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jn

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Everything posted by jn

  1. Do you remove your plants before treating with formalin?
  2. I never tried personally. My problem went away when my tank matured. I added more plants too which I think may have helped.
  3. That sounds about right.. goldfish are very hardy compared to other types of fish and in ponds I believe they tolerate some level of parasites without much trouble at all, they'd be less sensitive to the usual cycling process too I'm pretty sure.
  4. Kelsta, I think its the fact that your fish were flashing early on that's triggering the concerns about flukes. White spot is usually visible. Yes, the flashing could have been from them being uncomfortable due to the bad water conditions. Keep an eye on them. Health fish shouldn't really flash.. but flukes don't kill fish as quickly as other stuff might. Usually they keep eating till very late in the infestation (according to some website somewhere!) In the meantime, in case it is flukes, keep the glass and the gravel clean and keep up your water changes to kep the levels of the parasite down in case it is present. Then just keep watcing them closely, once your cycle has been over for some time you'd expect the fish to settle. If they don't then you should consider the possibility of flukes.
  5. Are you sure it's beard algae? It has to be fuzzy and stand up like stubble I think. If it doesn't it could be brown algae which is completely different I only say this cause I was dumb enough to mistake some wierd brown algae for beard algae in my first tank.. it was purplish black so I didn't think it was 'brown algae' but it wasn't brushlike. I wasted alot of money on flourish excel and it did nothing to help me Got a picture?
  6. I think they sell some food that's specially made for 'fancy' goldfish. I think it sinks slowly so they don't suck in air from the surface if its an ongoing problem.
  7. jn

    Nymphs

    Like goldfish nymphs you mean?
  8. I have aqua one tanks. I think the jebo ones are the same... So I dont' know about other brands..(what brand is yours? Maybe someone knows it?) My ones have good instructions with them and the order from the water flowing out of filter pipe it goes 1) onto the white filter wool 2) through another black sponge which is coarser (more open pores) 3) through the ceramic noodles 4) past the filter grate 5) out through the outlet holes to the tank On my AR380, when the tank is turned off, no water stays in the hood at all. On my AR620 (80'ishL), the mechanism is a little different and the water is designed to overflow out of the noodle compartment to the tank return.. some water stays on the noodles the whole time, but they are still above the filter grate. Perhaps the reason that the noodles don't go under the filter grate is to make sure that at the 'distribution point' the water flows freely rather than having to wind it's way around the noodles still.. so the output would be more even? (Jeepers.. sorry.. I have my engineering hat on!! What a dork! :oops: )
  9. picture plz! Impossibe to guess otherwise!
  10. Kelsta - you're doing really well...hang in there. Do be aware though that even with rinsing the filter wool there will still be days where you may need to do 2 water changes/day as things get established. The levels CAN build up that quickly especially if they've had a feed. I expect your test kit will be getting alot of use for a while!! Don't change water more often than you have to but don't let the levels get too high. Do take the advice given above and feed VERY sparingly. Fish will be fine even if they don't eat every day....if they're not eating they're not going to produce alot of waste and it gives the good bacteria time to digest things a bit better and hopefully catch up sooner rather than later. I read somewhere that the ammonia levels will most likley be highest about 20-30 mins after they eat so if you're testing, try to do it then Also if you're changing water often, don't worry too much about cleaning around the gravel every time (like twice a day I mean!!) Do you have any live plants? Some sources on the net say reckon that some plants are able to use up some ammonia directly rather having to use it only after its been converted to nitrate. Some bunches of cheap stem plants might help. Don't expect them to look pretty though. The goldfish will eat them and uproot them and they will eventually start getting algae on them.. but they might be another source of 'biological activity' to help things along until they settle. then you can worry about it looking nice later with some plants the goldies won't eat
  11. kiwinana - Are there fish in your pond now? When you bring them back in will they go into a tank of their own or will they get mixed with some of your other 'indoor fish'? Caryl - when you move your fish out do you move them to ponds that haven't had fish? Didn't they have their own kiddie pools? Excuse my paranoia but I think my flukes came from mixing pond fish with tank fish.
  12. I disagree about not rinsing the filter wool. The top layer can accumulate alot of rotting food especially when the fish are new to a tank and haven't got the hang of where and when to go feed and the owners haven't got the hang of exacly how much to feed. I'll use my tank as an example, I recently converted a tank to a goldfish tank and the fish I put in it were used to feeding on the bottom.. but I had mainly floating food and was eager for them to learn to eat from the top... so yes.. my filter wool was gettign VERY mucky with visible food bits etc.. and yes my tank although previously established with a lighter fish load, was cycling as a result of the bigger fish I now had in there. I found my nitrite levels would drop significantly after rinsing the top layer of the filter wool. In the aqua one trickle filters, there is anoter sponge plus a layer of noodles below the filter wool. I think the rotting waste has got to be more harmful than the amount of good bacteria on there at this stage. Surely as bad (if not worse) than food decomposing on the gravel. To be safe I'd say if there is rotting food on the filter wool then rinse it in the water you take out of your tank when you do your water changes.
  13. Well Frenchy, sounds like we need you back here in NZ then?! Oh.. and BTW.. Es-tu vraiment Francais?
  14. I think the test kits can get past their best but 2 years doesn't sound bad. Maybe you can take some water to your lfs and have them run the full range of tests on it just to see ( think they normally do this for free). I mean, your fish are dying, so something isn't right. There's no good reason to have any ammonia in your tank at the amount you seem to be feeding....so if your water was in fact fine then you'd be looking at some sort of disease or some by product of your bad algae? Someone told me that you can kill algae on driftwood by pouring boiling water on it (out of the tank of course!) Would that be an optn? The wood isn't rotting or something? I've had nitrite readings on a cycling tank. It's more toxic than ammonia and it's the stage between ammonia and nitrate (2 different types of bacteria that do the conversion from one to the other) How about a picture of the tank to see if that spurs any ideas from some of the more experienced people? Don't know what to tell you about an air stone.. it's just a suggestion. I'm sure under normal circumstances they not necessary, was just thinking if your fish are hanging out at the top, sometimes its cause there's more oxygen there.
  15. are they very susceptible to temp. fluctuations?
  16. It wouldn't be hard for every pet store to have an info sheet,, so even if the shopkeeper is clueles.. they can ask if you've ever had fish before, and if you say no they can hand you an info sheet so yuo know what to look out for.. it's a wonderful concept called 'customer service' that seems to be seriously lacking....and who knows, after handing the sheet out enough times maybe some of the less clued in shop-assistants would actually ready it and learn something new!
  17. I've always read that with some of those additional filter resins etc that they can eventually leach stuff back into your tank if they're not changed often enough. Actually, it seems odd that you have ammonia registering but no nitrite? Are you doing the tests yourself? Maybe your test kit is bad and your fish have some disease or parasite rather than a water quality problem? I would try to remove as much extra stuff as possible from the tank, any plants that may be dying, and anything with large amounts of algae on it (driftwood, ornaments etc). If your fish are gasping at the top they could be short of oxygen.. I think decomposing waste might use up some of the extra oxygen in the water. Have you got an airstone you can drop in to se if they get an relief from that? I remember this from some pond stuff I used to kill algae and then 'de-sludger' stuff as well, they told me to make sure the pump was running because the oxygen levels would suffer.
  18. jn

    sick fish

    Do you feed floating food? Could he have a swimbladder problem? (they can sometimes suck in air which makes it near impossible to stay lower in the water - reverse can also happen) Do a search on the net and see. Is he breathing at the same rate as the others? He could also be constipated maybe? (But I don't know if that makes them float?) How's his balance? Is he normal/upright or is he tipping over?
  19. I'm not sure its the sellers job to make sure thre aren't any snails. If you're concerned you should make a point of asking if they guarantee they are free of snails. Most trades will probably tell you the truth. It still might be best to treat any plants you buy if you want to make sure you aren't introducing anything unwanted into your tank.
  20. Have you tried feeding them only once every 3-4 days? Are you still feeding those shrimp pellets? I ended up buying some recently...to suit a goldfish who seemed addicted to them! Anyway...my tank was cycling a little from the new fish but I was feeding the shrimp pellets every other day and on those days the ammonia was always worse and there was also more poo. I think they're a bit rich. I suggested once that you take out the phoszorb and your carbon and try the 'natural' way for a while. Did that help? How much phosphate is in your tap water?! You mention ammonia, what's your nitrite doing? I still have a hard time understanding how there can be excess poo if they aren't being overfed? Oh.. have you check your filter inlet and outlet pipes for decaying debris? Does the flow seem strong enough?
  21. Could be, I put 2 WCMM's into a bucket with an airstone and dosed the full dose as a test. They ended up dying so when I dosed the tank I used less and was very careful to watch them and stopped as soon as they seemed stressed. So maybe don't despair too much.. it's a bit of a learning curve but they're such nice little fish (possibly underrated!) it would be a shame for you to be put off compltely
  22. What did you use to treat the fungus? I trested some of mine with wunder tonic...I found I couldn't get up to the full recommended dose because they became stressed. Maybe they didn't like the meds and are gradully succumbing to some trouble from that?
  23. Wow... I didn't have any dealings with Alan but it was clear though his posts that he was a cut above the rest. I hope his family sees all your messages and realise what a legacy he has left behind and how many lives he's touched and filled with a little bit of extra joy either through simple kindness or though the furthering and encouragement of the hobby. His family is no doubt very proud of the man he was and hopefully one day find a small amount of solace in the fact that he will be remembered so deeply and fondly by so many people. To Alan
  24. Alan would have said killies
  25. Our troughs (for sheep) invariably get lumps of partially chewed cud in them. I can't imagine that would be very good for the water quality (fish wise). Also I suspect your 'pond trough' plants would make a tasty snack for hungry moos but if you're after mosquito control maybe you could try some white cloud minnows. They won't pollute the water as much as goldfish.
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