Help need knowledgeable aquatics PH'ers!
Discussion
Posting on behalf of teenage Solo2!
I'm new to all this and have a 25l tank and I appear to have been misinformed and have some stressed and now injured fish.
Friday put first fish in tank when water was tested as ready. In go two Danio and all good. Saturday having had advice I added two Cherry Barbs and two speckled/spotted Barbs.
Now the speckled or spotted Barbs only have one eye each as the Danio appear to be attacking them and the cherry Barbs won't come out of hiding at the bottom on the tank.
Went to a well know at home pet shop tonight and was told to check for ammonia, PH, Nitrite, Nitrate, KH & GH.
Readings are:
Ammonia was 0.25mg/l so added aquarium salts under at recommended doseage
KH was at 120mg/l and should read 180mg/l
PH is within normal tolerance
Nitrite was 0.5mg/l and was told needs to be 0 mg/l
Nitrate 20mg/l and told I need 40mg/l
I realise now that I've added one or two too many fish and the advise I got was incorrect and I've mixed too many different types of fish but that does not help me in the short term. I want to do the best I can for them now.
What should I do to sort out the water and is there anything I can add that might calm them down and stop them fighting/hurting each other and is likely to continue and they will always fight?
I'm new to all this and have a 25l tank and I appear to have been misinformed and have some stressed and now injured fish.
Friday put first fish in tank when water was tested as ready. In go two Danio and all good. Saturday having had advice I added two Cherry Barbs and two speckled/spotted Barbs.
Now the speckled or spotted Barbs only have one eye each as the Danio appear to be attacking them and the cherry Barbs won't come out of hiding at the bottom on the tank.
Went to a well know at home pet shop tonight and was told to check for ammonia, PH, Nitrite, Nitrate, KH & GH.
Readings are:
Ammonia was 0.25mg/l so added aquarium salts under at recommended doseage
KH was at 120mg/l and should read 180mg/l
PH is within normal tolerance
Nitrite was 0.5mg/l and was told needs to be 0 mg/l
Nitrate 20mg/l and told I need 40mg/l
I realise now that I've added one or two too many fish and the advise I got was incorrect and I've mixed too many different types of fish but that does not help me in the short term. I want to do the best I can for them now.
What should I do to sort out the water and is there anything I can add that might calm them down and stop them fighting/hurting each other and is likely to continue and they will always fight?
Poisson96 said:
Also don't return to said chain for fish or advice. Not great with either. Use Facebook to link up with local owners as well. Where in the country are you?
Said chain actually have appeared to be far more helpful and knowledgeable than a small independent shop which didn't seem so knowledgeable.We're in Surrey.
Nimby said:
Danios are tropical.
Having gone back to where we purchased the Danio's we were told they had cold and tropical Danio and we had bought some from the cold water tank. Then added tropical fish in an unheated tank. I guess by telling another shop we had Danio's the assumption was made we had a tropical tank. We didn't at that point.The danio's have been rehomed to a cold water owner and the water for the barbs now heated.
Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
Ammonia needs to be zero. Same for nitrite. Your tank is not yet mature, and I'm afraid you've added too many fish too quickly.
Forget KH. Don't bother testing it - the fish you're keeping don't care. Don't worry about pH either - it's very unlikely to be outside the range that these fish will tolerate.
Your nitrate reading is perfectly fine. Aim for a MAXIMUM of 50-60 mg/l - and for the health of the fish lower is better. Higher readings will not kill fish, but long term will affect their health.
25 litres is a very small tank, and this makes it very difficult for a novice. I have a 25 litre tank, but I am an experienced aquarist and the tank has lots of technology supporting it, plus LOTS of plant life. I also do very regular water changes (every week if possible). Small quantities of water are much less stable and are prone to changes in water quality and chemistry; a larger body of water will change much more slowly.
I strongly recommend you swap the tank for a bigger one - at least 60 litres. In the meantime, do a 50% water change every other day, and make sure you treat the new water with a water conditioner (most importantly they remove chlorine and chloramine from your tap water). This will help dilute any ammonia and nitrite. Don't use water straight from the tap without treating it to remove chlorine/chloramine, and try to match the water temperature by adding a small amount of boiling water.
Cannot get a bigger tank as no room for anything bigger but unfortunately we lost both cherry barbs during the day yesterday. They had always been at the bottom of the tank and I guess going from a warmed tank in the shop to an unheated one for 4 days to a slowly increased heated tank was too much for them.Forget KH. Don't bother testing it - the fish you're keeping don't care. Don't worry about pH either - it's very unlikely to be outside the range that these fish will tolerate.
Your nitrate reading is perfectly fine. Aim for a MAXIMUM of 50-60 mg/l - and for the health of the fish lower is better. Higher readings will not kill fish, but long term will affect their health.
25 litres is a very small tank, and this makes it very difficult for a novice. I have a 25 litre tank, but I am an experienced aquarist and the tank has lots of technology supporting it, plus LOTS of plant life. I also do very regular water changes (every week if possible). Small quantities of water are much less stable and are prone to changes in water quality and chemistry; a larger body of water will change much more slowly.
I strongly recommend you swap the tank for a bigger one - at least 60 litres. In the meantime, do a 50% water change every other day, and make sure you treat the new water with a water conditioner (most importantly they remove chlorine and chloramine from your tap water). This will help dilute any ammonia and nitrite. Don't use water straight from the tap without treating it to remove chlorine/chloramine, and try to match the water temperature by adding a small amount of boiling water.
So currently I have a tank on 26 degrees with the two spotted/speckled barbs only left. They appear to have always and still are swimming around happily enough but I am concerned that they have not eaten the flaked food I put in there a day ago.
I'll do a water change tonight adding water conditioner but how do you allow it to stand to work and then have the water warm enough to put it in a tropical tank? I thought the water needed to stand for 4 odd hours but if I put part hot water in from the kettle in the beginning it would be largely cold after 4 hours.
This is beginning to get way too complicated for me and teen Solo2!
We rehomes as I said the Danio's
Of the four remaining 3 unfortunately died and we cannot see a reason as when the water has been tested it's always been within the readings it needs to be. I've done frequent water changes always treating the water but I think at the end of the day the three that died probably did because they went from a warm tank in the shop to our colder one and then it was heated all within the space of a week.
The one remaining speckled one is ding very well and is swimming around a lot. he's not eating much but at last he is eating and one fish won't eat much anyway!
thank you for all your advice, all of it taken on board and teen solo2 has learnt a valuable lesson. A new considerably larger tank is being acquired and will be allowed to mature before the remaining fish is moved
Of the four remaining 3 unfortunately died and we cannot see a reason as when the water has been tested it's always been within the readings it needs to be. I've done frequent water changes always treating the water but I think at the end of the day the three that died probably did because they went from a warm tank in the shop to our colder one and then it was heated all within the space of a week.
The one remaining speckled one is ding very well and is swimming around a lot. he's not eating much but at last he is eating and one fish won't eat much anyway!
thank you for all your advice, all of it taken on board and teen solo2 has learnt a valuable lesson. A new considerably larger tank is being acquired and will be allowed to mature before the remaining fish is moved
Gassing Station | All Creatures Great & Small | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff