cuban still dark

[xander]

help again....

tankmates:
16"green aro(which'll be removed on sat)
11"african bonytongue
14"spotted gar
15"spotted gar

Water parameters:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0.3ppm
Nitrates: 5 ppm
pH: 7
Temp: between 79-80degF

Water changes:
3x50% per week

Filtration:
-1 OHF,5000l/hr, with 6 trays of bioballs/crushed coral/ceremic rings.(i'm gna add another 6 trays by the end of the weeek)
-jeba canister filter, 1000l/hr, 3 trays(9"x9"x3") using 1 tray crushed corals, 1 tray filter wool, 2 trays of the better type of ceremic rings.
-3000l/hr circulation blowing diagonally across the tank

Feedings:
2x per week i give 5 prawns to the gars and big aro
2x per day 6 3cm cubes of frozen bloodworms for african aro

Tank set-up:
-10kg aragonite substrate
-few pcs driftwood(small)
-1x oxygen stone(reasonably big. gna add another bigger one by end of week)

any ideas as to why she's still dark?

 

[demjor19]

is the fish acting stressed or sick? also...have you been testing your ph regularly? what has it been from day to day over a few day span? from my understanding the ph fluctuation is the big stressor. things seem ok from what youve listed...water change sounds good too.

 

[xander]

fish's acting pretty normal. swimming, resting. etc

no it's over a few days measurements. but shouldn't be shifting thanks to the substrate and most of the media im using...

yeah which is why im really confused...@&%#$@#

 

[demjor19]

fish's acting pretty normal. swimming, resting. etc

no it's over a few days measurements. but shouldn't be shifting thanks to the substrate and most of the media im using...

yeah which is why im really confused...@&%#$@#

how long has he been discolored?

 

[xander]

how long has he been discolored?

well she never fully recovered....than about 2 weeks ago i added the aro and did a wc, and she returned to full time black....

 

[Weylin]

Stress... Where's the green aro going ?

 

[xander]

Stress... Where's the green aro going ?

a friend. stress? what makes you say that?

 

[xander]

starting just now for about 3hrs already, the gar has been swimming against the side of the tank..

 

[E_americanus]

you have nitrites...they should be zero and that's not what you're reading...so something is off in your tank maintenance. i'll look at this more carefully later today, but nitrites should be zero, not 0.3...and a Cuban will likely respond to that. how long have the ceramic rings been in the tank? you do realize they don't start "filtering" right away right? they take about a month to colonize; if there is no mature media, you're not really filtering anything.--
--solomon

 

[xander]

they've been in there for.....2-3 weeks now, plus i added quite a bit of powdered BB for the first 2 weeks after every waterchange, so i'd say they should have colonised. i also used a mature tray of crushed corals before the ceremic rings...for the OHF it's all mature media.(at least a month)

i'll do another WC tmr and see if the nitrites improve...

so yr sayiing it's the nitrites?