Well, I guess I should start out by saying, I'm a complete noob at this and have probably messed up badly, so please go easy on me. Most of my fish experience was back in college when I had smaller community tanks.
Over Easter weekend we found a good deal on a 125g tank. It came with the stand, two Penn-Plax Cascade filters (one is a 1000, the other is a 700 - I think), filter refill stuff, gravel, rock decorations and fish for $600 all delivered to my house. Seemed like a good deal.
The fish that came with the tank were a Red Bay Snook, a Jack Dempsey and two common plecos. I have no experience with cichlids, but I did a little research learning about them and figured what the heck, since they're already pretty big, we'd keep them and build from there.
The lady we bought it from informed us that she hadn't done any maintence on the tank in the last 4-6 weeks...no water changes or anything.
When the tank arrived, we set it up and filled it with water. After things had settled we slowly introduced the fish back into it along with another pleco that I had in a small 10g tank with some other small community fish.
Things were going great - the fish were getting along fairly well with minimum aggressiveness towards each other. I was doing weekly water changes of about 25%. Everything seemed to be fine so we thought we'd introduce another fish.
We ended up coming home with a small 2" Midas. He hunkered down toward the bottom of the tank for awhile, but after a few minutes he was swimming around and checking out his surroundings. When we added him, we also added some fake plants and another decoration. I had read that when you introduce fish to a cichlid tank to change/add decorations to break up established territories. I rinsed off the new decorations with hot tap water. I should also note that morning before the new fish, I had also done a 25% water change.
By that evening the fish were swimming near the top. I left them be and went to bed. The next morning I was up at 6am. All the fish were still near the top. So at this point, I kind of panic and start working on another larger water change and replacing the filter media with new stuff.
After about a 60% water change, I changed all the bio media in the filters, along with adding new carbon. I had ran out of the carbon the lady had given to me with the tank, so I sent the misses to Petsmart to go buy some more. She comes home with that and 3 more fish.
wtf was she thinking, I don't know!? I put the new carbon in the filter. I did not have any extra sponges and they didn't have ones to match the filters at petsmart, so I rinsed those with tap water and put them back in as normal.
By this time, I'm stressed and I'm sure the fish are too...not to mention we're now floating 3 more additional fish in the top of the tank to add to it. Anyway, we add the fish and everyone seems to be getting along well except Midas. He's floating at the top. I took him out of the tank and put him in a small bowl of warm water and let him hang out there for a few hours. When we put him back in the big tank, he was still a little stressed, but by that night he was back to him old self, swimming around the tank.
The next day, all the fish are back at the top again. So I start reading more and more and I'm guessing the tank now has New Tank Syndrome since I changed all the filter media at once. Ugh. So I've been doing daily 25% water changes ever since. Which usually makes the fish happy for awhile...plus I now have a 20' hose, so the job has gotten much easier.
I've been keeping track of the levels and things are starting to level out and seem normal, but the fish still go to the top every day if I don't do the water changes. I've also cut back their food to try to speed up the process.
Right now my levels are:
Nitrate - 10ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Total hardness (GH) - 300ppm
Total Chlorine - 0ppm
Total Alkalinity - 180
PH - 7.8
Tap water is:
Nitrate - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Hardness - 150ppm
Chlorine - 0ppm
Alkalinity - 180ppm
PH - 7.8
The fish in the tank are:
Red Bay Snook - 8"
Jack Dempsey - 6"
Blood Parrot - 2"
Albino Tiger Oscar - 2"
Midas - 2"
3 common Plecos ranging from 4"-8"
I try not to put any chemicals in the tank, however I do add a small amount of aquarium salt when I do the water changes. Usually far less than what it suggests though.
So here I am, with an overstocked fish tank, trying to keep the fish alive. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime, I'll be doing water changes.
Over Easter weekend we found a good deal on a 125g tank. It came with the stand, two Penn-Plax Cascade filters (one is a 1000, the other is a 700 - I think), filter refill stuff, gravel, rock decorations and fish for $600 all delivered to my house. Seemed like a good deal.
The fish that came with the tank were a Red Bay Snook, a Jack Dempsey and two common plecos. I have no experience with cichlids, but I did a little research learning about them and figured what the heck, since they're already pretty big, we'd keep them and build from there.
The lady we bought it from informed us that she hadn't done any maintence on the tank in the last 4-6 weeks...no water changes or anything.
When the tank arrived, we set it up and filled it with water. After things had settled we slowly introduced the fish back into it along with another pleco that I had in a small 10g tank with some other small community fish.
Things were going great - the fish were getting along fairly well with minimum aggressiveness towards each other. I was doing weekly water changes of about 25%. Everything seemed to be fine so we thought we'd introduce another fish.
We ended up coming home with a small 2" Midas. He hunkered down toward the bottom of the tank for awhile, but after a few minutes he was swimming around and checking out his surroundings. When we added him, we also added some fake plants and another decoration. I had read that when you introduce fish to a cichlid tank to change/add decorations to break up established territories. I rinsed off the new decorations with hot tap water. I should also note that morning before the new fish, I had also done a 25% water change.
By that evening the fish were swimming near the top. I left them be and went to bed. The next morning I was up at 6am. All the fish were still near the top. So at this point, I kind of panic and start working on another larger water change and replacing the filter media with new stuff.
After about a 60% water change, I changed all the bio media in the filters, along with adding new carbon. I had ran out of the carbon the lady had given to me with the tank, so I sent the misses to Petsmart to go buy some more. She comes home with that and 3 more fish.
wtf was she thinking, I don't know!? I put the new carbon in the filter. I did not have any extra sponges and they didn't have ones to match the filters at petsmart, so I rinsed those with tap water and put them back in as normal.By this time, I'm stressed and I'm sure the fish are too...not to mention we're now floating 3 more additional fish in the top of the tank to add to it. Anyway, we add the fish and everyone seems to be getting along well except Midas. He's floating at the top. I took him out of the tank and put him in a small bowl of warm water and let him hang out there for a few hours. When we put him back in the big tank, he was still a little stressed, but by that night he was back to him old self, swimming around the tank.
The next day, all the fish are back at the top again. So I start reading more and more and I'm guessing the tank now has New Tank Syndrome since I changed all the filter media at once. Ugh. So I've been doing daily 25% water changes ever since. Which usually makes the fish happy for awhile...plus I now have a 20' hose, so the job has gotten much easier.
I've been keeping track of the levels and things are starting to level out and seem normal, but the fish still go to the top every day if I don't do the water changes. I've also cut back their food to try to speed up the process.
Right now my levels are:
Nitrate - 10ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Total hardness (GH) - 300ppm
Total Chlorine - 0ppm
Total Alkalinity - 180
PH - 7.8
Tap water is:
Nitrate - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Hardness - 150ppm
Chlorine - 0ppm
Alkalinity - 180ppm
PH - 7.8
The fish in the tank are:
Red Bay Snook - 8"
Jack Dempsey - 6"
Blood Parrot - 2"
Albino Tiger Oscar - 2"
Midas - 2"
3 common Plecos ranging from 4"-8"
I try not to put any chemicals in the tank, however I do add a small amount of aquarium salt when I do the water changes. Usually far less than what it suggests though.
So here I am, with an overstocked fish tank, trying to keep the fish alive. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime, I'll be doing water changes.
