cichlids scraping their gills?

if you shop petsmart go to their webpage and you can get the master test kit for about $14, print the ad and take it to your local petsmart..they price match.

it's not the cheapest but it will work out to be cheap in the long run as it provided many tests and does ph,ammonia,nitrites, nitrates
 
liv2padl; I think you need sub-headings in your essay. :)

I have a slight prob with my rams and my kerri tetras they sometimes flash I think it is parasites because my old tank was gettin some nasty parasite action before I got my fish moved to my bigger tank.

I want to salt the tank but when I add salt (usually i just chuck in some rock salt and let it dissolve and this usually cures minor things)some of the salt hits some of my plant leaves, especially my swords, and the leaves that get hit then proceed to turn yellow and die. So I don't think salt is good for your plants myself, especially amazon type plants who like the freshest of rainwater realy.

What about salt baths? Has anyone tried them before? Just making a small container of salt water out of your aquarium water and putting a fish in there for a certain amount of time. My lfs owner always says its the way to go but I have only tried it with majorly sick fish who are on the brink and they are never tough enough to get through it.
Im just wondering if it is worth doing and how long would you bathe them for?
 
Ok guys, finally got around to getting a master test kit and here are the results.

Nitrate - around 90-95
Nitrite - 0
Hardness - about 250
Alkalinity - about 150
PH - about 8.1
Ammonia - 0

So what do u think?
 
that nitrate is really high. Above 40 ppm is usually considered hazardous to fishes. I personally maintain all my tanks at 10 ppm or less. When's the last time you did a water change?

You may want to start out slow, by doing 5-10% a day for a couple weeks. Because if you go aggressive and do a giant water change, the change in water chemistry will shock your fish.
 
Would extra filtration take care of that problem too? Nitrate is another form of waste in water isn't it?
 
Nooooo, sorry. Extra filtration will not remove nitrates. Nitrate is the end-product of the nitrogen cycle in fish tanks. So the only way to remove it is by physically taking out the dirty water.

Also, nitrate is more of a proxy for other things that can't be tested for that are even more harmful to fish. Such as pheromones and other toxic metabolic wastes. In fact, those silent extras are probably responsible for the phenomenon of "fish only grow as large as their tank". Their own wastes are basically stunting their growth.

Any reason why you're dancing around the issue of doing a water change?
 
heh, well no im not trying to avoid it...
My last water change was exactly 1 week ago and I did 25% change, it would be kinda tough to do a change everyday...but not impossible. So do u think thats the reason my fish sometimes scrape their gills and flash on occasion?
Is there anything else I can do with the water changes to help keep nitrate down?
 
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound judgemental.

One way to reduce nitrates is to add live plants. But they can be tricky, and if they start to die will only add to your nitrate load. But as I said before, nitrates are not the only thing to worry about. Plants will not be able to remove pheromones and other biotic junk.

I'm not going to say that dirty water in and of itself will result in flashing. But poor water quality will certainly make fish more susceptible to parasites and the other pathological reasons behind flashing. With clean water, fish have stronger immune responses due to better overall health.

Have you tested your tap water for nitrates? With weekly or twice weekly water changes as you say you do, and that level of stocking, I don't think you should be seeing nitrates at 90+. So perhaps that is the source of them?
 
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a nitrate level of nearly 100 is indicative of poor tank maintainance. the way to get those nitrates down is with water changes. weekly at 50 percent should be your normal routine concurrent with gravel vacuuming.
 
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