160Ltr Noobie

[Plasticfantastic]

Hi all,

Im pretty new here and to tropical fish, but i thought id share my tank and hopefully gain a little experience with some comments from you all along the way.

Around 3 months ago i was offered a second hand tank by a friend who knew i wanted one. I was told it was 4ft and came with fish and that was all we were told. When we arrived to collect i wasnt sure if i had bought a fish tank or a science exeriment.It was only about half full, deep yellow water that was black and thick on the bottom 2 inches with rotten wood, I couldnt even see the fish.

A long day was had getting it home and cleaned while the 2 fish sat in a bucket waiting for their home to be cleaned. After a bit of research it turned out we had a yo-yo loach, who lasted around a month then suddenly died but i think it waqs age, and a 9 year old 7-8 inch featherfin catfish. We brought home buckets full of the original water which filled it about 25% and left the filter media in, and this all seemed to go well and the tank has now been running for 3 months. The catfish was very unhappy when we first had him but now he is very happy (and chubby), he spens most of his time upside down lying on my plants!

I have since added to my stock levels and it now stands at:

1 featherfin catfish, 7-8 inches
2 sailfin pleco's, about 2 inches long
1 silver shark, 5-6 inches
3 angel fish, biggest about 1.5 inches
5 tiger barbs, .5 inches each
2 giant danios, 1.5 inches

I also bought a shoal of 20 noens last week when i bought the tiger barbs, but when i turned the light on my bala shark had eaten 11 in 2 hours, i now only have 4 left which i doubt will see morning! How far from being fully stocked am i? I plan to set up a large 8x3x2 tank within 2 years so big fish will be moved to there. Would another catfish be happy in my tank? or any other suggestions?

The tank came with a fluval plus4 that seems to be plenty big enough for the 160ltr tank. The filter foams seem to be ancient so i have a new pack that i plan to do tomorrow, should i just do 1 first so i dont upset the bacteria then do the other a week later? or can i do both? i also have some carbon inserts that i hope will take the yelloy tinge out of the water.

So far i have only done a PH test and it came out at 7.6 but i bought a nitrate test kit today.

Heres a few pictures of how its looking so far.... Apologies for the blurry ones.

Any comments good or bad always welcome

Cheers

 

[Plasticfantastic]

Hi all,

Small update, and could do with some advice.

The black angel fish pictured above is now in quarantine and being treated with anti velvet. Yesterday i noticed a white cobweb like fungus on his side. He had fin rot about 6 weeks ago which he recovered from but never fully. He was always happy and swimming around the tank and always came for food and ate well, but he never gained weight and his body always looked sunken in. The 2 smaller angel fish seem in really good condition and growing well.

I bought 2 bigger angel fish on the weekend (before the above infection) 1 white, orange and black mottled (koy?) Angel, and one silver with black stripes.The biggest with the black stripes doesnt seem very happy in my tank and has taken to hiding and only swims around occasionally. I also havent seen her stripes since she got home, she's totally pale. Could this be just stress from the move? Her stripes were very vivid in the shop and they came from a very busy tank, with mine being quieter.

I tested my water before adding the big angels and the PH was 6.8 and the Nitrite was 2ppm. I cant do anyother tests but i should have a full test kit by midweek.

Any help or advice people can give would be much appreciated.

Cheers

 

[fluttermoth]

A nitrite level of 2ppm is extremely toxic, and you must do at least one, very large water change ASAP. Drain the tank down so the fish have just enough room to swim upright, refill and retest.

I don't want to sound harsh, but I'm afraid your stocking is pretty awful.

The sailfin plecs grow to about two feet long
The bala shark will grow to 12 or 14" and needs to be kept in a shoal of at least six
The danios and tigers also need shoals of at least six, and tigers should not be kept with angels, at all; even in a large shoal they'll find the angel's fins irresistable.

Sorry to be such a killjoy

 

[Plasticfantastic]

Bad news all round then

I'll address the stocking problem later and sort the water problem first. I just tested it again and its stil 2ppm, so im going to start changing the water now.

Thanks for your help

 

[fluttermoth]

You're very welcome, best of luck.

 

[Plasticfantastic]

Quick question, would 6 young bala sharks be happy in a 5x1x1 for about 2 years or would they need more space?

Thanks again

 

[fluttermoth]

I'd say not; fish, like people, do the majority of their growing when they're young and then slow down. I'd expect them to be hitting 6 or 7" within a year and a foot wide tank wouldn't give them much turning space.

 

[Plasticfantastic]

Just done a water change as big as possible, probably about 60%, should i do the same tomorrow until i get the nitrates down? how often can i water change until its better? is there anything else i can do to help?


Any help much appreciated

 

[Plasticfantastic]

Quick update, the big striped angel is now swimming around alot more, still no stripes though.

 

[Plasticfantastic]

I did another 60% water change last night, i tested the water this morning and the nitrite level is now down to .5ppm. I'm just about to do another water change, and i plan to do one this afternoon and again this evening. This will hopefully bring it under .1ppm and should hopefully be a little safer for my fish?

Is it now likely that i will have to do daily water changes or do i just keep doing the tests and see what changes? Sorry for all the questions, just a little unsure of what to do

Any help appreciated

 

[fluttermoth]

I think you need to do bigger changes; eaglesaquarium summed the reason up in this post, which I can't better, so i'll repost his. He's talking about ammonia, but the exactly the same is true of nitrite;

Keep up with the water changes... more is always BETTER. Do as big as you possibly can, as described above. Take your time putting the water back in. Dechlorinated and temp matched water as close as you can. The fish can survive this, you just need to stay after it. It is going to take some time. Ultimately, the bigger the water changes you do, the more time you will have between them. Consider this:


Your ammonia is at 1ppm. Doing a 90+% water change will lower the level to under 0.10ppm (not great, but certainly not bad).


On the other hand, if you only do a 50% water change, the ammonia lowers to 0.50ppm (still lethal). So, you do another one, which lowers it to 0.25ppm (still a problem). So you do another and the ammonia is now 0.125ppm (which is ok, but not as good as it could be).

So, you would have to do nearly 1.5x the amount of water volume change, to get a less desirable effect. It will also take MUCH longer, at least twice as long, if not more to do it. Which means that your fish will spend that much more time in ammonia levels that are far too high.


In other words, always do LARGE water changes while you are in a fish-in cycle. The lower you keep the levels the better for your fish. And the better chance the bacteria can handle the load.

 

[Plasticfantastic]

It makes perfect sense, and i tried to remove as much as i could before the fish got too spooked. I have just done the third change today but havent tested it yet, i'll probably do it again in a couple of hours but need to get more tap safe first.

thanks again

 

[Plasticfantastic]

Just tested the water and the nitrites have now dropped to .25ppm, hopefully a couple more water changes today should have it pretty close.

 

[fluttermoth]

That's much better; you'll get there

 

[colleen0309]

Fluttermoth is right, you need to do as many water changes as possible to keep the nitrite down. Anything above 0.25ppm is lethal. She's also spot on about the stocking. Welcome to the forum! We will help you get it all straightened out.