PH Level is really high!
- Thread starter ShadowCorpse
- Start date
I respectfully disagree with this advice. In my experience, there is nothing wrong with doing larger and more frequent water changes as long as the water is properly conditioned and the temperature remains the same. If ammonia is high, why limit to 20% water changes 3x a weeks?
Plants will consume nitrates, but will take up ammonia as a first choice and nitrite as a 2nd choice. Nitrates are the last consumed. There is no harm in adding plants while the tank is cycling.
Plants will consume nitrates, but will take up ammonia as a first choice and nitrite as a 2nd choice. Nitrates are the last consumed. There is no harm in adding plants while the tank is cycling.
That's cool
I keep forgetting I'm on the forums again... I'm used to dealing with customers who either do no water changes (and have to be pushed to do a single one) or their idea of a water change is taking all of the water out (because that'll fix everything, right?), not people who genuinely care. I need to revise my advice accordingly! On that note, I've found that very frequent, very large water changes can be more stressful on the fish, because you are adding such different water (as often an ammonia spike would have altered pH as well, which would be different than tap water, in some cases). I will admit, I was not aware that plants would consume ammonia and nitrite. I'm not huge into the plant world beyond what I've always got!
My personal philosophy is to let cycling tanks be- do your water changes and don't mess with it, since it's such a stressful time for the fish. I was more in the thought process of having one's hands in the tank, messing around with plants in the gravel, was an unnecessary stresser that could wait until the water was more balance. Thanks for the input *thumbsups
Plants actually must work harder to convert nitrate to nitrite to ammonia, to consume the ammonia. They use up stored energy (sugars) to do this. They do the opposite of the beneficial bacteria, but actually a better result.
I kept a planted tank (one of 8 that I had to take down to move this past March). It was a 29 gallon tank, heavily planted, and housed oringinally 18 fish (later almost 30 due to breeding). In three years, I NEVER had a nitrate reading over 10. In fact, I had to ADD nitrate to the tank to feed the plants the nitrogen they need for growth.
I kept a planted tank (one of 8 that I had to take down to move this past March). It was a 29 gallon tank, heavily planted, and housed oringinally 18 fish (later almost 30 due to breeding). In three years, I NEVER had a nitrate reading over 10. In fact, I had to ADD nitrate to the tank to feed the plants the nitrogen they need for growth.
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Update: I Came home today to the other GloFish dead. I vacuumed the tank after i removed the dead fish to be sure no ich remains. I now have 1 Dwarf Gourami and i'm going to keep the temp in the low 80's for the next day to make sure it doesn't get the ich. My Gourami seems to be doing really good, also a very happy and curious fish, yet shy when i come to the tank it hides.
Oh man, i just found my betta on my floor dead, after i couldn't find it in the tank. I didn't know they could jump far. I had a lid on the tank but it only has a couple small holes and i didn't think that was enough air for it so i only kept the lid partially on. I guess i will have to get a bigger tank when i get another one. He was a really cool betta too, very active and i felt a tight bond even though he couldn't talk back to me. R.I.P Little Blue