Help, Loads Of Trouble!

[BecciMac1987]

Im having a nightmare...
First of all my heater broke in my community tank and I dont get paid till Friday-will it be ok for this long? Was going to leave the light on 24/7 to help keep it warm, but whats the lowest temp it could drop to before being disasterous?

Secondly, just rescued 2 angel fish and a plec from a neighbour, and they are in a tank with a filter but the medium isnt mature so the tank is uncycled. I cant take medium from any other tank, so have added a filter start and dechlorinator but Im worried anyway. I cant put them in my comm tank as I dont know if they are free from disease etc (tho look healthy).

Any brainwaves?

 

[davefish]

As it's summer you may not need the heater anyway as it's probably warm enough in your house, so probably no need to panic. Has the temperature gone down much since the heater broke?

On the rescued fish in a new tank: you should test the water regularly and do large water changes (20% - 50%) if you see any signs of ammonia and nitrite. It will probably depend on the size of the tank with respect to the fish as to whether they survive. If it's a big tank then you have a decent chance, if it's small compared to them then you could be in trouble. A quarter stocked would be ok. Apart from that all you can do is keep it as clean as possible. Don't let food and debris decay at all, vac it up, and try to underfeed if anything.

Maybe you can find someone on here that can give you some mature media, or perhaps your LFS?

Good luck.

 

[BecciMac1987]

Thanks,
The temp has dropped a bit to 24 celcius so not too worried about that tank.
The new tank is a juwel rekord 70 and has a tiny bn plec, a juvie angel and a large adult angel so defo not overstocked. Would I be ok feeding them every other day? I know its silly but they wont starve or anything?!!

And finally sorry to have to ask- but what should my readings of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates be? All 0?

 

[deucebrennan]

You might be able to help the media by squeezing out some mature media over it so some of the beneficial bacteria starts to colonise. I think its called cloning.

 

[davefish]

24C is fine so no worries there at all. Although you should still get that new heater when you have the money.

Every other day is fine. If you feel better doing it once a day that is ok, just put a bit less in.

Ammonia and nitrite should be zero, nitrates are nowhere near as important, below 40ppm is fine. You might also want to monitor your KH, because if this drops low then you are vulnerable to a pH crash.

 

[BecciMac1987]

OK just tested water, Ammonia and Nitrites are 0, but Nitrates are BAAAAAD, around 80 mg/ltr. What does this mean?

 

[davefish]

OK just tested water, Ammonia and Nitrites are 0, but Nitrates are BAAAAAD, around 80 mg/ltr. What does this mean?

That's a bit of a surprise. If anything it seems like good news as nitrates are the result of the nitrites being processed implying you have things going well! Fish can probably survive with nitrates in the hundreds so no need to panic, but you should do a decent sized water change anyway.
It is possible your tap water may have nitrates in, up to 40ppm, if this is the case then you are obviously never going to get below that value. It's nothing to worry about, but you should test it to see what your baseline value is.

 

[BecciMac1987]

Cool, but I only got the tank today and the fish have been in it for about 5 hours so I wouldnt expect the nitrites and ammonia to have built up yet, I just thought Id test it anyway!

 

[davefish]

Cool, but I only got the tank today and the fish have been in it for about 5 hours so I wouldnt expect the nitrites and ammonia to have built up yet, I just thought Id test it anyway!

Ok. The nitrate reading is a bit surprising. Maybe you have high nitrates in your tap water. I'm not sure where they come from otherwise.