mfischer0210
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2015
- Messages
- 10
Hello and thank you for reading my post.
I received a free 20G tank from a co-worker on August 15th with 8 platy's in there already. I brought the tank home with the fish in a 5 gallon bucket containing the tank water. I cleaned out the tank and decorations before putting the fish back in. I added my tap water that was close to 80* and then added the fish with their 5 gallon of previous tank water. Everything was going great until this week. I was doing a water change weekly of roughly 25%. The last couple days we lost a couple platy's and a dalmation molly we purchased from the store. Currently in the tank is 5 platy's, 2 dalmation mollies and 1 plecostomus.
I was doing some reading on the internet and realized I was lacking in any type of fish knowledge beside my co-worker stating to just change the water once a week. I have really enjoyed the tank so far and the fish. My wife and kids love watching them swim around too, so I really hope I can get this figured out. Today I bought an API Freshwater Master Test kit and took some readings.
PH - 7.6
High Range PH - 8.0
Ammonia - .25ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrare - 80ppm
I then did a 50% water change and added Tetra Aquasafe Plus at 3pm today. I just did another 7 hours later.
PH - 7.6
High Range PH - 8.0
Ammonia - .25ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 20ppm
I also have a penguin 150 filter. The filter seems to get clogged in about 6-8 days and the water starts going out the overflow. I have cut the feed back to 1 once a day and give enough that they can consume before it hits the bottom.
Thank you for any advice you may have! I cannot wait to get this figured out so we can add some more fish in.
I included a picture of the tank.
I received a free 20G tank from a co-worker on August 15th with 8 platy's in there already. I brought the tank home with the fish in a 5 gallon bucket containing the tank water. I cleaned out the tank and decorations before putting the fish back in. I added my tap water that was close to 80* and then added the fish with their 5 gallon of previous tank water. Everything was going great until this week. I was doing a water change weekly of roughly 25%. The last couple days we lost a couple platy's and a dalmation molly we purchased from the store. Currently in the tank is 5 platy's, 2 dalmation mollies and 1 plecostomus.
I was doing some reading on the internet and realized I was lacking in any type of fish knowledge beside my co-worker stating to just change the water once a week. I have really enjoyed the tank so far and the fish. My wife and kids love watching them swim around too, so I really hope I can get this figured out. Today I bought an API Freshwater Master Test kit and took some readings.
PH - 7.6
High Range PH - 8.0
Ammonia - .25ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrare - 80ppm
I then did a 50% water change and added Tetra Aquasafe Plus at 3pm today. I just did another 7 hours later.
PH - 7.6
High Range PH - 8.0
Ammonia - .25ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 20ppm
I also have a penguin 150 filter. The filter seems to get clogged in about 6-8 days and the water starts going out the overflow. I have cut the feed back to 1 once a day and give enough that they can consume before it hits the bottom.
Thank you for any advice you may have! I cannot wait to get this figured out so we can add some more fish in.
I included a picture of the tank.