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anewbie

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Everything posted by anewbie

  1. anewbie
    The plants are not the cause of your high nitrite. Your tank is not cycled. You should not squeeze old filter media into the tank - you should at min squeeze it into your filter so the bacteria gets into your media or better place it in your media - still without food it will die. If you do a bit of searching the vast majority of the beneficial bacteria will be found in the filter sponge or media (depending on type of filter). Substrate has some but not nearly as dense - though you do have a lot more substrate. - Thrive adds a bit of nitrate but NOT nitrite. If it added nitrite it would poison your fishes rather severely every time used. The most likely reason you don't measure ammonia is because you do not have something producing a measurable amount of ammonia. - personally I think the best way (or easiest way) to cycle a tank is to find a sponge filter with live bacteria (any friends with cycled tanks?) and put it in your tank iwth a couple of fishes.
  2. anewbie
    It depends on your tank size, setup (landscape) and specific species. I had nij and after a while the male died but now a year later the female is still alive. I put some hongsloi in the tank - she tolerates them as long as they stay out of her corner (a relatively small area) and even then she threatens more than actual attack. Naturally some species are far more aggressive and some less caring. I can't find much about Mamore or if it is a true species as oppose to a colour morph of another species. I would certainly not buy something that is similar that might cross breed but beyond that i cannot give you advice. You might ask this question on apistogramma.com as there are some true expert on that site who might have more experience with this specific aspito. - As to why i did not replace my male nij - a truely wonderful fish - i'm waiting till i move and can use ro water to dilute the tap water which i cannot do in my current residency. I have learned a bit more about the species since their purchase and they lean much closer to blackwater than some of the other aspito or at the very least very very soft water.
  3. anewbie
    Depends on the size of the angle. I suspect it is not an adult. I have treated my angles in a 5 gallon pail before and had them fully recover when they were around 1 to 2 inches. I would definitely keep him on the warmer side of things - at least 80 (if the temp is cooler then raise it very gradually) - also do frequent water changes with prewarmed water - as long as it is eating there is a good chance of recovery. If they stop eating then it is time to panic.
  4. anewbie
    I just left the old bulbs in my tank when they went dormant and for a while i had no lily and then one day poof they sprouted everywhere about 6 or 8 months later and now i have 10x the lily plants i originally had. Given this experience i see no reason to remove the bulbs from the tank (maybe they will resprout faster that way?) as leaving them in the tank they will eventually re-sprout.
  5. anewbie
    Well one must also factor in what fish you are feeding and what they will eat. I switch around between tetra flake, warden shrimp pellets, northfin krill pro, omega-one shrimp pellets, nls thera+ with garlic .5mm and 1mm pellets, hilarki tubix, spirunlia 20 flake (ok these only go to my guppies) and last but not least fluval bug bites. My fishes have express clear preferences (whether it is good for them or not) on what they prefer. I weened my angels off of tetra flakes for about 4 months but put some in the other days for the tetra (which find the flakes easier to eat) and clearly my angles remember their love for the flakes and swarm them. I have one angel that pretty much refuses all foods but warden shrimp pellets. My apisto pretty much reject nls and will only eat fluval bug bites. My clowns seem pretty much willing to eat anything as well as my various pleco. The krill and nls are a mix bag - some of the angels will eat them but others refuse and the apisto won't touch either one.I like to keep my angles well fed so they don't get tempted to snack on the cardinals so simply forcing them to eat something they refuse to eat is well difficult. The omega shrimp pellets are hard and the loaches don't mind chumping on them but the angles hate them. I am surprise they don't go for the krill pellets. - My swordtails and guppies (third tank) will pretty much eat anything they are not picky which makes it difficult to leave algae wafers out for the pleco since they tend to swarm them. -- Forgot to mention i also feed them repashy green from time to time - it was intended for the pleco but the clown loaches love that stuff. Also the aspito and a few other folks will nibble at it.
  6. anewbie
    Depends on condition of your tap water and the fishes you wish to raise. There are quite a few fishes that require near blackwater condition and most tap (at least where i live) is not near soft enough. - Of course if all you have are swordtails and guppies it is hard for me to imagine a justification for ro water regardless of tap water condition.
  7. anewbie
    Both CO2 and almond leaves will drop the ph - the thing is that when the CO2 goes off the ph will rise. You should measure or have your kh measured. If the kh is low enough the tank can crash. If your base ph is 7.2 and you add enough co2 daily to drop it to 6.4 (which would be normal) then the almond leaves might have contributed to the additional drop and there really isn't an issue. - The calcium you add should increase the kh (same as adding coral mentioned by @Frank); so it is unlikely anything odd is happening and all is normal. - One thing you should do is measure the tank ph BEFORE the co2 turns on in the morning to get a baseline. You don't really want to measure it when it turns off in the evening because you don't know how long it will take for the co2 to gas off and while the co2 is gassing off the ph will rise.
  8. anewbie
    Red Tiger Lotus and dwarf lilies ( Nymphaea stellata ) but they have the disadvantage of flooding the top with leaves. Two lower growing plants are melon swords and red crypt wenditti - both of these will grow easy enough though slowly without co2. A third option is red flame sword but i tend to prefer the look of melon swords. You can try prinz kleiner sword (not to be confused with prinz bar sword) but i have found it doesn't produce rich dark red leaves without co2 but your luck might differ.
  9. anewbie

    Can't beat ich

    anewbie replied to Hotpocket's topic in Diseases

    First I'm not 100% sure that is ick. There is a disease that is often confused with ick but the white spec are not uniformed. Sadly I cannot recall off the top of my head the name - if i remember later I'll update my post. Second clown loaches are extremely tolerant to warm water and you might try a heat treatment rather than medication if it is ick. If you do a heat treatment the key is to gradually raise the temp over a day or two then keep it stable so the entire tank is above 87 (entire tank); vacuuming daily to remove the dead ick and making sure the new water is at the same temp as the tank water. conversely if it is ick you can continue with rid-ick for a while longer but i'm not 100% sure it is ick (I said that didn't i)
  10. anewbie
    First do not add backing soda until you figure out why the ph is dropping. Having it drop and then suddenly raising it is worse than just leaving it alone after the drop if the bottom is 6 (which is not bad for the fishes pictured). More details would need to be provided - a few things that might help include: age of the tank type of substrate kh any additives being added on a regular basis is this a hi-tech tank (are you adding co2)
  11. anewbie
    Check the instructions on the med - some of the meds will kill beneficial bacteria. Fish death would not be immediate but over a day it can be quite serious. I would be less concern about the nitrate test level (though it seems odd it would be 0 even if the cycle crashed); but focus on nitrite and ammonia test as those are the substances that are deadly for the fishes. If ammonia and nitrite were also 0 then that would not be the cause of the fish death.
  12. anewbie
    No. It isn't that simple. CO2 will lower the ph - the typical expected drop is around .6 to 1.0 (1.0 is consider the max that is safe for the fish). Btw if you were to lower the ph by dumping acid to drop the ph by 1 you would likely kill the fish but when you put in co2 your not really changing the chemistry (I've forgotten the details of what is happening here but I had a similar concern when i switched to hi-tech tanks and studied the issue and confirmed that co2 will lower the ph you measure but not change the chemistry).
  13. anewbie
    I would wait 6 to 8 weeks before adding more plants. The primary reason is to see what does and does not grow well. In the end the tank could use a little red (maybe a crypt wenditi red or bronze) or melon sword (both of these plants are easy to grow) but there are a lot of variables as to what will grow depending on water conditions and the mysteries of the stars. As a simple example I have 2 29s that sit right next to each other and one can pretty much grow anything green in abundance and the other well it just doesn't work - the primary difference is stocking but i haven't put my finger on it (both tanks are 18 months old and i've run quite a few experiments between them). - Also as a new tank you will likely get some diatom outbreak that will last for a couple of weeks (if it has not already happened). I wouldn't panic - just wait for it to blow over.
  14. anewbie
    I'm not sure this is the case - CO2 will change the ph but not the acidity or buffer of the water. Also the op noted that her co2 indicator went yellow. There is no doubt (I think) that an excess of co2 was dumped into the tank and the fishes suffocated. The question is why - the regulator could have simply failed in some fashion - if single stage and the canister wasn't full or there was a leak it could have been some sort of end of tank dump - maybe something else i am missing. -- I've been using the co2art se regulators (i think they are around $150) and you can usually find a discount coupon from 10% to 30% if you poke around. I can't say everyone has a good experience with them or they are totally bullet proof but i've not had any issues and the company does provide decent support (answers questions quickly). --- Ok I did a bit more reading and I think i used the wrong term - the reason ph drop in a hi-tech tank doesn't harm the fish (due to ph change) is that hardness is remains stable. Normally ph change is associated with a change in kh and that is what is harmful to fishes. I was going to post a link to the chemistry of it but I'm not sure if that is helpful. Sorry about the misuse of terminology. The key thing is that ph change associated with co2 doesn't harm the fishes but of course change in oxygen level is important.
  15. anewbie
    CO2ART is also an overseas company and most are quite happy with their regulators; having said that I am finding amazing lack of reviews on the ISTA regulator so i'm not sure about the well known part. If it is a single stage regulator than that would be a red flag as one should always use a dual stage regulator. Also it appears (though they provide an amazing lack of details on their website which in itself is a red flag) that it has a custom mount that requires you to use their co2 canister. if that is actually the case that would also be a huge red flag.
  16. anewbie
    Not everyone has a properly implemented sump. In the perfect world it should be impossible for both the tank and sump to overflow but things are not always implemented as they should be.... and then disaster can strike...
  17. anewbie
    I can't say for sure if it is a rubbernose pleco but if it is then his wanting a bit of protein rich food is not surprising: https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=318 -- he will eat what he needs to eat - just be happy he is eating.... Most catfishes will eat a fair amount of protein - even those that like algae and in this case protein is more than a minor part of the diet.
  18. anewbie
    You didn't provide the model number of your regulator so folks are making a lot of assumptions. Rather than make assumptions it would be better if you provide the model number and type of canister you used. Obviously the regulator dumped a lot of co2 into the tank but without more details folks can only make baseless speculations as to why it happened.
  19. anewbie
    Why does everyone keep running to the chicago airport ? Not sure I see the connection.
  20. anewbie
    There are two types of noise - the noise of the flowing water and the noise of the motor. You didn't really specify which noise is disturbing you. I mention this because one option is sponge filters - you can get a near silent air pump (there is a hum) and the sound of bubbles going to the surface. My eheim 2217 is not very noisy but I'm not sure i recommend it. Also I run hamburg matten filters: http://www.swisstropicals.com/filtration-shop/cornerfilter-shop/ As long as the jetstream is at water level water sound isn't too bad and again you have to pick a silent air-pump. If the jet stream is above the water level you can get a bit of water trickling sound.
  21. anewbie
    You have a male cockatoo. It is important to state the species and sex since apisto comprise of more than 100 species and frequently male and female behavior are very different. -- btw nice tank.
  22. anewbie
    If they are dead take a picture before you open the bag and the seller can file a claim with the post office. I shipped some snails to someone priority mail about 800 miles from me (basically 1 day drive). Only took usps 20 days to deliver a priority package. They did not survive.
  23. anewbie
    It is unlikely the BN interfered with the guppies - as for cory - most cory won't bother with the frys - guppy frys spend 99% of their time at the top of the tank (best to have some floating plants they can hide in else the parents will snack on them); most cory spend 90% of their time at the bottom of tank. I have some guppies in a 40B with pygmy and orange laser cory and i wish they would eat the frys but they don't.
  24. anewbie
    One trick for removing a lot of snails (but it will never get them all) is to put lettuce in the tank and then take it out full of snails 😉
  25. anewbie
    As others said kuhli won't eat them but a very gentle lovely loach is zebra loach - unfortunately they would likely go after the shrimp. If you wanted to try zebra loach you would want 5 or 6 - but as i noted they would likely go after the shrimp but it is not a given - different people have different experience. Another loach that is small is the dwarf chain loach but they are quite lively - while smaller than zebra loach (nearly 1/2 size) they are more likely to eat the shrimp.... - Sadly it is likely that anything that would go after the bladder snails will likely poke at the rabbit snail and make it unwelcomed (this include assassin snails).
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