Help For A Novice

[smegforbrains]

ps. I think I am in love with fluffy up there he is truly stunning!!

I think you would have to fight my wife to get him


Bettas really are stunningn - and ADDICTIVE . I only had one about 3 months ago, now we are up to 6 boys and 7 girls (I lost Slippy yesterday morning to columnaris )

 

[alnwick54]

Oh no he was absolutely striking... I have never seen anything quite like these before, my daughter(5) thinks they are magic fish and they are truly lovely, typical hubby just said... nice, how much?... what more can I say!!

Thanks again everyone especially the truly marvelous Miss Wiggle, you really are practically perfect in every way... what would my lovely little girls of done without you all xx

I will keep you all posted when I have some news and the kit arrives.

 

[alnwick54]

Morning all, well the kit has arrived and I have been doing the 10% water change daily as instructed.

Well my tap water is GH60, KH40, PH6.5, NO2 0, NO3 0.

My tank is GH120, KH120, PH6.5, NO2 0, NO3 0

Now that I have been reading, reading, reading... I think part of the problem also is that the aquasafe I was sold... wait for it.. was for goldfish and I wanted to set up for a community tank so again big mistake at the shop.

I have been reading that goldfish like a GH around 180 and a KH around 240 which is much higher than a community tank and I presume Tetra will of made the relevant adjustments to their formula to make it easier for us. Apparently they do a specialist tropical fish aquasafe so lord knows why the shop did not give me this in the first place!!

Obviously I will go at lunch today and get the tropical aquasafe, I have checked and they have it at a pets r us not too far away in durham, stupidly I was trying to support local and look where thats got me... Do I need to pick up anything else or will this sort itself out once I am using the corrrect formulation?

I will keep changing the water daily to.

Thanks again

 

[smegforbrains]

AquaSafe does not alter the hardness of your water. It removes Chlorine and Chloramine (along with any other metallic compounds), that is all.

AquaSafe Goldfish is perfectly fine to use.

 

[waterdrop]

O dear! Lots of things with this post! First, and most confusing, the results there look like readings from a strip kit, not a liquid testing kit. There is no ammonia reading, the most important of all!

Also, I don't expect there would be any difference between Aquasafe labeled for goldfish and that labeled for tropicals. In fact, it looks like Tetra has embarked on a strategy of dividing lots of their liquid products into similar yellow bottles with lots of very "directed" labels, which I take to be a sales technique. I'd be highly doubtful there are any significant differences between their various lablings of conditioner. Its a simple chemical for reacting chloring/chloramine along with what is probably an EDTA chelator to bind heavy metals and then some snake-oil with talk about slime-coats. The only thing that matters, the dechlor, will be the same stuff as ever I believe, and perfectly effective. You should use up what you've already bought and then consider a much cheaper version sold for ponds probably.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[vinylman]

I'm sure someone will have brought this up in another post but - just in case - don't replace your filter media every month. It can be used until it's just about falling apart. Keep an eye on your Neons; one thing the genius at your LFS didn't tell you is that Neons aren't a great choice for a new tank, even when it's finished cycling. Keep on top of water changes and you may get lucky with them. Feeding every other day will be fine for now, too. Glad to hear you had someone with mature filter media, it's the next best thing to fishless cycling. I'm sure you've already guessed this, but don't act on any 'advice' given to you by your LFS. Always come back here first and tell us what they've said. There's always someone online here, and no one wants a single penny of your money. Enjoy your new friends.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes whats the new test kit? is it a liquid based one?

 

[alnwick54]

Sorry my 2 year old is not well so couldn't post recently, my kit is a liquid based one by API but the levels seem to be changing constantly, I have just tested and it's
GH 90 ish best match, KH still 120, PH now risen to 7, No2 risen to 0.5 and No3 risen to 20 ish best match.

The fish are fine and still doing the daily changes, carried on with the goldfish aquasafe as advised... yes see your point thank you.

Q My friend suggested one of those tiny lobsters or a few shrimp to keep the bottom of the tank clean, any good?

 

[OldMan47]

If your nitrites have risen to 0.5 ppm, your water changes have been too small. A one time 50% change is called for to get back down to 0.25 ppm. After that I would step up the changes to 20% daily. That should also help keep the GH and nitrates from growing so much.