tank3544 said:
the 10 gallon tank isn't exactly in good shape .. frankly from the numbers i'm not sure how the fish are alive .. it was our first tank and we had zero idea what we were doing .. in fact nobody at the pet store told me i had to cycle the tank .. i only found out after researching what to do for a larger tank .. therefore it was never cycled and no matter what we do now we can't get the numbers down
we have a pleco that is constantly pooping and in a small 10 gallon tank i think he's most of the problem .. i try to clean it once a week with a gravel vac and the bottom is always just covered in his poop .. do you think he could have been the problem in the 10 gallon? if so he sure isn't moving to the new one .. we'll just get some cory cats instead if he's not needed
in the old 10 gallon tank these are the numbers
ammonia - can't read it but i think its around .5
nitrates - about 100
nitrites - about 5
total hardness - 120
total alkalinity - 80
PH - 6.8
in the new 20 gallon tank these are the numbers of of right now
ammonia - .25 - its been the same number for a week now .. the pet store said it was alarmingly high and i should do a water change .. i told her other than zero that was the lowest number on the chart and that she was crazy
nitrates - looks to be about zero .. if anything maybe slightly above zero .. nowhere near the color of the 20ppm
nitrites - again looks about zero .. if anything slightly above zero .. much closer to zero color than color for .5
total hardness - 0
total alkalinity - 0
ph - 6.4 - i'm just about to add some salt to bring that up a little
This kind of response from the fish tells me, and don't laugh, because it is going to sound so obvious that it will make me sound stupid... it tells me your fish think there is something VERY wrong with your water.
So without going into a lot of technical mumbo jumbo, half of which I barely understand myself, two things bug me- so this is where I would start.
First, the old tank water "quality" (or lack of) vs. new tank water "quality".
Which leads me to something even more worrysome- the water itself, in the new tank. You say you used bottled from the store?
Why? What are the numbers on your tap water?
Based on some of the things you have told us about hardness, alkalinity, pH... I am going to bet dollars to doughnuts that water was not natural spring water (not that that would be great necessarily either)- but RO (reverse osmosis) water. I personally would remove HALF of the water and replace it with 5 gallons of tap and 5 gallons out of your 10 gallon tank.
Then see what happens...
Again, without going into electrolytes and a bunch of other mind benders, I think your 20 is too "pure" for your fish- in two ways- but both relate to chemistry and how your fish are reacting. You are taking them from very bad water to good water; but even that good water may have some shortcomings for fish if it is in fact ALL RO water.
Definitely test your tap water to get a benchmark of what the original readings are on that though. You need to know what you are starting with.
