I hope I am posting this in the appropriate folder...if not, I trust a mod. will move it.
Ok, I just recently moved across town with my 3 year old established Cichlid tank. Stocking is as follows - (1) 3" JD (1) Bumblebee Cat (1) 2" Male Convict (female died a few months ago and I haven't found him a home (1) 4 inch Pleco (1) 2 1/2" Pictus Cat (1) 3 1/2" Cat Fish (don't know the species but its black as coal and gorgeous as they come--I think its a shark type catfish) and (1) 1 1/5" African Cichlid of unknown species
Filtration is via 2 Aquaclear 500's
(during the move I ditched my Eheim 2026...it had been on my tank in addition to the 2 AQ 500's for about a year and a half.....i kinda figured it was unnecessary)
My story goes like this:
MY old house used a well, water was good and hard and straight from the tap, I added nothing to my water other than Cichlid Lake Salts. Ph always hung around 8.0 Ammonia, Nitrite always negative and Nitrates were less than 20 GH was around 16 to 18 degrees.
New house has a water softner....a HUGE ordeal that I need some help trying to figure out. When tested with my aquarium kit, the GH is at 3 or less but at least the other tests come up negative and the PH is in the mid 7's so thats easy to balance since I recently bought some 7.8 to 8.4 Ph buffer.
Now I do have one outside faucet that is relatively close to the tank that is NOT on the softener....great news due to the fact that the GH of this tap water is around 13 and all other tests come up on par with that of the indoor softened tap water.
My only real problem with the outside tap is that its just that...outside...and the water temp is much lower.
I have grown VERY acoustomed to my Python as the ease of water changes is remarkable.
I moved the tank in one trip bringing with me 45 of the 55 gallon capacity, then I topped off with outside tap water (treated for chlorine of course). Good news, no floaters after one week..success!!
Bad news is this, the NitrAte leves are in the 80's now. I did 4 small 10 gallon water changes over a 2 hour time span using the Python and the outside (untreated) tap. I didn't do one big water change because the temp difference in the water was HUGE, so I did the smaller ones in hopes that the tank temp wouldn't fluctuate very much, which it didn't...maybe 3 degrees at the most.
Bad news...still NitrAte levels in the 80's.
Now for the questions....( My main concern is the NitrAtes and the temp changes during water changes)
What should I do about these NitrAtes? (Fish act fine as frogs hair as we speak)
Any advice for doing water changes now and in the future? Should I use the Python for extracting water, then use the inside tap for refills and adjust with buffers to compensate for the GH? Or should I do 4 or 5 10gallon water changes once a week using strictly the outside tap?
Ok, I just recently moved across town with my 3 year old established Cichlid tank. Stocking is as follows - (1) 3" JD (1) Bumblebee Cat (1) 2" Male Convict (female died a few months ago and I haven't found him a home (1) 4 inch Pleco (1) 2 1/2" Pictus Cat (1) 3 1/2" Cat Fish (don't know the species but its black as coal and gorgeous as they come--I think its a shark type catfish) and (1) 1 1/5" African Cichlid of unknown species
Filtration is via 2 Aquaclear 500's
(during the move I ditched my Eheim 2026...it had been on my tank in addition to the 2 AQ 500's for about a year and a half.....i kinda figured it was unnecessary)
My story goes like this:
MY old house used a well, water was good and hard and straight from the tap, I added nothing to my water other than Cichlid Lake Salts. Ph always hung around 8.0 Ammonia, Nitrite always negative and Nitrates were less than 20 GH was around 16 to 18 degrees.
New house has a water softner....a HUGE ordeal that I need some help trying to figure out. When tested with my aquarium kit, the GH is at 3 or less but at least the other tests come up negative and the PH is in the mid 7's so thats easy to balance since I recently bought some 7.8 to 8.4 Ph buffer.
Now I do have one outside faucet that is relatively close to the tank that is NOT on the softener....great news due to the fact that the GH of this tap water is around 13 and all other tests come up on par with that of the indoor softened tap water.
My only real problem with the outside tap is that its just that...outside...and the water temp is much lower.
I have grown VERY acoustomed to my Python as the ease of water changes is remarkable.
I moved the tank in one trip bringing with me 45 of the 55 gallon capacity, then I topped off with outside tap water (treated for chlorine of course). Good news, no floaters after one week..success!!
Bad news is this, the NitrAte leves are in the 80's now. I did 4 small 10 gallon water changes over a 2 hour time span using the Python and the outside (untreated) tap. I didn't do one big water change because the temp difference in the water was HUGE, so I did the smaller ones in hopes that the tank temp wouldn't fluctuate very much, which it didn't...maybe 3 degrees at the most.
Bad news...still NitrAte levels in the 80's.
Now for the questions....( My main concern is the NitrAtes and the temp changes during water changes)
What should I do about these NitrAtes? (Fish act fine as frogs hair as we speak)
Any advice for doing water changes now and in the future? Should I use the Python for extracting water, then use the inside tap for refills and adjust with buffers to compensate for the GH? Or should I do 4 or 5 10gallon water changes once a week using strictly the outside tap?
