TSWisla
New Member
Hello, I have had tanks in the past, but I have not had one going in a while. Anyway, a friend of mine moved to New Zeland and I was gifted his tank. It is a 30gal with an Eclipse filter (complete and utter PITA, the thing leaks all over the place), the tank has 4 african cichilds (which I feel is overstocked as all 4 are at least 4" long). The substrate is med sized gravel, fake plants and I took out all of the silly decorations that he had in there and put in some caves from an old aquarium.
First problem is the Eclipse condensation and then leaking down the sides of the tank. Then, two of the cichlids are really going after the other two, is there anything that I can do about this? Also, do I need an airstone in this tank? How much do I feed them (they hide when I get anywhere near the tank and do not begin to eat until I have left, so I find it very difficult to gauge how much to give them. I have an issue with algae, I have been changing the water every two weeks to keep the nitrates down. All of the fake plants are covered in algae. It has been a week or so since that last change and today the nitrates are 40-60 ppm. Other parameters, nitrite 0 ppm, hardness 120 ppm, alkalinity 300ppm, pH 8.4. Also, as I mentioned, I put in the three caves and they are (two weeks later) still battling over 1 of them. I am afraid that the two that are really getting picked on will perish soon. One more silly question, is it alright to clean the outside of the tank with windex if I spray the windex into a cloth and then wipe the glass or should I use something else?
I apologize for this long post, but I have not been doing this for some time now and I am not sure that I was caring for my fish properly in the first place. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. The stores near my house are pathetic. When I asked what to do about algae, several people told me to buy the biggest pleco possible, enough said...
Thank you.
First problem is the Eclipse condensation and then leaking down the sides of the tank. Then, two of the cichlids are really going after the other two, is there anything that I can do about this? Also, do I need an airstone in this tank? How much do I feed them (they hide when I get anywhere near the tank and do not begin to eat until I have left, so I find it very difficult to gauge how much to give them. I have an issue with algae, I have been changing the water every two weeks to keep the nitrates down. All of the fake plants are covered in algae. It has been a week or so since that last change and today the nitrates are 40-60 ppm. Other parameters, nitrite 0 ppm, hardness 120 ppm, alkalinity 300ppm, pH 8.4. Also, as I mentioned, I put in the three caves and they are (two weeks later) still battling over 1 of them. I am afraid that the two that are really getting picked on will perish soon. One more silly question, is it alright to clean the outside of the tank with windex if I spray the windex into a cloth and then wipe the glass or should I use something else?
I apologize for this long post, but I have not been doing this for some time now and I am not sure that I was caring for my fish properly in the first place. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. The stores near my house are pathetic. When I asked what to do about algae, several people told me to buy the biggest pleco possible, enough said...
Thank you.