skinny64

hi there can anyone help i have a 60 litre tank and it came with the heater and filter with it from pets and home the filter is a stingray a 144 i am having problems with ammonia in my tank and lost a guppy last night ,one pet shop told me it could be that the filter is not powerful enough and wanted to sell me a bigger one could anyone please advise would be grateful thanks

jsalemi

Filters don't have much to do with ammonia levels, other than providing another home for the bacteria that eat the ammonia and nitrites. I was reading about that filter last night, and the 144 is for 15 gallon tanks, but you may be pushing it anyway, especially if you have a lot of fish and/or your tank hasn't cycled yet. I'd say in this case your LFS might be right, and you'd want to switch to a HOB power filter like a Penguin or an AquaClear -- the base models of both are for 20 gallon tanks, and should be more than sufficient for your 60L tank.

skinny64

thanks for that we are going to have a ride tonight to have a look, i put some ammolock into the tank to try and get the ammonia down the fish man told me only to do it once but on the bottle it tells you to continue every 2 days till clear, my fish seem to be hanging in the corners at the top do you think that they will be gasping for air

jsalemi

Yea, they're probably reacting to the high ammonia levels.