Hello, Help And Question!

[spidergravy]

Hi guys, I'm new here and I don't seem to be able to start a topic and ask a question anywhere else, so I'd appreciate it if someone could move this to the right place.

I have had my tank for about 5 years. It's a rekord 120 and things seem to be going well (my fish don't get sick, they don't often die - appart from my glass catfish - and no-one sems to be eating anyone else), but after reading so much of this forum, it seems that the way I've been doing things isn't really they way I'm meant to. I want to learn and I want to help my feeeshies as much as possible, so, can you help me?

I change my water, about 25% max every 4-6 weeks. Is it necessary to change it every week?
I feed my fishes every few days, although I try to do it more often. Do I need to feed them three times a day like it says on the box?
I change the white jewel filter every week or so, the black carbon filter every 5 weeks (when the box of white filters is empty) and rarely touch the others. How often would you recommend I change the other filters? I read something about not actually replacing the blue coarse and fine filters, just washing them out in tank water and putting them back in again. Is this good advice? Also, whenever I change my water I hoover the gravel with the syphon. Is this a good idea?

Please don't judge my lax fish-keeping habits - I want to change my ways!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hiya and welcome to TFF.

so long as your here to take advice ad learn then your doing the right thing so don't worry!

how often you need to do maintenance and how much depends on a lot of factors, can you tell us what fish and how many you have in your tank, and what your water stats for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are

 

[spidergravy]

Right, I have a biiiiig plec, about 12 inches long. Very cute. He's called Slurper. I have two little red dwarf gourami, three guppies, two platties, three orange tetra, six green neons, a red-tailed black shark, two rummy-nosed tetra and a boy and girl siamese fighting fish.

My nitrates are on zero, my nitrites are about 5mg/l on one test that goes up to 10 (Tetra test sticks) and 0 on a liquid test that goes up to 5 by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. The ammonia is 0.5mg/l and the pH is 7.2.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ok if i'm right the tank is 120l, that's nearly 33 us gallons.

so you need to aim for 33" of fish, you have at present

Right, I have a biiiiig plec, about 12 inches long. - 12"
I have two little red dwarf gourami, - 4"
three guppies, - 3"
two platties, - 4"
three orange tetra, - 3"
six green neons, - 6"
a red-tailed black shark, - 6"
two rummy-nosed tetra - 2"
boy and girl siamese fighting fish - 4"

so you've about a third too many fish in there, plus some incompatible fish and some fish in the wrong numbers.

is it just the standard juwel filter? sorry to be the bearer of such bad news but they're really not much cop and certainly not good enough for that amount of fish. The readings of ammonia and nitrite confirm that the filter isn't working properly. I also think your changing too much media too often which means your reducing the filters chance of coping.

in all honesty you need a better filter and to get rid of some of your fish, I'd start with the plec he's way too big for that tank, a 12" plec needs a 4'x2'x2' tank minimum

 

[spidergravy]

Thank you Miss Wiggle, this is the sort of info I realy need!

So:

1) What is wrong with ammonia and nitrites being low?

2) What sort of better filter would you recommend?

3) Which fish are in the wrong numbers and incompatible, just so I know for the future

4) What do you mean by changing too much media too often? I was afraid I wasn't changing anything enough!

Also, I'd like to get a bigger tank next month and I need a recommendation for a make - I'm looking at about a 48 gallon (180l) tank so that there's room for biiiig plec. Would you recommend a juwel tank? Would an external filter thingy be better?