Angels Again

[fishme2death]

Well, someone can kick my batooty as I now have 4 new angels. I swore I would not put myself or the fish through this again. I purchased them from a FS about 120 miles from where I live. They looked great in the tank at the store. I am hoping to keep these going. Can someone give me a clue about what changes I need to make to my tank to even make sure that these are survivors.

My parameters: Ph=7.0, Ammonia=0, Nitrites=0, Nitrates=0, Fe=.5, Po4=2.5 (dont know why)

I boil peat at 2 gal intervals and place in a 5 gal bucket. I then filter the peat and add a bubbler and bubble about 2-3 days. When doing replacement water, I replace about 2 1/2 gals of peat water with regular tap water. I do water changes of 15+ gal of tank water about every 3 days. During water changes I clean the gravel and in some spots down into the gravel. (wondering if this may be a problem area). Just want to add that my tap water is well water that is 7.6 and the peat water is about 6.6. This combination has not changed my PH of 7.0 at any time. Dont know if its due to the low amount water changes.

If I need to change something.......anything.......give me clues......I WANNA RAISE angels

 

[Jimthefish]

Water changes every three days? Your fish may be stressed out with the amount of interference in the tank!
You could reduce the pH to about 6.8 by increasing the proportion of peat filtered water you use but I would cut the water changes to 25% every two weeks.
Angels tend to be either tough as old boots or very delicate. It really depends on where your supplier gets them from. Most are artificially raised in the far east so if they do breed expect them to eat the eggs after gaurding them for a few hours at most! The best way to raise them is to have the spawning pair in a dedicated tank and then remove the parents. this avoids taking the eggs out of the water at all. A small air stone placed close to the eggs will ensure they get the fresh oxygenated water that the parents usually provide.