cuban gars

[xander]

and pH!

anyways this is more or less directed at one member but thought might as well post publicly for future cuban gar owners.

anyways, i was hoping to increase the bio filtration capabilities on the tank and replaced the biomedia(rings) with biohome(supposed to be really really good...), which unfortunately, did not seem to work very well. leading to some nitrite readings(0.1/0.2). ammonia was 0, pH was 7.5. after 2 weeks i changed the media back to the rings..and over some time they more or less returned to their regular colours. last night thou, the fish somehow managed to mess up the substrate so that the crushed coral that initially covered most of the surface of the tank was 40% covered by the black substrate i had stacked at the back of the tank. the gars went black today...so i tested the water: ammonia 0, nitrites 0, pH 7. so the stressed out colours are due to the sudden swing right? anyways pH of 7 is supposed to be fine right? if so how soon can i expect them to return to their usual colours? im really thinking of removing the sand from the tank and adding the coral chips(same thing, just different sizes) into the sump. any thoughts on when i can expect the gars to return to normal, and on adding the chips into the sump instead?

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

wow. i hope it works out. if not send them to me!! for free obviously since i am helping u out

 

[xander]

 

[E_americanus]

hey xander,

i wouldn't mess with the substrate that is already at the bottom of your tank too much. you MIGHT be able to get away with just mixing it up a bit so that the regular gravel and coral gravel is evenly mixed, so when the gars stir things up it shouldn't cause any major problems. during this time, however, i would re-house the Cubans so they aren't around for what may be wild fluctuations in pH. remember its more the change in pH that throws them off, as opposed to one pH level or another.

another thing you could do is just leave the tank as is, and add those chips to the sump. again, don't mess with the substrate in the tank much, but at least the stuff in the sump should help buffer against fluctuations, hopefully including those caused by stir-ups from the gars.

hope that helps, keep us posted on how they are doing. what is the ratio (roughly) presently between regular gravel and aragonite in your tank?--
--solomon

 

[xander]

i have 20kg of regular gravel and about 25kg(i bought 30kg, but some is always accidentally vacced out during WC's, or sucked into the huge overflows and into the sump, another reason i want to get rid of the substrate.) of aragonite.

i will probably get 20-30kg of chips for the sump and see if i can remove the aragonite from the tank 1/2 - 1kg at a time during water changes. but for now i will leave it(the substrate) alone. is it an alright idea?

did you lose any cubans in adjusting substrate?

 

[E_americanus]

i have 20kg of regular gravel and about 25kg(i bought 30kg, but some is always accidentally vacced out during WC's, or sucked into the huge overflows and into the sump, another reason i want to get rid of the substrate.) of aragonite.

i will probably get 20-30kg of chips for the sump and see if i can remove the aragonite from the tank 1/2 - 1kg at a time during water changes. but for now i will leave it(the substrate) alone. is it an alright idea?

did you lose any cubans in adjusting substrate?

i would go ahead with adding some of the new stuff to the sump, but as you said, leave the stuff in the main tank alone for now. when i added the new stuff (about 75-100 lbs) to my main tank i left the fish in...the water got pretty cloudy, but the fishes had no problems. no Cubans lost during the change up--
--solomon

PS-- seems therefore that the Cubans do much better with pH fluctuations going upward, than pH fluctuations going downward (which would make sense for a lot of captive fishes)

 

[xander]

i would go ahead with adding some of the new stuff to the sump, but as you said, leave the stuff in the main tank alone for now. when i added the new stuff (about 75-100 lbs) to my main tank i left the fish in...the water got pretty cloudy, but the fishes had no problems. no Cubans lost during the change up--
--solomon

PS-- seems therefore that the Cubans do much better with pH fluctuations going upward, than pH fluctuations going downward (which would make sense for a lot of captive fishes)

well, update. i added half of the new stuff i bought(10kg out of 20kg) as apparently it could push the pH to well over 8.0. the water got a little cloudy and cubans did actually go even darker. hope everything tones down soon, how quickly did your cubans get back to normal after adding the new aragonite? and how often did you replace, or add extra aragonite? perhaps my recent failure to keep the gars in the healthy colours are due to the buffering capacities of the sand being not as efficient as when i had just got it, some months ago. i do pretty heavy and regular water changes.

yeah it does, they actually seem to benefit from it, i remember my old cuban actually turning from a dark colour to almost yellow immediately after adding the coral sand.

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

hope it all works out! just ship them to me. problem will be solved! lol