I had just bought 3 Guppies, and 1 Siamese Algae Eater for my 30 gallon planted tank. The parameters are 7.4 PH, Ammonia .5, Nitrates and Nitrites 0. The Guppies are constantly skimming the top of the water, although they arent putting there fins to the water. The Siamese Algae Eater however, is moving erracticly, swimming upside down, and is laying in one spot immobile, then darting around erratically. What could be wrong?
Bought Guppies and SAE, Going crazy.
- Thread starter Ziggs180
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Mogurako
Aquarium Advice Addict
Your ammo is pretty high, do a 50-75% water change and recheck your levels afterwords.
somethingsfishy
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Agreed. Ammo is high. Is the tank cycled?
Mogurako
Aquarium Advice Addict
Ziggs180 said:
If both 'trates and 'trites are 0 then the tank is not cycled. I would return your fish and do a fishless cycle on your tank. There are allot of good threads on this forum about fishless cycles.
Cant return the fish because the place i bought them is about an hour away from my house (only good LFS in the area). I'm thinking of using Ammo-lock to keep the dangerous Ammonia levels, i'm doing a partial water change, but my Tap water has a huge PH (8.8) and my tank is at 7.4, i dont want the shock to kill the fish, i have well water at 7.0, which im using for now. Btw it looks like the SAE died, i tried nudging it, and it wouldnt move.
Mogurako
Aquarium Advice Addict
Ziggs180 said:
Don't add any unneeded chemicals like ammo lock to the water just do the 50-75% water change and keep an eye on the tank levels. Prime by seachem will help with ammo and take the chlorine out of the water.
I'm dosing the water with the API water conditioner, to get any chlorine out. The Guppies are going down to mid-leve, then shooting back up to the top very quickly. My tank is heavily planted, so i'm not sure why there would be little oxygen in the water.
Mogurako
Aquarium Advice Addict
What's your filtration?
Mogurako
Aquarium Advice Addict
You can have all the oxygen in the world in the tank but that won't do any good if the ammo levels are in a dangerous level.
Dont have a filter, im doing Diana Walstad's natural planted tank method. I Have a power head for water movement, and a heater set for 78 Degrees (Thermometer confirms). I have an airstone ready to use, but i dont want to cause to much surface agitation, since the plants themselves need CO2.
Mogurako
Aquarium Advice Addict
I am not familiar with that method but it seems the plants aren't helping with the ammo so I would keep on top of those water changes, other wise the ammo will keep burning the gills and skin of the guppies.
I'll try and do daily 12 - 15% water changes, I'm going to try and buy a better light system so that the plants can start growing faster. the Guppies are doing some social behavior however, i'm seeing them in the power head flow and lining up perpendicular to it. they occasionally dip down, but still quickly rise back up.
somethingsfishy
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I would change around 30 to 50 percent. Also prime is by far better. I used aqua clear and it seemed to take longer to reduce ammo. Try to keep ammo below .5 by doing water changes as often as needed. But it may take a few weeks to cycle the tank. How many fish are in there?
I Posted in my build thread, theres 3 Guppies. As of this morning i changed 15% of the water, and the Guppies seemed to be doing fine. The Ammonia dropped to .25 or less. The Guppies are socializing/chasing eachother/playing in the curret and by now have explored all of the tank, and seem to be marking out there own ''spots''.
I'm going to be doing daily or every other day, 15% water changes. I'm hoping the plants can eat up some of the Ammonia and do the job for me.
I'm going to be doing daily or every other day, 15% water changes. I'm hoping the plants can eat up some of the Ammonia and do the job for me.
MartinBlank
Aquarium Advice Freak
Plants don't eat the ammonia I don't think.
A "natural" tank with super low bio-load still needs a bacterial colony to turn the Ammonia into Nitrites (and then into Nitrates). That is where the plants get involved (taking the Nitrates out of the water so you don't have to do water changes). The tank still needs to cycle.
It is a neat idea going for the fully natural set up (which generally is more about the plants than the fish, since you can have so few fish). A challenging set up. But yes you have the right idea.. you'll have to do most likely daily water changes until the bacteria can build up... and this may take weeks...
Good luck to you!
A "natural" tank with super low bio-load still needs a bacterial colony to turn the Ammonia into Nitrites (and then into Nitrates). That is where the plants get involved (taking the Nitrates out of the water so you don't have to do water changes). The tank still needs to cycle.
It is a neat idea going for the fully natural set up (which generally is more about the plants than the fish, since you can have so few fish). A challenging set up. But yes you have the right idea.. you'll have to do most likely daily water changes until the bacteria can build up... and this may take weeks...
Good luck to you!
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