Having some fishtank problems

Chris07860

Hey all how's it going? I'm trying to get back on track with my 55 gallon tank. It has been neglected a lot because of school and has only been getting 50% water changes once a month (I know not good) I really never check the water parameters either (haven't really had any problems until now). One by one last month I have lost my Giant danos they would lose scales around their gills and this was around the time college was ending for the summer so I did 50% water change and got got out my 5 year old test kit which who knows how accurate that is it's an API Fresh water test kit (liquid). The Nitrates were about 80ppm if I remember correctly and ammonia was 0 and PH was about 7.6 I have community fish the names escape me and I also have a small eel and a big pleco i've had him since 2008. My questions are I want to take better care of this tank and do weekly water changes to try and bring the Nitrates down extremely low level. I would like to do weekly 50% water changes and would like to switch out the fading black gravel with natural looking brown gravel. I just checked the tank temps now to and it's at 84F I live on a 2nd floor and it's the hottest room in the house I've had the heater off since about May because it would stay around 80F. When I do water changes I put aquarium salt in and tap water conditioner. Another problem I have is I see on the internet people do 23% water changes honestly I don't know where 23% woud fall on this tank. Sorry if my questions are scattered about lol. I appreciate the help.

jaysee

well, doing more regular water changes is going to turn things around for you. How large a water change is needed is determined by the individual tank, but 50% is a good benchmark for a well stocked tank.

23%?? Sounds like they've been playing with aqadvisor. Every inch of water you drain from the tank (55) is roughly 2.5 gallons, so 23% would be about 4.5 inches of water from a 55 gallon tank.

Olympia

I'd stick to 50% a week for now to get things going again.

If you can post photos of your mystery fish we'd be able to ID them for you. :)

Chris07860

Yeah I just went on google and typed it in I mean that hardly puts a dent in water levels in a 55 gallon to do a 23% water change lol. So I can get away with a 50% weekly water change? and should I by chance replace my API test kit since it's from 2007?

Olympia

The API test kit should have an expiry date written on each bottle, so I'd look at that. They do last quite a few years, I remember.

Chris07860

heres the pics

I know Giant Danos in here but forget the rest that red fish that's in the corner in the 2nd pic I know doesn't look good he's looked like that for about a year and you can see that larger Dano's face doesn't look good either. I'm treating with Melafix. I just started feeding them that Omega One they don't like it but I hope that if I keep feeding them that then maybe they will. I also put in a frozen blood worm cube for the eel. I have to upload that pic.

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Chris07860

eel pic

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1077

I would agree with the 50 percent weekly water changes but would start with twice weekly 25 percent so that fish aren't shocked by sudden change in parameter's.
After a couple week's,,then I would start the 50 percent water changes.
I believe the Danio's were/are ,more affected by too warm temp's than anything else.
They much prefer cooler temps with upper range of 76 degree's.
You could float two litre frozen bottles of water in the tank, and or perform more frequent,smaller water changes using cooler tapwater to relieve them.
Might also add an airstone or two for there is less dissolved oxygen at higher temp's than at lower temperature.
Hope some of this helps.

Chris07860

Ok I will do that then for a few with the water change. I do have air stones I use in the tank every day. I usually turn them on when the aquarium lights go on. Thanks for the tip on the water bottles. I never would of thought about that.

Byron

The fish issue may be one or several factors, each adding stress which weakens fish but also possibly directly affecting them. Salt will burn fish scales. How much are you adding, and why. At the very least, this is causing them stress, as these are all soft water fish.

Second observation is the high nitrates that will stress fish, contributing to the problem. The water changes should get these back to normal.

Byron.