Wazza

It was a cold day, a wet day, a day when all you want to do is curl up in front of the fire, a day when you envy those happy go-lucky fish in their warm jackets of water, continually heated and with no fear of freezing they swim, swim and play. You look up and smile as you watch the Angels complete the course around the rocks in a perfect synchronised manoeuvre that any air-force would award their jet fighters with the highest praise for their skill, then without a blink, no warnings, no sirens that were promised to let us know to take shelter from impending doom, the lights go out, the TV dies… …and you simply say to yourself not again, why, why do they have these power cuts on these coldest days? The lights are out! Oh no the poor fish… how are they… you go and take a good look in, yes they are in darkness so you pull the curtain open a bit more to let in a bit more light, you check all the equipment, yes it’s all working, the heater is on, the filters are filtering, and the air lift is lifting. Your only concern now is that the power will come back on within the next hour, these power cuts never last over an hour you think to yourself, you look down and say to yourself, ‘I’m glad I brought that Power UPS when I didâ€. A true story. Ok perhaps not so dramatic, but true never-the-less

Here is a working theory, but it is full of holes. Wed 12 I harderned the water by adding a white powder that lfs gave me forgot to ask what it was made up of, but will ask tomorrow, old reading was 1dh (18 mg/l caco3) and added active carbon to my main filter (to remove yellow tint), nitrate was 20ppm. new hardness 15 dh (300mg/l caco3), did this to make the ph stable (it kept moving from 6.8 to 7.4), this advise came from lfs, and its working so far. Thur 13 pm 30% water change nitrate dropped to 10ppm Fri 14 am nitrate jumped to 80ppm Fri 14 pm 30% water change tested again, nitrate still 80ppm Sat 15 am nitrate still 80ppm, removed carbon, did 50% water change Sat 15 pm nitrate 40ppm Sun 16 am nitrate 40ppm, another 30% change later today. Ph is stable at 7.0 does not change, ammonia and nitrites are zero again does not change. I know carbon does not or meant not to effect nitogen levels, but in all other tests before adding the carbon nitrate never when over 20ppm but as soon as carbon was entered nitrate jumped. I will keep monitoring of course but see no other cause. As I said a theory. Yellow tint gone anyway.

As a matter of curiosity just wondering what the average nitrate level other tanks have.

Jees I just asked what I thought was a simple question and now I'm milking my tinfoils, what next lol

Just read the rest of your post, I need plants to live in high lite tanks as my pleco and black sharks need the algee to feed on, (still no real algee growth yet gets eaten too quick)

That alright pegasus, I just let you and alan sort it out. Java moss gets eaten within 24 hours, have not tried java fern. But prob stay with plastic. Or release the tinfoils in to NZ water ways, they will clean the weeds within a week. Saving the country millions.

Tell me about it, hate to think how many plants they have eaten. But still I hold out for that little bit of hope.

does anyone know what plant would be hardy enough to grow in a tank with tinfoils. Every other plant I put in over the last few months has gotten eaten within the first few days by them. I think it would need to be fast growing and large and heavy?

I don't think that they will listen to me if I tried to tell them where to lay or not to lay their eggs, and I was vacuuming the tank at the time, so they were on the other side. The area is dark and out of the way, see what happens in the next few days. As I read that it takes 3 to 4 days to hatch.

Can someone tell me what colour the eggs should be, while cleaning the tank this afternoon I found anther trench like the firemouths have dug before, but attched to the gravel there are lots, of brownish / dark yellow bubble like things, no not gravel. Just hopeing that they are good eggs.

Thanks Caryl, wont panic at this stage then. The kit I purchased just tells me how to test, not alot more. Perhapes you can recommend a good book / guide that is designed for young players that gives information such as safety levels and when to panic and when not too. I have heaps of techical info and Pegasus's site is great but apart from in here there seams to be a lack of "don't let you tank go over this level... but is safe between these levels". If you know what I mean.

I know this must have been answered before, but I can't find a post about safety levels. 200l tank ph = 7.0 no ammonia, no nitrites, temp=26.5, 20% water change each week. And has filtering of 1400l / hour. Just got a nitrate test kit today, it reads between 10 and 20 ppm. Another post recently says that 80ppm is dangerous. I know that 0ppm is perferred but what is tipically the safety margin with nitrates? At what stage do I need to panic. Next water change is Saturday. Thanks in advance.

cheers

Thanks Polgara & Dave, I am looking forward to attending, what time do you all meet?

Thanks

Hi Caryl, how do I go about getting a copy of your mag, I am in Hamilton

Can anyone tell me how to find out info on the Hamilton club.

well yeah they do funny things, man they motor, but mostly they eat alot of algee and keep the glass really clean and clear.

and my black red tail sharkes just love to swim down the bubble stream and float to the top again, even the Firemouths love to play in the bubbles.

Yes, but some of them will be going into another tank in about a month, once it is cycled.

My fish are all happy again, and I am glad that I have checked the water condidtions daily. As an indidication of how fast a tank can develop problems here is the daily readings so other newbies like myself can see how fast toxic levels can rise: 200L tank containing 160l of water. Mon 26 - 3pm temp=26.5 ph=6.8 ammonia=0 nitrite=0 Tue 27 -3pm temp=26.5 ph=6.8 ammonia=.5 nitrite=5.0 50% water change done Tue 27 -7pm temp=26.5 ph=6.8 ammonia=.0 nitrite=0.75 Wed 28 -9am temp=26.5 ph=6.8 ammonia=.0 nitrite=0.50 Wed 28 -2:30pm temp=26.5 ph=6.8 ammonia=.0 nitrite=0.25 25% water change done Wed 28 -5pm temp=26.5 ph=6.8 ammonia=.0 nitrite=0.15 Thur 29 -7am temp=26.5 ph=6.8 ammonia=.0 nitrite=0.0 Thur 29 -10pm temp=26.5 ph=6.8 ammonia=.0 nitrite=0.0 Fri 30 -9:30am temp=26.5 ph=6.8 ammonia=.0 nitrite=0.0 They were not fed on Tue and Wed and feeding started again Thur pm. The only thing I can pin this change to is the fact that everything from the old old tank was transferred to the new tank 3 days before and the addition of a couple of new fish Monday. The filters are working as no sign of ammonia was present apart from when the nitrite spiked to 5.0, but this I think was due to a faulty test as later that day an independant test showed none. My lession learnt is to do regular water testing, and when making any major changes to the tank to test daily for the first week. And avoid overfeeding.

Help!! Ok the new tank is running since Saturday and I have been testing the water, the ph has been stable at 6.8 and the ammonia reads light yellow and nitrite light blue, temp at 26 deg. I used all the filters and gravel from the old tank so not to lose any goodness. This afternoon on testing I found theat the ph and temp are the same, but the ammonia is dark yellow and nitrite deep purple. I have done a 40% water change. Is there anything else I should do? And would anybody know why it should go from good to bad in such a short time? Don't think we are over feeding, but will not feed for the next 2 days. Thanks in advance.

Felling pretty good at the moment, got my new tank on Saturday, and managed to get the old one emptied and the new one up and running, but this time did it with a lot more care than last time. No fish were harmed and in fact they love all the new room. Have posted a few photos on my web site if anyone is interested. One thing to remember next time is to put the Tinfoils in last. One jumped out while putting others in, jumped a good 6 inches, landed on a ledge behind the tank, thank Christ I put a high sheft behind the tank.

Yeah that was my intention to more everything over, fish water the works so the new tank is already cycled. The small tank may end up in my office with one of the internals and the old heater, use it for sick fish, or for water changes. The new filter is working on the old tank, just looked in it not long ago appears that everything is going well, shame you can't see how the good bacteria are going, but must trust them to do their job right?

Thanks for the help, but hopefully with new tank arriving this weekend weekly changes will be on the menu for a little while at least.