hello ive been reading here on MFK's for about the last month now i had a 55gallon given to me for xmas actually on like 12-22-08 it has a whisper 60 HOB and a cascade 1000 canister for filtration for the first 3 weeks i had gravel at the bottom it was a brand new tank so i had to cycle it, i had a silver arowana, 2 blood parrots a albino pleco and 2 green spotted puffers up until about 2 weeks ago when i came across a motoro that is about 7.5" in diameter i picked him up and changed out the gravel for sand that the LFS i got him at sold to me which turned out to be crushed coral so after wasting $40 on the coral Lastnite i decided to pick up and switch it out to CARIBSEA SUPERNATURALS MARINE SAND the white one. i also have 2-14" airwands in there the temp stays at 80-83 depending on time of day and indoor temp (near a door and under a window BUT does not get direct sunlight) he is eating great he is eating: earthworms, ghost shrimp, market prawns, and fresh shrimp, bloodworms thats all ive tried so far all of which he takes with no problems!! (o ya when i had him in with my arowana he ate 2 feeder goldfish but he wont be getting those anymore since the arowana is gone) He is the only one in the tank AS OF NOW!! IM AM ON THE HUNT FOR A FEMALE OR 2!!
NOW before you all jump down my throat about the size tank i have I KNOW ITS SMALL FOR HIM AND ESPCIALLY IF I ADDED ANOTHER ONE but i am in the works of hopefully trading this guy for his 220 gal tank that measures out to be 72x30x24 HOPEFULLY this next week but he wont beable to give it to me until the end of JUNE cuz he is having a custom tank made now an needs to cycle it before putting his current fish in there. IF IT DOESNT GO THROUGH THEN I WILL BE GETTING A BIGGER TANK SOONER THEN LATER! i have a API freshwater master test kit for water testing.
when i test the water his results are
nitrite= 1.0 OR 5.0 its kinda hard to tell as these 2 colors are so close on the card but if i had to choose one id lean more toward the 1.0 color and when i asked 4 other ppl 3 said the 1.0 the other said 5.0 soooo..
nitrate= 5.0
ph= 7.6
ammonia= 0
Now the couple questions i have are:
1. will he be fine in this tank until the end of june IF this trade goes through? again he is about 7.5-8" diameter when i measured
2. how do i bring the NITRITE down? i just changed out 50% water lastnight when i took all the crushed coral out and put in the new sand as im writing this it hasnt even been 24hrs yet!
3. how do i bring the NITRATE down?
4. should i worry about trying to buy something to bring down the PH to where it should or that itsnt to bad? i know its suppose to be in the 6.6-7.2 range but...
5. he isnt very active he stays burried under the sand EXCEPT for about the 5-10mins every few hours he is looking for food then covers himself again, im thinking this is from the water!??
6. he also frequently goes to the front left corner of tank and swims to top of the waters edge an swims out so hIS mouth almost sticks out of the water and his top 1/4 of his disk is out of water when he does it DOES THIS MAKE SINCE WHAT IM SAYING? also he will swim from one end to the other with his disk a good 1/4 out of water and flaps the water making noise is this all normal? i havent read this anywhere else. sometimes when he does the corner thing it traps air bubbles under his disk an stays till he slides back down glass then he kinda shakes then loose.
7. also on the top of his disk on the back half there are what appears to be darkers brown spots scattered i will try to get a pic of it i noticed them on another motoro on here but it didnt say anything pertaining to them.
8. when i changed the sand and water lastnite about 30mins after, i noticed that his slimecoat started to come off i use AQUASAFE water conditioner, API ammo-lock, API stress coat and i add about 3-4 table spoons of aquarium salt i JUST PICKED UP PRIME tonight so will be using this from now on instead of the AQUASAFE.
that is all for now i will take a few pics now with my phone and post them in alittle while. sorry this ended up being such along post.
thanks for any help or comments and nice to meet u all!!!
NOW before you all jump down my throat about the size tank i have I KNOW ITS SMALL FOR HIM AND ESPCIALLY IF I ADDED ANOTHER ONE but i am in the works of hopefully trading this guy for his 220 gal tank that measures out to be 72x30x24 HOPEFULLY this next week but he wont beable to give it to me until the end of JUNE cuz he is having a custom tank made now an needs to cycle it before putting his current fish in there. IF IT DOESNT GO THROUGH THEN I WILL BE GETTING A BIGGER TANK SOONER THEN LATER! i have a API freshwater master test kit for water testing.
when i test the water his results are
nitrite= 1.0 OR 5.0 its kinda hard to tell as these 2 colors are so close on the card but if i had to choose one id lean more toward the 1.0 color and when i asked 4 other ppl 3 said the 1.0 the other said 5.0 soooo..
nitrate= 5.0
ph= 7.6
ammonia= 0
Now the couple questions i have are:
1. will he be fine in this tank until the end of june IF this trade goes through? again he is about 7.5-8" diameter when i measured
2. how do i bring the NITRITE down? i just changed out 50% water lastnight when i took all the crushed coral out and put in the new sand as im writing this it hasnt even been 24hrs yet!
3. how do i bring the NITRATE down?
4. should i worry about trying to buy something to bring down the PH to where it should or that itsnt to bad? i know its suppose to be in the 6.6-7.2 range but...
5. he isnt very active he stays burried under the sand EXCEPT for about the 5-10mins every few hours he is looking for food then covers himself again, im thinking this is from the water!??
6. he also frequently goes to the front left corner of tank and swims to top of the waters edge an swims out so hIS mouth almost sticks out of the water and his top 1/4 of his disk is out of water when he does it DOES THIS MAKE SINCE WHAT IM SAYING? also he will swim from one end to the other with his disk a good 1/4 out of water and flaps the water making noise is this all normal? i havent read this anywhere else. sometimes when he does the corner thing it traps air bubbles under his disk an stays till he slides back down glass then he kinda shakes then loose.
7. also on the top of his disk on the back half there are what appears to be darkers brown spots scattered i will try to get a pic of it i noticed them on another motoro on here but it didnt say anything pertaining to them.
8. when i changed the sand and water lastnite about 30mins after, i noticed that his slimecoat started to come off i use AQUASAFE water conditioner, API ammo-lock, API stress coat and i add about 3-4 table spoons of aquarium salt i JUST PICKED UP PRIME tonight so will be using this from now on instead of the AQUASAFE.
that is all for now i will take a few pics now with my phone and post them in alittle while. sorry this ended up being such along post.
thanks for any help or comments and nice to meet u all!!!
