Wazza Posted April 21, 2004 Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 Hi He's a quickie, my tank water has a ph of 6.8 temp 26 deg, tests for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites show nil, the water is crystal clear and very well filtered. Should I continue with weekly 25% water changes or can I reduce this to once a fortnight or even once every three weeks? The tank is 80 litres (empty) and a bit overstocked but all are happy and feed twice a day. Thanks Looking forward to getting my new tank! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris.L Posted April 21, 2004 Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 Always do frequent water changes, otherwise your water won't be so clean :] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted April 21, 2004 Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 If all is going well I would keep it up. With those fish, and being overstocked, you will find quality drops with less frequent water changes. What do you call 'very well filtered?' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazza Posted April 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 Thanks for that. I have got a new tank being built so a few weeks ago I purchased a 700L/hour external filter plus have 2 internals in the tank, so working out flow rates etc etc the whole tank has it's water cycled 20 times a hour. I just wanted the new filter ready for the new tank. The sharks and the tinfoils seem to love the current moving along the top jumping in front of the outlet holes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted April 21, 2004 Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 Those fish do like current. If you want to try it, reduce the water changes and keep testing. If the parameters stay good then by all means reduce them. If the tests show rises in ammonia etc, then go backto the weekly changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazza Posted April 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 Are you putting all the fish into the bigger tank, setting up the smaller with different fishes, or selling the smaller tank? Have you got the new filter running on the old tank? This will build up the bacteria. Use half the water from the old tank in the new one too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazza Posted April 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doch Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 my filter wet dry pumps 3600 litres an hour the clowns love swimming in the current even the the tiger barbs go with it and then swim against it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazza Posted April 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2004 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazza Posted April 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted April 30, 2004 Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 wait, you've got all those fish in a 200 liter? They'll barely be able to move in about 6 months! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazza Posted April 30, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 Yes, but some of them will be going into another tank in about a month, once it is cycled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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