Help, Poorly Ram

[maximinimus]

View attachment 52717

Also these are the fish I need to know what they are, tried to add in the discussion forum but could not upload. This fish (3 of them) is the reason we feed them every day, they are so greedy when the food goes in and also if they dont get fed every day they start to chase the smaller fish and start nipping. So I am wondering if we are feeding too much trying to keep this bunch happy

Cheers

Looks like a black-spot barb Puntius filamentosus

If it is this species, please be aware that they reach around 6" in length.

 

[freddiesfish]

Thanks for all the replies, yes that is the fish and with 3 of them in a 120 litre tank I'm going to have problems arnt I? Will do the water changes now, whats best to condition the new tap water with? stress coat or ammo lock?

 

[freddiesfish]

Just remembered we had a power cut on thursday and it was off for almost 2 and a half hours, could this have caused a problem with the filters and be the reason for the high ammonia? if so how best do I get it cycling again?

 

[minxfishy]

Could have caused the mini-cycle although 2 hours isnt that long providing the filter media was kept wet?

Dont use ammo-lock - have you been using this much? It will give false readings on the tests.

You need a good water conditioner such as tetra aqua safe, nutrafin aquaplus, anything that says its a dechlorinator - not sure about stress coat TBH.

The only thing you can do to get past this mini cycle is to keep up the water chanages, test daily and in a week or so hopefully the cycle will be back to normal.

 

[freddiesfish]

Damn!! added ammo lock last night for the first time in ages, stress coat says it can be used but have noticed I have API tap water conditioner, any good? Will carry on with water changes for a week, should I keep to 50% or go with say 20%? After the water change last night all fish became very brightly coloured and active and seem ok today, will do another water change later and test in the morning

Thanks again

 

[minxfishy]

API water condition should be fine, I dont know about stress coat, if it says it neutralises chlorine/chlorimes then yes thats ok too. Unfortunatley with the ammo-lock in you wont know if you have gotten rid of the ammonia, so keep up the water changes possibly 50% daily until you can be sure the ammo lock is gone and you are getting correct results. But your doing a good job, well done, shouldnt be long before you can resume 30% water changes weekly The fish colouring up and being active is always a good sign

 

[freddiesfish]

ok now I'm worried, done another water change added the api conditioner but in the last hour I have noticed the water is going cloudy, all the fish seem ok could it be too much or not enough conditoner? It gives two different amounts, one lot to remove chlorine and detoxify heavy metals. Then a larger amount to detoxify chloramines. I went for an amount in between so as to try and not do any worse!!

 

[minxfishy]

I always go for the larger amount, too much wont do any harm.

The cloudyness could just be from a bacterial bloom, although strange it should happen immediately after a water change.

How are the water stats looking

 

[freddiesfish]

Tank had cleared after a couple of hours and all fish seem ok, if anything the corys and the plec have livened up as well, going to do another 50% change tonight and then test from tomorrow that should give the ammo lock time to disapear!! Do you have any experience of the filter system that comes with the juwel tanks? I have been change the filter wool at the top of it every week but have not yet done anything with the other sponges etc, its been up and running about six weeks, in conjunction with an established internal filter I put in from the existing tank

Thanks again for the advice/help

cheers

 

[minxfishy]

Did have a juwel tank a while back, the wool on the top can be changed whenever you like really, its just floss. The other sponges you only need to take out and rinse lightly in TANK water (in a bucket) once every 3 months or so - one at a time, so your never rinsing all of them at the same time Do one, one month, the next another month, so on ........ You could eventually remove the other internal filter, just wait until the tank is table to give the new filter time to catch up with the bacteria

Glad to hear the fish have perked up and the water is clearer

 

[freddiesfish]

oh great so the sponges dont need to be replaced? I will start that next month give the filter bit more time yet

cheers for the advice

never know get the water right and I may be able to talk the wife into getting a mate for the ram

 

[minxfishy]

The only time sponges need replacing is when they are literally falling apart - which with the juwel sponges will be a very long time away

 

[freddiesfish]

oh no!!! I have been doing 50% water changes each day since it happened and only used the ammo lock on the first time, just done the tests again and everything is higher, alot higher, yet the fish seem in the best health in ages. Could it be that the ammolock would still be giving me wonky results? The ammonia is up to .50-1 ppm. The nitrite was 0.25ppm and nitrate between 80 and 160ppm!! Got to go to work so will do water change again in morning but just cant believe these results are true, even the usually docile corys are up and about. Please someone help me!!