New Member and Guppy Concerns

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Personally I would avoid using Stress Coat as it contains aloe vera which will damage the fish's gills over time. I use API Tap Water Conditioner which does not contain aloe vera.
And Tetra Safe Start is a better bacterial starter as it is known to contain the correct species of both bacteria.


It is possible to have zero nitrate in a fully cycled tank, where tap water has zero nitrate and the tank is well planted.
 
It doesn't sound or look like your tank has adequately cycled. The reason I say this is because you said you have only had the tank a little over a month, and your readings indicate a non-cycled tank. You can do all the water changes you like, and your Nitrates will never be zero in a fully cycled tank. Follow the advice of getting a background, and turning off the lights. In addition, I would dose with API Stress coat and API Stress Zyme (cheapest on Amazon), and add two rounded tablespoons of Aquarium salt (Must be Aquarium salt, not table salt). Give it 48 hours, test the water parameters with an API master kit, and do a 50% water change with another dose of stress coat/zyme. Continue until you have Nitrates showing up at the very least of 5ppm and DO NOT Touch your filter for at least two months. Good luck!
It shall be done. I'll let everyone know how it goes.
 
Personally I would avoid using Stress Coat as it contains aloe vera which will damage the fish's gills over time. I use API Tap Water Conditioner which does not contain aloe vera.
And Tetra Safe Start is a better bacterial starter as it is known to contain the correct species of both bacteria.


It is possible to have zero nitrate in a fully cycled tank, where tap water has zero nitrate and the tank is well planted.
I should have been more specific in my zero nitrates statement. It was in reference to her non-planted tank.
Also, I'm curious about your take on aloe vera. I can't find any studies that confirm the claim that aloe is damaging, but I have found plenty that confirms the benefits. Such as this one:
"All tests clearly indicated that within several days, the composition containing the aloe vera extract promoted healing of damaged fish tissue and prevented infection in both fresh and saltwater species of tropical fish, as well as cold-water fish, such as goldfish." https://patents.google.com/patent/US4500510A/en
Please understand I am not invalidating your statement. I am genuinely interested and would like to read about the negative effects discovered through the scientific method. As you know, there is always new things to learn in the hobby. :)
 
I learned about aloe vera from Byron. His post (#57) in this thread is worth reading.
 
I learned about aloe vera from Byron. His post (#57) in this thread is worth reading.
Thanks! That study swayed my understanding of AV in tanks. Thankfully, I have rarely used Stress-coat, but the bottle I have on hand is promptly going in the trash.
 
I wanted to provide a quick update on my Guppy tank. I have taken the advice of many posts on here (for which I thank you all). Since my post, I have installed a light dimmer and timer, set to be on at about 25% power for 6 hours a day. I installed a background (black) on my tank to ease stress. I conducted a water change bc my ammonia levels were a bit elevated at .5, most likely due to the fry dying unfortunately :( and I am 2 days in to an aquarium salt/heat treatment (I do have a bubbler active in the tank for extra oxygenation). The adults behavior has def taken a positive turn. They are still hanging out in the corners of the tank near top but now when I come in the room the will greet me like before waiting for food. They also seem less agitated by human presence. One of the males does have some shredding on his tail, and I have some medicine for fin rot on its way. I will keep everyone posted. I also discovered though an API gh and kh test kit that my water is EXTREMELY hard. Like worse than West Texas water. both measurements were 14 drops PLUS. So in the 214+ range measurement, which is stupid high. Guppies are hard water fish, but idk how they tolerate water at this level. Does anyone have any insight on this?
 
Guppies are very hardy, their perfect range of PH is around 6.8 to 7.8 and GH is around 8-12 but they can easily handle more hardness with out a problem. I have two tanks with guppies. The thing they do have issues with like most fish is sudden and major changes it the water parameters.
 

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