tukituki

thanks. i like the buget of $20 a bit more than about $100, with time the lights could be upgraded to T5's, they make such a difference. the med tank could have the aqua one light, there are bristlenoses breeding in there. the small tank could have the mitre 10 light. its going to be used to breed fighters. theres just a few guppies cycling it at the moment. do you think it would be good enough lighting for the fighters? cheers.

We have 3 tanks set up at the moment, our largest has great T5 lighting, a med-large tank that has a built in light (which we use for breeding, the light itself is pretty poor), and a fairly small tank which is also used for breeding that has an aqua one tube on it (works fine even though its a bit too long). The problem is the built in light on our med tank has stopped working. We've tried replacing the bulb and it still won't go. I was hoping for some advice on building a new light for this tank ourselves as we're a bit broke at the moment! Has anyone got any ideas? Thanks.

thanks nycnlo, i am inclined to agree now. cheers.

a stroke, poor thing. this time he was bred he did a pretty poor job and none survived. the son i was talking about before was from about 6 months ago. thanks for your opinion adodge, makes me feel a lot better.

my test kit does not have a test for nitrates, as its nitrites that are more toxic, nitrates have to be in really big amounts to be toxic. yes he died, i don't understand why. my other tank that i was having problems with is coming up with clear results after daily testing, i also got the water double checked at pet shop and results were all clear with pH 7.2. this little tank's tests are clear too so i don't think its the water. the 2 baby bn's are still fine. perhaps i'll use this as an isolation tank for the time being, in case the fighter was sick? just keep an eye on the bn's for now. no other sick fish in any of my 3 tanks. only good thing is i have the fighter's son who is equally as gorgeous as he was, just smaller! i'll have to find him a lady now as ours are too big.

he's about 1 1/2 - 2 years old. water conditions are fine (did ammonia and nitrite tests and both fine 0ppm), other 2 baby bn's fine too. no fly spray or anything plus his tank is fully enclosed. the temperature is normal. the only thing that has been different is he was bred from about a week ago, bred fine but fry didn't survive, usually he's the best dad ever. i think he is dead now, he's sort of curled up a bit and started going stiff... he was a really gorgeous fish, very sad

i turned on my male fighters tank light today and could see he is sick, he was sinking to the bottom of the tank, then swimming around in circles violently. he is the only fish in a 30 odd litre tank other than 2 baby bristlenoses who seem fine. he was fine yesterday. he was bred from recently and didn't do his usual great job with the fry, and they didn't survive. his fins look really healthy still. he isn't moving, he is curled on his side in a container i've put floating in the tank so i can keep an eye on him. things are not looking good. what could be up?

i can certainly do daily tests. i've been working hard to make sure no more fish get sick, and none have, my tests results have improved greatly, we're doing ok!

it tastes fine and doesn't make us sick, sorry i don't see the need to scrub the roof!

hi i have done a water change of 30% and tested again, ammonia is zero! which is great, and nitrite is down to 0.05ppm, so we are well and truly on the road to a healthy tank i hope. when should the next water change be to get rid of the remaining nitrite? thanks.

will be doing a water change later on this afternoon and will post the results up then. last water change was on saturday but we took more than intended to (about 30-40%) as we found all the waste beneath the UGF, so thought it best to wait until today for next one so as not to stress the fish out too much. cheers.

the stuff under the UGF was quite nasty, probably the prime suspect for my sick tank!

we won't be getting any more fish until its sorted. regular water changes yes.

the test says nitrite... we tested again yesterday evening and ammonia was down to 0.25, nitrite/nitrate was the same. none of our fish are looking ill so things are getting better.

thanks very much whetu. i really hope we have found the problem. the undergravel filter has not worked for ages and we have been using the eheim filter all this time too. i think when we moved we put some of the tank water in large plastic containers, the fish in bags in polyboxes (we only brought with us a few bristlenoses, some guppies and 4 siamese fighters), then the tank was drained of nearly all the water and it was put in the back of the car. perhaps the long journey from north to south islands managed to get lots of gunk stuck beneath the undergravel filter? maybe it has been there for longer, but either way it is gone now and we have got rid of the worst of what was there. over the next week things will get better i hope, and i hope my fish will be able to cope with this situation. we have a 2nd tank set up now that has better levels (not perfect but better), but it is brand new so i fear will suffer from elevated ammonia and nitrite levels. we have a few guppies cycling it at the moment but won't introduce anything else for a while. i think for now our main tank is getting a lot more healthier, and now with small water changes daily it'll be better in no time. and yes stress zyme contains the beneficial bacteria and claims to get rid of ammonia and nitrites. we have some so worth a shot eh!

undergravel filter removed. my fears proved to be correct, there was black yukky waste beneath the undergravel filter. we have done a 30-40% water change today, and will do a 10-20% tomorrow as well. and so on until the levels are healthy again. i don't agree with 100% changes. how long do you think it will take to get the water healthy again? thanks.

we got a testing kit today as we really want to sort out the tank. we recently moved from north to south islands and brought only a few fish with us, and have only bought a few since being here. perhaps this is part of the problem. the gravel was not washed when we set the new tank up as we wanted to keep the bacteria from it, and we brought as much of the water from the tank as we could, but it would only have been about 1/5 - 1/4 at the very most of total water. all tap water (which is rain water) we treat with a water ager. we have been adding a bit of stress zyme too. so we have done the tests today and this is our results: pH: 7.4 (i tested the tap water too which seemed to be 7.4 also) Ammonia: the test gave 1.0 which according to their table means there is 0.015ppm in our tank water. I hope i did it right. Nitrite: 0.2. This is worse than yesterday (before our water change yesterday) where it was less. We will do a 20% water change daily until things improve. We have a good eheim filter, as well as an old undergravel filter that doesn't work. we are going to remove the undergravel filter as there is some waste that is most likely stuck beneath it, good call? your advice is appreciated. thanks.

silver dollars must be quite sensitve if they get quite woozey eh! i do not have a test kit so 100% not possible. i think we will go with about 30% every 2nd day unless i am persuaded otherwise. we are on rain water. cheers.

i think i got my nitrites and nitrates mixed up! the test that was done was really low though and not considered too bad. yes no more fish until the ammonia is gone. the person in the shop said not to do too frequent water changes as it will upset the fish. they said every 2-3 days. we usually do our water changes once a fortnight. we have never ever had this problem before in all the years we have kept fish. we also have never used a testing kit after advice from an aquarium specialist where we used to live. we have done a water change today of 40%, the next one we were going to do sunday or monday...

i took a water sample and the fish back to the shop we got them from, they were really kind. they tested our water and to my horror the ammonia level was high. nitrites not too bad, and pH a little low. so lots of frequent water changes now. how often should i be doing them? i think over feeding is the culprit as we have a lot less fish now, and my other half seems to forget this sometimes! we want to get the water levels good asap so the other fish don't suffer.

the last one has died now too. it is very sad. has any one else experienced silver dollars being ultra sensitive to changes in water condition etc?

i've just been looking at the corpses of the 2 and no white marks as far as i can see. as i said before one was really badly fin nipped, so a bulk of this fish's fins are gone. the other looks normal. what would a white fraying apperance imply?

we haven't had any fish die for a while now, but probably get a few each year, like 4-5 perhaps at the most. i will call them tomorrow and see what they have to say and let you know.

our siamese fighters aren't quite normal as we have 2 males and 2 females in the same tank. they all get on fine. this was a temporary measure and there will be just the young male in the tank, and one other female any day now. last water change was about a week ago. i've never experienced anything like this with new fish over the years. thanks for the tips for introducing fish to new tank.

we have a tank about a metre wide, currently with some neons, 2 young angel fish, a few siamese fighters, a few guppies and some catfish. today we bought 3 small silver dollars from a pet shop. we settled them in our tank the usual way, floating bag on top for 20-30mins, adding some of our tank water to the bag for 10mins or so, then released them into the tank. i noticed at this point that one was really badly fin nipped. now a couple of hours later one is on the top of the tank on its side, but still alive, and the other 2 are dead. we have had fish for years and saw something similar a couple of years ago when we moved some silver dollars (that were much bigger than these ones) to a different tank, they went on their sides and seemed ill for a while but then came right, perhaps one died that time i'm not sure. i assume that silver dollars are quite sensitive. what could be the problem here?