125l Community Tank - Help Please

Hello, first of all I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this thread and any help is much appreciated. I have split my queries into two sections.

Background:
I have a low/medium tech fluval roma 125 with medium planting, running fluval fresh and planted 2.0, liquid carbon and ferts. I have a external fluval 306 filter that's all been running for 5 months so its fairly matured, I have a spray bar that sits on the right hand wall pointing to the left and I have an airstone on the opposite side to my spray bar.

my water parameters are stable: (50% water change a week, sometimes 2 x 30/40% pwc)
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 40/50ppm (I got a lot of nitrates in my tap water)
ph around 7.2/3 (7.6-8 out the tap) I'm not sure how much my tropica aquarium soil buffers that.

my tank is home to:
1 x male Dwarf Gourami
1 x male German blue ram (been searching for a healthy looking female to keep him company)
4 x male guppys
6 x cardinal tetra
7 x pentazona barbs
4 x albino cory
4 x amano shrimp
4 x red cherry shrimp

I have noticed a problem with my german blue ram, it seems like his lip is swollen and has a small white spot on his lip, also he can't eat food anymore or is eating very little. He was eating normally last week, eating big chunks spitting them back out and then repeating till the food was eaten. now he can't even swallow the smallest of particles, he tries to, it just doesn't seem like it goes in his mouth. he is also very active and chases everyone around at feeding time, even though it seems like he can't eat. I have attached some photos.

my second problem is my pentazona barbs. When the lfs sold me them I had no idea that they prefered dark lighting and brown tannin water and low water flow. After reading about people said they have kept them in community tanks just fine, so I gave it a go and they are pretty amazing and very active. But they seeme stressed half the time, when they are not swimming together at the front of the tank they are all glass surfing or just swimming back and forth frantically at the back of the tank and I don't know why. I have set my lights to 50% and there's plenty of dark spaces and plants, water flow is a bit high but I need it to be to get surface agitation from my spray bar all the way across. I have recently purchased a fluval edge 46l and was thinking of having a shrimp only tank, but maybe the pentazona barb would do better in there? i'd feel bad though as they are very active so a small tank isn't ideal, also it would be a massive challenge to actually net them to move them over.

my third question is that are my plants dying? most of them look healthy apart from the amazon swords. I'm really considering to buy a co2 kit from co2 supermarket and run it off sodastream bottles as it would be quick and easy and would give me a wider variety of plants to keep. I have got algae but i've cut back my lighting to 50%, photoperiod is 8 hours plus half an hour ramp up/down either side. I use 3/4ml seachem excel everyday, 3ml flourish comprehensive twice a week, 7/8ml apI leafzone twice a week. I have tropica aquasoil substrate with gravel on top and I use root tabs every month or 2.

thank you.

 

I love the picture of the ram face-on. Those are the best pictures and so difficult to get.

 

Me too rams are my favourite, he's so cool!

 

I have nitrate issues too (the same level as yours!) Are you in England then? I'm in South East England, and I can give you some advice if you like

 

Yeah I'm in south East just outside London, hard water and a lot of nitrates. The API testkit is terrible for nitrates too as the colours are so close and hard to judge all together. I have a decent amount of plants to help and have purigen and matrix in my filter.

 

Yeah I'm in south East just outside London, hard water and a lot of nitrates. The API testkit is terrible for nitrates too as the colours are so close and hard to judge all together. I have a decent amount of plants to help and have purigen and matrix in my filter.

NO WAY ME TOO!! This is so amazing I've never met anyone of Fishlore so close to me heck we could be within walking distance! I'm in Surrey if that's any help..

I completely understand the struggles though. I have a tonne of plants in my tank and still the nitrates are 40-80 ppm (the colours are basically the same ) and I can't afford an ro unit or nitrate filter because I'm still a student It really limits your stock, but I've figured that most fish are acclimated to these conditions by now, especially if they have been bred over here!

 

Haha, I live in Hertfordshire about 20min from london. I don't really care about nitrates anymore as there's not much I can do apart from water changes which I do regularly. I don't want to be using to or nitrate filter as it takes so long, I can do a 50% water change in less than 5/6min using a python system, so with a filter I would have to wait days for the water and then dump in with a bucket and that's really not appealing to me lol I don't think it would be the nitrates causing my rams lip problem but really not sure what to do.

 

I'm afraid I'm no good with rams, but there is a chance that the nitrates are the issue A small chance, but a chance nevertheless. Do you know if they were bred or wild-caught?

 

I'm not sure, I bought him from Maidenhead aquatics. So probably bred.

 

Ah ok, being bred means that they are probably ok with high nitrates one thing off the list then

 

Can anyone else help please? I witnessed him have a seizure or heart attack yesterday, he started flipping out and pointing upwards like he was about to die, I'm really worried now and would like an idea of how to treat him. He has swollen top lip which is white or has a white bit on it, he tries to eat but nothing seems to go in his mouth and he has a lot more Gill movement than before. He's still very active and doesn't show any other signs of illness on his body, or any other fish. I'm going to do 30% water changes every other day for a week and see if it helps.