Problem with my Black Aro Setup

[pwmin]

As I posted before, i have a baby black aro in a 20 gallon tank. It is divided into two equal sections w/ 2 heaters and a fluval 3+ in-tank filter on one side and the aro and sponge filter on the other to limit the flow of water in the side that the aro is on. The problem is that the side the aro is on keeps getting dirty and I have to clean it every other day, which it is not good to disturb small aros that much. The side w/ the filter is always clean. If I could, I would take the fluval out and just use the sponge and make heater guards, but the sponge filter is not established yet. I don't feed it very much at a time and I'm pretty sure it's eating all or most of it. I have no idea where all this stuff is coming from.

What should I do? I thought that I could maybe cut up the egg crate I have to make a new divider and attach the small screen from the divider to it, leaving only a little bit of the larger screen size of the eggcrate exposed on the bottom. Would that work? Any other suggestions? I REALLY don't want to have problems with this fish.

 

[Omerov]

flush it erm serisouly, get a SAE sorted

 

[pwmin]

huh? dude: sig overload

 

[Bderick67]

Gotta learn to live with the dirt. Be concerned with the water params and do enough of a w/c to keep the nitrates below 20ppm.

How's the little guy doing? Mine actually ate some flake food last night.

 

[pwmin]

Gotta learn to live with the dirt. Be concerned with the water params and do enough of a w/c to keep the nitrates below 20ppm.

How's the little guy doing? Mine actually ate some flake food last night.

OK, thanks. I'm not worried about the dirt so much, just worrying that it will cause a spike. The water smells more than any of my other tanks.


Doing pretty well. Hasn't eaten any flakes that I've seen, but ate some FD mysis shrimp a little bit ago. It's about as skittish as my jar is still

 

[IWANNAGOFAST]

why do you have a divider in the first place? is it the only fish in the tank?

 

[T1KARMANN]

Gotta learn to live with the dirt. Be concerned with the water params and do enough of a w/c to keep the nitrates below 20ppm.

How's the little guy doing? Mine actually ate some flake food last night.

keep the nitrates below 20ppm

my nitrates are never below 100ppm i never have any problems

 

[pwmin]

why do you have a divider in the first place? is it the only fish in the tank?

it's not the only fish in the tank, but I have a divider to keep it away from the heaters and to block the current of the in-tank filter since they don't like current at that size.

 

[Bderick67]

keep the nitrates below 20ppm

my nitrates are never below 100ppm i never have any problems

So are you recommending raising a 2.5" black aro in polluted water such as this? Or is it that you are just bragging about your laziness and lack of proper fish keeping.

 

[lkp00]

I would think a little current would be less harmfull than having polluted water and almost constant water changes. Just sounds like a very less than ideal situation to be raising a baby aro in. Could maybe try opening up the tank and putting some plants or in there to help breakup the current and create some calm areas. He will appreciate the hiding places and the plants will eat up some of the pollution.