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Red streaks in the tail is usually some kind of infection. The most likely reason for this is water quality issues. 50l is a small tank for goldfish. It is just barely able to cope with 2 fantails. <A 20 or 30 gal = 80-100l is much easier to manage.> The key to managing goldfish in small...

It takes a while for the nitrates to build up. Depending on your bioload, it might even be weeks. And since the test kit has a threshold to turn positive (typically 2-5), you won't see any nitrates registering until it hits the threshold.

I would guess that your tank is not cycled. <Unless you have a daily ammonia log that showed NH3 & NO2 spikes in the 3 weeks that the tank was setup.> You had a pretty low bioload, so it is going to take a while for NH3 to build & start cycling. At this point, with the added bioload, I would...

6 weeks in, you should be getting nitrites. Seeding the tank is certainly a good idea, but in the meantime, I would agree lots of pwc's are needed. During a fishy cycle, daily water changes are the norm. Ammonia binders are really just stop gaps. They do break down so you have to keep adding it...

And inverts also need Ca & other minerals in the water for maintenance of their shell. They do better in moderate hard water (say pH of high 7's). Depending on what your tap water is like, you might be better off using tap, or a mix of distilled & tap. Another alternative is to add a...

0.25 ammonia is not necessarily anything, as long as it is not rising. The typical kit (Nessler) cannot tell bound from unbound ammonia, so if you just did a pwc (or set up the tank from scratch), the bound ammonia from the chloramines in the water will show up as a weak positive ammonia in...

One thing you can do is to ask the lfs what water they use. If they use plain tap water (very likely, esp. in chain stores), you should be fine with your tap as well (as long as you are not in a different town.) Your acclimatization is pretty good, although it is a bit brief if the water...

Since sword tails are central American, you might have better luck searching for ideas for a central or south American biotrope to put the swordtails in. <Swordtails being such common community fish that I doubt too many people are thinking about a biotrope for them.> As for plants, you need to...

Prob. just a mini-cycle. The presence of nitrites is suspect ... maybe you stirred up some muck during the transfer. I would just keep an eye on it, and a few pwc as needed should do the trick.

Hi & welcome to AA! It takes a lot of expertise & understanding to doctor water. Just testing the pH & adding chemicals is NOT the way to do it! Before doing anything, we need to know what your water parameters are: pH, Ammonia, Nitrites, nitrates ... and if you are going to doctor your water...

I have not seen any double tank stand plans, but this is not too different from someone building a large tank with a large sump underneath. Although in your case, that bottom tank is going to be much heavier than any sump. The main problem I see is how you can support the top tank without a...

I don't think the fish cares much about noise or light. <As long as there is some quiet & dark time for the fish to sleep.> However, a tank too close to TV & stuff might be dangerous ... If you are like me, I spill water whenever I do pwc or cleaning .... Having the tank too close to your...

What I did was pressure wash the wood (no soap of course), then put the wood in the bathtub, and pour boiling water over the wood. If the wood had not been water-logged, you can also put it under hot sun for a few days or weeks. (Totally drying out the wood kills most water borne bugs. But it...

You are at ~ 4 weeks of metro now. That should be a long enough course of treatment. I would stop & see what happens next. In general, when using anti-biotics, you want to use a good dose (hence oral or injectable) for enough time (for usual bacterial infection, it is 2 weeks - 3 weeks). Using...

You must have been feeding the metro for weeks now? Are you at the end of the treatment course? <You normally only use antibiotics for 2 weeks - 3 at most.>

No - a little is good, a lot is NOT better. You need to use drugs in an appropriate dose. Too much is often toxic.... If the fish is looking better, you should just stay the course.

If your nitrates are bottoming out, you need more ferts. You can have a higher fish load & feed more -> more poop so more fert. Or you can adjust your fert regime if you are adding ferts. My tank is always bottoming out nitrates as well (I have lots of fast growers). I use KNO3 ... since you...

It depends on what you have to make the solution with ... If you have pure KNO3, then mix 1/8 tsp in 1 gal of water. That should give you approx 110 ppm solution. Dilute as needed to calibrate a test kit. If you are using a nitrate containing fert: Read the label to find the nitrate...

If you are dosing nitrates, you can make a nitrate solution to test your kit. <Or just use any household fert containing nitrates. NB - many contain ammonia, so won't work.> Make up solution of nitrate of say 100 ppm. If your test don't register, it is toast. <That was how I found out my test...

You need at least 2 of those for a planted tank. A single one of those will put you in the low light category (~0.9 wpg, T5HO is more efficient, so you get more light, but that is cancelled by your extra deep tank), which really limit your plant choices. <Plus plants do better with more light...

OH, and the power head is just a small water pump to get extra current. The 2 HOB's prob won't have enough oomph to really circulate water in a big tank, so the power head is there to reduce dead spots. You can also use PH to increase aeration by pointing the output to the surface so there is...

Pretty fair deal assuming that the tank has no scratches & everything works. Do use the old filter media to jump start the cycle. There is a risk of introducing disease if the old owner has a bad tank, but if you are doing fishless cycling, the several weeks without fish in the tank will likely...

Yes, I agree with you .... As much as we all love our fish, I would draw the line at paying expensive vet bills unless that is a show quality fish .... Besides, antibiotics may not be effective ... a lot of these internal infections are either viral or mycobacterium (fish tb), neither of which...

If you have enough water circulation with your main filter (and you should choose a filter that gives you enough), the air pump is just for looks. So you should be Ok turning it off at night. Now if the tank is overstocked, or the filter underpowered, etc. the airpump may be necessary to...

2x is the usual regime.