leeishom;4672034; said:
Good advice. Lower PH is beneficial in cases such as the one posted by the OP
Are my Arowanas gonna be okay??
- Thread starter josephjeon
- Start date
Good advice. Lower PH is beneficial in cases such as the one posted by the OP
I already have had to edit some nonsense in this thread.
This thread is very educating and may help many others in the OP's situation.
Let's keep it that way, please.
This thread is very educating and may help many others in the OP's situation.
Let's keep it that way, please.
Speaking of the nitrogen cycle, i hope this helps. It sure helped me understand everything completely. But since you already have the fishes and lack a matured tank to keep them elsewhere while you let your 125g cycle, i'd just do constant water changes and feed them less so they don't produce as much waste. If don't already have it, get some "bacteria in a bottle". They helped a lot. "Stress Zyme+" from API is a good bet. Now, here's the nitrogen cycle i was talking about, be sure to give it a thorough read through.
http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-cycling.html
Good luck buddy!
http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-cycling.html
Good luck buddy!
that link is the kind of graph that will teach you how it works.
the link also mentions zeolite. that is a natural form of rock that will capture ammonia.
you can often find it in kitty litter but be careful peoples because some brands are not pure zeolite but may have other things in there for example fragrances. often the cheaper no frills brands will be all zeolite.
you can renew zeolite by washing the zeolite rock in salt. this dislodges the ammonia so its fresh and can work again.
once again you want to be careful with zeolite for the reason it could take all your ammonia away and you do want some there in your tank to start the bacteria cycle.
i find zeolite to be more a clever reaction thing that works but something not to be bothered with when you have water exchange on hand.
the reason why a gradual lowering of pH is helpful is because ammonia is more toxic the higher the pH AND the higher the temperature. you can find a graph that explains that as well.
so in emergency ammonia situations, both these parameters can be used for your benefit. do not go too low on pH too fast or too low on temps.
once again rather than sticking in an acid to lower pH, which you could need more if your water is well buffered. check your source water.
fish suppliers often use an acid based product for transporting fish in to reduce the toxicity of ammonia that will build up in the trip.
though this means you are reducing the pH to avoid stress and then when you stock the fish the pH could be higher again.
if your source water is lower in pH than your high pH tank, then just use that exchange to bring the pH in line.
you can also choose to set the heater to the lowest of the happy temperature zone of the species rather than the higher point. you can raise the temps to increase feeding later on when feeding is possible.
you want to make sure that your not see-sawing the water all over the place but put it back to within happy fish limits and monitor it and try keep it there.
if you have serious worries with too much nitrite, it will affect the fishes blood.
from memory the nitrite effects the hemoglobin in the blood.
in other species i have seen this leave the fish with bubbles of gas in the tail.
kind of like a bubble of nitrogen in the brain like deep sea divers might get.
aquaculturalists will sometimes add a small amount of salt to stop the effects of a nitrite spike but doing that can just mean more tinkering.
the thing i see a lot is people running for products and spending money on something you will use up. i can not express enough how good a
one of purchase of a big tub or water tank is that you could run your tap water into. leave sit for a day before you use it to do a water change. making sure it is around the temp that you want. if your source water is not ideal, you can make the changes to it in the storage tank prior to exchange.
the link also mentions zeolite. that is a natural form of rock that will capture ammonia.
you can often find it in kitty litter but be careful peoples because some brands are not pure zeolite but may have other things in there for example fragrances. often the cheaper no frills brands will be all zeolite.
you can renew zeolite by washing the zeolite rock in salt. this dislodges the ammonia so its fresh and can work again.
once again you want to be careful with zeolite for the reason it could take all your ammonia away and you do want some there in your tank to start the bacteria cycle.
i find zeolite to be more a clever reaction thing that works but something not to be bothered with when you have water exchange on hand.
the reason why a gradual lowering of pH is helpful is because ammonia is more toxic the higher the pH AND the higher the temperature. you can find a graph that explains that as well.
so in emergency ammonia situations, both these parameters can be used for your benefit. do not go too low on pH too fast or too low on temps.
once again rather than sticking in an acid to lower pH, which you could need more if your water is well buffered. check your source water.
fish suppliers often use an acid based product for transporting fish in to reduce the toxicity of ammonia that will build up in the trip.
though this means you are reducing the pH to avoid stress and then when you stock the fish the pH could be higher again.
if your source water is lower in pH than your high pH tank, then just use that exchange to bring the pH in line.
you can also choose to set the heater to the lowest of the happy temperature zone of the species rather than the higher point. you can raise the temps to increase feeding later on when feeding is possible.
you want to make sure that your not see-sawing the water all over the place but put it back to within happy fish limits and monitor it and try keep it there.
if you have serious worries with too much nitrite, it will affect the fishes blood.
from memory the nitrite effects the hemoglobin in the blood.
in other species i have seen this leave the fish with bubbles of gas in the tail.
kind of like a bubble of nitrogen in the brain like deep sea divers might get.
aquaculturalists will sometimes add a small amount of salt to stop the effects of a nitrite spike but doing that can just mean more tinkering.
the thing i see a lot is people running for products and spending money on something you will use up. i can not express enough how good a
one of purchase of a big tub or water tank is that you could run your tap water into. leave sit for a day before you use it to do a water change. making sure it is around the temp that you want. if your source water is not ideal, you can make the changes to it in the storage tank prior to exchange.
