Just a vent in general

I'm relatively new to fish other then your typical gold fish and Betas. I recently got a few Gourami's and have received some GREAT advise on keeping them healthy and they are thriving. I have another tank (55 gallons) that has only 5 feeder guppies in it and I've been working on getting it properly cycled and getting the water where it needs to be. It's been set up and running now for over 2 months. I stopped at my LPS looking to see what types of fish I want to put in it and what can be mixed. I think I may get a few Dwarf Gourami's but as I was looking at them one of the employees approached me and asked if I needed help. I explained what I wanted to do. She asked if my water was good. I told her I'd recently had it tested at her store and all levels were good accept the ammonia was a little high. She immediately went into a tirade about how I was going to kill my fish. I told her that I'd been working on getting the ammonia levels down, and that per advise I've gotten here and other fish websites I had done some large water changes. This women freaked out and asked what idiot told me to do that! That I was killing my fish by doing water changes and messing up my water levels. Then she proceeded to tell me she'd sell me some fish but I had only 72 hours to bring them back if they died with the water and if they found it to be bad I wouldn't get new fish. I asked her to tell me how SHE thought I should get the ammonia levels down and she didn't answer me, walked away and started helping another lady. Needless to say I walked out and won't be buying from them (actually the other employees have always been helpful but this women was nuts! She was actually raising her voice and waving her arms at me)
I decided to stop at another store to look. Now I have 5 separate tanks, the 75 gallon gourami tank, 2 separate 10 gallon betta tanks, a gold fish tank and the 55 with the guppies. I found a platy I liked thinking it would be OK to put the platy in with the guppies in the 55 so I asked an employee to get me the platy. While she was getting supplies together I noticed a goldfish that I liked so asked for him too. She stopped and said, "well the goldfish can't live with the platy" I said "yes I know that thank you" but I didn't feel the need to explain to her that I had more then one tank. She looked at me like I was stupid and started to say something, rolled her eyes, shook her head and said "ok, what ever"
Seriously what the heck. I'm all for getting advise but the poor attitudes of these people was astounding. I know better then to listen to pet store advise but not only did these people not know what they were talking about but the rudeness was completely uncalled for.

 

This reminds me of an employee I talked to at a LPS, once. She insisted bettas needed to be kept at 70*F and kept rambling "That's too high" when I told her why I keep mine at 80*.

 

Wow. Just wow. Proof that rudeness never gets anyone anywhere...

 

With as many tanks as you have, perhaps, it would be beneficial to you and your fish to get a reliable water testing kit.

In my experience, healthy plants with appropriate lights remove ammonia rather efficiently while the lights are on. If you don't overfeed and keep your filters clean you are good Good luck.

 

With as many tanks as you have, perhaps, it would be beneficial to you and your fish to get a reliable water testing kit.

In my experience, healthy plants with appropriate lights remove ammonia rather efficiently while the lights are on. If you don't overfeed and keep your filters clean you are good Good luck.

Thanks, I definitely need to invest in a testing kit. Most of my tanks do have live plants in them (they look healthy to me too but I know less about plants then I do about fish.) and light? What type of lights do you recommend? All but one tank gets natural sun light (of course then I have to deal with keeping the algae down since it grows faster this way) and 3 of them have your typical aquarium lights. The betta tanks do not. And while we are at it, can someone recommend a good but affordable test kit? I've seen the Walmart kinds that sell for maybe $7 and I've seen others at pets stores for $30 or more. So many choices!

 

According to my Amazon app API Liquid Master test is around $22, (used to be $18), it may be a few bucks more or less on Kensfish.com., around $30 in the pet stores.

By all means, it is not the best test kit, but it is the one most fishkeepers use because of ease and lower price.

The strips are cheaper, but are unreliable, so they are waste of money

The lights are a bit more complicated. You need to match the intensity of lights to plants and the size of your tank. Not all lights that come with a tank work well with all plants.

 

23 dollars with free shipping.

 

Thanks guys!! Hopefully my fish will be OK until payday which is NEXT Friday but the kits you guys have suggested are quite affordable.

I'll have to do more research on the lighting situation. I had no idea it could be an issue.

 

That's disgusting, we as fish people know much more than some store people. They act so superior and put people off, I think how dumb is that lol.

 

Wow I can honestly say that I have never had that problem. I walked into one store and educated a person in the fish department. They were honestly intrigued and wanted me to work there. I am relatively new at keeping fish and don't know a whole lot, it is however kind of neat when an "Expert" wants your input on a topic that you yourself are just learning about.

 

If you have any on hand or could drop a few dollars before pay day, dose with something like Prime to neutralize the ammonia until it settles down.

Sent from my SM-G360T using Fish Lore Aquarium Fish Forum mobile app

 

I'll have to do more research on the lighting situation. I had no idea it could be an issue.

A good place to start could be barrreport.com.

Barr is the mastermind behind EI - Estimative Index, which is a method for providing nutrients for a planted tank. Once you get hang of it, it works. You get healthy plants and NO algae.

Good luck.

 

If you have any on hand or could drop a few dollars before pay day, dose with something like Prime to neutralize the ammonia until it settles down.

Sent from my SM-G360T using Fish Lore Aquarium Fish Forum mobile app

Got all that. Bought it when I got my Gourami's.