Questions On Behaviour Of Cherry Barb

[keithbrown53]

I've never really counted TBH! All I can say is for regular use (testing maybe once a week), my current kit is still going after six months.

Until you know where your water stats are, I'd advise daily changes.

Hello again

I have ordered a water test kit, and will post up the results when I get them.

I changed about 30% of the water last night, and when I was raking through the rocks at the bottom (the biube doesn;t come with anything I would call gravel; it's more like small, sharp rocks) what should drift up but my missing cherry barb! Quite rotted, but still recognisably the missing fish! I can't imagine the body would have been adding to the water quality!

Cheers,
Keith.

 

[keithbrown53]

I've never really counted TBH! All I can say is for regular use (testing maybe once a week), my current kit is still going after six months.

Until you know where your water stats are, I'd advise daily changes.

Hi there

After a period away from home for work, I returned last night and have carried out a 40% water change.

I have now also received my API test kit; here are the results:

Ph: Somewhere between 7.2 - 7.6
Ammonia: 1
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Somewhere between 0-5

If you can let me know what you think I should be doing, I'd be grateful.

Cheers,
Keith.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Keith,

Fantastic that you've received good advice and have now received your API kit and posted up tests for us. Your stats are to be expected, given no knowledge of cycling and a dead fish having sat in there rotting!

Ammonia, even in trace amounts, causes permanent gill damage and eventual impairment or death. The first species of bacteria we grow during cycling eats ammonia and processes it into nitrite(NO2), which, unfortunately, is another deadly toxin to fish as it can attach to fish hemoglobin just like oxygen and then destroy the hemoglobin molecule, effectively suffocating the fish, the first symptom of which is permanent nerve damage, if not death right away. The second species of bacteria we grow processes nitrite(NO2) into nitrate(NO3), which is not nearly so harmful and can safely be diluted during our weekly water change. (All this just to catch you up on some basics of -why- you're doing all this!)

OK, so the API kit is showing 1.0ppm of ammonia, which is a red flag for a fishkeeper. Your last 40% water change probably brought it -down- to that but its still a deadly number. You need to do a 50-70% water change (with good technique) and then re-test a half-hour later. If ammonia (and nitrite for that matter) are not yet below 0.25ppm then you can repeat with another water change (50% again) as soon as an hour after the first. Good water change technique is to use the correct amount of conditioner (to remove any chlorine/chloramine that your water authority puts in) and to roughly temperature match (this will be more important for you with the small size of your water volume) by either using hot tap water (in usa people usually have glass-lined water heaters so its ok, in UK there may be too many metals if water tank is shared for home heating..) or adding kettle-heated water to warm up the cold, conditioned, tap water.

You're going to want to be testing for ammonia, nitrite(NO2) and pH twice a day and posting up the results here for the members to see. You can test nitrates(NO3) later.. that's not so important. Follow all the testing instructions carefully as they're important.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[keithbrown53]

Hi Keith,

Fantastic that you've received good advice and have now received your API kit and posted up tests for us. Your stats are to be expected, given no knowledge of cycling and a dead fish having sat in there rotting!

Ammonia, even in trace amounts, causes permanent gill damage and eventual impairment or death. The first species of bacteria we grow during cycling eats ammonia and processes it into nitrite(NO2), which, unfortunately, is another deadly toxin to fish as it can attach to fish hemoglobin just like oxygen and then destroy the hemoglobin molecule, effectively suffocating the fish, the first symptom of which is permanent nerve damage, if not death right away. The second species of bacteria we grow processes nitrite(NO2) into nitrate(NO3), which is not nearly so harmful and can safely be diluted during our weekly water change. (All this just to catch you up on some basics of -why- you're doing all this!)

OK, so the API kit is showing 1.0ppm of ammonia, which is a red flag for a fishkeeper. Your last 40% water change probably brought it -down- to that but its still a deadly number. You need to do a 50-70% water change (with good technique) and then re-test a half-hour later. If ammonia (and nitrite for that matter) are not yet below 0.25ppm then you can repeat with another water change (50% again) as soon as an hour after the first. Good water change technique is to use the correct amount of conditioner (to remove any chlorine/chloramine that your water authority puts in) and to roughly temperature match (this will be more important for you with the small size of your water volume) by either using hot tap water (in usa people usually have glass-lined water heaters so its ok, in UK there may be too many metals if water tank is shared for home heating..) or adding kettle-heated water to warm up the cold, conditioned, tap water.

You're going to want to be testing for ammonia, nitrite(NO2) and pH twice a day and posting up the results here for the members to see. You can test nitrates(NO3) later.. that's not so important. Follow all the testing instructions carefully as they're important.

~~waterdrop~~

Hi there

I appreciate your advice.

I have been temperature matching and using water conditioner, when doing water changes.

One of the problems I have is that the 'ceramic media' supplied with the Bi-ube, is very large compared to standard gravel I have seen in the fish shops, and in other people's aquariums.

So, despite my having a gravel cleaner, it's useless, as the bits of ceramic media are too large to go up into the gravel cleaner.

So, I have resorted to scooping up, by hand, large helpings of the media, letting it settle, and then using a net to catch as much of the gunk which floats up as possible.

Would I be best to buy standard gravel, and get rid of the ceramic media, so it fits into the gravel cleaner? Or is my method OK?

During the last water change (this morning), I washed out the filter in used aquarium water, but didn't replace the unit; I have read other posts which suggest this is OK, and that the manufacturers obviously want you to replace the filter more than is really neccessary; do you agree?

We don't have a water tank in this house; the water is heated on demand by a 'combi boiler', so metal contamination shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks again for your advice.

Cheers,
Keith.

 

[keithbrown53]

Hi Keith,

Fantastic that you've received good advice and have now received your API kit and posted up tests for us. Your stats are to be expected, given no knowledge of cycling and a dead fish having sat in there rotting!

Ammonia, even in trace amounts, causes permanent gill damage and eventual impairment or death. The first species of bacteria we grow during cycling eats ammonia and processes it into nitrite(NO2), which, unfortunately, is another deadly toxin to fish as it can attach to fish hemoglobin just like oxygen and then destroy the hemoglobin molecule, effectively suffocating the fish, the first symptom of which is permanent nerve damage, if not death right away. The second species of bacteria we grow processes nitrite(NO2) into nitrate(NO3), which is not nearly so harmful and can safely be diluted during our weekly water change. (All this just to catch you up on some basics of -why- you're doing all this!)

OK, so the API kit is showing 1.0ppm of ammonia, which is a red flag for a fishkeeper. Your last 40% water change probably brought it -down- to that but its still a deadly number. You need to do a 50-70% water change (with good technique) and then re-test a half-hour later. If ammonia (and nitrite for that matter) are not yet below 0.25ppm then you can repeat with another water change (50% again) as soon as an hour after the first. Good water change technique is to use the correct amount of conditioner (to remove any chlorine/chloramine that your water authority puts in) and to roughly temperature match (this will be more important for you with the small size of your water volume) by either using hot tap water (in usa people usually have glass-lined water heaters so its ok, in UK there may be too many metals if water tank is shared for home heating..) or adding kettle-heated water to warm up the cold, conditioned, tap water.

You're going to want to be testing for ammonia, nitrite(NO2) and pH twice a day and posting up the results here for the members to see. You can test nitrates(NO3) later.. that's not so important. Follow all the testing instructions carefully as they're important.

~~waterdrop~~

Hi there

I appreciate your advice.

I have been temperature matching and using water conditioner, when doing water changes.

One of the problems I have is that the 'ceramic media' supplied with the Bi-ube, is very large compared to standard gravel I have seen in the fish shops, and in other people's aquariums.

So, despite my having a gravel cleaner, it's useless, as the bits of ceramic media are too large to go up into the gravel cleaner.

So, I have resorted to scooping up, by hand, large helpings of the media, letting it settle, and then using a net to catch as much of the gunk which floats up as possible.

Would I be best to buy standard gravel, and get rid of the ceramic media, so it fits into the gravel cleaner? Or is my method OK?

During the last water change (this morning), I washed out the filter in used aquarium water, but didn't replace the unit; I have read other posts which suggest this is OK, and that the manufacturers obviously want you to replace the filter more than is really neccessary; do you agree?

We don't have a water tank in this house; the water is heated on demand by a 'combi boiler', so metal contamination shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks again for your advice.

Cheers,
Keith.

OK, I have performed a 50% water change, in addition to the one I did this morning.

Stats are now:

Ph: 7.2
Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: between 0 and 5

Things appear to be improving. Unless I hear otherwise, I am planning on another 50% change in the morning.

Cheers,
Keith.

 

[keithbrown53]

Hi Keith,

Fantastic that you've received good advice and have now received your API kit and posted up tests for us. Your stats are to be expected, given no knowledge of cycling and a dead fish having sat in there rotting!

Ammonia, even in trace amounts, causes permanent gill damage and eventual impairment or death. The first species of bacteria we grow during cycling eats ammonia and processes it into nitrite(NO2), which, unfortunately, is another deadly toxin to fish as it can attach to fish hemoglobin just like oxygen and then destroy the hemoglobin molecule, effectively suffocating the fish, the first symptom of which is permanent nerve damage, if not death right away. The second species of bacteria we grow processes nitrite(NO2) into nitrate(NO3), which is not nearly so harmful and can safely be diluted during our weekly water change. (All this just to catch you up on some basics of -why- you're doing all this!)

OK, so the API kit is showing 1.0ppm of ammonia, which is a red flag for a fishkeeper. Your last 40% water change probably brought it -down- to that but its still a deadly number. You need to do a 50-70% water change (with good technique) and then re-test a half-hour later. If ammonia (and nitrite for that matter) are not yet below 0.25ppm then you can repeat with another water change (50% again) as soon as an hour after the first. Good water change technique is to use the correct amount of conditioner (to remove any chlorine/chloramine that your water authority puts in) and to roughly temperature match (this will be more important for you with the small size of your water volume) by either using hot tap water (in usa people usually have glass-lined water heaters so its ok, in UK there may be too many metals if water tank is shared for home heating..) or adding kettle-heated water to warm up the cold, conditioned, tap water.

You're going to want to be testing for ammonia, nitrite(NO2) and pH twice a day and posting up the results here for the members to see. You can test nitrates(NO3) later.. that's not so important. Follow all the testing instructions carefully as they're important.

~~waterdrop~~

Hi there

I appreciate your advice.

I have been temperature matching and using water conditioner, when doing water changes.

One of the problems I have is that the 'ceramic media' supplied with the Bi-ube, is very large compared to standard gravel I have seen in the fish shops, and in other people's aquariums.

So, despite my having a gravel cleaner, it's useless, as the bits of ceramic media are too large to go up into the gravel cleaner.

So, I have resorted to scooping up, by hand, large helpings of the media, letting it settle, and then using a net to catch as much of the gunk which floats up as possible.

Would I be best to buy standard gravel, and get rid of the ceramic media, so it fits into the gravel cleaner? Or is my method OK?

During the last water change (this morning), I washed out the filter in used aquarium water, but didn't replace the unit; I have read other posts which suggest this is OK, and that the manufacturers obviously want you to replace the filter more than is really neccessary; do you agree?

We don't have a water tank in this house; the water is heated on demand by a 'combi boiler', so metal contamination shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks again for your advice.

Cheers,
Keith.

OK, I have performed a 50% water change, in addition to the one I did this morning.

Stats are now:

Ph: 7.2
Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: between 0 and 5

Things appear to be improving. Unless I hear otherwise, I am planning on another 50% change in the morning.

Cheers,
Keith.

Another 50% change this morning. Stats are now:

PH: 7.2
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: between 0 and 5

Do I have to get ammonia down to zero, or will there always be some detected by the trace kit?

Cheers,
Keith.

 

[Dwarf-P.]

yes, ammonia must be at 0, its only nitrate that can be slightly higher as it isnt as toxic to fish

 

[keithbrown53]

Hello again

Following more water changes, I'm now at 7.2 for Ph, and 0 for everything else.

The cherry barb and two rummy nose tetras are whizzing around all the time, and look happy enough to me.

I'll keep an eye on the levels using the API kit, but hopefully I'll be into a routine of only weekly changes from now on.

Once I'm confident everything is stable, I'll start to think about getting a couple more fish.

Thanks for all of the helpful comments.

Cheers,
Keith.

 

[Floyds mum]

According to this: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=60812
It says cherry barbs are fine to cycle a tank

 

[Gustavo]

Hello again

Following more water changes, I'm now at 7.2 for Ph, and 0 for everything else.

The cherry barb and two rummy nose tetras are whizzing around all the time, and look happy enough to me.

I'll keep an eye on the levels using the API kit, but hopefully I'll be into a routine of only weekly changes from now on.

Once I'm confident everything is stable, I'll start to think about getting a couple more fish.

Thanks for all of the helpful comments.

Cheers,
Keith.

You gotta keep making water changes daily. The Ammonia and Nitrites will rise again in no time.

 

[aly_starh]

Hello again

Following more water changes, I'm now at 7.2 for Ph, and 0 for everything else.

The cherry barb and two rummy nose tetras are whizzing around all the time, and look happy enough to me.

I'll keep an eye on the levels using the API kit, but hopefully I'll be into a routine of only weekly changes from now on.

Once I'm confident everything is stable, I'll start to think about getting a couple more fish.

Thanks for all of the helpful comments.

Cheers,
Keith.

Aslong as the Ammonia and Nitrite read ) for 8 consecutive days, you have a cycled tank. As far as fish go, what are you going to buy? I'd say with a divider 2 male bettas seen as its only 35l

 

[waterdrop]

old thread guys