FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

mattkat1414

New Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2017
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
I have had fish for about 2 years and they usually all died after 6 months. I always got 5 livebearers at a time for a 20 gal tank. Whenever I clean it out, there is a bunch of poop and particles that rise from within the rocks, however my ammonia levels have remained at 0, as well as basically everything else that's harmful. Is it normal for the poop and particles to be there?, or am I not cleaning it correctly. Could somebody please also describe fully what Kh and Gh are because I've never understood. I have asked on this forum before why the fish keep dying off slowly and that I have regulated pH using chemicals, but they say the real trick is regulating kH and gH and that the regulatory chemicals are bad so could somebody clear that up as well. I know I dechlorinate the water properly, as they don't die in the symptoms of chlorine, but usually diseases. The situation isn't completely horrible, as a few have lived for a long time, but I know they die off faster than they should. They usually from dropsy or other diseases, with most of them being them suddenly getting it. However, they don't all puff up with prickly scales when they die like dropsy would cause them to. I don't understand what this is either. I change the water weekly at about 25%. I have also heard people say that the carbon part of the filters are unnecessary because they only filter out antibiotics and I have heard contradicting information about how much to change it and other components of the filter so could somebody clear that up please? Also, what should I do with salt levels. Are livebearers more sensative than other fish and should I maybe switch to tropical fish or another type?
 
Whenever I clean it out, there is a bunch of poop and particles that rise from within the rocks

Get a gravel vacuum..and watch this video


I have regulated pH using chemicals,

This could be the cause of some your problems, trying to adjust PH using chemicals causes more problems than it solves.

I have also heard people say that the carbon part of the filters are unnecessary
That is correct they are unnecessary.

Lets start again.
What is the PH of your water.
Is the water soft or hard? If you do not know this you can get your LFS to test it or you can look it up on your water suppliers web site.

Once we know the PH and hardness we can continue.
 
Could somebody please also describe fully what Kh and Gh are because I've never understood

Water slowly dissolves rock that it flows over (rivers) or sits on (lakes). The dissolved minerals are mainly salts of calcium and magnesium.

GH is general hardness, and is a measure of the amount of calcium and magnesium in our tap water. Lots of calcium and magnesium = hard water, few = soft water. The water where fish come from also has calcium and magnesium. Those fish that originate in soft water will suffer if we keep them in hard water as their organs build up calcium deposits; if we keep fish from water with lots of minerals in soft water, their bodied become depleted in calcium.
We need to know the GH of both our tap water and the water where the fish originated and try to keep only those fish that come from water with a hardness similar to our tap water.

KH is carbonate hardness, a measure of carbonate in our tap water, which also comes from rock.
The natural tendency of a fish tank is to become acidic, that is the pH drops slowly. Carbonate reacts with acid and keep the pH stable. When there is a lot of carbonate in tap water there is far more than is needed to keep the pH stable in our tanks, and this makes it difficult to alter the pH with additives - another reason we should not try to do this if our tap water has high KH. In tap water where there is very low KH, there is not much carbonate so it can all be used up between water changes on our tanks and the pH can drop suddenly. However, weekly 50% water changes are enough to keep the KH topped up and the tank pH stable.
KH doesn't affect fish directly like GH does, but it helps to keep their tank environment stable.

When a water company says 'hardness' they mean GH and 'alkalinity' is their term for KH. UK water companies rarely give alkalinity on their websites, but those in other countries often do give it.
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top