What Temp Is Too High?

[Galaxy]

Hi. I've kept fish for about 3 years and I must confess after a burst of initial enthusiasm the novelty wore off and I havent posted here for a long time. Although I feed the fish once a day, I might go a week without really taking time to watch my fish. I change 30% of water once a month and clean the growth off the glass.

Last weekend I decided to purchase some new plants (plastic I'm afraid) for the tank as the original ones had got very grotty and whilst there I decided to buy six harlequins. Within 1 hour one was dead but the rest were fine, however each day since one has died and today 2 died so only one remains. One of my mollies has also died today although the remainder seem fine. There are even 2 babies in the tank today.

I noticed when I put the new fish in that the temperature in the tank was high. I have checked the heater and it is set to the lowest setting possible. Is it possible that it is overheating the tank?

Are juwel heaters any good or should I consider a different brand? Do any other brands fit inside the juwel filter setup?

Any advice welcomed.

 

[Zeoth]

I think u should change ur clean up routine a little. Changing your water every month isn't good enough. U need to do a 20% every week. That might be one of the reasons why ur fish r dieing so fast.

 

[Galaxy]

I think u should change ur clean up routine a little. Changing your water every month isn't good enough. U need to do a 20% every week. That might be one of the reasons why ur fish r dieing so fast.

I know I'm not as attentive as I should be however as I said I've been keeping fish for 3 years and had relatively few deaths following that routine. You have missed the point of my post which was regarding heaters and temperature tolerances!

 

[Puffdaddy]

What is the temp. of your tank? I agree the tank maintence is a little on the poor side. Do you know your nitrate reading and your ph reading?

 

[Zeoth]

Al I said is that it might be one of the reasons why ur fish are dieing

 

[Rob.S]

Are juwel heaters any good or should I consider a different brand?
Any advice welcomed.

Tempting fate here, but never had a problem with mine - still going after 8 years. But I guess it's the same with anything you buy. It may last for years, or fail after 10 minutes.

 

[Davidtq]

I think u should change ur clean up routine a little. Changing your water every month isn't good enough. U need to do a 20% every week. That might be one of the reasons why ur fish r dieing so fast.

I would tend to disagree with that one, theres no need to do 20% a week unless your tank IS producing enough nitrates to warrant that or you are using up minerals fast enough to warrant that sort of replacement rate. Youve got to work out what your own tank needs depending on your fish loads.

Ive had tank setups where the water I was putting in had higher nitrate levels than the tank water! it took a few days after every water change to get back down to 0 nitrate. Ive known people keep tanks for years with minimal water changes without suffering losses, youve got to know what your nitrate levels are before you start blaming lack of water changes.

What temperature was your thermometer saying? its very possible for heaters to be stuck on, or for the thermostat to misread temperature and over heat a tank. At higher tank temperatures oxygen levels can drop quite dramatically. Id be wanting to check the nitrate levels as well as checking PH against tap water, a long term tank setup can suffer a PH crash when it uses up all the buffer capacity of the substrate. Also new coming fish can bring in problems the body of a fish can start decomposing and polluting a tank badly quite quickly in a tank and push a tank from stable to crash quite quickly.

 

[Galaxy]

What is the temp. of your tank? I agree the tank maintence is a little on the poor side. Do you know your nitrate reading and your ph reading?

Checked Ammonia and Nitrate today: Ammonia=0, Nitrate= 5<10

I never have checked for pH, dont have a kit. Temp=31C or 86F

 

[*Fishkies*]

Is it possible you could get a liquid test kit and post your water stats here? This would help in evaluating why your fsh are dying possibly. What is your nitrite reading?

Also your temperature is a bit high I would say. Unless you are treating for a problem like disease in your tank, I would lower the temp. to about 78F.

 

[Galaxy]

Is it possible you could get a liquid test kit and post your water stats here? This would help in evaluating why your fsh are dying possibly.

Also be sure that you are feeding a enough food to your fish. I would also suggest putting a thermometer in the tank so that you can closely monitor the temperature in the tank.

I will buy a PH kit tomorrow. I have a thermometer in the tank, I even bought a new one today as I thought the original might be faulty. It refuses to stick to the glass anymore anyway. I think the rubbers dosed a bit!

 

[Zeoth]

I think u should change ur clean up routine a little. Changing your water every month isn't good enough. U need to do a 20% every week. That might be one of the reasons why ur fish r dieing so fast.

before you start blaming lack of water changes.

Im outta here, ppl r touchy these days

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

NitrAtes don't reflect the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) in a tank however... and nothing removes those except for regular water changes. Not to mention it seems very odd that your NitrAtes are that low with your current bioload unless you have a lot of algae that's cleaning it all up. Without knowing what your pH is it's hard to say if you have OTS or not. The old fish would have been gotten used to the gradual drop in pH. After it reaches a certain point your bio filter stops functioning, but the low pH keeps Ammonia in it's less toxic form (which is another reason that your nitrAtes could be reading very low...no biofilter). Lastly...did you shake the 2nd bottle in the test for 30 seconds to a minute? If not shaken enough the test will read wrong.

 

[orange shark]

What is the temp. of your tank? I agree the tank maintence is a little on the poor side. Do you know your nitrate reading and your ph reading?

Checked Ammonia and Nitrate today: Ammonia=0, Nitrate= 5<10

I never have checked for pH, dont have a kit. Temp=31C or 86F

31C does sound pretty high

 

[Davidtq]

31 is going to be causing you some problems with a lot of species want to drop that down to 27 at least if your heater is on its lowest setting then it is faulty and needs replacing, unfortunately I cant remember the juwel internals well enough to know if a standard heater will drop in.

That sort of temperature is going to kill oxygen levels, you need to get some good surface agitation to help oxygen levels not sure if thats an option on a juwel?

 

[Galaxy]

Lastly...did you shake the 2nd bottle in the test for 30 seconds to a minute? If not shaken enough the test will read wrong.

Yeah, I did the test exactly as it should have done. I do test every time I change the water and my nitrates never go over 20. For a 40Gal tank I think my stock is fairly low so I wouldn't have thought the tank is overloaded. I am fairly convinced that the heater is frigged!