Recent content by stewarth

OK - i'm home & the tank has cleared completely! BUT - another Gourami (been in the tank 1 week) has perished. The water readings were: Ammonia ~ 0.4 mg/l Nitrite 0mg/l Nitrate ~12 mg/l The ammonia is a little higher than i've seen it before - but its not huge?

All i can think of is water changes to remove / dilute the ammonia. you can get filter-start products but i dont know how beneficial they are or whether they would do the trick.

Did the fish go straight in as soon as you bought the tank or after it was cycled? could be that the levels of ammonia / nitrite have just reached the level where they're toxic but not enough bacteria has been produced to eat it up. Fish shops will usually test your water for you so you can...

By "lowest reading on kit" i dont mean '0ppm' nitrates, just that i cant remember the actual ppm reading but it was at the bottom of the colour chart. i suspect that this means 0 - something. i'll check the chart this evening & post the actual ppm readings. NitrIte reading was 0ppm - in fact...

I'm only a new aquarium keeper myself - but presumably gravel has a certain bacteria content, could it be that you've lost a lot of your bacteria by changing it & tank has gone out of balance? I remember when i was setting up my tank i read that you could hang some old tights (!) full of used...

OK - thanks, i'll bear that in mind. I do have a kit & i've never seen the ammonia level above the minimum reading - maybe its not measuring properly but that would be odd. I'll test again this evening. I'll also see if i can take a water sample to the local fish shop & get them to test it.

Cleaned both filter pads - is that wrong? i thought as long as i did it in aqaurium water then it wouldnt affect the bacteria colony?

Hi, This is the second time this has happened & although there were no bad after-effects last time (that i could see) i'd like to know what's going on. On Saturday morning the tank has suddenly gone really cloudy - not green. Also the fish are up at the surface gasping for air. I tested the...