My tank is a disaster

n2fish

Just read part one and two. I'll have to figure out who to call here and find out the water hardness.

n2fish

OK - let me give this a try. This is the fourth ammonia test from my tap, spread out over a week. The photos are from this morning about 20 minutes ago.

My testing proceedure:

Let the tap water run for a few minutes, wrinse test tube with water to be tested with cap on shaking the tube dumping it out, lather, rinse, repeat for a total of three times.

8 drops ammonia test liquid #1, replace cap on test tube, quick rock back and forth to make sure it's mixed with the test water

8 drops ammonia test liquid #2, replace cap, shake back and forth for 5 seconds, set kitchen timer for 5 minutes and wait.

Here is what I get out of my tap, kinda hard to see the color accurately but you'll get an idea. I'm saying it's 1.0 - 1.5 What do you all think? I treat with Prime before putting in tank.

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n2fish

Little bit of an update, just got back from my LFS, one of the better ones so I'm told. I don't have a lot of experiance with any of them yet but many people seem to think this is the "go to" store so....

It's not Ammonia comming out of my tap but rather Chloramine, which we know looks like ammonia when the water is tested..ok, makes sense. Also about the water hardness, they didn't have an exact number to give me but said everybody in South Florida has to deal with very hard water due to the composite of our aquafir. Their suggestion is to use a product by Seachem called Neural Regulator which not only removes Chorine, Chloramine and Ammonia but also adjusts High or Low pH to 7.0

They agreed, because of my water conditions, Cardinal Tetras were not the best choice to put in my tank.

GwenInNM

You may want to find a bottled water source with low ph, and don't use that ph down stuff. I do all my water changes with bottled water (weekly 10 gallons), on my 23 gal tank. I'm thinking of upgrading to a 30 gal, but that is still not that expensive. I use the Glacier water vending machine, with a 6.3 ph. My Cardinals are doing great. With the smaller tank you have, that is doable. Just a suggestion, works for me. Also, get some Malaysian drift wood.

Gwen

n2fish

That's not a bad idea Gwen.

I did end up getting rid of all that Mopani driftwod and now have one nice looking piece of Malaysian :)

Byron

If the ammonia is chloramine, then a good water conditioner that detoxifies chlorine and chloramine will handle that. I don't have chloramine in my tap water, so I have no experience with ammonia tests reading it after a water change; they may well do this. That deals with the ammonia issue.

To the softer water. I would prefer diluting the hard water with pure water to get it permanently soft, as Gwen does, rather than using expensive (long-term) chemicals. I've not used the Seachem product mentioned, but if the water KH (bicarbonates, Alkalinity) is high, it might take a lot of the product to keep it stable.

If you read my article on hardness, you will know that diluting hard water with pure water is easy and safe. Using half pure to half tap dilutes the water hardness by half. You can use bottled water [make sure it contains no "salts" as some do], distilled water, RO water, rainwater--or simply boil the water. The boiling removes the GH hardness, but not the KH.

n2fish

Hi Byron - yes, I read it (three or four times actually) and trying to figure out a good inexpensive source for the R.O. or distilled water. If we're talking 50% water changes (18 gallons total) and diluting it buy half I would need 9-10 gallons per week. I'm not relishing the thought of adding that expense nor haulling that up two flights of stairs every weekend.

KendraMc

for bottled water, check if any of your grocery stores have refill drinking water. that is what i use and it is only 29 cents a gallon. you can buy 5 gal water jugs and refill them. it ends up being pretty cheap.

n2fish

Maybe that's the way to go then. I'll have to take a look at the selfserve water machines in my area, I see them all over the place.

Lost the last Black Veil and the Cardinal Tetra over night. The only fish left is (1) Zerbra Danio...zipping around like the day I bough him. Also the longest resident in the tank. Other than that, (1) Cherry Red Shrimp, some Mylasian Trumpet Snails and misc shails that came in with live plants.

I'm going to take a "wait and see" before adding any fish, monitor conditions water through the week, make some water changes. Maybe by the weekend I can buy another Zebra Danio or two. They seem to be very hearty fish.

n2fish

Some good news...I think.

I only have the one Zebra Danio left along with lots of plants, a shrimp and several small, small snails but I'm finaly seeing my Ammonia dropping. My Nitrites are coming up as are my Nitrates.

Saturday:
Ammonia +1.5
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0

Thursday (yesterday):
Ammonia -1.5
Nitrites .125
Nitrates 0

Friday (today):
Ammonia +0.5
Nitrites +.25
Nitrates -2.5

Question, because I only have one little fish in a 36 gallon tank, is now the time to add one or two more Zebra Danios?

I'm working on getting 2 of those refillable 5 gallon drinking water bottles and filling with either RO or distilled water for changes to knock down the hardness. That won't happen untill the weekend but that's only 24-36 hours out.