Aquarium cleaning and conditions

R

Riddles

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Oct 4, 2003
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Regina, Sk.
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I have had a 45 gallon tank for about four years now and I think that I have not been a very good fish owner. I have been cleaning the aquarium every 4-5 weeks and from the last thread I put out, I think that may not have been enough. The tank is 26" x 24" x 12" and I use a Dynaflo 3 filter system.

I have lost a lot of fish over the years. Mostly because of the aggressive red tail that is in the tank (he's about six inches from mouth to tail) and the Two Gouramis that I have left are aout five inches from mouth to tail. I just lost the smallest one, she was swimming away from the other fish (she was always being chased) and got stuck in theopening for the castle and died. I really liked the tiger barbs that I used to have in the tank but they have all died. I usually had about six at a time to prevent them from nipping and they would last for anywhere between one month to a year and a half. The last person to reply to my last thread suggested that my tank conditions could have lead to the barbs' deaths. If that is so, and I clean the tank (1/3 of the water) every three weeks, can I have barbs again? Or maybe just different coloured Gouramis? The Gouramis in the tank are about four years old and the one that just died was about three.

I know this was really long but I really need some help with this tank. :duh: :confused:
 
First thing you need to do, and before anyone can help you at all, is purchase a liquid chemical test kit and test your water for pH, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Post the results here, then we can help you.

Based on what you've said thus far, however, you probably have OTS, Old Tank Syndrom, which happens when an established tank has not had proper water changes.

You can read about that here: http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/small/ots.html

Post your readings and we'll help you fix your tank.

Roan
 
Big trouble

Okay, I see there's a problem, now how do I fix it?

45 gallon: Two large Opaline Gouramis (five inches), One red Tail shark (six inches) and a pleco (ten inches)
PH 7.0, Ammonia 0.25 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm, Nitrate between 80 and 160 ppm (the scale is kind of vague in the testing kit I bought)

And,

10 gallon: Two Zebra danios (two inches), four Neons (one inch), and a pleco (four inches)
PH 8.0, Ammonia 0.25 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm, Nitrate just less than 80 ppm.

I see that I need to make some big scale changes, how do I do it? :help:
 
I would start out with a fifty percent water change. the pleco might be getting to big for that tank.
 
The pleco is too big for which tank?

I just did a 50% water change last night in the 10 gallon tank and a 30% water change in the 45 Gallon tank last night as well. Should I use some kinds of products to get the levels to a safer amount? i'm just worried about overusing products and making things worse.
 
Sorry about that,I meant the pleco in the 45 gal. I would do water changes and test the water after every change. Ammonia should be 0 ppm,nitrites 0 ppm,and nitrates 0-20 ppm.
 
Seeing as you have an ammonia reading of 0.25 in both tanks, you may also want to check your tap water reading and post those results as well. Also what type of water conditioner do you use?
 
WAIT!
Read the link I gave you and go easy on the water changes!

Too much too soon can shock and kill your fish. Slow and easy does it :)

Start with 25% changes. One per day for at LEAST 3 days, a week is better. Work into 50% changes and keep up with those until your nitrates are back down to less than 20ppm.

Keep up the water changes on a weekly basis.

Make sure you use Prime or Amquel+ to treat the change water. Post your results here after every change so we can see how it's going.

Please test your tap water as well and post those results here. We need to compare the tap with the tank to see if that ammonia is a true reading or not.

Roan
 
Should I change the filter each time that I am doing a water change? Are Prime and Amquel+ conditioners that should be added each time? I know that i sound really stupid right now but I am willing to start back at square one. I think that the OTS was a correct diagnosis.
 
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