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Eric R

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Everything posted by Eric R

  1. [I got a like from @DShelton before, so I'm going to assume that my previous post was at least mostly correct. I'll make an attempt to explain further, but please someone correct me if I'm wrong!] pH is a measure of the amount of hydrogen ions (H+) in a solution (in this case, water), when there is more H+, it's more acidic, when there is less H+ it's less acidic (more alkaline). I think most of us know that water is H2O. But some of that hydrogen and oxygen is present as ions in the water, like H+ (hydrogen ion), OH- (hydroxide ion), or even H3O+ (hydronium). You can also think of pH as the ratio of hydrogen ions to hydroxide ions. When you have a pH of exactly 7, the hydrogen ions (H+) and hydroxide ions (OH-) are equal. When you have a pH of 0, you have pretty much only hydrogen ions, and when you have a pH of 14, you have pretty much only hydroxide ions. This is why adding carbonates, like calcium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) raises KH and pH in our aquariums, since they have some amount of free hydrogen ions still. I thought that this was an interesting table that shows the relationship between the amount of hydrogen and hydroxide ions in water and its pH. [Source]
  2. [Hopefully this explanation below can help to demystify the issue a bit. My chemistry is okay, but not great, so someone (*cough* @DShelton *cough*) please correct me if any of this is wrong!] KH is a measure of carbonate and bicarbonate ions in your water. It's the carbonate hardness, from the German word for carbonate. Along with GH (which stands for general hardness, and measures calcium, magnesium, and other ions in your water), this makes up the "hardness" in water. Acids are things that can add hydrogen ions to water (tannins have these, which is why leaves and wood can lower pH). Hydrogen ions are positively charged, and will bond with negative ions, like carbonate and bicarbonate. Thus, KH serves as a buffer, because it keeps acids from lowering your water's pH (which is a measure of how acidic or alkaline your water is, with smaller numbers below 7 being more acidic). This is why it's really difficult to lower the pH of your water if it has any hardness in it. Most people that have hard water and want to lower their pH use distilled water they buy from the store, or they buy an RO unit so that their water has no hardness in it, and thus no buffering capacity. On the other hand, if you wanted to raise your ph or kh, you can use something like crushed coral or aragonite (which are mostly calcium carbonate) or baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to add carbonates to your water, which increases carbonates (aka "buffering"), reduces H+ (hydrogen ions), and raises pH. This is a good article with a little more information. https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/frequently-asked-questions-on-lowering-hardness/ @Ponyoryx, I agree with the other posters, I don't think your hardness or pH seem so high that it should affect your crypts in the long term. They may just take a while to adjust to your water parameters. And I think your fish should be fine in those parameters.
  3. I just did a 30% water change. I haven't done one for about 5 days, since the middle of the treatment when I had a small nitrite spike from the Maracyn. I figured new water couldn't hurt. I add baking soda and epsom salt to my tap water for my Tang tanks, to increase kh/gh/ph. Tap is from a well that has a micron filter. The other two Tang tanks are doing fine, parameters are all very similar. I want to add them all to a 55g to create a community tank, but I want to make sure that the Paracyps are doing well first.
  4. So I've lost three fish in the last three weeks, and I have yet to identify the cause, and it's really starting to bother me. A lot. I recently treated the tank with Maracyn and ParaCleanse, though I haven't observed any symptoms other than a sudden loss of appetite, hiding under rocks, and then overnight finding them dead on the bottom of the tank. Parameters all check out fine (amm 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 5-10 kh 14 gh 18 ph 8.0 temp 77). It's a partially filled 29g (has about 22g in in right now I'd guess) with currently 5, likely soon to be 4 Paracyprichromis nigripinnis (neon blue herring cichlid), from Lake Tanganyika. These are captive bred, I got them shipped to me about 2 months ago. I originally had 8, lost one a few days after shipping that probably just didn't ship well, these are known to be sensitive shippers. The other 7 seemed fine until about 2 or 3 weeks ago, when they started dying. I've been feeding a mixture of crushed Xtreme krill flakes, bbs, and microworms 3 or 4 times a day. Some of them still seem quite skinny, though others are starting to round out. The ones that I've found dead usually are on the skinnier side. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to solve this problem? Also, what should I do about the one that seems near death on the bottom of the tank? It's kind of on it's side, breathing slowly, but it's occasionally moving around the tank. It doesn't seem interested in eating unfortunately. I've never had much luck with using a hospital tank, I usually just try treating in whatever tank the sick fish is in, if it is in need of treatment.
  5. It's likely you just got a bad unit, I haven't had any noticable problems with mine yet. With most of the cheap things we get these days, quality control and longevity are going to be issues. You could try the non-wifi model. Ranco makes high quality industrial grade thermostats with temperature probes that some reef keepers use - you either have to wire the plug in yourself or you can buy ones prewired if you search for Ranco aquarium heater controllers. They don't come wifi equipped though. If you want something with wifi, you could get a used older model apex controller with a temperature probe.
  6. Agree with everything that's been recommended so far. I insta cycle all my new tanks by transferring over enough existing plants and filter media for the new bioload. Works great unless you need to add a bunch of fish at once and don't have enough established plants or media. You can add a decent bacteria starter like Fritz 7 in such a case to help things along.
  7. Ah good call @Isaac M! I didn't see the fluffy white tail or long ears, otherwise I would've guessed that as well.
  8. Looks like a Malaysian trumpet snail (MTS) to me.
  9. I've often heard that a cooler water change during a storm can induce corydoras to spawn. I wonder if that was part of the cause here? Anyways, congratulations!! Cory babies are very cute.
  10. So just an update. The bacteria bloom cleared up after a couple days, never ended up with detectable nitrite or ammonia the second time. I did snap a picture of the second bacteria bloom, and the other tank I was treating with the med trio that didn't get the bloom for comparison.
  11. Sounds like you had a bacterial bloom, and ended up with a mini-cycle where you didn't have enough BB to convert nitrite to nitrate. I would have done a large water change (50%+) and then redosed meds (this just happened in one of my tanks, where I was dosing Maracyn and ParaCleanse). It seems that Maracyn is usually the culprit when this happens. It also sounds possible that it may not have been a swim bladder issue, but a sign that the fish had nitrite poisoning. Fish will swim up to the top of the tank when there are excess levels of nitrite in the tank because they are having trouble breathing and are trying to get more oxygen. [See this article for a lot of excellent information about nitrite: https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/frequently-asked-questions-on-nitrite/] In addition to water changes, you can also try dosing very low levels of non-iodine or aquarium salt, as the salt reduces the toxicity of the nitrite by interfering with how it affects the bloodstream in fish. Corys can be salt sensitive, so this may or may not be the best option, depending on the condition of the fish and whether you are able to reduce nitrites successfully with a water change.
  12. Yup! I second the inkbird controllers. They have wifi enabled and non-wifi options (non-wifi are cheaper), and they have single and dual probe options. I have heard occasionally of one of the probes going out of calibration, and the dual probe options check the temperature between each probe and issues an alarm if they get too different from each other. And unless you want to run a chiller or fan in addition to a heater, you don't need the ones that can control both heating and cooling, just heating.
  13. If you want to read more about black water and pH, I suggest reading the following: https://tanninaquatics.com/blogs/the-tint-1/that-ph-thing-again
  14. @Tyler LaZerte with a kh that high, I'd be very surprised if your ph changed much if at all just from you adding alder cones. I recommend just adding the alder cones a bit at a time until you get the desired tint that you are looking for, all the while checking kh and pH. My guess is that you may slightly lower kh and that pH won't change and that your snails will be fine. Don't worry about the aragonite unless you see dkh get below 4 or pH drop below 7.
  15. What's the kh and pH of the water you use for your water changes? Unless you have fairly low kh pH water to start with, you shouldn't notice any detectable decrease in pH. Most people (myself being one of them) that have hard water and want to reduce their pH have to use RO or distilled water to significantly decrease their kh first.
  16. Is it possible to loosen the plywood on the one side and use shims to level that side of the shelf?
  17. If you need to run an extension cord to the heater, use one rated for outside use and you can get a clamshell cover to cover the connection between the heater cord and the extension cord.
  18. Dr Tim of Dr Tim's one and only addressed a question about bacterial survival in this post here: https://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=246181&start=15 I agree, your filter should be fine hooked up while you go to get the fish.
  19. Also, here's an interesting discussion on whether Prime (or any or the related water conditioners/ammonia detoxifiers, like Amquel Plus) can detoxify nitrite and nitrate as well as ammonia. [I don't know how to paste just the link without it showing the whole first post. Click on the post to take you to the whole thread].
  20. So I woke up this morning to another bloom. No detectable ammonia or nitrite levels at this point, so I'm just going to continue monitoring. I may add some marine salt mix to the tank, since apparently it helps to reduce nitrite toxicity (along with elevated calcium levels) https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/frequently-asked-questions-on-nitrite/ If my calculations are correct, ~1/8 of a tsp of salt per 10 gallons should be enough to reduce the toxicity of 1ppm of nitrite. [Copied and pasted from above link] What can I add to make nitrite less toxic to the fish? Aquarium salt (sodium chloride) has long been used as an aid to reducing the toxicity of nitrite, because it has been shown to prevent methaemoglobinemia under certain conditions. Some fishkeepers don't like using salt, but in my experience, when used at the correct dosage, it's never caused problems for any fish, even stereotypically salt-intolerant species. A fairly low level of salt can have a significant effect on reducing the toxicity of nitrite, so you don't need to add very much. Research suggests a 10:1 dose (just 10mg/l of salt per 1mg/l nitrite) is effective for most freshwater species. The addition of salt for controlling disease or osmoregulatory problems does need higher doses! Why does adding salt help? The addition of salt provides chloride which reduces both the methaemoglobinemia and the toxicity of nitrite in the blood. However, interestingly, although the chloride has always been provided via sodium chloride, more recent research suggests that calcium chloride can work as well, if not better, because the additional calcium is also thought to decrease gill permeability, which prevents as much nitrite entering the blood. For this reason, fishes kept in water with a higher calcium and chloride level, are usually less sensitive to nitrite than those in freshwater with a low chloride and calcium concentration - but many marines remain sensitive. Theoretically, fish kept in warm, soft water (ie. Discus) are most at risk, but nitrite can and does kill fish in all water conditions.
  21. So I have had 7 Paracyprichromis nigripinnis (Blue neon herring cichlid) in a tank by themselves for about 6 weeks. I had no deaths for the first 4 weeks (except one a few days after they arrived, I don't think it handled the overnight shipping well - I ordered 8 and it was pale and lethargic compared to the others). Then I had one die with no symptoms, parameters were all perfect (0 amm. 0 nitr. 5-10 nitr. dkh 14 dgh 18 ph 8.0 temp 77), then another several days later, still no symptoms. So I decided to treat with Maracyn and ParaCleanse, per Aquarium Coop treatment suggestions on Wednesday, after vacuuming the tank and doing a water change. I haven't fed since then, and I noticed a bacterial bloom this evening. Tested parameters, sure enough I had detectable nitrite (0 amm. 0.25 nitr. 10 nitr. dkh 14 dgh 18 ph 8.0 temp 77). So I did a 70% water change, being sure to match the parameters before changing. I find this interesting, as @Bill Smith mentioned in a post that he always has bacterial blooms after a Maracyn treatment. I add baking soda and epsom salt to my tap for this tank, since its a Tanganyikan tank. Bill's thought that he gets bacteria blooms while Aquarium Coop didn't in their testing was due to his water hardness. Curious if that could be the case here, since I have such hard water in this tank? I'm also currently treating a 5.5 gallon tank with a group of 9 juvenile white clouds that I just purchased, I haven't yet had a bloom in that tank, but it just has water from my tap, which is sourced from our well (7.4 ph, 4 dkh, 7 dgh). I also am treating that one prophylactically with Ich-X, which I'm not doing is this tank, since none of the fish have shown signs of Ich. I am planning to follow the current treatment with a course of Ich-X for this tank, I was just spacing them out since the Paracyps seem to be more sensitive.
  22. Congrats fish momma! At half an inch, you could also try seeing if it will eat crushed flake food.
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