aquarium salt

[finfayce]

hi
i have a 20 gallon long tank. all guppies and one large one small pleco, 3 albino cory catfish,and
2 algae eaters. i bought a new
API freshwater water testing kit. all of my levels were good except for nitrites. they were at .225 ppm.
i did a water change right away. added Quick Start.
i read aquarium salt can help with high nitrite levels. i bought some but haven’t used it yet. i wanted to get an opinion from all of you.

 

[Byron]

Salt can help with nitrite because of what it does to fish, but there are better and safer means. Quick Start will help.

How long has this tank been running? How did you cycle it (or do you have live plants)? What is the schedule and volume of water changes?

You may have a stocking issue...what species are the "algae eater" fish?

 

[finfayce]

Salt can help with nitrite because of what it does to fish, but there are better and safer means. Quick Start will help.

How long has this tank been running? How did you cycle it (or do you have live plants)? What is the schedule and volume of water changes?

You may have a stocking issue...what species are the "algae eater" fish?

 

[finfayce]

hi Byron
my tank has been running about 1 1/2 years. it was a 20 gallon high and now in 20 long. same filter and plants and an additional filter in the 20 long.wiyhin the last 2 weeks i added a baby albino pleco, 3 albino catfish. i already had a 4” pleco. the algae eaters are about 2 months in the tank. i have floating live hornwort stems plastic floating and weighted in the bottom of tank. last night i added 6 Marimo moss balls in different sizes. not to brag but the algae eaters didn’t have anything on the sides of the glass. even though i do water changes about every 10 days and right away if the fish looked stressed,i still get a smelly tank. i have cut back on amounts of food. now i have the test kit and will do water changes immediately if a level isn’t right.
there must be 20-25 guppies of different ages and now more males than females. i used to see fry every week, but none for a couple weeks.

 

[finfayce]

also i have a Cascade 600 and a Cascade 400 for filtration in a 20 long.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Plecos and cats won’t tolerate salt well. My pleco went
nuts at 1/2 dose of salt. Do it slowly.

 

[Byron]

Given the info, I would have to question the nitrite reading. Are you sure it is accurate?



'algae eater" can refer to many species, do you know just what these are? Otos, chinese algae eater, siamese algae eater, ... ?

You need to increase the water changes. Plecos have a high impact on the bioload, and this is just a 20g tank. No less than 60% of the tank volume, and once every week on the same day of the week so you get in a habit and it will be more effective.

 

[finfayce]

thanks
i did all the tests twice last night. i forgot to say i am losing a guppy about one a week. different ages/sizes

 

[finfayce]

thanks
i did all the tests twice last night. i forgot to say i am losing a guppy about one a week. different ages/sizes

sorry i don’t recall species of my algae eaters. they are slim and the color of a silver minnow at Petco

 

[Naughts]

Can you post a picture of the algae eater?

I recently moved one tank to another with fish and filter sponges and I added most of the old substrate to the new filter. I too saw nitrite one day and did a water change. I have not had nitrite since. It was just a small blip as the new tanks bb caught up. Hopefully it is the same for you.

 

[Naughts]

thanks
i did all the tests twice last night. i forgot to say i am losing a guppy about one a week. different ages/sizes

What is the GH?

 

[finfayce]

Can you post a picture of the algae eater?

I recently moved one tank to another with fish and filter sponges and I added most of the old substrate to the new filter. I too saw nitrite one day and did a water change. I have not had nitrite since. It was just a small blip as the new tanks bb caught up. Hopefully it is the same for you.

thanks. i may have trouble taking a picture of my algae eaters. they are usually hiding and swim quickly. i can check with Petco to find the name.

 

[Naughts]

What is the GH?

It's general hardness of the water relating to the amount of dissolved minerals like calcium and magnesium. It is measured in PPM (parts per million) or dH (° / degrees hardness).
If you not have tests for this you can go on your water suppliers website and find their water quality report, post it here for help interpreting the result.
It should also show KH which is the carbonate hardness of the water.
Guppies need hard water so we need to check if this is a contributing factor in them dying.

 

[Naughts]

thanks. i may have trouble taking a picture of my algae eaters. they are usually hiding and swim quickly. i can check with Petco to find the name.

Ok, or look at images on "Seriously Fish" etc to compare with yours.

 

[finfayce]

It's general hardness of the water relating to the amount of dissolved minerals like calcium and magnesium. It is measured in PPM (parts per million) or dH (° / degrees hardness).
If you not have tests for this you can go on your water suppliers website and find their water quality report, post it here for help interpreting the result.
It should also show KH which is the carbonate hardness of the water.
Guppies need hard water so we need to check if this is a contributing factor in them dying.

thank you i will find the GH for our water. it’s not soft i’m pretty sure, but i’ll get the number. thank you very much.