How does my brother do it?

PuppyFluffer

PuppyFluffer

AC Members
Jan 9, 2008
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16
east coast USA
:wall:
My brother has had fish on and off since we were kids. I talked to him recently when I began to get interested in setting up a tank. I was asking him questions about the cycle and getting thing established and he told me he doesn't bother with all of that. He sets up the tank and lets it sit for a while (days to a week or two) then goes to the LFS and buys what appeals to him with no real consideration of their habits.

I just visited him this weekend and took along my API liquid test kit for kicks.

His pH is 7.4
Ammonia was at 1.0
Nitrite was 0
Nitrate was about 30

29 gallon tank
stocked with:
1 large angel
4 small angels
1 neon ( had a few more but I suspect the large angel ate them)
1 killifish
1 female betta
1 pygmy cory
2 silver dollars
2 rainbow fish

He does not gravel vac. From talking to his wife, he just tops off the evaporated water.

Oh, and it gets worse...he's only got an AquaClear mini filter on the tank, so he's underfiltering it and it's only got the sponge and the carbon in it, no ceramic beads that go on top in the filter.

He also has a 20 tall tank that is up and runing with an AquaClear 150. I told him he really needs to switch the filters on the tanks as the mini is only designed for a 10 gallon I think.

So, how does he manage to keep fish alive?
 
Gradual deterioration is not going to really harm and kill the fish but if he tries to clean everything over, the fish simply dies from shock of the extreme changes in its surroundings.

Is the tank heavily planted? The nitrates is surprising and so is the ammonia.
 
This particular tank has been set up for about 4 weeks. He had the tank just sitting around empty and after talking to me, he got inspired to set it up. He had the 20 tall running with fish but it was really dirty apparently so he set up the 29 and moved the large angel into it. I think he got rid of the other fish; he took some to the LFS and he released the tinfoil barb into the pond. I know, I gave him a real blast about releasing the fish. He said the bass in there probably ate him immediately. He totally didn't get it about why you don't release captive kept fish into any body of water. I know he had a red tailed shark in the 20.

So, he cleaned out the 20 and has it set up with no fish yet. The 29 has been going for about 4 weeks with fish.
 
No plants. The 29 has gravel substrate and artificial plants.

I was not surprised by the ammonia as the tank is only 4 weeks old. I was surprised by no nitrite yet nitrate. What does this tell you about where in the cycle things are?

With high ammonia and no nitrite, I would have guessed he was in the first part of the cycle. GEtting a nitrate reading that high suprised me.

He's on well water. The only thing he adds to his water is aquarium salt and a product to adjust the pH.
 
I think he is going to start seeing problems too. I just hope he's not too smug to admit them to me. He lives 6 hours away from me.

He's not a stupid guy, he's just set in his ways. This is how his done it all along and he's not going to change just because I have done some reading on the internet and showed up with some fancy test kit, by golly!
 
The aquarium salt is just salt in a fancy package at a high cost. And that pH adjusting product is useless. I was only surprised by ammonia until I found out it was up for only four weeks. Luck can only get you far.:huh:
 
And I think I'm rightfully annoyed by him since I've gone through a tank set up three times and had problems. The first time I got bad advice from the LFS and lost 5 neons. I tried again, correctly this time thanks to this forum, and lost 3 of the 5 guppies. I set up a different tank and had problems with it as well.....I've lost 5 fish out of the 10 I started with (platys and guppies).

I'm testing water every day, doing PWC daily etc....and still having losses here and there yet he throws everyone in, doesn't own a test kit, never tests, tops off his tank and they live. It's aggravating to me. It's also aggravating that he is reisitant to doing it the right way.
 
ya i pretty sure his fish will slowly die off one by one over time if he cont. his in my eyes lazy ways i mean i am lazy but i change water alot and have correct filter sizes
 
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