Hi all,
This is my first post here but the post was originally asked on another forum without success. If know one minds I'm going to try this site instead to see if anybody can help me as a new person to the hobby of tropical fish - warning it's a long post: -
I bought and set-up my Juwel 60 litre tank on 25/03/16 as my first attempt to see if a) I could do it and b) if I enjoyed it enough to progress to a bigger tank. The tank has progressed as follows: -
27/03/16 (2 days after start-up)- added 6 neon tertas to the tank along with "safe start" to the water as advised by the fish shop.
03/04/16 (1 week after start-up) did my first 20% (12 litres) water change.
10/04/16 (2 week after start-up) 20% water change.
17/04/16 (3 weeks after start-up) 20% water change. Tested PH = 7,5; tested Nitrates = 20mg/l.
24/04/16 (4 weeks after start-up) 20% water change. Tested Ammonia = 0.0mg/l; Nitrite = 0,5mg/l; Nitrate = 20mg/l; PH = 7,5.
26/04/16 - tested water again (2 days after water change) and got Ammonia = 0.0mg/l; Nitrite = 0,5mg/l; Nitrate = 20mg/l.
30/04/16 - water was tested by fish shop and their kit showed that all parameters were good so I bought and added 2 x Ghost Shrimp.
01/05/16 (5 weeks after start-up) 20% water change. tested water again and got Ammonia = 0.0mg/l; Nitrite = 0,5mg/l; Nitrate = 20mg/l.
Today (02/05/16) found one of the Ghost Shrimp dead on the carpet about 3 foot from the tank!! They were both their the previous night because I watched them squabbling over a bit of food after feeding time.
The Neons appear to be very happy in the tank, they feed well and their colours are very bright - a sign of them being healthy I thought despite the fact that I can't seem to get the Nitrite down to 0.0. I purchased the shrimp because I believe that I'm prone to overfeeding the fish a little and the shrimp are to be my "clean-up crew" and help solve the Nitrite issue.
I've googled the issue of shrimp getting out of a tank and there are some people that have experienced this but when I rang the fish shop and asked them they had never heard of shrimp doing that.
My questions are (after the long preamble):-
1. how can I get my nitrite down to 0.0 or am I just being impatient.
2. has anybody had experience of suicide ghost shrimp at all? I have read that the shrimp only try to escape the tank if the water quality was poor but I don't think my water is that bad - any ideas?
Again, apologies for the length of the post and ANY advice and assistance greatly appreciated.
Tim
EDIT - tested the water again today (04/05/16) and the results are - Ammonia = 0.0mg/l; Nitrite = 0,5mg/l; Nitrate = 50mg/l - I really don't know what's going on :-(
This is my first post here but the post was originally asked on another forum without success. If know one minds I'm going to try this site instead to see if anybody can help me as a new person to the hobby of tropical fish - warning it's a long post: -
I bought and set-up my Juwel 60 litre tank on 25/03/16 as my first attempt to see if a) I could do it and b) if I enjoyed it enough to progress to a bigger tank. The tank has progressed as follows: -
27/03/16 (2 days after start-up)- added 6 neon tertas to the tank along with "safe start" to the water as advised by the fish shop.
03/04/16 (1 week after start-up) did my first 20% (12 litres) water change.
10/04/16 (2 week after start-up) 20% water change.
17/04/16 (3 weeks after start-up) 20% water change. Tested PH = 7,5; tested Nitrates = 20mg/l.
24/04/16 (4 weeks after start-up) 20% water change. Tested Ammonia = 0.0mg/l; Nitrite = 0,5mg/l; Nitrate = 20mg/l; PH = 7,5.
26/04/16 - tested water again (2 days after water change) and got Ammonia = 0.0mg/l; Nitrite = 0,5mg/l; Nitrate = 20mg/l.
30/04/16 - water was tested by fish shop and their kit showed that all parameters were good so I bought and added 2 x Ghost Shrimp.
01/05/16 (5 weeks after start-up) 20% water change. tested water again and got Ammonia = 0.0mg/l; Nitrite = 0,5mg/l; Nitrate = 20mg/l.
Today (02/05/16) found one of the Ghost Shrimp dead on the carpet about 3 foot from the tank!! They were both their the previous night because I watched them squabbling over a bit of food after feeding time.
The Neons appear to be very happy in the tank, they feed well and their colours are very bright - a sign of them being healthy I thought despite the fact that I can't seem to get the Nitrite down to 0.0. I purchased the shrimp because I believe that I'm prone to overfeeding the fish a little and the shrimp are to be my "clean-up crew" and help solve the Nitrite issue.
I've googled the issue of shrimp getting out of a tank and there are some people that have experienced this but when I rang the fish shop and asked them they had never heard of shrimp doing that.
My questions are (after the long preamble):-
1. how can I get my nitrite down to 0.0 or am I just being impatient.
2. has anybody had experience of suicide ghost shrimp at all? I have read that the shrimp only try to escape the tank if the water quality was poor but I don't think my water is that bad - any ideas?
Again, apologies for the length of the post and ANY advice and assistance greatly appreciated.
Tim
EDIT - tested the water again today (04/05/16) and the results are - Ammonia = 0.0mg/l; Nitrite = 0,5mg/l; Nitrate = 50mg/l - I really don't know what's going on :-(
