nabokovfan87

Grub pie? I fed it to the pandas. 😂 They looooooved it.

It should be very easy to dip the strip (you can cut one in half with scissors) and then pour the tap water into the glass, get your reading, add the GH additive to the glass and then show any change. Again, some additives may take a while to show full impact though.

You could always use a tote or do one school at a time. There's a risk yes of adding too much at once and causing harm in that sense.

@Goldie Blue your turn!

GH is what the plants use to grow. What color is the GH test with 1 drop added? GH test: Orange --> Green

Is there a sticker on the bottom? That black rubber vibration isolation layer may also be removable, but I can't tell without seeing the other side.

Great point. Your tapwater may have ammonia or chloramines which may also present as ammonia. (Cc @Irene I know fritz has a blog article on the subject, is there any way we could have a "co-op blog" article on this topic to help new hobbyists understand the use of double dosing chlorine and how the chloramine turns into ammonia ions in the aquarium after those bonds are broken?) A photo of the tank would be helpful here to show a bit about filtration and layout. If possible please share a photo as well as all of your water testing parameters that you can perform. Ultimately whenever we have an ammonia spike I always go through the following steps: -If ammonia is 1.0 or higher I do an immediate 80-90% water change. If ammonia is lower, then I will proceed with a 50% water change. Repeat 50% water changes daily until the ammonia issue is resolved. This does two things, you are diluting the ammonia as much as safely possible with the tank. This also doses in dechlorinator one a day, every 24 hours. -Check the tank for any dead fish or invertebrates. They can get lodged and stuck and be very hard to find. -Clean the filtration and verify all equipment is working properly. Add an air stone if the tank does not have one already. -Consider adding aquarium salt. If the tank has plants it is a risk, but it can help manage ammonia burn or nitrite damage on the fish. .....Once all of those initial steps are taken, then you would monitor things daily via testing to determine if this is a cycling issue or if this is a leeching issue. A. Cycling issue: This is where you see ammonia hold steady or slowly decrease with the above method. You will see this go from ammonia into nitrite into nitrate over time. Persistent issues typically means that you have inadequate biological filtration. Adding to or modifying the filtration would be a next step. B. Leeching issue: This is where you would see ammonia rise continuously. This means something is constantly supplying the tank with ammonia and it's building up continuously. Finding that ammonia source then becomes the key so we can get back to it simply being a matter of letting the filtration handle the ammonia via the ammonia cycle.

Very fun to watch and see. Thank you for sharing!

ORD. Hopefully things improve. Let us know how things change.

I would simply start treating the tank like a normal planted tank. Does in your ferts and do your normal maintenance regardless of whatever the testing is telling you. By this I simply mean, ghost feeding, giving the tank time, yes it will add nitrate over time, but it will not be enough to get the plants going unless you're feeding way too much. Keep doing the normal pinch every 2-3 days and follow all of your normal maintenance routines. That's how I'd handle it. Just give the plants time to grow and take hold, give the tank time to be a tank. You can add something like otocinclus (after QT) or amano shrimp to work on any algae issues and have some very light bioload. The shrimp you won't have to QT. Only do 50% water changes given that you not have plants in the tank. Changing too much can do more harm than good. The plants can handle ammonia. Water change is fine, just dose in your ferts tomorrow. You should be fine to wait for the swap. No real rush to jam the tank full of plants. If you run into algae in two weeks and it's bad, you can do a blackout for the third week, then add more plants. The only plant that looks out of place is the val on the left. Not that it's in a bad spot, but that it will overtake those stems around it. I think it's bacopa. I would move those to the right a little bit and use the rocks as a sort of wall against the val. It will take time for the val to propagate out, so no serious rush, but that's all I can see.

About that, yes. First week there isn't any real reason to test water. Week 2 you can test every few days to see how things are going.

Agreed. In terms of the local water supply. Does your tap test any ammonia or chloramines? It's difficult to say with any certainty. The absolute best thing is to avoid storing it near any other chemicals. Things like lotion, shampoo, conditioner, cleaning products, are often going to have some chemicals that aren't viable around the aquarium. I store my buckets, after drying, with a lid and try to set them beside the tank or tucked away. Hopefully you're able to find a place and method that works. Whenever I rinse something for contaminants I will do so 2-4 times and then let it air dry. Agitation of the surface of the bucket or whatever it is is your friend and let that air dry. Once it's dry, rinse it once more.

You should be able to run the test with tap water. Just a known start point and a known change to prove the concept. Some buffers might need a lot of shaking, if liquid, and others are going to need just time to dissolve. I've heard and seen in a few directions where it can take ~24 hours before you see it's full impact provided you give it good aeration. I think a lot of people rely on 30-60 minutes of time for things to dissolve. 1 capful per how many ppm or degree change per what volume of water? I've found some strips to be extremely unreliable and so it's just a situation where it might be best to verify with a liquid test or a very controlled environment with a very high dose.

Yeah it's just the sheer number of territory and the rams you're talking. I've never had a group that size and I would think you'll have breeding (and defending) pretty easily and often. I don't know how acara breed, but it's another cichlid. That's what I was pondering. 👍

They have the charts online in case you lose them. Not perfect, but better than nothing. Here is the API one. https://www.apifishcare.co.uk/pdfs/products-uk/kh-test-kit/kh-test-kit-instruction-manual.pdf Essentially, you count the number of drops until the color shifts. Peat pellets?

Sorry I got distracted with the image in my head and all the corydoras swimming on the bottom. I just have no idea how the rams will do with the acara. Temps for the rams might exclude certain other fish from thriving on your list. If you go with the "river bank" I would be sure to check out some blackwater setups. It doesn't have to be blackwater, but that stocking fits well with your general theme. Corydoras, some barbs, rasbora, or minnows, apistogrammas, etc. For the #1 setup, if you're confident the rams and acara will do well, it sounds like a wonderful setup.

It's there somewhere.... Try to find it. If it got stuck you might have to pull the body to prevent ammonia spikes.

I see hydra...... Run!!!!! Very funny when both the fish darted after whatever they saw. 😂

yes, it may take as much as 2 cleanings per week if the tank has a lot of debris in the water column. I would still encourage you to find a way to stop using the cartridge. You should opt for a setup where you will consistently have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrate without fear. Having tap water with ammonia is a major concern. It could be an indication of chloramines in the water, which would indicate a need for 2x a dose of dechlorinator minimum when you dose it. (Fritz has a good article on this) Another method, which may work well given the size of the tank, is to precondition the water and off-gas the ammonia. You have an airstone into a 5G bucket with your water for a water change. You add a bag of media to the bottom of the bucket to give the water some sort of source for bacteria to process the ammonia as well. After a minimum of 24 hours to off-gas and that should resolve any ammonia in your tap water. You can poke a hole in the lid of a bucket and feed the airline through. Just for the sake of clarity, "if the water is getting too low" and "if I see levels that are not safe" is very hard to determine how often you're changing water. The best thing for the tank is to have stability. If you're avoiding water changes due to ammonia in the tap, then we need to ensure the filtration is oversized enough to handle the added "spike" when you do have a water change and introduce that into the tank. At that point the tank not only has to handle the ammonia from the fish, but also from the water being added. Because of this reason I would recommend weekly changes (or bi-weekly) of 30% of the tank. Regardless of what testing says "it's fine" the main thing here is to be consistent and diligent with the cleanliness of the tank and the care of the fish. This includes the prefilter and any sort of visual checks on the fish for issues. Adding the airstone helps with oxygenation of the fish. More constant, consistent water changes helps to alleviate the nitrate and will give you an opportunity to reduce and reduction of GH/KH over time. This may fix basically all of your issues with these two changes, but as @Mmiller2001 said it's all about one step at a time. Given the ammonia in the tap, I would highly recommend adding better/more media to your current filtration, increasing filtration, and/or using the off-gas technique.

This filter may not be big enough circulation for the tank. I can't say for certain, but if the water isn't getting enough oxygenation it would explain some of the behavior you're seeing. How is the filter setup, are you using cartridges? Foams? Ceramic media? The goal right now is to get maintenance under control. Please share your process for how much and how often you're changing water. With the air stone installed it would help the oxygenation issue for the time being. In terms of a typical setup you should be able to use up to a 20G filter without much of an issue if the filter is deemed to be insufficient. (The most common sign is that food debris won't get removed from the bottom of the tank easily and very minimal surface agitation from the filter itself.) There are research studies on this topic of the long term impact of nitrates in the water. The best guide we have right now is to keep things below 50 as a general rule. I keep mine below 20 as much as I can, preferably below 10. This is the nitrate from fish waste, not the nitrate from your fertilizer for plants. They behave slightly differently. Ultimately, yes, there is a lot of confusion and a lot of "repeated information" from older advice that is often shared. I tend to try to use research documentation and my own experience. I had major algae issues with nitrates getting high, so I keep them low.

I don't think catappa leaves will work long term to lower the PH/KH. You'd want to use wood, aquasoil substrate (even in a bag) or something like seachem acid buffer. Does the fish look like the tail fin is deteriorating? Does it look like fin rot? Do you have any way to test your KH? https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh

Well I can see why it's difficult to find the pleco. Are you still unable to find the fish?

The strip test above shows slight coloration on the nitrite pad. This could simply be contamination of the test from the above pad. Please see this for details:

Let's start from the beginning and then proceed into each aspect of the details. I see your water parameters, high nitrate. I would encourage verifying that via the liquid test if possible. In terms of the basics, please show your filtration, how it is setup, and which filter are you running? I see the full tank shot so we can get a feel for the hardscape and flow pattern. Are you running an air stone at all? Add an air stone at minimum asap. What is your normal maintenance schedule, how much water are you changing and how often?

I would suggest looking into filter mods. Essentially, replace the cartridge with foam and then you'd never have to replace it unless the foam was damaged. You can use one piece of foam or modify it similar to this method. Red = foam Purple = ceramic media This will give you a lot better overall filtration as well as biological stability. Cory has a few videos on the topic as well as we have this thread here: If the decor doesn't have any airholes it's not great. The way they make them in general is that it's meant to be buried. When you add it to the tank you'll want to make sure that the air is completely released when you add it to the tank. Put the item in the tank with the bottom upward and then release all the air by gently moving it to disturb anything stuck inside. Place it in the substrate, make sure the base is buried in the gravel to discourage fish from digging and getting inside.