Riddle me this...
- Thread starter twhittle
- Start date
Not trying to flame or anything, but just a suggestion, make sure your test kit is reading accurately.
I had an API nitrate test kit go bad and didn't even realize it for awhile because I just wasn't really thinking about it at first. Then I realized my overstocked 125g, which had previously tested around 40ppm most of the time before water changes, had tested at 10ppm several times in a row.
Well, I used the kit on my turtle tank and sure enough it read 10ppm on that also. NO WAY. My turtles produce WAY too much waste to have nitrates that low even if I was doing water changes every day.
Went and bought another test kit, and the tank was actually testing about 20 ppm, that's after I'd done a 50% water change.
So yeah. If you're getting constant 10ppm readings, especially if you're using API, please make sure to verify your results for the sake of your fish.
I had an API nitrate test kit go bad and didn't even realize it for awhile because I just wasn't really thinking about it at first. Then I realized my overstocked 125g, which had previously tested around 40ppm most of the time before water changes, had tested at 10ppm several times in a row.
Well, I used the kit on my turtle tank and sure enough it read 10ppm on that also. NO WAY. My turtles produce WAY too much waste to have nitrates that low even if I was doing water changes every day.
Went and bought another test kit, and the tank was actually testing about 20 ppm, that's after I'd done a 50% water change.
So yeah. If you're getting constant 10ppm readings, especially if you're using API, please make sure to verify your results for the sake of your fish.
It's a fairly new kit. I just tested my 26 gallon con tank at work and it read at 20 ppm...time for a water change. I am not getting constant 10 ppm readings. It was at about 5 ppm for the first week and a half or so. When I did the WC yesterday, I was closing in on 20 ppm. 20 ppm is kind of my "time for a change" reading. It's been kind of nice. When I had 7 smaller tanks I was doing wc's every 5-7 days. If I need to go back to that with just the one big tank, no big deal.
Ah. It sounded from previous posts like you were just getting 10ppm readings repeatedly.twhittle;1436753; said:
Just figured I'd give you a heads up
It's definately easier to do changes on fewer bigger tanks IMO. We took down most of our little tanks and combined any fish that were compatable into bigger ones. The tanks might need some more water changes or bigger ones, but it's just easier than doing water changes on a ton of little tanks to me *shrug*.
Your tank doesn't look OS to me. I've seen a lot worse.
Larger bodies of water are more stable. In nature, fish don't count their neighbors to decide of the place is too crowded. The adapt. As long as you do your maintainence, you otta know if your fish are happy.
