advice on how im taking care of my freshwater tank

[sbundy]

am i doing this right

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hello everyone

my tank has been up and running for about 1 year and 3 months. ive had my fish for about 1 year now. there has been 2 mysterious deaths in the past 4 months but everything else seems fine. i do 20% water changes every month. i try to remove brown algea every week or so on the glass. i change the media filter about every 6 months. my fish seem to be very healthy. is there anything else or different that i should be doing? i say why change something thats working fine but id still like different opinions. my fish have grown since day 1 but is there a way to make them grow faster. i only feed once a day where they eat between 1 to 2 minutes. not feeding so much gives me the opportunity to clean once a month. Thanks for your input

stephane

69gallon freshwater
fluval 304 filter
plastic plants

2 rosy barbs
1 red torpedo barb
2 blue jack demphseys
1 white molly
1 red rainbow
1 boesmani rainbow
2 clown loaches
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69 gallon freshwater

2 yellow gouramis, 2 red rainbows, 2 boesmani rainbows, 1 red tail rainbow, 1 madagascar rainbow, 2 cherry barbs, 2 red torpedo barbs, 2 silver mollies

 

[tropicfishman]

instead of 20% water changes every month, you should really be doing 25 % water changes weekly, that includes sweeping the gravel witha gravel vaccum. this way you could go with feeding twice a day, which I think is healthier for your fish. other than that I might suggest instead of every 6 months on filter cleaning, try cleaning it every month and replacing the the media every 3 months. When you clean the media be sure to use some the tanks water in a bucket so your beneficial bacteria doesn't die off. HTH

 

[JTAM963]

i think all can go along fine except the jack dempseys. They may be fine if they are younger but I've seen some full grown dempseys that are super aggressive, better kept outstide of community tanks..Plus feed once in morning and once at night and feed variety..

 

[Zagz]

Welcome to AA! Glad to have you here.

First I second the 25% per week water changes. Another great investment would be a master FW testing kit . Knowing your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels will help keep your tank up and running.

Once every couple of months I recommend rinsing out the media in the 304.

The jack dempsey's may very well become aggressive as they grow. Keep an eye on them and provide plenty of hiding spots for the other fish.

To help your fish grow, feed them flake foods, and a variety of veggies to keep them healthy. Here is an article on how to feed your fish veggies.

Some people prefer to feed twice a day, I feed once a day myself. What temp do you keep your tank at?

 

[Diablos]

The research I have done on blue jd's leads me to believe it might be ok. They are suppose to be much more relaxed in temperment. Just my 2 cents!

 

[Jarred Darque]

25% a week? That is more than I have ever done or ever been recommended or ever recommended.

I would suggest 10% per week, or 25% every 2 weeks

 

[sbundy]

thanks for all your answers. my temperature is steady at 80 f and i have a test kit and i test my water every month. 0 amonia and 0 nitrites .... i was told that the blue jack demphseys are not at all as agressive as others....

thanks

 

[Zagz]

25% a week? That is more than I have ever done or ever been recommended or ever recommended.

I would suggest 10% per week, or 25% every 2 weeks

FWIW, many if not most members at AA do 25-50% per week.I've had 10 tanks running for 2 years at 50% per week. More water changes never harm a fish.

 

[cabezon]

yup, weekly 50%er here. If you are changing water, then change the water.

 

[neilanh]

40-50% weekly here too.

 

[sbundy]

Thank you all for your responses and your help! I will take everyones advice and do more frequent water changes, perhaps 20-25% every 2 weeks. It is a pretty big tank(69g) and i assume that should be enough as well as vaccuming the gravel. Is that ok? Now more specifically, i performed a 20-25% water change saturday feb 24th 2007 and on sunday feb 25th i changed all media filter and spounges in the fluval 304. That probably counted for a big clean up so when do you suggest i do my next water change to start off my 2 week routine? Any opinions will be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks
steph

 

[buttercup]

water changes depends on your bioload and the general tank environment. When i had my 55 gallon up and running (it belongs to my ball python now) i did about 30 % water changes weekly to keep my nitrates down. But that was in a low stocked unplanted tank. In my 12 gallon PLANTED tank i probably do a 20-50% water change only on a monthly basis and at that time i rinse out my filter. Simply becuase my nitrates stay in a healhty range becuase of all the plants.

Also in the planted tank i feed daily to every other day, giving frozen foods a couple of times a week and putting in some sort of veggie every week... zuchinni, squash or cucumber. Overfeeding can cause murky water, high nitrates, algae blooms, and be a pain to clean.. also if you have snails overfeeding can cause the population to explode. Fish are coldblooded and don't really have to be fed "twice daily"... and there are times when i haven't fed for 3-5 days at a time when ive had algae blooms and murky water... always helps the water go back to crystal clear. its better to underfeed than to overfeed.

 

[Zagz]

Cleaning all of your filter media at once can cause problems as well. I would do half the media at a time. You can get a mini cycle if it is the only filtration in the tank. If you are going to do water changes every 2 weeks go from 2 weeks from the 24th. Also to make water changes easier you can get a python, or make one yourself.

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