Warning to fishkeepers.

Falkorre

Last night, I dosed my tank with "Nutrafin Particulate Cleaner"..........
*VERY* effective, had a slight algae bloom problem (was getting bad), it made the water crystal clear by next day.
Unfortunately it almost killed my large (an v tough) Oscar, Pleco and 5 scissortails.
I had put just 5mls too much into the 3foot tank, just 5 mls,
Ended up having to do a 50% water change
Iv used it before, exact amount and it is a truly amazing water cleaner but.....

BE VERY VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS PRODUCT, USE THE EXACT AMOUNT IT RECOMMENDS, NOT A ML MORE. :eek:

Sysiphus

Just ne w at this and have a few simple questions....

1) can you rccommend a good book on aquariums.

2) can you have too much filtration? I've been told both yes and no by different shops.

3) white cloud in tank with a small element of floating detrios, Particulate clearer or B-Clear???

4) How much food - about 15 fish, 5 large and rest small (Large - Oranda, Angel, Pleco, Cory Loach) (Small - Glass Cat, Loach, Harlequin, Shark Cat, Scissor tail, Red Tail Shark)


Any assist would be appreciated,

Cheers.

Falkorre

well, as far as the whit cloudiness goes, it totally depends on how long u have the tank set up, if its not been set up long, it could be "new tank syndrome" which is quite simple, very important to cycle the bacteria and will clear in a week or so, best to let it do that naturally.
HOWEVER, if it is a new tank, u shouldnt have any fish in it (never mind that many) for at least 3 weeks after setup!

If its not nts, and ur looking for a particulate clearer, (do not use until the tank is at least 2 months old), then i can recommend the one i mention above *BUT* heed my warning above, even if it takes a while, make sure u know the capacity / measurments of ur tank and use the chart in the box to work out an *exact* doseage, otherwise, it WILL kill ur fish in a matter of 30-60 mins. (There will be no cloudyness to clear if u are running ur tank properly and using test kits to make sure ur ammonia/nitrates levels are correct, and are doing partial water changes every month).

Yes, u can have too much filtration, too much will cause too much aggitation in the water and all fish will be very inactive or struggling not to be taken with the current.
It also means that ur water will take longer to cycle, if u have too much filtration.
Also, u MUST remember to ONLY clean ur filter sponges in actual water taken from ur tank, if u use tapwater to clean the filter sponges u kill all the helpfull bacteria that stop the cloudyness in the tank.

U gotta strange mix of fish there, how many of each do u have, fish like scissortails should only ever be kept in groups of 3+, they are shoal fish and will be hugely stressed if left on their own in a community tank.

food wise, as much as they will eat in 30 seconds, if u use flake food, put in a *SMALL* pinch wait till its gone, (completely), then another small pinch. i find every 2 days is best. Mine do very well on that.

ur pleco will need algae wafers if hes gonna thrive, u need to order them online as they are hard to find in dublin for some reason.

make sure u look up each type of fish u buy on the net *before* u buy it so see if it suits ur tank and you.

hope that helps

B

The_Conductor

Fishy question from me-

I have a 240 litre tank which is quite over grown with a lot of vegetation and also a lot of rocky outcrops for my fish to play in. I have about 8 platties, 6 zebra dannons and one mad algae eater, who seem to be happy enough. As the platties are live bearers, what is the best bet for ensuring that at least a few of the young survive and are not eaten by the others. Vis-a-vis food, I feed them a few pinches once a day- but they eat the vegetation anyway- so its not as though they're hungry.

Also- whats the best method for controlling water snails? I'm loathe to go into chemical warfare with the snails, but they are a little too prolific.....

Thks,

S.

Andrew Duffy

Apparently a lettuce leaf, left in the tank overnight, will emerge covered in them. Since I have a coldwater tank with no live plants I can't vouch for this actually working, but it can't damage your tank's ecosystem like chemicals can.