sussexgirl
Fish Crazy
I just discovered this site and wish to goodness that I'd found it sooner. I have an Aqua One 620T aquarium that holds 95 litres. I set it up a month ago, planted it with live plants and left for a week before introducing my first firsh - 6 platties and a tiny baby Mollie (that swam in net by accident at LFS). A week later I added 6 Neon Tetras.
I've monitored my water parametres each Friday and up until now have had a slight amount of amonia in my tank (0.25) yet my nitrite has been at 0 and my nitrate at 10. I visited my local fish store and was told by the guy there that I needed to something to accelerate my filter start up during this early stage and that this would reduce the levels of amonia. He sold me A.B.A -N.1 and I've been adding 2.5ml to my filter daily for the past 6 days. I tested water parametres today and they came out as:
PH 7.6
Amonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 10
So far the fish and plants have thrived. I'm adding API 'Leaf Zone' for my plants once a week and feeding my fish on TetraMin Flake food and a weekly treat of live brine shrimp. I've performed a 25% water change and cleaned my gravel each week since setting up the aquarium.
My main concern is that prior to testing my parametres today I visited the LFS and asked whether it would be wise to add more fish yet to my 6 platties, 1 mollie and 6 Neons. A different chap to before told me that it was fine. I expressed an interest in the Long fish blue german rams and the leopard catfish. He said that either of those would be fine in my tank so long as I floated them in the bags for an hour and kept adding my own tank's water so they could get used to my tanks PH gradually. This I've done and they seem to be ok so far, I have 2 of each. I logged online to see what I could find out about them and have heard that the rams are ultra sensitive and that they benefit from an acidic PH. Obvioulsy with mine at 7.6 I'm slightly worried that I've been ill advised. I'm also wondering now whether I need to buy pellet food for the catfish?
I think the lesson to be learned is to really get to know the ins and outs of what species you're interested in PRIOR to visiting the LFS. I've been told so many different things by different guys working at the same store that I've kind of wondered what advice is right or wrong? Any advice about the Nitrite level, the A.B.A, the cat fish food and the rams/PH level would be greatly appreciated. These fish are such beautiful creatures that I don't want my lack of experience to jeopardise them in any way.
I've monitored my water parametres each Friday and up until now have had a slight amount of amonia in my tank (0.25) yet my nitrite has been at 0 and my nitrate at 10. I visited my local fish store and was told by the guy there that I needed to something to accelerate my filter start up during this early stage and that this would reduce the levels of amonia. He sold me A.B.A -N.1 and I've been adding 2.5ml to my filter daily for the past 6 days. I tested water parametres today and they came out as:
PH 7.6
Amonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 10
So far the fish and plants have thrived. I'm adding API 'Leaf Zone' for my plants once a week and feeding my fish on TetraMin Flake food and a weekly treat of live brine shrimp. I've performed a 25% water change and cleaned my gravel each week since setting up the aquarium.
My main concern is that prior to testing my parametres today I visited the LFS and asked whether it would be wise to add more fish yet to my 6 platties, 1 mollie and 6 Neons. A different chap to before told me that it was fine. I expressed an interest in the Long fish blue german rams and the leopard catfish. He said that either of those would be fine in my tank so long as I floated them in the bags for an hour and kept adding my own tank's water so they could get used to my tanks PH gradually. This I've done and they seem to be ok so far, I have 2 of each. I logged online to see what I could find out about them and have heard that the rams are ultra sensitive and that they benefit from an acidic PH. Obvioulsy with mine at 7.6 I'm slightly worried that I've been ill advised. I'm also wondering now whether I need to buy pellet food for the catfish?
I think the lesson to be learned is to really get to know the ins and outs of what species you're interested in PRIOR to visiting the LFS. I've been told so many different things by different guys working at the same store that I've kind of wondered what advice is right or wrong? Any advice about the Nitrite level, the A.B.A, the cat fish food and the rams/PH level would be greatly appreciated. These fish are such beautiful creatures that I don't want my lack of experience to jeopardise them in any way.
/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/calli...ydora/378_1.PHP
