A Few Guppy Questions

[candice]

Hi everyone, I know you must be getting tired of my endless questions by now. But here I go with some more anyway... Okay I have a 5 gal acryllic tank. ph seems exceptionally high (from what i've learned) at 8.0. Ammonia is still 6!!!! I had some initial problems with my tank and lost some fish due to lack of knowledge and bad water conditions. Got myself a API testing kit and the tank finally cycled and things evened out nicely. I have been doing 40% water changes every/every other day for over two weeks now. The ammonia drops by half each time I do this but by the next day it is back to where it started. Anyway, nitrites are 0. Nitrates are 5. My tank is somewhat overstocked I believe but I have purchased a ten gal. and stand and I am waiting on it to be delivered. I have one male guppy and 4 females. (3 of these are very young guppies) Also, two albino corys. Please be kind as I have said I do think the tank is overstocked and am working to correct that. Also I have some floating live plants (sorry I dont know the type) and last night replaced an existing ornaments with another cave type structure that also has some attached fake plants.

So anyway, my questions are as follows.

1. Should I be concerned about the pH? 2. What else can I do to lower the ammonia? 3. I also bought new filters last night thinking maybe that would help. But I am not sure how to switch them. Will doing so kill all of the beneficial bacterial in my tank? 4. One of my very young females has a very mild skin wound on her back towards her back fin. She seems to be showing absolutely no symptoms thus far (she is eating well and active, social with other fish) but I would like to treat her for it before it does become serious. I have stress coat and melafix handy. But as you can imagine with this being such a small tank, I have no place to isolate her for treatment.

Any and all help will be appreciated. Also, I don't know if this makes any difference but the fish are getting a varied diet of tropical flakes, freeze dried blood worms, cichlid pellets and peas. I am feeding small amounts and skipping 1-2 days per week to try to help the ammonia issue. Thanks again for any advice.

 

[mesapod]

I have heard that guppies sometimes like hard water and i don't think if you switch the filters if it will kill the bacteria and maybe you should treat that fish with a little salt.

 

[theotheragentm]

Egads! Water change now! The ammonia level should be at 0 along with nitrite! Change water now!

When changing filters, take the filter media from the old filter and cram it into the new filter. Leave it in there for a week. That will help seed it. As long as you are not changing the substrate, you will have the beneficial bacteria there.

 

[omen666]

For guppies your ph should be at 6.5 -7.0 , tonic salt needs to be added to your water as well. Mine thrive off it. Ammonia should be at 0 even at 0.5 your guppies won't like it.

And def put the guppies into your bigger tank. The overcrowding is causing you the problem. Do you over feed? If so this could also be causing it.

 

[theotheragentm]

Salt is not necessary. A little bit of aquarium salt may be used for a sick tank, but it is not really recommended for general aquarium use. They can get used to it, which brings me to my next point. Guppies do have an optimal pH level but it's quite a large range from 5.5 - 8.0. Stable pH is more important than the level of the pH, assuming you are not talking about extremes. 8.0 is an okay level.

Clean, stable water is most important. If you have ammonia that high still, change your water. If you have the strip tests, get rid of them. They are highly inaccurate. Get a liquid test kit like AP Master Test Kit to test your water. It is slightly inaccurate on the low end of nitrates (20 PPM), but that is okay as levels up to 40 PPM are still manageable. It's ammonia and nitrite that are going to be killers in any amounts. Ammonia reading sometimes come out because of chloramine levels in the water, but you should be removing that with a water conditerion like Prime that removes chlorine and chloramine.

If you have any questions, please ask. Good luck.

 

[Rhiannon]

I dont use salt in my tank, and I have guppies and guppy fry, but this is because I have a bristlenose and was recommended to not have salt with it.

So if you add salt, make sure all of the fish breeds in their CAN handle it.

 

[MHunt]

I agree about the pH, guppies are generally hardy enough to accept a wide range of ph's. Mine are quite happy in my tank which is about 6.4. Stability is more important than a specific figure, even with delicate species they can adapt, slowly! I would also not bother with salt, especially in such a small tank, it's too easy to overdose which would kill the fish quite quickly.

If your ammonia is at 6, you should do a large water change today, test again tomorrow and do a water change if it is above 0, and keep going until it stays at 0.

How many fish do you have in the 5 gal tank? I would say at an absolute max, 5 guppies only, Nothing else. Any more and you will get problems associated with overstocking such as constantly high levels of ammonia etc, which again, as hardy as guppies are, it will kill them! Overfeeding won't help, especially with guppies as they are so small, feed little amounts and often. Ideally three small meals, or just twice will be fine.

 

[candice]

Hey thanks so much everyone for your replies. I am getting ready to test and do my water change right now. I can't wait to get my larger tank!!! Maybe I can get it out here this weekend. Also, anyone have any thoughts on treating the wound on my female guppies back? Like I said she doesn't seem to be bothered by it at all but I know that won't last long. I have Melafix but am unsure if it will harm the rest of my tank. As I said I don't have a hospital tank yet as this is what the 5 gal will be used for when I get the bigger tank. Thanks again!

 

[theotheragentm]

There are medicines to fight infections, but I don't think medicating the whole tank is a good idea. I try not to use medications at all, but for something like a wound I would use some anti-infection medicine. I try to separate sick fish out with a tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water and raise the temperature a little bit to about 80 degrees. This helps the healing process.

 

[candice]

Okay here's the latest... I just did a water change (about 60%) and the ammonia is now testing at 2. I am going to hold off on feeding them at least through tomorrow. Going to pick up my larger tank tomorrow or Thursday.

 

[theotheragentm]

Do another water change right away. Your level should be 0.