New to site, from Australia

[Kwakatoo]

Hi all,

I thought I best join this lovely site since its held a few answers for me in my google searches...

I'm a new aquarist, well, 9 months in. I have two smallish tanks holding a few guppies, two of whom appear pregnant and will soon to multiply!

I've had to "refresh and restart" my bigger tank which had some sick fish in it so I'm cycling it now with the two pregnant ladies, but doing frequent water changes so they don't get too stressed. My ammonia seem to be holding around the .25 mark and I'm 3 weeks in. The girls seem happy compared to being in the other tank where the boys were constantly at them. Ugh males.. Ha

Nice to meet you all!

 

[Alan79]

Welcome to AA kwaka. I've got six running tanks and for the first time I have endler guppy babies too. I hope the ladies give you a nice batch of young.

 

[Mr tap water]

Welcome to AA[emoji846]


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[Kwakatoo]

Welcome to AA kwaka. I've got six running tanks and for the first time I have endler guppy babies too. I hope the ladies give you a nice batch of young.

Thanks for the welcome!

Re the endler guppies.. I have two plus a standard male guppie - so I'm not quite sure what I'll end up with from the females. Can they cross breed?

Kez.

 

[Delapool]

Hi, welcome to the forum I had thought it was possible for cross-breeding.

 

[Kwakatoo]

Hi, welcome to the forum I had thought it was possible for cross-breeding.

Ooh his could be very cool then thanks all for the lovely welcome!

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard. We are glad you found us here at AA.

 

[Barliman]

Glad you could join us!

 

[Kwakatoo]

Thanks again for the welcome!

Finally, tonight I measured nitrite in my tank that I've been cycling (fish in) for 4 weeks.

I had to completely clean and refresh my tank after a store bought fish apparently brought in a disease.. Killed all my fish, then, proceeded to kill the replacement fish! So have been developing a new cycle, and I'm an impatient person... Lol

 

[Delapool]

Good news on the nitrites What sort of values are you getting?

 

[Kwakatoo]

Good news on the nitrites What sort of values are you getting?

Oh, I thought I had been cycling longer - lol, looking at my notes I started the tank 19 June, and added 2 fem guppies 25 June.. That's only 2 weeks. Told you I was impatient!

I've been measuring ammonia regularly at 0.25 (water changing every few days to keep it down. Although a couple of days ago it was down to 0.1

And tonight I measured nitrite at 0.15 and ammonia at 0.1.. After a small water change. I'm so used to water changing.

I'll have to check the whole gamut tomorrow. Without a water change. Obviously the chemistry balance is shifting. Yay!


What do you think? I've put pregnant guppies in this tank, I know it's not ideal, but I've been vigilant about keeping the levels down.

 

[Delapool]

Sounds encouraging to see nitrites coming in and fairly quickly too!

 

[Kwakatoo]

Sounds encouraging to see nitrites coming in and fairly quickly too!

Indeed!!

I checked everything tonight, no water changes for 24 hrs.. Drum roll please...

Ammonia - 0.15
Nitrite - 0.15
Nitrate - 5.0

Blow me away! Those nitrates started kicking in the last few days I guess. There was no nitrate a week ago.

Now I'll be a chemistry lab for the next week or two while I figure out how this is settling...

Any advice welcomed while I move through this phase! I have pregnant ladies in the tank to take special care of
Lol


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[Delapool]

How's ph? Sometimes that can drop more than you want during cycling.

 

[Kwakatoo]

How's ph? Sometimes that can drop more than you want during cycling.

Hi there, I just checked, it's still 7.0
I check it each water change as our tap water is high ph, and I always need to bring it down.

What should I be aiming to keep my nitrate level at - I'm thinking 5.0 is ok, but will monitor it and if it starts rising to keep doing small wc - what do you think?

Thanks heaps Delapool.


Learning the aquarium way..

 

[Delapool]

Looking good. Ideally nitrates should be as low as possible and I've seen plenty of discussion on what that is.

For some sensitive fish 20 may be seen as too high, while in my planted tank 10 means my ferts is crashing. One member was happy with 80.

Personally for a planted tank with common, hardy fish I'm happy with 20. Either side of that I'm looking to make sure it doesn't drift too far away from 20 but not too stressed.

 

[Kwakatoo]

Measured the tank yest, and got nil nitrite, maybe 0.0-0.1 ammonia, and 5-10 nitrate. So it's definitely normalising, and timing is good too, as the mum as start dropping fry!

This is my second tank which has the males in it, do you kno what this growth is on the plants, a couple of these small spindles have grown on glass as well, and really hard to get off. I'm going to take to the plant with some scissors. But what is it?




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[Straick85]

It looks like a type of algae. I used to get it on my anubias nana leaves. They're a fairly hardy plant so i could basically rub them off. Not sure about what type of plant that is, but if it's a slow grower, be cautious with cutting parts off.

 

[Barliman]

This is my second tank which has the males in it, do you kno what this growth is on the plants, a couple of these small spindles have grown on glass as well, and really hard to get off. I'm going to take to the plant with some scissors. But what is it?

It looks like BBA (Black Brush Algae). There's a good article on it here. It's hard to eradicate, but, along with what the article suggests, you might want to try a milliliter or two of 3% hydrogen peroxide applied directly to a patch of algae with the filter of for a few minutes. It's safe for the fish and seems to be effective. You can find several YouTube videos of other aquarists' experiences with this.

Also, I agree about being wary at cutting too many leaves, since you seem to have slow-growing plants.

 

[Kwakatoo]

Thank you both!

Barliman that article was very helpful. While I took to the plant with scissors, it's a reasonably fast growing plant. I'll check out the peroxide option, seems like now it's in the tank, even getting rid of the plant won't help. All good to know, thank you both again!


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