Looks like a bad scrape to me probably from wedgeing itself in the tight space in the piece of driftwood. I suggest pristine water conditions and it should heal.
What the heck is this, please help
- Thread starter PartyHacks
- Start date
Since my levels have been consistently high, do you think daily 20% water changes should do it? I don't think my tank is cycling properly.
I have Seachem Stability which is the bacteria stuff, and I added Prime today so that the levels would go down temporarily.
Last filter media change was 3 months ago.
When you say filter change are you throwing away old media and replacing? Or do you mean filter maintenance as in you rinse the media in old tank water? Or do you rinse the media in tap water?
mid you rinse in tap water or are completely replacing the media with new then you are destroying your cycle and it will never completely cycle and you will always have ammonia reading and high nitrates.
I don’t think I can give you an exact number for water change percentage as it will be different for everyone. Depending on stocking and feeding schedule.
I do think you should aim for the 20ppm mark and lower, however much water you have to change to achieve that will be determined by your testing. If it is at 80ppm now and you do a 50% water change you are bringing the nitrates down to 40ppm.
In regards to the ammonia you are detecting it could be that your local water company (if your not on well water) uses chlorimines instead of chlorine. This is the case with my tap water and sometimes I get a reading of 0.25 ppm of ammonia. I know my tanks are cycled and there’s no harmful ammonia in my tanks as I use the seachem ammonia alert thing you put in your tank. I don’t remember which ammonia is the bad and which one is not to worry about. Maybe another member can chime in on that as one no3 and one is no4?
I also agree with tLindsey in it will heal with clean water.
Please don’t be embarrassed to discuss your tank parameters with us, if you don’t share you can’t learn and people might not be Albie to adequately help. And if your willing to fix it there’s no shame!
mid you rinse in tap water or are completely replacing the media with new then you are destroying your cycle and it will never completely cycle and you will always have ammonia reading and high nitrates.
I don’t think I can give you an exact number for water change percentage as it will be different for everyone. Depending on stocking and feeding schedule.
I do think you should aim for the 20ppm mark and lower, however much water you have to change to achieve that will be determined by your testing. If it is at 80ppm now and you do a 50% water change you are bringing the nitrates down to 40ppm.
In regards to the ammonia you are detecting it could be that your local water company (if your not on well water) uses chlorimines instead of chlorine. This is the case with my tap water and sometimes I get a reading of 0.25 ppm of ammonia. I know my tanks are cycled and there’s no harmful ammonia in my tanks as I use the seachem ammonia alert thing you put in your tank. I don’t remember which ammonia is the bad and which one is not to worry about. Maybe another member can chime in on that as one no3 and one is no4?
I also agree with tLindsey in it will heal with clean water.
Please don’t be embarrassed to discuss your tank parameters with us, if you don’t share you can’t learn and people might not be Albie to adequately help. And if your willing to fix it there’s no shame!
If your water provider uses chloramine as a disinfectant, a 0.25 ammonia reading is not noteworthy after a 40 % water change (chloramine is made by combining @ 1 part ammonia with 4 parts chlorine). I don't think 0.25 ammonia means there was a new mini-cycle, if you had tested 1 or 2 ppm ammonia , then yes, a mini cycle.
The high nitrate is more concerning to me.
It indicates your water changes schedule needs to be upgraded to 2 or preferably 3 times per week instead of once per week.
And if the can is full of gunk at 3 months, I would suggest a once per month rinse out of mechanical and bio media with tank water from the water
change.
Your old fish may have over time adjusted to the elevated nitrate, but any new fish added and not accustomed to such nitrate soup conditions may immediately show signs of stress, and/or be prone to diseases.
The high nitrate is more concerning to me.
It indicates your water changes schedule needs to be upgraded to 2 or preferably 3 times per week instead of once per week.
And if the can is full of gunk at 3 months, I would suggest a once per month rinse out of mechanical and bio media with tank water from the water
change.
Your old fish may have over time adjusted to the elevated nitrate, but any new fish added and not accustomed to such nitrate soup conditions may immediately show signs of stress, and/or be prone to diseases.
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Increase your water changes to 50% twice a week. Add some seachem prime every 2 days till the numbers settle down. Are u using a dechlorinator with water changes? The catfish should heal up with food and clean water.
Agree with both
duanes
and
kno4te
regarding their advice to get the water parameters better. Some people always seem to have a very slight 0.25 ammonia reading for some reason.
I will add that you may need a decoration that is larger than what you are using since he is wedging himself in so tightly which appears to just aggravate his injury.
duanes
and
kno4te
regarding their advice to get the water parameters better. Some people always seem to have a very slight 0.25 ammonia reading for some reason.I will add that you may need a decoration that is larger than what you are using since he is wedging himself in so tightly which appears to just aggravate his injury.
kno4te
I do not know what dechlorinator is.
duanes
Thank you! I will be doing the water changes now, and adding Prime in.
Niki_up
I guess i am much more ignorant than I thought. I was throwing away old media, but my plan was to keep this media inside for like a year because I recently read that a "dirty" filter is a good filter sort of. Yeah there is gunk there for sure. Tomorrow I will take the canister filter and rinse it out, but keep the media in.Thank you all for the responses, seriously. It feels good knowing that my tank can and will be healthy
Prime apparently has the ability to dechlorinate. I emailed my water company and asked if they use Chloramine.
Tested water now: Ammonia .25 Nitrite .25 Nitrate was 20-40 ppm.
Will continue to do what you guys said, thank you.
Well the good news here is you won’t need to ever buy new media!!! You can continue to use this meadia until it falls apart. It is recommended you take you canister apart once a month (I don’t use canisters so it could me more frequently or every other month) and rinse the media in old tank water and place it back in the canister.
Thank you all for the responses, seriously. It feels good knowing that my tank can and will be healthy
don’t let it run an entire year without cleaning the media. It can get all gunned up and essentially feed nitrates back into your tank causing a problem as well.
your going through another cycle now and will need to monitor the tank and do water changes as necessary.
good luck and keep us posted.
you can go google your local cities water report, it should tell you if it uses chlorimines or chlorine
