My Water Parameters are Bad

[yourockit]

I noticed it doesn't say anywhere what size tank your 12 caribas are in...I'm guessing you have a 360+ gallon aquarium? (going by 30 gallons per fish)

If not, that's part of your problem, that tank doesn't have enough space for all of those fish....it's being overloaded. Also, I agree with Ianab, if you don't have time to do water changes then you don't have time to have fish. Sorry. Not to sound mean or anything.

You can't just get a pet, and let it sit in it's yuck and filth because you don't have the time or energy to care for it properly. You do realize that'd be like you living in the sewers?

We've had to do waterchanges with 5 gallon buckets on a 75 gallon tank. And were on a pretty strict schedule between that and our other resposibilities.

There's no advice I can give you, that hasn't already been said. Except this, if you keep adding chemicals to your water, instead of keeping it clean, you're gonna end up losing your fish.

Hopefully you figure it out, and get it back down!!

it has always said that i have 240 g tank. which should be fine for 12 4-5" caribas.

i have enough time for the fishes. doing water changes every day is not the long term solution, realistically speaking, no matter how dedicated i may be right now.

i appreciate your concern but i need solutions not to the problem not temporary fixes.

 

[yourockit]

What kind of testing equipment and what PH did you start with?

aquarium pharmaceuticals, complete testing kit. vials and drops.

I just put my fishes into my 240 tank. this is the first test on this tank.

 

[yourockit]

If you can't do water change that often...do about 60% of water change once you do it. VEry important to do some vacuum gravel.

your temp are find
your ph are find

just keep doing water change. 12 caibe are a lot of wates and poop in the tank. a hug water change every week wold help.

i do a 35% change every five days. maybe my problem is that i do not have a large or poerful enough bio-filter. ?

 

[pacu mom]

aquarium pharmaceuticals, complete testing kit. vials and drops.

I just put my fishes into my 240 tank. this is the first test on this tank.

Did you cycle the tank before putting your fish in the tank, or are the current filters off of an old cycled tank? Ammonia is very toxic to fish. If it was my tank, I would do a massive water change to get the ammonia low. Our pacu are very sensitive to ammonia and in the overcrowded old tank would start gasping if there are detectable levels of ammonia in the tank. They would stop gasping once the water was changed. I would also put Prime or AmQuel+ in the tank to bind up the ammonia. You need plenty of aeration when using AmQuel+. This is just a temporary measure to get the water safe for your fish.

It sounds like you need more biological filtration. A wet/dry filter could provide you with ample biological filtration. If your tank is cycled, another possibility for a sudden rise in ammonia would be dead/decaying matter in the tank. I'd do a thorough check of the tank to rule this out.

Water changes are the quickest and easiest way to lower nitrates in a tank. A heavily planted tank and/or a denitrator are other ways to lower nitrates.

 

[vinizuh]

you're tank is under filtered. look into a wet/dry system... a sump tank of 55gallons would be nice.. or purchase a fx5 maybe even 2 fx5's... 2 fluvals won't cut it, especially being a 240 gallon tank.

ammonia is rising because the filters can't keep up with the bio load from 12 caribe.

 

[_Sushi_]

it has always said that i have 240 g tank. which should be fine for 12 4-5" caribas.

Didn't see where it said that, sorry!!

you COULD just drain the tank down the sink, and save yourself a bit of trouble, even if your python isn't working properly.

We had a problem with our tank, since we have to carry buckets up and down the stairs as well. We had to do 2 tanks today, a 75 and a 30 (it was labeled 29, takes 30 gallons to fill it) so about 105 gallons, in 5 gallon loads....draining and filling....that's a lot of trips!! For your water changes, you could POSSIBLY get away with less, as long as you do it more frequently. I don't know if you have access to 5 gallon buckets, but they make things much easier. Just make 2 trips with one, and then refill. 2 days later, lather rinse repeat, until your ammonia levels are back down. ^_^

 

[jloos1988]

So i have to awake at 4Am, when the apt. manager is asleep, to do a water change out my window. it freaking sucks.

lol thats pretty funny

 

[Ianab]

i have enough time for the fishes. doing water changes every day is not the long term solution, realistically speaking, no matter how dedicated i may be right now.

i appreciate your concern but i need solutions not to the problem not temporary fixes.

You need a temporary fix TODAY to reduce the ammonia in the tank before it KILLS your fish. If you do some extra water changes and cut back on the feeding as a temp fix you shouldn't loose fish.

Then the long term solution is to look at more or bigger filters to cope with the bioload in the tank.

Even if you buy a ginormous canister filter and plug it in today, it wont do squat untill it cycles (a couple of weeks). So you need a temp fix untill then.

Then once your ammonia and nitrite is zero you can use the nitrate level to work out how often/much water you actually need to change.

Cheers

Ian

 

[pirahna1950]

yourockit, I would wager your tank is not fully cycled. If you have another, older tank that is cycled, add water from that tank, and even the filter from the other tank for 24 hours. That would hustle up the cycleing. Your only other real option would be water changes. I dissagree on the massive water changes as you would be eliminating a lot of potentialy beneficial bacteria, the food it needs to thrive, as well as ammonia in the process. The key is the bacteria. Get as much in there as quickly as you can. Caribes are pretty tough, just don't push your luck and keep your temps around 80F. Oh, and NO FEEDING!

 

[yourockit]

i am beginning to regret buying fx5 filters. i have to move to a wet/dry sumpothicas. ****