Search results

Got a double zero last night and this morning. Hope it stays that way.

I am down in the gutters again. I went on leave since my last post and did not have any internet access so I could not post. Since last week tuesday I have been getting amonia and nitrate spikes again. In 12 hours the amonia grows to 0.25ppm and Nitrate spikes up to 1ppm. I am back to doing 3...

I was thinking of calling him Bob, but Ice sounds much better :lol: I played around on google translate, and the Albanian word for ice is akull (pronounced a-kull). Think that will be his name.

Here is a picture of my boy. Sorry for the poor picture quality.

So a new LFS opened up in town over the weekend and I went and had a look. Firstly, WOW, they have one huge collection of fish, some that I could not even have imagined existed.They have 102 tank in storeof which 30 is marine, 10 coldwater and 62 tropical. They have a pleco, in a comunity tank...

The filter again had no flow when I got home yesterday afternoon, so I removed the sponges and gave them a couple of good squeezes inside the fishtank and then put them back.The flow was back to normal after that. Tetsed the water and got a 0.03 ppm for Amonia and 0.5 for NOS. Immediately did a...

Thank you WD. I will continue to do research, and as I get closer to the purchase day I will have a definite stocking list. My main concern now is just getting that new filter. The current one I have had almost no flow when I got home yesterday afternoon. I blew into its air tube and that seemed...

I am no expert in the field, and unfortunately I started out the wrong way as well. I finally got the right advice from the people on the forum and started testing my water. I did aabout 2 tests a day and 3 water changes a day. When the levels were above 0.25ppm I did a 90 % water change and if...

So after a lot, and a lot of consideration, I have decided that I am going to buy a 16.5 gallon tank. Obviously I wont make the same mistakes as with the 7 gallon. I am going to purchase a new filter during the week and start running it together with the old filter in the 7 gallon tank. then...

Things are starting to look good now. I only needed to do 2 water changes during the weekend.

I need advice again. Yesterday evening I noticed these tiny white speckles in my tank. They swim in the water and cling to the side of the glass. They are very tiny, almost like a grain of salt. I googled it and it seems that overfeeding might be the cause, but I cant see how that is possible as...

I am still in the gutters. I am back at 3 daily water changes. The NH3/4 levels are at 0.03 ppm and NO2 spikes towards 1 ppm. I am going to try and rehome some more fish. Maybe just leave 2 rio tetras in there.

Thank you for the support WD, I appreciate it. I think the main factor for a newbie starting out is relying on the information provided by the LFS. Unfortunately more times than not the LFS does not have a clue of what he/she is talking about and the newbie ends up starting out the wrong way and...

So when I got home yesterday afternoon I tested my water as usual and found that the NO2 levels were through the roof. Got a reading of almost 1 ppm. Imediatly did a 90% water change and did another 90% change this morning. I seriously have no idea what could have caused it as there is only 4...

My tank is finaly more managable with the pleco and the bubles mollies out of the tank. The levels take about double the time now to build up. I only need to do two 30% water changes a day in order to keep the levels safe. The best reading I got over the weekend was NO3/4 0.00 and NO2 0.015. If...

Thank you Timmy_Bee. I think for now I am going to stick with my 4 Rio's and the 7 gallon and save some cash to buy myself a Rio 180. I can see clearly now that it does not help to try a cheaper option as it will somehow end up biting me in the behind.

Keeping my space restrictions in mind,I saw a nice 63liter (16.5 gallon) tank. What is your opinion on the size of the tank and more importantly what are my stocking options? The LFS is quite expensive with his tanks, for instance a Juwel Rio 180 goes for R7 999.00 (Rougly 1100 dollars/ 719...

Constant water changes are almost over, just a few more weeks.

Something I found, if you do a search on wikipedia for List of freshwater aquarium fish species then you get a nice list which show almost all the adult sizes of fish and what types there are and so on. It pretty much showed me that I cant realy keep a lot of fish in the 7 gallon, so I guess I...

Ok thank you for all the comments :good: . I have just spoken to the breeder who is coming to collect the pleco this afternoon and he said that he will take the Molies as well (seems like quite a nice chap although he does not realy want to help me out with my setup and some advice). In the...

Ok I finally managed to find a fish breeder who will DEFINITELY take the Pleco. Just out of curiosity, when my tank has finished its cycle, can I put some more fish in, considering it is a 7 gallon tank? I was thinking of adding 2 Betta females together with the 4 Rio Tetras and then also give...

Readings before water change this morning: PH:8.2 NH3/4: 0.018 NO2: 0.2 The idiot who said he will take the Pleco never showed up yesterday afternoon, so now I will have to start searching all over again.

The readings this morning are: PH:8.2 NH3/4: 0.01 NO2:0.15 I also confirmed, it is not a build up on the filter, the actual sponge is turning brown.

Thank you for the replies. I just managed to find a nic big home for the Pleco. The guy will come pick him up tomorrow evening.

Today's readings: PH: 8.2 NH3/4: 0.02 NO2: 0.2 I noticed some build up on the sponge filter. Looks kind of brownish in colour. Should I be woried about this?

I have been carrying out the ritual of water changes over the weekend and the PH and Amonia measures were pretty much constant with NH3/4 on 0.02 and PH on 8.2 but NO2 jumped around between 0.1 and 0.5. I carried out tests every 8 hours and also did a water change every 8 hours. Something I have...

The PH seems to be constant which I hope is a good thing. As for the Nitrite spikes, they seem to be better now that I am doing more frequent large water changes. The Amonia also seems to be quite constant on 0.02. I am still trying to find a home for the Pleco. I think that if he is out of the...

Thanks for the advice. Did a 80 % water change yesterday afternoon and the readings yesterday evening were as follows: PH: 8.2 NH3/4: 0.00 NO2: 0.05 The readings this morning were: PH:8.2 NH3/4: 0.02 N02: 0.15 Did a 50% water change after taking the readings this morning.

Did a 80% water change yesterday evening. After an hour the readings were as follows: PH: 8.2 NO2: 0.25ppm NH3/4: 0.00ppm When tested this morning the readings were: PH: 8.2 NO2: 0.5ppm NH3/4: 0.02ppm Did a 50% water change after taking the readings this morning. The NO2 reading is realy...

Thank you very much for clearing that up. Will do a big water change when I get home. BTW the conditioner am am using is Tetra Aqua Safe. Hope it is decent enough.

The Nitrite is also of big concern to me. I did 2 30% water changes yesterday, one at 17h30 and one at 21h00. I am going to try and do water changes in the mornings as well, that might help me to keep the Nitrate levels under controll. I am just a bit scared of to much water changes, instead of...

Readings this morning: PH: 8.2 NO2: 0.5ppm NH3/4: 0.02ppm I tried another pet shop but they say they dont have space for the fish. There are only two pet shops in the town that I live in so I am in quite a bit of a predicament now. I think I will let the tank finish its cycle then get a bigger...

My units of measure is PPM. The test kits I use are from Red Sea. They are liquid test kits. Each type Eg, NO2, NH3/4,etc is bought seperatly because there just isnt any decent complete test kits on the store shelves at the moment. I just got of the phone with the pet shop. They are not willing...

I just discovered another lie that the local Pet SShop told me. When I bought the Algae Eater the guy at the pet shop told me that it is perfect for my 27liter tank, however I just Identified it. It is a Pleco that looks like the one in this image As I understand it, these things get realy...

So yesterday afternoon I did a 75% water change. I gave the new water an hour to settle then I tested it and I got the folowing readings at 18h00: PH:8.0 NO2: 0.15 NH3/4: 0.072 Did another test this morning at about 06h00 and got the following readings: PH: 8.0 NO2:0.2 NH3/4: 0.072 I will do...

Thank you for the welcome. The article you mentioned is one of the articles I have bookmarked. Definitely was very usefull.

Ok, so I managed to get test kits for amonia an NO2, but I cant get my hands on a test kit for NO3. The article I read suggested a 10-15% daily water change. How important is it that I get my hands on a NO3 test kit? I also managed to buy a gravel siphon, so I will clean the gravell tonight as well.

Thanks for the advice, I have read up on all the cycling articles and I found a good article on exactly the mistake I made and how to correct it, so as soon as I get home I will commence opperation Fish Rescue.

This is the first time anyone has said anything about cycling to me. Everyone here at the pet shoppes said I should just add the Aqua Safe fluid and then my tank is ready for fish. Just goes to show how much these pet shop operators actually know. Thanks for the advice.