ragc said:
Why? these are hardwater fish and RO or DI water without any additives will leach calcium from the bones of any fish.
just have a few questions...newbie
- Thread starter benvardag
- Start date
Why? these are hardwater fish and RO or DI water without any additives will leach calcium from the bones of any fish.
i just got the bio spira and added it to the tank. my nitrate levels were 45 and ammonia was 30. right now they are down to 5 each. i guess this stuff works. so how should i go about cleaning my tank the next time so i wont encounter the same situation?
ragc said:
Why would this be needed?
Hopefully when you get the test kit you can get this thing figured out. But as said before dont clean your bio-wheels. If you are running 2 you can get away with cleaning one at a time but I wouldnt clean them both within 2 weeks of eachother.
It sounds like you have plenty of rock to me, if you want more go for it but be careful you dont want your tank to crack. When you are changing the substrate go ahead and add some eggcrate to the bottom of your tank to prevent the rocks from cracking the bottom glass.
And if you're going with africans you can change your substrate from gravel to crushed coral but your Ph already seems high enough.
benvardag said:
Jeez that water is like swimming in acid. You should probably be doing 40% water changes every day or 2. I'll let everyone else chime in as I've never had my readings that high.
But the point is to get everything on your test kit to read 0(except Ph). Having Nitrate is OK but NItrite and Ammonia definitely need to read 0 all the time. Once your bacteria is established it shouldnt be a problem.
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Oh yeah, that was the reason your fish were dying for sure! Ammonia at 40 is gonna kill anything! I'm glad you purchased a test kit that will help you out immensly. Your nitrite nitrate and ammonia should all be at zero. Very minimal amounts of nitrate are acceptable but not ANY nitirite or ammonia. I would change out 25% every day until you get the levels to zero. After that, you should have a weekly water change of 50% at least. That way your levels stay at zero. If they ever start to climb up do a water change immediately! Good job on taking the advice you were given! :thm:
So...I was 'wrong' on RO/DI water and airstone/plants...hmmm I don't have African cichlids, so that explains not thinking about the hard water you guys use...nevertheless, additives can be added.
Airstones/plants...I forget Africans eat plants...but don't they need oxygen?
Got the Bio-Spira right! One out of three...not bad!
benvardag: I'm glad you are doing fine. Sorry for the other two (I still think it's fine advice, but maybe I'm wrong).
Airstones/plants...I forget Africans eat plants...but don't they need oxygen?
Got the Bio-Spira right! One out of three...not bad!
benvardag: I'm glad you are doing fine. Sorry for the other two (I still think it's fine advice, but maybe I'm wrong).
ragc said:
They won't really eat plants if you provide them with good food, but they will nip at them if they really get hungry(3-4 days no food).
Africans need oxygen just like any other fish, as long as there is some surface agitation oxygen is getting into the water. The jets on my XP3 do enough for my 55 and my 2 HOB filters do fine for my 30. If you aren't getting any surface agitation for some reason an airsone is a good way to go if you can find a quiet enough air pump.
Also want to chime in and mention that your tank is a bit small to be housing African Cichlids...you should really try to move to a 55 gal. before you get aggression problems...
