Newbie questions.

[Mary Beth]

Hi all. I just started keeping fish in November.  I have 4 tanks with fish (60g, 55g, 30g, and 20g) and 1 with just plants. Yes I have a problem! 

So here are my questions: 1. When doing research on fish, some profiles say they must be kept in clean water. Example is a balloon blue ram. What exactly does that mean?  I try to keep all my fish in clean water. 0 ammonia  and nitrites.  Low nitrate. I  change about 1/3 the water weekly. Fish are happy enough I cannot get them to quit breeding.  My plants are very happy also.  Does this sound like I am doing it right? 

Question 2 is about my LFS . Our petsmart is great. We also have an independent owned store that I would like to support.  Great staff but they are only open 4 hours a week. Yes I said a week. I have iffy results with their fish. So I tested their water to see if it was different than mine. Same water source so it should be the same. The ph is 6 and the nitrate is 160 and the kh was close to nothing.  So my question is would YOU buy fish from there or not?

Sorry this is so long but you can only get so much information from YouTube and blogs. Thanks in advance!   

[Kirsten]

9 minutes ago, Mary Beth said:

The ph is 6 and the nitrate is 160 and the kh was close to nothing.  So my question is would YOU buy fish from there or not?

Yikes! Uh, unless your tap water is similar, I wouldn't recommend it. Sounds like they're stocked way beyond their maintenance ability. Sad, but I think those conditions would stress out any fish living there for any amount of time. I want to support local business, too, but not at the expense of animals' health.

[MAC]

For your first question I think by saying the fish need "clean water" is getting at the fish could be more sensitive to poor water conditions. That'd be my guess. But, it sounds like you are doing just fine at keeping your water "clean."  

With your LFS sounding a little iffy I don't know if I would shop there. But that's ultimately up to you. I 100% back the local stores but if it's no good, it's no good. Only open four hours a week and poor water conditions? Seems a little suspect. Do they have a bunch of hidden poker tables in the back room? 

Anyway, welcome to fish keeping!

[CT_]

Sounds like rapid onset multi tank syndrome :)

I agree with mac and I too never really got the clean water thing.  It's not like I'm considering keeping my fish in the toilet.  I take a target of 0ammonia and 0nitrite as a given and I try to minimize nitrates within reason.

 

Supporting local business is great but I wouldn't keep it as a hard rule.  Sometimes a business needs to be culled even if the owner is nice, if they're not competent it doesn't help to keep them afloat.

 

[MJV Aquatics]

As to your first question, you can never have too much freshwater. But the volume/frequency of 'required' routine partial water changes is dependent on many factors. But when in doubt, in this case, more can be better than less. You might up your weekly water change from 30% to 50%.

As to the LFS, I agree with the previous post that their maintenance is poor as to the water quality and if as you say you've had poor success with their fish, perhaps their poor maintenance is the reason. 'Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me'. It's nice to support mom 'n pop shops, but not if their quality or prices just don't warrant. Customer loyalty has to be earned.

[TheDukeAnumber1]

IMO "clean water" doesn't mean much of anything. Unless in the context of the fish profile there is a clearer meaning it's useless info.

Atm the only reason I can think of to shop at that LFS is if you wanted fish that have gone through rough water parameters and are proven tough. I would rather support a great big box store over a bad local store.