Is this bad water quality?

[redruckus]

this is the water quality in my 40gal pirahna tank: ph 6.0-6.4, ammonia 2.0ppm, nitrite 0ppm, nitrate aprox 100ppm.. i am using a cap full of prime every water change i do aprox 15% once every week and a half, i am very good at getting any uneaten food out of the tank same day and im not worried about them dieing they have been thru much worse..but still any sudgestions to increase water quality .. i am also thinking of starting on light doses of fluorish should i need to or do the plants have enough nutrients from the water, takeing into account my java ferns are sprouting new shoots and reproducing like crazy. I am running a regular air pump with a micro bubble difuser in the tank if that makes any difference

 

[tyspot1000]

I would say that is not the best quality. I would recommend doing a water change everyday (With additional prime) until your no ammonia left and your nitrate is 5-20ppm.

I am assuming that it is the piranha that are making the quality this bad. Really, they do not need to be in a tank that small. They can get pretty big (Needing 100+ gallon tanks) and are big waste producers.

 

[TraceyB4602]

Agree with Ty.

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[redruckus]

i talked to my trusted "fish guy" and he looked at my tank and said as long as i dont have more then 3 in the tank its fine if i do a good gravel vac water change once a week, they are about 6-7" and im prity shure the only way i could kill them is to dump bleach or a cleaning chemical in the tank or empy the tank of water they have been tru some bad tank conditions and came out fine when i went away on holidays I just dumped 15 3"comet goldfish in the tank as food for the week i came back to half eating fish rotting in the tank did a 95% water change this was befor i knew about prime so i didnt use anything but tap water and the next day they wer nice bright red swimming around very active... so il probably going to do a larger water change tomorow 20% or so but what would be a good time to start adding low doses of flourish to the tank to get my plants on the fast track

 

[tyspot1000]

Wait, you edited, never mind

 

[redruckus]

the "guy" i talked to wasnt from a LFS or crap petsmart type store hes been keeping fish for 30+ years and runs a little specialty fish shop out of his basement and has been sucessfull at breeding angels and discus so i trust his word

 

[fred]

Agree with Ty...
Your ammonia should always read zero, daily pwc are the only way to achieve this. Same with your nitrates, not as bad on the fish but at 100ppm it's way too high (should be less than 40 ideally)

 

[tyspot1000]

But, Having 10-12 inch (fully mature, yours are not there yet though, but close) fish in a 40 gallon tank the best idea?

 

[redruckus]

ive had them since they were quarter size and i dont feed them half as much as i use to but i might upgrade the tank if they do some how double in size in the next year or so

 

[Gail]

Probably a good idea to upgrade your tank. My son had pirahanas and they got pretty big.