Much to my horror, my mother purchased a fish tank recently. Which I instantly knew would quickly become my problem. She had kept tanks in the past that were only successful part of the time (which lead to my long held assumption that aquariums were simply expensive and smelly lamps). My opinion changed after doing the research for her that she Should have done herself, and desire one day to have the skill, knowledge and dedication to own a specialty tank (like a Discus tank) for myself. The problem right now is: how do I properly care for a tank owned by someone else when I have limited resources?
My mother REFUSES to perform water changes as much and as often as she should despite Ammonia levels that are too high. She also puts in too many fish at once in a tank that isn't fully cycled yet, and one fish has already died (which was partially due to poor handling on the part of the pet shop), but another is starting to display the same symptoms.
I really do feel that the only responsible thing that I can do is try my best to help take care of the tank myself, but would like some advice on a few problems/questions I have.
The issues:
1) Nitrites, Nitrates, and very hard tap water. I have forgotten the Nitrite level, but the Nitrate level is about 40 ppm which is an amount that I have read indicates a water change may be needed. There are some live plants in the tank, but I doubt enough to handle the tap water amount + the bio load. The water hardness also caps out our test strips so I can't really be sure how hard the water is. So what is the Nitrate "limit", and how hard should I push for a RO/DI filter? Any other alternatives?
2) Safe way to pre-heat the water for water changes. Although several sources talk about how important it is to have the temperature of the water you are adding be as close as possible to water already in the aquarium, none really say HOW they accomplish this. In a perfect world I would have a large container and heater that I could leave over night to preheat my "new" water, but alas that is not an option. So currently the only way to really warm up "new" water is to boil a small amount of water to mix in with the new water before adding it to the tank. I'm concerned about chemicals (from detergents etc) getting into the tank water with this method however. Is this safe?
3) A friend of mine, had a tank fail due to his roommate overfeeding them, and due to this let the tank rapidly decline into a horrible state. Now it's my job to help him get it back into shape (since I'm already taking care of my mothers tank why not right?) It's caked with algae and looks rather toxic although the live plants have managed to survive. The filter has been kept running so I assume that some of the beneficial bacteria have survived. The problem is He wants it to be tropical, but it last housed goldfish. So what is the best way to reclaim this tank?
Sorry for the wall of text...any help would be greatly appreciated.
My mother REFUSES to perform water changes as much and as often as she should despite Ammonia levels that are too high. She also puts in too many fish at once in a tank that isn't fully cycled yet, and one fish has already died (which was partially due to poor handling on the part of the pet shop), but another is starting to display the same symptoms.
I really do feel that the only responsible thing that I can do is try my best to help take care of the tank myself, but would like some advice on a few problems/questions I have.
The issues:
1) Nitrites, Nitrates, and very hard tap water. I have forgotten the Nitrite level, but the Nitrate level is about 40 ppm which is an amount that I have read indicates a water change may be needed. There are some live plants in the tank, but I doubt enough to handle the tap water amount + the bio load. The water hardness also caps out our test strips so I can't really be sure how hard the water is. So what is the Nitrate "limit", and how hard should I push for a RO/DI filter? Any other alternatives?
2) Safe way to pre-heat the water for water changes. Although several sources talk about how important it is to have the temperature of the water you are adding be as close as possible to water already in the aquarium, none really say HOW they accomplish this. In a perfect world I would have a large container and heater that I could leave over night to preheat my "new" water, but alas that is not an option. So currently the only way to really warm up "new" water is to boil a small amount of water to mix in with the new water before adding it to the tank. I'm concerned about chemicals (from detergents etc) getting into the tank water with this method however. Is this safe?
3) A friend of mine, had a tank fail due to his roommate overfeeding them, and due to this let the tank rapidly decline into a horrible state. Now it's my job to help him get it back into shape (since I'm already taking care of my mothers tank why not right?) It's caked with algae and looks rather toxic although the live plants have managed to survive. The filter has been kept running so I assume that some of the beneficial bacteria have survived. The problem is He wants it to be tropical, but it last housed goldfish. So what is the best way to reclaim this tank?
Sorry for the wall of text...any help would be greatly appreciated.