I have not keepted up on one of my tanks like i should have been on water quality. I wanted to add a new fish that is very tempermental on water quality. I tested the water and found amonia was up but not bad, ph was higher then required for the feature new inhabitant, nitriteswere ok but the nitrates was off the chart. the current fish showed no effects from the nitrates so i did a 50% water change this morning. After letting the tank run with fresh water i retested the water and the nitrated are still at the top of the chart but it took a few minutes to get there instead of almost insantly like this morning. Is it to soon for another water change are would it be ok to do another 50% change?
how often is too often?
- Thread starter Lgsasquatch
- Start date
Ammonia and nitrite should be 0 in a cycled tank. If you do a 50% wc you will only eliminate 50% of the nitrates already present. Keep doing 50% wc daily, shouldnt have a problem just make sure you are using water conditioner
As long as the fish don't look stressed (give them a few hours) then keep changing the water. I do 95% water changes twice daily on my discus growout tank.
educating isn't bashing, no matter how they take it.
I think you're asking the wrong question. you should probably ask- if I don't keep up on my tanks now, will I keep up on them later when more fish equals more maintenance? will this new fish make me more responsible or just allow me to cause more creatures to suffer?
as for the actual question-too much fresh water is never a problem, it's changing pH, temp, and hardness that can cause problems. if the only difference between tank/new water is the fish wastes/byproducts, there's no problems.
Yes i do know the adult size of a pacu. I don't think of it as bashing, most people that buy the pacu's don't realize how big and fast they will grow.
If your tank is cycling ie has ammonia and nitrite results ( as chizzel stated) and you havnt by the sounds of it killed of BB by cleaning filters sunstrate etc id be asking why? has it been established long is there adequate filtration on it? Adding more fish to a cycling tank is just going to increase the levels. Do you need more filtration before adding more fish are you over feeding causing rotting food to increase the level's cleaning the substrate out to remove fish waste, and not rely soley on the biological breakdown? what are the new type of fish
There's no excuse and i'm not trying to make one for my mistake. Its my responsibility and i failed, luckily with no fatalities.
Looks to me that your possibly already overstocked for your bio filtration. Adding another fish is not a good idea.