Argentea problem, HELP!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
water change i meant, sorry 40% - 10%
 
Adhlc;3751286; said:
Firstly, tank specs:

Standard AGA 75G
Filtered by 2 AC110's (running biological and mechanical only)
Stock - 1x Vieja Argentea (11-12"), 4x Black Swordtails, 1 female Cryptoheros Sajica (3-4")
Weekly water change of about 15-20 gallons.

Nitrate, Ammonia, and Nitrite all stay at 0.

I am seeing a problem with this....

I have a similar sized fish, 11" Rose Queen, alone, in a 75 gal tank. Filtration is 2 X AC110's and one Fluval 304... therefore less bioload and more filtration than yours.

To keep nitrates under 40ppm, I have to do weekly 40-50% water changes (my tap water is ~0ppm NO3).
I have a very difficult time believing your nitrates to stay at 0. This is almost impossible.

I would bet that with those small water changes of 20-25% per week the nitrates are truely high (>80ppm), and HITH is probably the issue.....
Buy a new test kit, or get your LFS to test your water for you.

Burt :)
 
Burtess;3751501; said:
I am seeing a problem with this....

I have a similar sized fish, 11" Rose Queen, alone, in a 75 gal tank. Filtration is 2 X AC110's and one Fluval 304... therefore less bioload and more filtration than yours.

To keep nitrates under 40ppm, I have to do weekly 40-50% water changes (my tap water is ~0ppm NO3).
I have a very difficult time believing your nitrates to stay at 0. This is almost impossible.

I would bet that with those small water changes of 20-25% per week the nitrates are truely high (>80ppm), and HITH is probably the issue.....
Buy a new test kit, or get your LFS to test your water for you.



Burt :)

Interesting point, but I own a brand new Nitrate Test kit - and work at an LFS where I test as well. I've never gotten any readings on Nitrate. I will try testing more frequently though and see if that is the problem. How often do you clean your AC110s? I've cleaned min every 2-3 months and for some odd reason the foam blocks never have much of anything in them. One of them is looks practically new. I don't really understand this.

In the mean time I'll do some more tests and let you know. Thank you for your input!
 
Hole in the Head Disease, also known as Head and Lateral Line Erosion or HLLE..
An effective treatment is the drug metronidazole. A combined treatment in the food (1% in any food the fish will eat) and in the water (12 mg per liter) is recommended. Repeat the water treatment every other day for three treatments.

oscar-hith.jpg
 
I've already tried Metronidazole. In fact I've tried Seachem's and Hikari's. I didn't see any difference whatsoever when I used either. Whether I added it to food or dosed directly.
 
I stand corrected. Burtess - you were right about the Nitrates I believe. I tested this morning and they're at about 40ppm! Even after the water change I did yesterday. I guess I didn't realize just how vigorously one needs to shake the API test kits before use.

I've also realized I simply don't have enough biological filtration in the tank. Since I don't have any gravel, virtually no decorations other than 2 large lake rocks, and only one of my Ac110's has the biomax in it - I think I may benefit from adding some gravel and/or more biomedia. On top of that I'm going to test for Nitrates everyday to see just how quickly they're rising - then base my water changes around that.

Thanks again for all the help. I feel terrible that I let the Nitrates get out of hand like that - but I suppose the problem could have been much worse.

-Adam
 
Hey Adam, I'm glad that we got a chance to catch up today.

I know that we discussed this, but it may be good to have on this thread for posterity.

Again, I recommend weekly, 50-60% water changes. Just think about Ash. He does not believe in gravel vacuuming and never changes his filtration media. Yet none of his fish ever develops HLLE. He just sticks to his 75%+ water changes every two weeks or so.

I hope this helps.

Justin
 
Damn, you're right Justin. I'd forgotten about Ash's maintenance routines. Thanks again.
 
Glad you got it figured out Adam.

I do 50% water changes every Saturday and have for years and never have any health or tank issues at all.
 
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