Fishkeepers Anxiety!

[Barry Tetra]

Mine is that bad that every night before I go to sleep I'll quickly run down the stairs to check if all my fish are alright

I thought I’m the only one?!

I’m that bad that I do a 75% daily water changes on every single tank! (I have 9 tanks btw)

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I thought I’m the only one?!

I’m that bad that I do a 75% daily water changes on every single tank! (I have 9 tanks btw)

I still don’t get why you have to do a 75% WC on all 9 tanks...

I spent about 45 minutes last night watches my fish. The corys are my favorite to watch. (But don’t tell any of the others... ?)

 

[SAChichlidLover]

I do check the numbers of fish in the morning & before bedtime & probably 100 times a day ,Together with the tank temp & make sure the filters are working
But i do have fry in 1 of tanks at the moment so i need to check & feed regular
My wife says Why do you keep checking everything ?

Same!! And aww I hope the fry are all okay! what fish are they?

 

[SAChichlidLover]

You are not alone. I get extremely anxious with new fish - watching them like a hawk, freaking out if they glass surf, etc.

One of the things that made me mellow out a bit and this is kind of counter-intuitive, but Corey from Aquarium Co-op said in one of his videos: "How do you get good at fish keeping? You kill a bunch of them.". He's not saying go kill a bunch of fish on purpose, mind you. What he means is that you're going to make mistakes and through those mistakes you'll learn. And despite it all you are going to lose some fish. It's stressful and it's no fun but it's going to happen. Like a previous poster said, take good care of your tanks, keep up on your maintenance, research how you plan to stock your tanks, and then sit back and enjoy.

Genuinely same here... It doesn't help I'm diagnosed with the thing hahaha anyways that is a very good point and sounds very accurate!

 

[SAChichlidLover]

I worry about the smallest things rather than the majors and end up creating more hassle for myself for example I worry that my passive feeder don’t get enough food , so I often over feed for no reason as my corys look like balloons and end up having to do larger weekly water changes again a few months back I got that caught up in my filter flow , it had slowed down by maybe 20% I was adamant I need full flow even though it’s a canister rated for a tabk twice my size I took it apart clean it all and lost beneficial bacteria enough that I needed to dose with bottled bacteria... got the filter flow back to 100% though ahahah

God sounds like something I've done haha! I'm glad everythings okay now!

 

[SAChichlidLover]

I thought I’m the only one?!

I’m that bad that I do a 75% daily water changes on every single tank! (I have 9 tanks btw)

Don't you worry you're not hahaha. And thats awesome I am so jealous I'm soon to have 4 but if I could buy more I would ?

 

[SAChichlidLover]

I still don’t get why you have to do a 75% WC on all 9 tanks...

I spent about 45 minutes last night watches my fish. The corys are my favorite to watch. (But don’t tell any of the others... ?)

You're secrets safe with me ?

 

[SAChichlidLover]

Same here. I jut watch the fish and if they aren't their usual happy selves, I check the water but normally they were bombing around doing their thing.

I did check the pH of my tap water every week or two because the government used to chance sources regularly and some weeks we had dam water with a neutral ph (7.0) and the following week we got ground water with a pH below 5.0. So I had to watch that, but I added Rift Lake conditioner to virtually all my tank water while it was in holding tanks and that raised the pH.

Honestly thats not good is it all sorted now? What rift lake conditioner would you recommend for a peacock and hap tank?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I thought I’m the only one?!

I’m that bad that I do a 75% daily water changes on every single tank! (I have 9 tanks btw)

Crikey, how long does that take? Do you use a python or python type system for water changes?

Always takes me longer than I expect to do W/Cs. It took me about an hour and forty five mins to do a 50% water change and gravel vac on my 57 gallon yesterday! That was with thorough gravel vac, moving decor and stuff, and to be fair, a lot of that time is waiting for water to boil to temperature match the water... takes longer in winter to boil enough water for that many buckets. It's a bit quicker in summer. I'm also easily distracted, spend time faffing about with plants and cleaning glass and stuff, so that drags water changes out more. Think it would take me a long time to do all four tanks in the same day and would kill my back! If you're using buckets, go steady on your back - make sure you're lifting properly, and don't overdo it for no reason! It's easy when you're young not to worry about your back, but you pay for it later in your 30s and 40s...

 

[SAChichlidLover]

Crikey, how long does that take? Do you use a python or python type system for water changes?

Always takes me longer than I expect to do W/Cs. It took me about an hour and forty five mins to do a 50% water change and gravel vac on my 57 gallon yesterday! That was with thorough gravel vac, moving decor and stuff, and to be fair, a lot of that time is waiting for water to boil to temperature match the water... takes longer in winter to boil enough water for that many buckets. It's a bit quicker in summer. I'm also easily distracted, spend time faffing about with plants and cleaning glass and stuff, so that drags water changes out more. Think it would take me a long time to do all four tanks in the same day and would kill my back! If you're using buckets, go steady on your back - make sure you're lifting properly, and don't overdo it for no reason! It's easy when you're young not to worry about your back, but you pay for it later in your 30s and 40s...

Honestly I feel you're pain.. I'm the same with water changes using a syphon and a standard b n q 12 litre bucket!

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Honestly I feel you're pain.. I'm the same with water changes using a syphon and a standard b n q 12 litre bucket!

I use a manual suction syphon and a 5g bucket - old school stuff.

 

[SAChichlidLover]

I use a manual suction syphon and a 5g bucket - old school stuff.

Haha at least we're building our arm strength!

 

[jonny-5]

Same!! And aww I hope the fry are all okay! what fish are they?

They are Guppy Fry but the parents are from a previous batch of mine, So i selected the parents with the most interesting colouring.

 

[Barry Tetra]

Crikey, how long does that take? Do you use a python or python type system for water changes?

It only take about 40 minutes on 8 tanks but about 2 hours on mollies tank cause my mollies live in saltwater and I need to stir the reef salt.

I use water pump to drain the water.

Also for those who think about the water bills...NO!
I’m using rain water and well water.

I don’t do substrate clean, most of my tank right now have a deep substrate, you know like Walstad method (I know kinda controversial)

 

[Colin_T]

Barry, you don't need to do a water change every day unless:
the tanks don't have a filter,
or if they are heavily stocked,
or you are putting heaps of fish food in them,
or if you are treating fish for poor water quality.

A 75% water change once a week should be sufficient. If you want to check, then test the nitrate level each week before the water change. If the nitrate goes above 20ppm over the course of a week, then try doing a water change twice a week. Test the nitrate before the water change and if it's under 20ppm, then once a week is fine.