Fishperson
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have set up a lot of threads, including:
Am I fishless cycling right?
When to add fish?
and a few more.
All are about my 20 gallon high tank that I finished fishless cycling several days ago. I have 5 bloodfin tetras in there now, that are, at the moment, unidentified gender-wise (they won't tell me, when I asked them I think they got insulted ). My final stock will probably be:
7 Bloodfin Tetras
7 Rummynose Tetras
1 Bolivian, German Blue, or Golden Ram
and maybe an otocinclus if algae becomes a problem, but probably not.
My most recent test (this afternoon) resulted in:
7.4 ph
0-.25 ammonia
0 nitrite
40-80 nitrates!
I did a 5 gallon water change today, and will do another 5 gallons tomorrow. The nitrate test was very hard to read, and I can tell the color was between 2 of the colors, because it was a bright, intense red. I have been having a few problems:
1. My heater is very weak, possible too weak for my tank. Or so I thought. I have a thermometer that is on the opposite side of my 50W heater, and the temperature was hovering around 82 for a while, so 2 days before adding fish I turned it down from "high" to "low". It was still at 82 when I added the 5 fish, and it wouldn't get lower that, so I unplugged the heater overnight. I woke up with it at 74, plugged it back in, and went to school. When I got home, 10 hours later, it was back at 82. That was yesterday. What is wrong? My optimum temp is less than 78, and even on low it is at 82. Right now it is at 81. What should I do?
2. My second problem is not as big of a deal. One of the fish is behaving kind of strangely. It has a tear on its top fin, and it sometimes doesn't eat. Although, one of them is always "on watch" and away from the rest of the group, so maybe he is one of the "watchers". What I am really worried about is whether or not it has ich. Does it look like ich?
If you want to see some videos or learn more about the story of my tank, go to my thread "Am I Fishless Cycling Right?". It has videos, pictures, test results, and more. I will post my test results, videos, pictures, and just general updates on this thread from now on, because I have a bunch of different threads going now, so this will be the only one from now on.
in advance!
Am I fishless cycling right?
When to add fish?
and a few more.
All are about my 20 gallon high tank that I finished fishless cycling several days ago. I have 5 bloodfin tetras in there now, that are, at the moment, unidentified gender-wise (they won't tell me, when I asked them I think they got insulted ). My final stock will probably be:
7 Bloodfin Tetras
7 Rummynose Tetras
1 Bolivian, German Blue, or Golden Ram
and maybe an otocinclus if algae becomes a problem, but probably not.
My most recent test (this afternoon) resulted in:
7.4 ph
0-.25 ammonia
0 nitrite
40-80 nitrates!
I did a 5 gallon water change today, and will do another 5 gallons tomorrow. The nitrate test was very hard to read, and I can tell the color was between 2 of the colors, because it was a bright, intense red. I have been having a few problems:
1. My heater is very weak, possible too weak for my tank. Or so I thought. I have a thermometer that is on the opposite side of my 50W heater, and the temperature was hovering around 82 for a while, so 2 days before adding fish I turned it down from "high" to "low". It was still at 82 when I added the 5 fish, and it wouldn't get lower that, so I unplugged the heater overnight. I woke up with it at 74, plugged it back in, and went to school. When I got home, 10 hours later, it was back at 82. That was yesterday. What is wrong? My optimum temp is less than 78, and even on low it is at 82. Right now it is at 81. What should I do?
2. My second problem is not as big of a deal. One of the fish is behaving kind of strangely. It has a tear on its top fin, and it sometimes doesn't eat. Although, one of them is always "on watch" and away from the rest of the group, so maybe he is one of the "watchers". What I am really worried about is whether or not it has ich. Does it look like ich?
If you want to see some videos or learn more about the story of my tank, go to my thread "Am I Fishless Cycling Right?". It has videos, pictures, test results, and more. I will post my test results, videos, pictures, and just general updates on this thread from now on, because I have a bunch of different threads going now, so this will be the only one from now on.
in advance!