I am in the process of switching from years of fake plants in my freshwater aquarium to having live plants. Initially the plants developed brown leaves which i cut off. Now they seem to be doing OK. I use Fluorish liquid every 3 days. I also put in Fluorish root tabs (2 of them, 1 each near large plant groupings).
My tanks is 40 gallons with 4 clown loaches, 3 cardinal tetras, 3 glow-lite tetras, 4 red eye tetras, and 3 yellow fin tetras. All of the fish are doing OK.
When I made the change to live plants, I also stopped using the carbon filters and the chemical filters in my Fluval system. I just use the sponges and the Biomax.
My tank's parameters have been running steady when I do 50% water changes every week.
Temp 74
pH 6.0 or less (the API kit only goes to 6.0)
Ammonia 0.25 - 0.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Phos 0.5
GH 5
KH 0-1
I read that in tanks with an acid pH, the ammonia becomes ammonium.
Am I to be worried about the ammonia levels I am finding? I don't want to go crazy chasing numbers since the tank is otherwise doing well and the fish are doing well.
Why is the pH running so low? The water I use for water changes has a pH of 6.4. Are the Fluorish root tabs doing anything? Is the KH to low? S it just what happens? Anyhting to do with the plants?
Jeff
My tanks is 40 gallons with 4 clown loaches, 3 cardinal tetras, 3 glow-lite tetras, 4 red eye tetras, and 3 yellow fin tetras. All of the fish are doing OK.
When I made the change to live plants, I also stopped using the carbon filters and the chemical filters in my Fluval system. I just use the sponges and the Biomax.
My tank's parameters have been running steady when I do 50% water changes every week.
Temp 74
pH 6.0 or less (the API kit only goes to 6.0)
Ammonia 0.25 - 0.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Phos 0.5
GH 5
KH 0-1
I read that in tanks with an acid pH, the ammonia becomes ammonium.
Am I to be worried about the ammonia levels I am finding? I don't want to go crazy chasing numbers since the tank is otherwise doing well and the fish are doing well.
Why is the pH running so low? The water I use for water changes has a pH of 6.4. Are the Fluorish root tabs doing anything? Is the KH to low? S it just what happens? Anyhting to do with the plants?
Jeff