Hi there and advice needed!

[izziecat]

Hi all,
I have recently moved into a new house an inherited a 140ltr tropical freshwater tank! have kept freshwater fish about 10 yrs ago so am a little out of practice. It already had 1 danio, 2 clown loaches and 4 panda coreys and I have added 2 dwarf gourami, 4 cardinal tetra, 2 black widow tetra and 1 pleco. All was fine and dandy up until a few days ago when I did an ammonia test and the levels were very high I did 2 water changes (1/4 and then 1/2) and have added ammonia remover which is slowly bringing it down but I am worried it will creep up again and i'm not sure why? Any advice would be appreciated

Liz

 

[DeeLee2013]

Did you add all of the new fish at the same time? If so, you may have overworked the beneficial bacteria.

How are you testing your water chemistry? With the strip tests or liquid tests?


? Diana Lee ?
? the St. Augustine Redhead ?

 

[izziecat]

Hi,
I added the tetras first and then 2 weeks later added the gourami and pleco. I am using API ammonia test kit.


Thanks
Liz

 

[ImACoolguy]

Tank probably was not cycles properly or the bioload is too much. How big are the clown loaches? Those get pretty big...


Caleb

~10g 7 ghost shrimp, Betta,2 ADF
~45g Rescaped! 5 White skirt tetras, 5 green Corys, 3 pandas, 1 peacock Gudgeon.
~75g NEW! dojo loach, 5 black Skirt Tetras, 5 cherry barbs, live plants

 

[izziecat]

the clown loaches are quite big (4")
Can you advise on how to keep the ammonia down? I have an Aquamantra EFX200 filter...

Cheers

 

[ImACoolguy]

First thing is I would either rehome or take back the clown loaches. They can and usually do get up to a foot long! Not to mention I've seen them eat small fish like small danios, guppies etc that will fit in their mouth. At least a 90 gallon aquarium once they get full size. That's where most of your bioload is coming from I would bet.

Www.AqAdvisor.com is a GREAT resource to help with stocking your tank.

2 gourami in a 36 gallon is like playing with fire. They are very territorial to their own species and unless you want to breed them, which it's hard to find a female dwarf g., then it's highly unrecommended. Just 1 for your tank will be fine.

Do you know the species of pleco? Their are species than will get 24 inches long and others that get 3 be nice to know what type.

I hope this helps. This is to help prevent you from having issues once these fish get bigger and get territorial over space etc.


Caleb

~10g 7 ghost shrimp, Betta,2 ADF
~45g Rescaped! 5 White skirt tetras, 5 green Corys, 3 pandas, 1 peacock Gudgeon.
~75g NEW! dojo loach, 5 black Skirt Tetras, 5 cherry barbs, live plants

 

[izziecat]

severe ammonia problems

Hi,

I messaged on here a few months ago with advice wanted to get my ammonia down.. i need more specialised advice now please as my ammonia is the highest it has been for 2 months and i cant; fathom out why. My pH is also too low and this is a problem. I have lost 11 fish in total and now have 10 fish hanging on in there (how thought I've no idea!).

Tank - 140ltrs
Fish - 1 clown loach
3 black widow tetra
4 cardinal tetra
2 gouramis

i have done frequent water changes, added ammonia remover, ammo chips, added pH up, stress zyme etc (not constantly but after giving it a break and nothing happening i had to treat again)

I feed once every 2 days, i had stopped feeding for a week at the start to try and solve this problem.

I am at a loss on how to fix this problem.

Please, please help if you can!!!

Thanks

 

[IllusionX]

Do you only test for ammonia? What are your nitrite/nitrate level? How low is your pH?

 

[izziecat]

HI, funnily enough my nitrate and nitrite are spot on... that's why I can't understand it? I use the 6-in-one test strip and everything is fine apart from ammonia and pH which is 6.2...

 

[IllusionX]

Fine as in 0 nitrite 0 nitrate?
I'm seeing this as your tank is not cycling.

 

[izziecat]

sorry yes, 0 and 0, can you clarify by 'not cycling' please - i'm relatively new to fish keeping thanks

 

[ImACoolguy]

I would work on getting a liquid test kit. They are x100000 more accurate. I used test strips in the beginning and was given false readings every so often. Test strips are extremely notorious for giving false readings.


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS

 

[IllusionX]

How have you had the tank setup before you introduced your fishes in? Were they all put in at the same time? Any fishes died since Feb?

Even if your tank is cycles, it could happen that you removed too much bacteria, and this is why you would have another ammonia spike and will go through the cycling process again. One of example is replacing all your media inside your filter at once, or rinsing them in tap water.

This image explains nicely how a nitrogen cycle works.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Stealing that photo it's a great way to explain it.


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS