I live on an island in Greece, 20 days ago i decided after years of dreaming it to buy my first aquarium.
There was an offer at the local petstore so i bought a 500 liter aquarium, with internal filters (2 black boxes that contain thermostat, filtering media, and water pump)
I decorated my tank (plastic plants rocks and driftwood) and i filled it with water. I left it to run for a week and i put in tetra "safe start" (noone told me about the nitrogen cycle at that time so i had only the Ph test) and after that i introduced my first fish in ti (a male betta). My fish was doing great and i was very happy.
After 5 days or so i also bought a pleco for my tank. Both fishies were great. First thing i faced was a bacteria bloom with white cloudy water but it went away after a couple of days.
So i was very happy with my new tank and after a few days i bought 1 Pangasius and a small catfish. Finaly a week or so later i bought my last fishies a clown loach and a bigger catfish.
It was about that time i got informed of what was the nitrogen cycle and i got some test kits.
And here comes my problem. After doing the tests i got the following readings:
Ph 7.5
NO2 0
NO3 50mg/l
NH4 5mg/l
NH3 0.27mg/l
I was very concerned about the ammonia readings so i did a 15% water change.
Next day NH4 was a little bit lower and all other readings were the same.
I tryied to fix something by adding again Tetra "safe start" in my tank to boost my filters biology but that didnt work either i still have the same readings today.
I feed my fishes once every 3 days and i vacum 50% of my gravel every other day.
Water changes are not easy at all for me because my tap water isnt good and i have to bring big amounts of water with my car from far away.
Fish in my tank look very well with apetite and moving around, my pleco has grown a lot since i bought him.
The last week or so i did 2 water changes of 25% but unfortunately my readings are still the same.
I also added sera bio nitrivec to help.......
Fishes still look very well and active!!!
Any help? any suggestions?
Thank you all!!
There was an offer at the local petstore so i bought a 500 liter aquarium, with internal filters (2 black boxes that contain thermostat, filtering media, and water pump)
I decorated my tank (plastic plants rocks and driftwood) and i filled it with water. I left it to run for a week and i put in tetra "safe start" (noone told me about the nitrogen cycle at that time so i had only the Ph test) and after that i introduced my first fish in ti (a male betta). My fish was doing great and i was very happy.
After 5 days or so i also bought a pleco for my tank. Both fishies were great. First thing i faced was a bacteria bloom with white cloudy water but it went away after a couple of days.
So i was very happy with my new tank and after a few days i bought 1 Pangasius and a small catfish. Finaly a week or so later i bought my last fishies a clown loach and a bigger catfish.
It was about that time i got informed of what was the nitrogen cycle and i got some test kits.
And here comes my problem. After doing the tests i got the following readings:
Ph 7.5
NO2 0
NO3 50mg/l
NH4 5mg/l
NH3 0.27mg/l
I was very concerned about the ammonia readings so i did a 15% water change.
Next day NH4 was a little bit lower and all other readings were the same.
I tryied to fix something by adding again Tetra "safe start" in my tank to boost my filters biology but that didnt work either i still have the same readings today.
I feed my fishes once every 3 days and i vacum 50% of my gravel every other day.
Water changes are not easy at all for me because my tap water isnt good and i have to bring big amounts of water with my car from far away.
Fish in my tank look very well with apetite and moving around, my pleco has grown a lot since i bought him.
The last week or so i did 2 water changes of 25% but unfortunately my readings are still the same.
I also added sera bio nitrivec to help.......
Fishes still look very well and active!!!
Any help? any suggestions?
Thank you all!!
