New Here - Help!

[Joviella]

Hey Sarah,Don't let it all get you down........The one inch per gallon rule is a guide. It doesn't work with all fish but it IS a good guide to start with.
If you want to keep your baby fish in the future,you may want to look into buying a small tank to grow them to a decent enough size to take to your fish shop.
Most test kits these days come with the basic.....ammonia,nitrite and nitrate. Mine didn't though.....it was lacking the nitrate one.....more ways for companies to make money out of us.

 

[sylvia]

Sorry I think the filter media bit wasn't clear - DON'T change it. I'm not talking about the carbon here - I'm talking about all the rest. What you've been doing with rinsing it in a bowl of old tank water is absolutely fine and you should just stick to doing that. You see there are good bacteria in your filter media and gravel which are responsible for making the cycling process possible. They convert the deadly ammonia to nitrIte and then to the less harmful nitrAte. Unfortunately, chlorine from tap water will kill these good bacteria so you must take care to not expose them to it.

 

[Fish_Mike]

After several months of usage (alright, maybe not every month) you SHOULD change the filter media. Though not all at once, introduce 1 different level of new filter media every week. That will give time for the bacteria to grow.

 

[fatboybaby]

After several months of usage (alright, maybe not every month) you SHOULD change the filter media. Though not all at once, introduce 1 different level of new filter media every week. That will give time for the bacteria to grow.

[snapback]893154[/snapback]​

that's odd - that's certainly not what i've been told/heard. i thought it was 'if you really have to, change one portion every 6 months or when it seems like its too clogged'.

can anyone else confirm this?

also - hello! i'm a london fishkeeper too! Chee aquatics near russell square are very nice, tropical design in great portland st is pretty but not huge on the info.

 

[N4T4SH45]

Hi

I was just reading about removing the carbon filter when treating fish with liquid medicines, does this include things like Ammo-Lock?

We have high Ammonia and Nitrite levels at the moment both being near 1.0 and although we have done water changes every other day of 2-%-30%, they dont seem to be dropping, which is why we decided to use Ammo-lock. This made me wonder if the carbon filter is stopping this circulating?

Our tank is three weeks old and has had fish in for two weeks. We have lost a silver shark just the other day.

We also have:

6 balloon mollies (3 females and 3 males)
5 neon tetras
5 glowlight tetra
3 silver tips tetra
3 glow tetra

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[sarahabutair]

Hi,

Just wanted to say thanks again for the help. I'm pleased to report that nitrite is now 0, and nitrate close to 0. All white spot has gone and fish looking happy again


I'm going to be extra careful from now on. First thing is to take these babies to lfs, and then get a few more plants and finally some more fish.


The water is still testing hard. Is there anything I can do to reduce hardness??

Sarah

 

[sarahabutair]

also - hello! i'm a london fishkeeper too! Chee aquatics near russell square are very nice, tropical design in great portland st is pretty but not huge on the info.

Hi!


I've just been going to tropical design up until now, but I'll have a look to Chee Aquatics next time. I'm in Marylebone so it's not that far...

Sarah