Zhoo
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2009
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi everyone,
I'm a noob although I used to babysit a fully grown cichlid and did fairly well.
I got myself a new 38g tank three weeks ago. The lfs staff gave me a bunch of used gravel which I'm thankful for. Right now I have 11 1"-1.5" fish in the tank, 3 bottom feeders and 8 baby cichlids (African). A few live plants and lots of rocks/wood for them to hide.
Everything seems to be going according to the plan, except for I have zero nitrites readings so far. My ammonia is spiking right now although there is no way to tell the exact concentration because I used Ammonia lock and Prime in attempts to bring it down.
Here are the parameters:
GH 180
KH 180
pH 6.5-7.0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 3 but I don't know for sure
38g tank with an underground filter (1 powerhead) + an emperor filter (with sponge/carbon) running simultaneously with maximum aeration.
T around 80F
Once a day feeding with a pinch of thawed bloodworms
A few days ago the water turned milky white and the fishies started to show signs of distress. I've been doing 25-50% water changes daily with a gravel vacuum since then and they seem to be doing ok for now, except for ammonia readings are still very high. No traces of nitrites at all. I put more used gravel in and all kinds of liquid bacteria stuff I could get my hands on but nothing is changing. The lfs girl told me to relax and wait...
am I doing something wrong? (too much fish, I know, but I thought frequent water changes would take care of that)
Thanks for any input, much appreciated.
I'm a noob although I used to babysit a fully grown cichlid and did fairly well.
I got myself a new 38g tank three weeks ago. The lfs staff gave me a bunch of used gravel which I'm thankful for. Right now I have 11 1"-1.5" fish in the tank, 3 bottom feeders and 8 baby cichlids (African). A few live plants and lots of rocks/wood for them to hide.
Everything seems to be going according to the plan, except for I have zero nitrites readings so far. My ammonia is spiking right now although there is no way to tell the exact concentration because I used Ammonia lock and Prime in attempts to bring it down.
Here are the parameters:
GH 180
KH 180
pH 6.5-7.0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 3 but I don't know for sure
38g tank with an underground filter (1 powerhead) + an emperor filter (with sponge/carbon) running simultaneously with maximum aeration.
T around 80F
Once a day feeding with a pinch of thawed bloodworms
A few days ago the water turned milky white and the fishies started to show signs of distress. I've been doing 25-50% water changes daily with a gravel vacuum since then and they seem to be doing ok for now, except for ammonia readings are still very high. No traces of nitrites at all. I put more used gravel in and all kinds of liquid bacteria stuff I could get my hands on but nothing is changing. The lfs girl told me to relax and wait...
am I doing something wrong? (too much fish, I know, but I thought frequent water changes would take care of that)
Thanks for any input, much appreciated.