PestyNinja
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Little bit of background: My mother has a 20 gallon tank that actually started out as my father's. When he stop taking care of it to focus on his larger tank, she got some kind of tetras (white ones, not mollies though) threw them in there and they have been living there for many years (with a few replacements, maybe). She feeds them and rubs the inside of the glass with a brush sometimes, but has never once done a water change in 10+ years.
This summer when my nephews came over to stay with us they asked if they could get more fish for the tank, since there was only three fish. Not knowing diddly squat about aquariums other than you have to feed the fish, I said, "of course". Little did I know what was going to happen. Most of the fish we got died within a month. But we still had:
2 ? old tetras
3 black skirt tetras
2 ? catfish, smallish gray ones with darker spots
1 kuhli loach
1 mystery snail
1 dwarf african frog
Now that the boys are gone and I have more time, I figured I'd "fix" my mother's tank for her. I'm not attached to the fish but I love my mother's little frog! Although, weirdly, I'm terrified of frogs and he still freaks me out a bit.
On Wednesday night I read up a little on kuhli loaches and black skirt tetras. I read that black skirt tetras need to have at least 5 fish or they get stressed and the same for kuhli loaches, they don't like being by themselves. So yesterday (Thursday) I went to Petsmart and bought a 5 in 1 test kit, 4 black skirt tetras and 1 kuhli loach.
I was shocked by the test results:
gH: 180
kH: 40
pH: 7
NO2: 0
NO3: 200+ off the charts
I knew something was wrong with the tank but I didn't think it was off the charts bad. I really wish I hadn't bought more fish, too. I had thought I would do the test see what was wrong, buy some chemicals and put a little bit of this and a little bit of that and presto chango, happy fish.
I went home last night and did some reading up about my test results and figured out that I have "old tank syndrome." There are so some different things people say to do and people saying, "if you do what that person told you your fish will die." I really need some help. It's a bit much really and I was really freaking out about doing the water change, but it really wasn't hard at all, thankfully.
I had read to do water changes from anywhere from 50% to 10% for the problem I have. The nitrogen cycle is still a mystery to me, but from what I understand/read if you do a 50% water change you'd mess that up, right?
I did a 10% water change today, but do you guys think I can be more aggressive without killing the fish/messing up the nitrogen cycle? There is really A LOT of nasty stuff in the gravel, I got about a 2" x 2" spot clean today, but at this rate it's going to take weeks to clean the bottom. But I'm willing to do small daily water changes if that's what's best, but I really don't want to lose the frog. I read to do 10% for three days, then 20% for three days then 30%. Or at least that was what I thought sounded like good advice. But I don't know.
Can an African Dwarf Frog live in these kinds of conditions for that long?
I don't want to use any chemicals (unless I need to?) I think I should just focus on the getting the nitrates down while keeping an eye on the pH and NO2, right?
Can I just ignore the gH and kH problems for now? Or should I use bottled RO water? I just read 1/2 RO water 1/2 tap water should be used to help, is straight RO water too much of a shock?
I'm squeamish with nasty gunk, would it be okay if I bought a new filter and put the old filter cartridge in it? I'm sure it needs to be cleaned but that's the last thing I want to do!
I read that you shouldn't clean a filter on days that you do a water change. They mean the filter cartridge, right? Is that true? Should I skip a water change tomorrow and clean the filter cartridge?
All this stuff seems so complicated. Sorry for the long post, I hope I can get some of the answers I need! Thanks so much!
This summer when my nephews came over to stay with us they asked if they could get more fish for the tank, since there was only three fish. Not knowing diddly squat about aquariums other than you have to feed the fish, I said, "of course". Little did I know what was going to happen. Most of the fish we got died within a month. But we still had:
2 ? old tetras
3 black skirt tetras
2 ? catfish, smallish gray ones with darker spots
1 kuhli loach
1 mystery snail
1 dwarf african frog
Now that the boys are gone and I have more time, I figured I'd "fix" my mother's tank for her. I'm not attached to the fish but I love my mother's little frog! Although, weirdly, I'm terrified of frogs and he still freaks me out a bit.
On Wednesday night I read up a little on kuhli loaches and black skirt tetras. I read that black skirt tetras need to have at least 5 fish or they get stressed and the same for kuhli loaches, they don't like being by themselves. So yesterday (Thursday) I went to Petsmart and bought a 5 in 1 test kit, 4 black skirt tetras and 1 kuhli loach.
I was shocked by the test results:
gH: 180
kH: 40
pH: 7
NO2: 0
NO3: 200+ off the charts
I knew something was wrong with the tank but I didn't think it was off the charts bad. I really wish I hadn't bought more fish, too. I had thought I would do the test see what was wrong, buy some chemicals and put a little bit of this and a little bit of that and presto chango, happy fish.
I went home last night and did some reading up about my test results and figured out that I have "old tank syndrome." There are so some different things people say to do and people saying, "if you do what that person told you your fish will die." I really need some help. It's a bit much really and I was really freaking out about doing the water change, but it really wasn't hard at all, thankfully.
I had read to do water changes from anywhere from 50% to 10% for the problem I have. The nitrogen cycle is still a mystery to me, but from what I understand/read if you do a 50% water change you'd mess that up, right?
I did a 10% water change today, but do you guys think I can be more aggressive without killing the fish/messing up the nitrogen cycle? There is really A LOT of nasty stuff in the gravel, I got about a 2" x 2" spot clean today, but at this rate it's going to take weeks to clean the bottom. But I'm willing to do small daily water changes if that's what's best, but I really don't want to lose the frog. I read to do 10% for three days, then 20% for three days then 30%. Or at least that was what I thought sounded like good advice. But I don't know.
Can an African Dwarf Frog live in these kinds of conditions for that long?
I don't want to use any chemicals (unless I need to?) I think I should just focus on the getting the nitrates down while keeping an eye on the pH and NO2, right?
Can I just ignore the gH and kH problems for now? Or should I use bottled RO water? I just read 1/2 RO water 1/2 tap water should be used to help, is straight RO water too much of a shock?
I'm squeamish with nasty gunk, would it be okay if I bought a new filter and put the old filter cartridge in it? I'm sure it needs to be cleaned but that's the last thing I want to do!
I read that you shouldn't clean a filter on days that you do a water change. They mean the filter cartridge, right? Is that true? Should I skip a water change tomorrow and clean the filter cartridge?
All this stuff seems so complicated. Sorry for the long post, I hope I can get some of the answers I need! Thanks so much!