base level.
1st test today:
0.25 Nitrite
0.5 Ammonia.
I then did my usual weekly water change of 15% 8Litres and did the readings again after an hour.
0 Nitrite
0.25 Ammonia
Now i know the ideal readiing would be 0 & 0.
But is there actually a safe level to be in between - for example anything below 0.5 on both is ok ??

Should say what my tank is so here you go:
Water within tank is exactly 49Litres
I have 1 x bristle nose (about 3 inches)
2 x stripped plecs (small about 1 inch)
12 Neon Tetra
4 Femal Fancy Guppies
3 Very small golden guppies Male - sorry dont know name but they are a tiny breed but beautiful golden with black spots.
3 flat tetras.

Many thanks for the answers if i get any.

Andrew

Constant Low pH and Soft Water

shahin156 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:04:54 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm having a little problem with my aquarium. It is a Juwel Rio 125 aquarium. I have 1 piece of bog wood in it and the tank has been running for about 7 weeks now.

I have been having a problem recently where the water pH is low and stays low. The pH is at about 6.3 - 6.5 and the hardness was tested using API hardness test and took 3 drops to change.

Apparently, it is supposed to take about 7-8 drops of the test solution before the water changes not just 3. Thus meaning that my water is super soft.

My tap water pH is about 6.8ish and the API test took 5 drops of solution to change the water.

I have added API Proper 7.0 so i can keep the bog wood in the tank as i want to add a pleco to it. However, the pH is not rising and stays at a low 6.0 to 6.5

Ideally i would like to add a few more pieces of bog wood to the aquarium before i get my pleco.

please help guys.

Can't clear cloudy water

hairymark — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:33:14 GMT

Hello,

I have 3 young (about1.5" long) fancy goldfish in a 60 litre tank. Yes, I know I need a bigger tank once they get much bigger.

I've had them for about a month now & set the tank up & added all the nutrafin liquids to cycle the tank about 3 weeks before I added the fish.

Last week, the ammonia level slightly increased (still within what the chart on my mini test kit says is OK) So, I did 20% water change. Added the stuff to make tap water safe & added some nutrafin cycle.

2 days later, really cloudy water. Today, did about 70% water change & it's still very cloudy. I removed the water with a gravel vacuum so sucked all as much debris as I could.

What am I doing wrong?

eek run out of dechlorinator

20thcenturycat — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:17:37 GMT

Argh, almost finished cleaning the tank and realised I'm out of dechlorinator. For now, I have filtered the old water back into the tank through a net, and I'll pick some water conditioner up tomorrow. Is there any other trick or anything I can do (I'm guessing not)?

Water Changes with RO Water

syd4444 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:02:07 GMT

I,ve recently started using RO Water in my tanks and re-mineralizing it myself. My main tank has a TDS reading of 854, would it be advisable to just do some water changes with straight RO water to bring it down. My tapwater has a TDS reading of 54. When I remineralize the RO water I take it to 350. Any thoughts anyone. My tapwater has a KH reading of 2 so I raise it by adding Bi-carb to bring it to 4 then add PH buffer to bring the PH down to 6.5. After doing the re-minerals my reading are PH 6.5 KH 4* GH 4*

TDS Meters

syd4444 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:51:49 GMT

Oyster Crush

Kitmitsu — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:54:16 GMT

I bought some oyster crush about 8 months ago to even out the PH of the water in my area. The water here has a PH of about 5-6 and after I added the oyster crush to my sand, the level went down to 7.5.

I bought some Flourite Black Sand and got rid of the oyster crush last month and after forgetting about the PH, my water is back to being acidic. As I don't want to add the white oyster crush to my new black sand, could I put the oyster crush into a filter sock and put it into my canister filter?

Thanks.

Water results, have i cycled?

oneblondebrow — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:33:10 GMT

High guys, I have not done a water change on my new 48 litre tank for over 3 days now, the tank is now around 6 weeks old, below are the results from todays test using API Test Kit and Tetra 6 in 1 kit......

AMMONIA = 1ppm
NITRITE = 0ppm
NITRATE = 10ppm
PH = 7.9 - 8
CHLORINE = 0
KH = 7.6
GH = 16
Temp = 78

I have 3 fish (2 Zebra Danio's, 1 Cherry Barb) that all seem happy and are eating, Water is clear.

I also did the same tests 3 days ago and it was exactly the same, Can i now add a few more fish?

Many thanks