superjonboy
New Member
Hello. I'm relatively new to tropical fish keeping.
I have a Juwel Rio 125 which I set up and cycled and has been looking perfect.
I'm generally good with water changes and general cleaning/maintenance, and test my water regularly.
Since the initial fluctuations during the cycling the readings from my tests have been great. They seem to stay identical apart from the nitrate which sometimes builds up to about 50, but this is soon rectified with a partial water change.
The problem i'm having is with Algae and a couple of fish deaths.
The algae seems to be building steadily regardless of the algae removal treatment I add. It's ok on the glass as I can clean it, but the substrate (medium gravel) gets quite green and also a little on plants.
The fish death is 2 female guppies. No signs of distress, literally just walked in one morning and one was laying dead on the bottom. Then about a week later the same thing with another guppy.
I thought I was doing most things ok, so was obviously disheartened, not to mention sad that a couple of fish had died.
I read somewhere that using Carbon in freshwater aquariums should be avoided unless you know exactly what it's there for e.t.c
The Juwel Rio filter media has 2 fine sponges(bottom), 2 coarse sponges, 1 carbon sponge and then a thin layer of filter wool at the very top.
I'm basically after any help surrounding the algae and fish deaths and if I should remove the Carbon sponge. (I change this sponge every 4 weeks).
John.
I have a Juwel Rio 125 which I set up and cycled and has been looking perfect.
I'm generally good with water changes and general cleaning/maintenance, and test my water regularly.
Since the initial fluctuations during the cycling the readings from my tests have been great. They seem to stay identical apart from the nitrate which sometimes builds up to about 50, but this is soon rectified with a partial water change.
The problem i'm having is with Algae and a couple of fish deaths.
The algae seems to be building steadily regardless of the algae removal treatment I add. It's ok on the glass as I can clean it, but the substrate (medium gravel) gets quite green and also a little on plants.
The fish death is 2 female guppies. No signs of distress, literally just walked in one morning and one was laying dead on the bottom. Then about a week later the same thing with another guppy.
I thought I was doing most things ok, so was obviously disheartened, not to mention sad that a couple of fish had died.
I read somewhere that using Carbon in freshwater aquariums should be avoided unless you know exactly what it's there for e.t.c
The Juwel Rio filter media has 2 fine sponges(bottom), 2 coarse sponges, 1 carbon sponge and then a thin layer of filter wool at the very top.
I'm basically after any help surrounding the algae and fish deaths and if I should remove the Carbon sponge. (I change this sponge every 4 weeks).
John.