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April 28th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| 14g Lightly planted: Lessons learned and still learning
ok in the 2 years i've had this tank i've seen everything that people say won't happen... i've had a pH drop to a level that kills fish in hours if not minutes... had a cycle completely drop... completely 180'd my scape.... lost some very hearty plants and fish... and now i have algae... not the hair algae i had before thank God, but this is almost as annoying...
so today i was noticing that my tank really was kinda dirty even though i have 2 HOB filters that is a little overkill for this lil ole tank... so I tested the parameters. so apparently in the 3 months i have had fish in here it never got past the first stage of cycle... I'm showing 2 PPM amonia and my PH is showing under 6 again... i've been doing water changes regularly and i don't believe i am overstocked and if so its minimal... its showing no Nitrates and no Nitrites... my fish seem healthy and none are sluggish... so i figured hey let me check the filter... when i lifted it it didn't seem too dirty but when i pushed it back down my tank filled with large pieces of sediment... I think i found a problem... so i instantly do a water change to get rid of some of the sediment floating while i had it there i decided to rinse the filter in the water... i've never seen water turn brown so quickly... and this was in 5g bucket that was nearly full... so i dumped it after cleaning both filters... and it nearly clogged my drain... i guess i gotta throw clean filter into the weekly mix for a while...
but anyway this is my tank feel free to comment or suggest something... if my cycle really has dropped again i'm gonna lose fish probably and if they all die i'm gonna clean it like crazy and switch over to SW where i get more at home advice.... | 
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April 28th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| oh i forgot to mention the tank inhabitants include: 6 zebra Danios, 2 Julii Corys, and 1 Panda Cory | |
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April 28th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| I have a tank that want to fight me as well. My list includes- 3.5 month fishless cycle, terrible green water and snail problems, an ICH problem the last month, and all my plants dying due to the salt treatment. So you aren't alone trust me. haha
Wow, not what you want to find when you go to clean the filter!
Have you been doing weekly water changes? Your fish are acting healthy because with a Ph that low ammonia is not toxic. I have 2 filters on my tank and I clean one in tank water every week. That way every other week one gets cleaned.
I like the set up though the rocks look nice.
Best Wishes,
Nate | |
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April 28th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| How often are you feeding the fish?And if you are using tap water,have you checked the PH,ammonia, nitrite,and nitrate of it?There is always a reason for an algae bloom.Are you using any ferts for the plants?
With the algae bloom you have going,and the ammonia and the dirty filters you have described,my first guess is overfeeding,and possibly sunlight getting into the tank,or the lights being left on too long. | |
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April 28th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| the filters have been used for about a year and i went without washing them out for about 3 months given some bad advice, i stopped any ferts about 2 months ago and PH on tap water is 6.8 with no readings in any of the others... the lights are only on for about 7.5 hours now but it gets some across the room direct sunlight for about 2 hours at night... as for overfeeding... maybe recently (due to in laws from out of town wanting more natural light in the room) but overall since i started having algae i only feed once a day roughly 20 mini freeze dried bloodworms or 4-5 whole flakes broken up of wardley(sp?) tropical flake food...
i guess i'm gonna do 15-20% changes for next couple days rinsing filters in tank water in a bucket till it all straightens up... i just hope my PH doesn't get too far out of hand again... thats the reason i have that piece of limestone in there and even it isn't bringing up the PH anymore... and it's covered in algae...
i'm also wondering if my test kit is bad given that i'm not getting any nitrate reading and my plants are doing great... my anubias throws out a new leaf about every other week... | |
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April 28th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| The plants MAY be using up the nitrates. The Algae will also consume some nitrates as well. I dont think 6.8 is too low at all. in fact if I had my choice that would be the one I picked. LOL
You have the API kit and know about shaking the bottle and banging the bottle then shaking some more? I will repeat just in case but I see you have been around awhile 
API Nitrate bottle # 2 needs to be beaten and shaken for several minutes before testing especially if it get used infrequently as the crystals needed to do the test will attach themselves to the inside of the bottle thus rendering false results. | |
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April 28th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| well i shake it but not really beat it... maybe thats why i'm not getting a reading with it... the problem with PH is for some reason it's dropped below 6.0 so i think the algae and plants have basiccally eaten all the calcium too... someone said adding baking soda would help or crushed coral but i don't know where to get a small amount of crushed coral and not sure if either is safe for plants.... | |
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April 28th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| crushed coral is safe for plants. I used it in my tank when I was having Ph probs. You may well e right abot the plants removing the hardness buffers from the water especially if you have soft water to begin with. Mine is very soft and the only way I keep up with it weekly water changes. I dont do crushed coral anymore myself.
Have you tested the Ph of your tap water after letting it sit for 24 hours? | |
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April 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| no i haven't done that but what would that gain? i guess when i go into town i'll see if i can talk one of the shop owners into letting me have a handful of crushed coral...
while writing this i looked up to nitice i couldn't see any of my fishies... which are usually all over the tank... i walked over to look and they are all laying still.... breathing but laying still... one looks like its covered in white like a dead fish but its the only one moving... sure everything was going fine with horrible parms then as soon as i try to fix it... fish seem to start showing signs of illness... i did a water change and some of them startedd moving a bit.... not like normal even when i come up and tap the glass like its lunch time they dont come and school like normal...  i hope they come around but if not i'm throwing everything inside away including plants and going SW... | |
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April 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| after my water change it seems as though most of my fish are back up.... maybe they were sleeping  my julii cories are hiding in a cave but they are moving some from time to time... my panda cory seems a lot less bouncy than normal... | |
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April 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| By testing your tap water you could tell if it is something in the tank causing the Ph to drop or if it is the tap water.
Sorry to hear the fish are acting odd. Hopefully you just caught them in "chill" mode.
If you do add crushed coral dont add it directly to the tank, put it in a media bag (sold at fish stores) It is a mesh bag that will allow you to remove it when you are done. Once its in the tank , mixed in with the gravel, theres no going back. I put the bag in the back of the filter. A tablespoon or two should do. You dont want to raise it too fast. | |
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April 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJoe  one looks like its covered in white like a dead fish but its the only one moving... i hope they come around but if not i'm throwing everything inside away including plants and going SW... | You described what sounds like Ich. I would immedietly turn the water temp up to 82+*F, which is two warm for the ich to live. I would also keep up daily water changes of 15-20%, to remove ich and maintain good water quality.
dont give up on FW yet! | |
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April 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| well thanks guys... they seemed to be getting better, but if it is ich i don't know how it started cause i haven't added anything new in 2-3 months... i don't really have a heater i can adjust so heating it up really isn't an option right now... it's at 79-80 regularly but due to temp changes i'm thinking maybe the temp of the water has been fluctuating a little due to house temp... that may be why they are a little sluggish... i'm doing water changes daily until i stop getting ammonia readings... i don't know why i am getting them now... but i did take out one of the filter pads i had that had carbon in it... (forgot it had the carbon...
also i heard that anubias is poisonous to fish that accually try to eat it and i noticed a few holes on a couple of the coffeola leaves... could this be making my cories sick? | |
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April 30th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| I wouldn't medicate yet. If ich was bad enough to kill one fish and it was covered the others would be showing signs. Possible Fungus or bacterial infection. It also may be that you just didn't find him right away.
Not sure about Anubias being poisonous.
I think your doing the right thing with the water changes.Hopefully it gets better soon. | |
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April 30th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| well i got a call after my final today... all my fishies are dead over the course of the day... i pulled them out... red gills on all... so it was definately ammonia... the PH is still low and i have about 10 ppm nitrates and 2 ppm ammonia... no nitrites... | |
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April 30th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Sorry to hear that Joe. Are you going to recycle with ammonia? | |
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April 30th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| to have a quick fix with this i think the best way to go would be to pick up some tetra safe start to help you out cycling | |
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May 1st, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| but thats what doesn't make sense... the ammonia came out of nowhere... i think my API tap water conditioner is messing it up somehow... i never had this problem till i started using this over the tetra brand water conditioner... | |
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May 1st, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| I think you may have found the problem Joe...if your water conditioner was bad or not working at all it wasn't ammonia poisoning that got them but it was chlorine. That would also explain why your cycle crashed as well. The chlorine was killing the beneficial bacteria and causing the ammonia to spike. IT also explains the red gills. | |
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May 1st, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| the ammonia explains the red gills yes, but i have been using the water conditioner for 3 months...since I put these fish in there and it cycled up to nitrates... unless it isn't enough chlorine to kill all the bacteria or it is turning into ammonia when it turns... i'm gonna let it recycle then i might try again with fish my fiancee accually likes (probably neons) | |
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May 5th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| ok regardless of what is said in the forum i asked about tomorrow i'm going to get some tetra water conditioner and EasyBalance... i don't like that they push the nitraban stuff so much cause that really isn't my goal with it... but seeing as how i am bad about overstocking a tank it might come into useful ideas... also I'm thinking i should get rid of my air stuff for now and look into buying some more plants... probably a java fern and a patch of moss... maybe a val... if the easybalance works to help with my PH and KH/ GH then it really would be good... i'm also going to go with either jungle or tetra water conditioner... and throwing this API stuff out the window (into the trash... i don't litter...much)... | |
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May 10th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| Ok so it's recycled... thought about fish but then I remembered i'm going to be gone for a week and a half starting next week... so I will have to be patient... anyway still got a bit of algae and water seems a bit greenish... started today with new water conditioner (tetra aqua safe) and KH builder/other things (Tetra Easybalance...) still going to do weekly water changes cause i don't like the idea of not... may switch back to every week and a half but that's mainly due to no stock in the tank right now... and light stock when i start putting them in again... (i'm thinking 6-8 neons and 2-3 otos... or 3-4 guppies 3 cories and a dwarf guarami (no specific color))...
almost forgot pictures of redoing the scape...
Last edited by BigJoe; May 10th, 2009 at 07:08 PM.
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June 19th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| ok so my wife said if i got another tank then this one is hers... and she doesn't want anything from it (she sais it's too dirty)... so i bought me a 20gh with stand for 20 dollars... and she told me that's great so I can make it saltwater... I've picked out a bunch of stuff but i'm confused when it comes to lights (i know cliche)
if I go t-5HO with 24 watt HO bulbs how many Lights do I need 2 or 4 and with either is a 14000k bulb really any better than a 10000k? Should I use blue actinics 460nm or 420nm? can there be too much light if I get a shop light HO fixture is there anything wrong as long as I use a glass hood? if I want a refugium is it ok to use 6500k CFL bulbs and maybe an algae scrubber with the same thing?
how much of a return pump do I need from a sump? is it possible to make the overflow box with a HOB Filter and an acrylic cup?
How long should I have the water in the tank before adding sand and LR? what kind of sand how long then before I add coral or fish? what kind of fish would you recommend?
will a korallia FLO work with a koralia 1 water circulator?
If I have a Sump with algae scrubber and ref do I need a skimmer?
I've been researching this for a while and now that i'm buying stuff i'm nervous...... | |
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June 19th, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| i had fish when i was six but they all died.(overfed) my parents said i was too young so they drained it.  but now i am 13 and i got more.
(last friday)  | |
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June 20th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Sounds like a fun project Joe. Salties are a whole different game. You would get more responses by starting another thread in the SW forum.
I am not a SW guy but I look forward to following the progress of your tank! | |
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