Fish:
3 neon tetra
2 dwarf gourami
1 small pleco
1 tiger barb
1 long finned serpae tetra and 1 short finned
3 tetras about size of neon but orange/black near tail
3 of these small silver (tetras?) with a black/yellow dorsal fin and red tail
1 hatchetfish
Equipment:
29 gallon tank
penguin bio-wheel 100 power filter
topfin 50 watt heater(ive read that topfin is a bad choice, maybe ill change)
floating thermometer (currently stays at about 79 F)
fluorescent light
air pump(2 hoses, 1 going to air rock other 2 this lil skeleton dude who moves with air)
rock i put in tank are from rosedale mills, they were for I think landscaping, came in a big bag, like $4 for 50 pounds(looked like same exact thing as the ones in fish dept. but in fish dept 1 pound was $4). i rinsed them off before putting in tank, but not with boiling water.
The ph in my tank is stable up over 8 ph, around 8.4 or so. Ive been using an API freshwater master test kit to test the water. The ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all around 0 so that seems good, but i think the ph is a problem.
I use to have 6 neon tetras in the tank but over the past couple weeks 3 have died. The tank has been up for about a month or so. I do small water changes every week. A couple of the tetras I see with their gills very far open where I can see lots of blood(red on inside) for a long time. Is this some disease, or because of bad water?
Now this is one thing I have not seen mentioned anywhere I read about maintaining aquarium water... I have well water, not tap water from city water lines or something, so there is no chlorine in it since its not treated at a plant or anything, but the water is VERY HARD(lots of calcium/magnesium) and I believe with many heavy metals, and im not sure what other kinds of bad stuff. I have used tap water conditioners that remove chlorine/detoxify heavy metals just in case(kind of stopped using that one tho, since the fish was dieing with that stuff also), but I hope the stuff that removes chlorine isn't harming anything since I have no chlorine in water. I have also tried this "neutral regulator" stuff which is suppose to set ph to 7 and remove ammonia(according to tests from pet store I had ammonia before, but i don't now, so i guess that's fixed) but it doesn't seem like it did anything to ph. I think my hard water has too many buffers and will be very hard to change the ph. I have also read that using those chemicals to try and change ph may even be harmful if the ph becomes unstable and changes quickly and is just a temporary fix.
ooo and another thing, my cat wont stay away from the tank, keeps jumping on top and stuff. maybe she is scaring the fish to death, stressing them out too much.
Thanks, Dan.
woops, wrong forum? i thought i was in aquarium subforum, not disease subforum.
3 neon tetra
2 dwarf gourami
1 small pleco
1 tiger barb
1 long finned serpae tetra and 1 short finned
3 tetras about size of neon but orange/black near tail
3 of these small silver (tetras?) with a black/yellow dorsal fin and red tail
1 hatchetfish
Equipment:
29 gallon tank
penguin bio-wheel 100 power filter
topfin 50 watt heater(ive read that topfin is a bad choice, maybe ill change)
floating thermometer (currently stays at about 79 F)
fluorescent light
air pump(2 hoses, 1 going to air rock other 2 this lil skeleton dude who moves with air)
rock i put in tank are from rosedale mills, they were for I think landscaping, came in a big bag, like $4 for 50 pounds(looked like same exact thing as the ones in fish dept. but in fish dept 1 pound was $4). i rinsed them off before putting in tank, but not with boiling water.
The ph in my tank is stable up over 8 ph, around 8.4 or so. Ive been using an API freshwater master test kit to test the water. The ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all around 0 so that seems good, but i think the ph is a problem.
I use to have 6 neon tetras in the tank but over the past couple weeks 3 have died. The tank has been up for about a month or so. I do small water changes every week. A couple of the tetras I see with their gills very far open where I can see lots of blood(red on inside) for a long time. Is this some disease, or because of bad water?
Now this is one thing I have not seen mentioned anywhere I read about maintaining aquarium water... I have well water, not tap water from city water lines or something, so there is no chlorine in it since its not treated at a plant or anything, but the water is VERY HARD(lots of calcium/magnesium) and I believe with many heavy metals, and im not sure what other kinds of bad stuff. I have used tap water conditioners that remove chlorine/detoxify heavy metals just in case(kind of stopped using that one tho, since the fish was dieing with that stuff also), but I hope the stuff that removes chlorine isn't harming anything since I have no chlorine in water. I have also tried this "neutral regulator" stuff which is suppose to set ph to 7 and remove ammonia(according to tests from pet store I had ammonia before, but i don't now, so i guess that's fixed) but it doesn't seem like it did anything to ph. I think my hard water has too many buffers and will be very hard to change the ph. I have also read that using those chemicals to try and change ph may even be harmful if the ph becomes unstable and changes quickly and is just a temporary fix.
ooo and another thing, my cat wont stay away from the tank, keeps jumping on top and stuff. maybe she is scaring the fish to death, stressing them out too much.
Thanks, Dan.
woops, wrong forum? i thought i was in aquarium subforum, not disease subforum.