Hi, I'm near running out of water test strips, and am sick of buying individual tests so I figured I better invest in a master test kit. My strip tester tests nitrate/nitrite/ph/hardness/alkalinity (mardel) and i have a tetra test liquid ammonia test kit.
I'm looking for a more precise and dicrete all in one test kit and was considering the Red Sea Deluxe at bigalsonline. Is this a good kit? And a good price?
What I don't understand about my current ammonia tester is that it gives readins for 0, .25, 1.5, 3, and 5mg/l. Aren't the only useful points between 0 to 1.5 as anything over that and your fish are in serious trouble? My 5 in 1 strip tester doesn't test lower than 6.4 ph and some of the readings on the other variables do not seem accurate enough. eg, your nitrate could be anywhere between 40 and 80 if it's not either.
My second question is that I've been having some trouble w/ my new fish. My 6 gallon Nano Cube tank has cycled and after about 3 1/2 weeks both ammonia and nitrites spiked and when my nitrites read 0 i decided to add some fish.
When I originally started the tank, I used a japanese substrate, I forget the brand name. And I planted some plants including dwarf hairgrass, HC, Rotala, and 2 others I don't know the names of. Some snails hitched along for the ride and so I have a few tiny snails in there as well.
After the tank cycled, I picked up 7 neons and an oto at the local petco - thye looked fairly healthy. Unfortunately when I got home and aclimated them, I noticed one of the neons had noticeable fuzz on his head and wasnt swimming too well, so I didn't put him in the tank. He died in a cup later that night. Then I noticed another one in the tank that had a little fuzz on the side, but it was very difficult to tell. I couldn't fish him out unfortunately since the plants get in the way and I didn't want to stress them out even more by chasing them w/ a net.
2 days later I got some algae eating shrimp for my tank. I only wanted 3, but it was much cheaper to get 5 at their price break, so 5 went into my tank. Is that too many? I want to take out 2 and put them in a 4 gallon w/ my betta but I will have to arrange a few hiding spots first.
In a day or 2, 2 neons turn up dead in the filter intake in the morning, leaving 4 neons total. Fearing that my school may be too small and that it would be better to introduce more neons while their pcking order wasn't completely established, I picked up 3 more neons at petco, replacing the 2 dead ones. I also picked up a healthy dwarf gourami thinking that my water params were still ok - testing 0/0 ammonia/nitrate. Well, 2 more neons died, not sure which ones.
2 days later the gourami stopped eating, I made a water change and thought he was looking better, but he died the next morning. The water parameters read fine.. but a about 40 on the nitrites so I made another 50% water change.
Today, the 5th and smallest neon died - had been hiding out in the corner of the plants, not schooling w/ the other neons, and not coming out for food. I think he might be too slow and not aggressive enough.. the other fish don't beat up on him, but it's hard to feed them with the filter going sometimes. I feed them flake food, it's a bit messy and I would like to find something cleaner. I also fed the Gourami dried bloodworms which I soak in tankwater first, and he liked that.. very happy the first few days, and had a healthy appetite.
Now only 4 of the strongest (and most aggressive at feeding time) neons are left and they seem quite healthy at this time. The oto still does fine, and the 5 shrimp careen around wildly feeding on whatever they find. I see noticeably less algae.
Every other day I dose my tank w/ 1ml Excel carbon, I regularly do 40-50% water changes once a week, although more like 2-3 days recently w/ the fish issues. My current readings are:
ph : 7.6 i think
alkalinity: ~120
hardness: 120
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 40
ammonia: last test yesterday: 0
My ph seems higher than normal, probably due to the recent water changes I've done. Our water is fairly basic and hard here. When I had only plants in my tank, My ph read about 6.4 and buffering @ <80. The carbon additive for my plants drops the ph, so I added about a teaspoon of baking soda every 5 days which would buffer up to 120-180. I've stopped adding baking soda once I added the fish.
Could ph swings be killing my fish? How do I keep the ph down and stable w/ my area's water?
I'm sad the gourami died. Yesterday the plants were bubbling oxygen.
I would like to keep the rest of the fish alive, and am planning to wait a few weeks before trying to add another gourami.
I'm looking for a more precise and dicrete all in one test kit and was considering the Red Sea Deluxe at bigalsonline. Is this a good kit? And a good price?
What I don't understand about my current ammonia tester is that it gives readins for 0, .25, 1.5, 3, and 5mg/l. Aren't the only useful points between 0 to 1.5 as anything over that and your fish are in serious trouble? My 5 in 1 strip tester doesn't test lower than 6.4 ph and some of the readings on the other variables do not seem accurate enough. eg, your nitrate could be anywhere between 40 and 80 if it's not either.
My second question is that I've been having some trouble w/ my new fish. My 6 gallon Nano Cube tank has cycled and after about 3 1/2 weeks both ammonia and nitrites spiked and when my nitrites read 0 i decided to add some fish.
When I originally started the tank, I used a japanese substrate, I forget the brand name. And I planted some plants including dwarf hairgrass, HC, Rotala, and 2 others I don't know the names of. Some snails hitched along for the ride and so I have a few tiny snails in there as well.
After the tank cycled, I picked up 7 neons and an oto at the local petco - thye looked fairly healthy. Unfortunately when I got home and aclimated them, I noticed one of the neons had noticeable fuzz on his head and wasnt swimming too well, so I didn't put him in the tank. He died in a cup later that night. Then I noticed another one in the tank that had a little fuzz on the side, but it was very difficult to tell. I couldn't fish him out unfortunately since the plants get in the way and I didn't want to stress them out even more by chasing them w/ a net.
2 days later I got some algae eating shrimp for my tank. I only wanted 3, but it was much cheaper to get 5 at their price break, so 5 went into my tank. Is that too many? I want to take out 2 and put them in a 4 gallon w/ my betta but I will have to arrange a few hiding spots first.
In a day or 2, 2 neons turn up dead in the filter intake in the morning, leaving 4 neons total. Fearing that my school may be too small and that it would be better to introduce more neons while their pcking order wasn't completely established, I picked up 3 more neons at petco, replacing the 2 dead ones. I also picked up a healthy dwarf gourami thinking that my water params were still ok - testing 0/0 ammonia/nitrate. Well, 2 more neons died, not sure which ones.
2 days later the gourami stopped eating, I made a water change and thought he was looking better, but he died the next morning. The water parameters read fine.. but a about 40 on the nitrites so I made another 50% water change.
Today, the 5th and smallest neon died - had been hiding out in the corner of the plants, not schooling w/ the other neons, and not coming out for food. I think he might be too slow and not aggressive enough.. the other fish don't beat up on him, but it's hard to feed them with the filter going sometimes. I feed them flake food, it's a bit messy and I would like to find something cleaner. I also fed the Gourami dried bloodworms which I soak in tankwater first, and he liked that.. very happy the first few days, and had a healthy appetite.
Now only 4 of the strongest (and most aggressive at feeding time) neons are left and they seem quite healthy at this time. The oto still does fine, and the 5 shrimp careen around wildly feeding on whatever they find. I see noticeably less algae.
Every other day I dose my tank w/ 1ml Excel carbon, I regularly do 40-50% water changes once a week, although more like 2-3 days recently w/ the fish issues. My current readings are:
ph : 7.6 i think
alkalinity: ~120
hardness: 120
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 40
ammonia: last test yesterday: 0
My ph seems higher than normal, probably due to the recent water changes I've done. Our water is fairly basic and hard here. When I had only plants in my tank, My ph read about 6.4 and buffering @ <80. The carbon additive for my plants drops the ph, so I added about a teaspoon of baking soda every 5 days which would buffer up to 120-180. I've stopped adding baking soda once I added the fish.
Could ph swings be killing my fish? How do I keep the ph down and stable w/ my area's water?
I'm sad the gourami died. Yesterday the plants were bubbling oxygen.
I would like to keep the rest of the fish alive, and am planning to wait a few weeks before trying to add another gourami.
