RacerX
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi there,
New user to this forum, would like to say "hey" to you all!
Here's the deal,,,
I've had a 10 gal. tank for about 1 1/2 yrs. with no problems whatsoever. It contained 1 Red Tail/Rainbow shark, about 1/2 dozen various tetras, and a pleco, which grew to such proportions he had to be sold back to the pet shop. We never did any testing of the water, and all fish seemed to thrive in there.
So,,, we decided to purchase a 29 gal. tank and to make a "short story long", bought some new fish, moved the old ones, and killed a bunch of them. We had an outbrake of Ich,,, treated with Malch. Green,,, 5 gal. water changeout per day,,, bumped up the salt a bit,,, raised temp. to the 80-82* range,,, and they just keep fallin' out. The only fish left out of the new and old ones are:
2 - Dwarf Gouramis
2 - Male Fancy Guppies
2 - White Cloud Tetras
1 - Platy
1 - Rasbora
1 - Butterfly Loach
After reading the Ich article here,,, We are putting the charcol filter back in,,, leaving the temp where it is,,, and adding the reccommended dosage of salt which is 2 3/4 tsp. per gal. of water according to "Peter's Ich Notes".
I guess I just included that mainly for background, here's what I'd like to know. We finally went and purchased test kits for our tanks, they are Jungle Quick Dip - Ammonia Test, and Jungle Quick Dip - 5 in 1. Thinking that maybe the 10 gal. was ready for a re-introduction of fish that would eventually be moved to the big tank, we tested it, and the big one, here are the results:
10 Gal.
Nitrate - 40
Nitrite - safe/0
Hardness - very hard/300
Alkalinity - high/300
Ph-Alkaline - 8.4
29 Gal.
Nitrate - 40
Nitrite - safe/0
Hardness - 300
Alkalinity - 180-300
Ph-Alkaline - 7.8-8.4
Now then,,, couple of things. Are these "Jungle" tests any good??? Reason I ask is due to the frequency of water changing in the big tank because of the Ich, and the fact the 10 gal. is an established tank. It just seems kind of hinky that the results almost mirror one another. The directions were followed to a "T", in fact had wifey do it so that I knew it was done right! lol
So,,, How do I interpret these tests, and what do I do about the results???
Any and all help is greatly appreciated!!!
New user to this forum, would like to say "hey" to you all!
Here's the deal,,,
I've had a 10 gal. tank for about 1 1/2 yrs. with no problems whatsoever. It contained 1 Red Tail/Rainbow shark, about 1/2 dozen various tetras, and a pleco, which grew to such proportions he had to be sold back to the pet shop. We never did any testing of the water, and all fish seemed to thrive in there.
So,,, we decided to purchase a 29 gal. tank and to make a "short story long", bought some new fish, moved the old ones, and killed a bunch of them. We had an outbrake of Ich,,, treated with Malch. Green,,, 5 gal. water changeout per day,,, bumped up the salt a bit,,, raised temp. to the 80-82* range,,, and they just keep fallin' out. The only fish left out of the new and old ones are:
2 - Dwarf Gouramis
2 - Male Fancy Guppies
2 - White Cloud Tetras
1 - Platy
1 - Rasbora
1 - Butterfly Loach
After reading the Ich article here,,, We are putting the charcol filter back in,,, leaving the temp where it is,,, and adding the reccommended dosage of salt which is 2 3/4 tsp. per gal. of water according to "Peter's Ich Notes".
I guess I just included that mainly for background, here's what I'd like to know. We finally went and purchased test kits for our tanks, they are Jungle Quick Dip - Ammonia Test, and Jungle Quick Dip - 5 in 1. Thinking that maybe the 10 gal. was ready for a re-introduction of fish that would eventually be moved to the big tank, we tested it, and the big one, here are the results:
10 Gal.
Nitrate - 40
Nitrite - safe/0
Hardness - very hard/300
Alkalinity - high/300
Ph-Alkaline - 8.4
29 Gal.
Nitrate - 40
Nitrite - safe/0
Hardness - 300
Alkalinity - 180-300
Ph-Alkaline - 7.8-8.4
Now then,,, couple of things. Are these "Jungle" tests any good??? Reason I ask is due to the frequency of water changing in the big tank because of the Ich, and the fact the 10 gal. is an established tank. It just seems kind of hinky that the results almost mirror one another. The directions were followed to a "T", in fact had wifey do it so that I knew it was done right! lol
So,,, How do I interpret these tests, and what do I do about the results???
Any and all help is greatly appreciated!!!