I've noticed a couple of my largest altifrons developing HITH recently, given that its only been a matter of months since I finally got my dream tank set up I'm pretty devastated to say the least! Here's the relevant info;
1400L tank (as-per my signature) with 12 altifrons + others.
Feeding: once a day the get a big feed of prepared foods, something along the lines of;
2 parts TetraMin flakes (with a bit of extra spirulina flake added)
1 part Tetra colourbits
2 parts NLS Community formula 1mm
1 part Hikari sinking cichlid gold mini pellets
plus the bits of NLS large fish formula and Hikari carnivore stick that the aro chews and spits out. I know one feed a day isn't ideal, but I turn the filters off and there's enough small particles to keep them busy turning over the sand for a long time afterwards. They're certainly not starving!
1-2 times a week they get an additional feed of bloodworms and chopped raw shrimp.
Water: I do a ~3-400L water change every 6-9 days, plenty of filtration with the sump and FX5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5-10ppm (water change was done on Friday)
GH 2.52
KH 1.12
pH 6.8*
Temp 28C
* up until recently the pH has been considerably higher, around 7.4, although the GH and KH have always been low. With the recent onset of winter I have started collecting rain water to try to help lower the pH (there is also peat in the sump and plenty of wood in the tank). The water change I did on Friday was about 300L of rain water and 150L of tap water (sky high pH but very low GH/KH), and this is the first time I've had a pH of under 7.0 in the tank.
The fish are probably about 2-3 years old (at a guess), and I have what appears to be two different varieties, and unfortunately it seems to be affecting both. They have been in this tank since January, before that they were in my 160g that was set up very similarly but with out the concrete background and with a pH closer to 6.0. The pH is the only thing that I can think of that has changed in comparison to the 160g, which makes me think it may be to blame. I will keep a close eye on the Nitrate to see what it builds up to between water changes, but I'm suspecting it won't be too high. The only thing I haven't measured is TDS/conductivity. I'm off to the LFS today so I will ask them about this.
So, what can be done about it???
I will continue with the rain water collection, but still adding some tap water to try keep the trace elements from disappearing. Hopefully a lower pH will help?
I'm nearly out of the NLS community and was going to switch to the NLS Cichlid Formula 1mm pellets, would the Thera A with garlic be a better choice to help the fish recover? Anything else I could/should add to their diet?
Any other suggestions from the experts out there??
1400L tank (as-per my signature) with 12 altifrons + others.
Feeding: once a day the get a big feed of prepared foods, something along the lines of;
2 parts TetraMin flakes (with a bit of extra spirulina flake added)
1 part Tetra colourbits
2 parts NLS Community formula 1mm
1 part Hikari sinking cichlid gold mini pellets
plus the bits of NLS large fish formula and Hikari carnivore stick that the aro chews and spits out. I know one feed a day isn't ideal, but I turn the filters off and there's enough small particles to keep them busy turning over the sand for a long time afterwards. They're certainly not starving!
1-2 times a week they get an additional feed of bloodworms and chopped raw shrimp.
Water: I do a ~3-400L water change every 6-9 days, plenty of filtration with the sump and FX5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5-10ppm (water change was done on Friday)
GH 2.52
KH 1.12
pH 6.8*
Temp 28C
* up until recently the pH has been considerably higher, around 7.4, although the GH and KH have always been low. With the recent onset of winter I have started collecting rain water to try to help lower the pH (there is also peat in the sump and plenty of wood in the tank). The water change I did on Friday was about 300L of rain water and 150L of tap water (sky high pH but very low GH/KH), and this is the first time I've had a pH of under 7.0 in the tank.
The fish are probably about 2-3 years old (at a guess), and I have what appears to be two different varieties, and unfortunately it seems to be affecting both. They have been in this tank since January, before that they were in my 160g that was set up very similarly but with out the concrete background and with a pH closer to 6.0. The pH is the only thing that I can think of that has changed in comparison to the 160g, which makes me think it may be to blame. I will keep a close eye on the Nitrate to see what it builds up to between water changes, but I'm suspecting it won't be too high. The only thing I haven't measured is TDS/conductivity. I'm off to the LFS today so I will ask them about this.
So, what can be done about it???
I will continue with the rain water collection, but still adding some tap water to try keep the trace elements from disappearing. Hopefully a lower pH will help?
I'm nearly out of the NLS community and was going to switch to the NLS Cichlid Formula 1mm pellets, would the Thera A with garlic be a better choice to help the fish recover? Anything else I could/should add to their diet?
Any other suggestions from the experts out there??
