sandaz

I will do that tomorrow. Can't understand the spike in ammonia with the weekly water changes. Not overfeeding (1 x day only and only as much as what's getting demolished) and dead fish removed straight away.

Had 2 pictus, 2 bristlenoses, 10 neons, 1 dwarf gourami, 6 danios, 1 red tail shark, 6 guppies, 6 rummy noses, 2 mollies and 2 swordtails. Tonic salt added as the previous owners did and I only carried on as per their instructions. Flourish because I had BBA, but it's all gone now so have stuck with the amount for maintenance on bottle.

I've had for a couple of months now but the tank was fully set up for at least a year before that by the people I bought it off. When we transferred the tank we kept half the tank water, changed the carbon an washed the noodles in tank water. I've not checked the readings weekly (after the first month) as they were stable with Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0 and Nitrate = 0.

Hi, hope you guys will be able to answer some of my questions. I've got a fish dying every 2 days at the moment (for the last 2 weeks) with the last casualty seeming to be my large pictus catfish, have put him in a breeding holder and moved to a smaller tank to keep a good eye on him and see if I can revive him. I've got a 350litre tank with Fluval 305 filter. I do weekly water changes of ~30%, adding Prime(2.5ml), tonic salt(3 tablespoons) and Flourish Excel(40ml) each time. My water readings today are: Temperature = 26.5 degrees Ammonia = 0.25ppm (up from 0 last weekend) PH = 7.2 Nitrite = 0 ppm Nitrate readings vary depending on test kit used. If I use the master kit it reads 80ppm, and if I another test kit I've got it reads 10ppm. Not sure which one to believe, but thinking of it now, the master test kit have read that every time I've used it with another tank I had, thought it was still just cycling as it was new. The other fish seems to be happily swimming around and feeding, but so was the pictus up until today. I'm kind of wondering where to go from here. I've got some expensive fish in my tank and don't want to keep losing them at this rate. I'm going to do a 50% water change tomorrow to see if it makes a difference. Some advice would be greatly appreciated!

No it's not. Just something to cover up the filter :-)

My tank is 350l and I used 16 caps full at each water change, basically the major water change number on the bottle for your tank size, and then double it. I was advised to do a 30% water change 3 days after dosing and then to keep doing it until it's gone. It's taken 3 weeks basically for me. If you ever see your fishes at the surface gulping for air do an immediate 50% water change. And if possible make sure you have lots of bubbles in the water. I've got catfish and all sorts of others and they never seemed bothered by the double dosing. Expensive for sure (it's taken me basically ~650ml of Excel) but definitely worked for me!

I bought a tank that had a big problem with it, and have just gotten rid of it. I did three things: 1. Got some Siamese Algae eaters (x6) and they definitely stopped the new stuff from growing 2. Used a syringe with bleach to treat the worst affected plants. It did turn white straight away and then the SAE and mollies absolutely loved it! Especially the black mollies. 3. Double dosed my tank with Flourish Excel with a water change every 3 days. This treated the tank as a whole and all those other things I couldn't get to with the bleach It's been just about a month and its all gone. I know some people say it looks nice but I hated the stuff. The people at the pet shop told me loads of people have come in asking for advice, and think the really hot summer this year had something to do with it. I don't know much about the reasons it grow, but maybe partially to blame for it starting up in your tank? Good luck!

Thanks camtang! So I need to get rid (give away) how many then? And they are all convict cichlids or just the one in picture 2? Read up on the egg spots, very interesting! Plants are already floating as you said, so will remove them.

Hi, I just got a new tank with some cichlids. I've also posted in beginners corner but have not had much response. I have a community tank and don't know much about these guys, but keen to find out so I don't accidentally kill them. :-? Just wondering if someone can help me out with some questions: 1. What type of cichlids are these? People I bought it off just wanted to get rid of them and couldn't tell me anything about them, apart from the fact that new babies seem to appear every 2-3 weeks. 2. It's a 90 litre tank with 5 cichlids in them, is that too many fish? 3. The light blue cichlid has 3 spots on one of his fins on the bottom(no other spots), is this disease or something different?

Hi, I just got a new tank with some cichlids. Just wondering if someone can help me out with some questions: 1. What type of cichlids are these? People I bought it off just wanted to get rid of them and couldn't tell me anything about them, apart from the fact that new babies seem to appear every 2-3 weeks. 2. It's a 90 litre tank with 5 cichlids in them, is that too many fish? 3. The light blue cichlid has 3 spots on one of his fins on the bottom(no other spots), is this disease or something different? I have a community tank and know nothing about cichlids.

Good news! Move went well with pretty happy fish by the looks of it and no casualties so far! Thanks for all the advice! Now to get rid of the black beard algae.

Thanks have looked these up and they look beautiful! So I only need to make sure there's enough bubbles going before doing the treatment? Nothing else?

Really? Thought they wouldn't tolerate tropical water. That might solve a problem...

Have listed in Trade and Exchange section

Thanks! I'm super excited! :happy1:

No unfortunately not!

Thanks! The guy I'm buying it from are helping me move it. He's decided to a reef tank and hence this one has to go. Planning to take lots of water containers to take as much of the current water with us (~180 litres) and do fill the rest with a water change. He said he's got bags to put the fish in for easy transport. And scooping the black granite sand out and transporting in buckets. Any other things I should consider? Am replacing the ornament with some drift wood as I think the sucker fish will do better with that. The tank was recently moved into a new spot to make way for the reef tank and has had too much light on it, hence now have some black bearded algae. Mostly on the plants. Will replacing the plants get rid of it?

Will break the news to my daughter first before putting it on the Trade and Exchange section. Hopefully letting her choose a fish to go into the new tank will soften the blow a bit as she loves this little guy.

Picture of the guy. So I suppose he is free to a good home. Is trademe the best place to advertise or where should I?

I've just bought a 350 litre tank but are going to put tropical fish in it. So won't be upsizing this tank. Sounds like I'm better off letting it go to a new home then? I've got another smaller fish in it who follows it around religiously, so probably would have to let them both go at the same time?

Hi, I'm new to the forum but have had goldfish for about 4 years now. I was talking to the fish guy at the local pet shop and mentioned that my goldfish just seems to keep growing even though I was told it will know when to stop when tank is too small(20 litre). He advised me to post something on here as many passionate goldfish lovers would be willing to give me some advise, but that I should possibly look at letting it go to a bigger tank. It is currently ~14-15cm long including tail, and I've always thought it has the most beautiful flowing tail I've ever seen on a goldfish. Any ideas?

Hi, my name is Sandra and I'm (obviously) new to the forum and also tropical fish keeping. I currently have 2 goldfish which we bought 4 years ago when my daughter was mad about the movie Nemo. I recently got inspired and made some noises about getting a tropical tank. My husband decided to give me one for valentines day(I know he's lovely!) and we bought a ready made tank off Trademe. Super excited about getting it in two days time! It's a 350 litre setup with the following fish coming with it: 2x Pictus Catfish 1x Whiptail 1x Red Tail Shark 2x Chain loach’s 2x Bristle nose Plecos (1 large and one medium sized) 2x Yellow and black Molly’s 1x Baby Molly (a couple of weeks old) 10x (ish) Neon Tetras 1x Yellow Platty 2x Pineapple Swordtails (1 male, 1 female) 6x Guppy’s 2x Siamese Algae Eaters I'm sure I'll be posting lots of questions, but here is my first. I'd really like to "put my stamp" on the tank, and was wondering what fish would be nest to introduce? I love the silver dollars, gourami and angel fish...but not sure where to go, and how many more fish I can put in? All answers much appreciated!