Water Changes

[dorkfish]

Nitrates in themselve don't pose a threat to your fish, but they are a sign of disolved organic coumpounds in the water, wich are detrimental to your fish, so ideally you want to keep nitrate as low as possible via water changes (chemicals won't help with the DOC's). So, short answer is, nitrates under 20 is good, even 0 is good unless you have plants, then you want to maintain it at 10-15 via dosing (adding pure nitrate doesn't contribute to DOCs).

 

[slowlyburn]

So what testing should i be doing? and how frequent do i test... i saw the every 5 days for nitrate but is it the same for all of the tests?

 

[Rbishop]

If I could only do one test a week, and...

1) I was doing regular 50% water changes every 7 days
2) I was not overstocked
3) I was not overfeeding
4) And had no other indications of an issue,

I would just do a test for nitrites.

 

[slowlyburn]

If I could only do one test a week, and...

1) I was doing regular 50% water changes every 7 days
2) I was not overstocked
3) I was not overfeeding
4) And had no other indications of an issue,

I would just do a test for nitrites.

Its kinda funny you say that... I have all of my babies in a 55g right now because im cycling my 150g. All of my fish are less than 2 inches but a 7in jack and 2 parrots about 3.5in... I have 1 honduran redpoint, 2 chocolate, 2 green severum, 1 elephantnose, 2 clown loaches, and some dithers that slowly keep dissapearing. As of now im definately overstocked and i cant help but over feed... Every time i walk in the room they get so excited to see me i just have to give em a treat...

 

[slowlyburn]

high ammonia level

Ok so 2 days after my 50% water change i have 0ppm nitrates and nitrites. My ph of coarse is 7.0 but now i have 2ppm ammonia level? Is this normal or do I need to do something? I did not clean my filter but i did however re-install the nitrazorb resin pouch... Any ideas??? Is ammo-lock usefull... Im reading that is converts toxic ammonia to non toxic???

 

[Roan Art]

hello roan art, i see on your posts a picture of a rainbow. i just pick up the exact fish last thursday. i have a just cycled 50 gal tank. my rainbow is not eating, i tried frozen blood worms, freezed dried blworms, flakes, floating and sinking mini pellets. any suggestions?

Would you start your own thread, please? Don't want to hijack this one.

If your rainbow is not eating, he is sick. Rainbows eat anything just about.

Roan

 

[slowlyburn]

Should I do another water change?

 

[Rbishop]

I would do water changes, as necessary, every 12 hours, to keep ammonia and nitrites at zero. Lighten up on the feeding to small amounts once a day.

I would'nt use ammo lock or nitra zorb. Let the natural bacteria develop and establish with out the chemical controls. The most I would venture is to obtain some Bio Spira to speed things up, but follow the directions exactly and only use what it recommends...

 

[crabguy]

rainbow eating now

roan art, bought 3 more rainbows on monday. now my first rainbow is happy and eating. can angels be inthe same tank with rainbows?

 

[Roan Art]

roan art, bought 3 more rainbows on monday. now my first rainbow is happy and eating. can angels be inthe same tank with rainbows?

Please start your own thread.

Roan