Sal Goes Rio With A Bit Of Vision

[Salam]

ARGH! My first whitespot in the 180 Just seen on my newer rasboras that I got about three weeks back. Big water change today then and better start the treatment

On a good note - I discovered more fry yesterday. Well, one tiny guppy fry was being chased by Stella the swordtail and Poppy the platy. Put it in a breeder trap because it wasn't safe (and those two ladies are just by the trap now waiting for their dinner ). I also managed to catch a couple of the platy fry. They are a bit bigger already, I'd guess two weeks, they haven't been much longer in the tank, but I didn't want the guppy fry to be lonely. Will see if I find any more today.

On that note, will the fry be safe with the white spot treatment? It's the Interpet one, that can be bought at P@H. I used it safely with shrimps before, so are fry ok or what can I do? I got a spare tank, but no filter in it. But with currently only three fry, could I keep them safe by doing daily water changes?

 

[Salam]

I just realized that I can't remove the fry anyway, can I? The whitespot will be free swimming, so they might be also affected. Just hope the little guys will be ok. Waiting for the man to wake up (seriously, it's 9am!) and then I'll force him to help me with the water change so we can start treatment.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Ah, that sucks dude Hope you get it cleared up soon

 

[Salam]

Water change done, treatment in. Here is hoping.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Id drain most of the water out, leave it so the mesh is about 1mm below the water surface, put cling film over the top of the tub so its air tight and then just give it light. The water in the tub will evaporate slightly making the air very humid and keeping the moss moist, it will get tons of CO2 and grow much faster. Your choice tho, I've seen it done on a lot of forums with great success - Borat moment there lol.

 

[Tizer]

white spot....are you still doing daily water changes on this tank? if so, i wouldn't treat it yet, i'd just ramp up the temp to 30 and when you do a water change suck it from the substrate. If no improvement after two weeks then do a treatment. A single white spot wont kill your fish, it really needs to be peppered with them so careful not to jump the gun with treatments.

 

[Salam]

Id drain most of the water out, leave it so the mesh is about 1mm below the water surface, put cling film over the top of the tub so its air tight and then just give it light. The water in the tub will evaporate slightly making the air very humid and keeping the moss moist, it will get tons of CO2 and grow much faster. Your choice tho, I've seen it done on a lot of forums with great success - Borat moment there lol.

Thanks, will do that Simple enough to do and hopefully it will speed up the process.

white spot....are you still doing daily water changes on this tank? if so, i wouldn't treat it yet, i'd just ramp up the temp to 30 and when you do a water change suck it from the substrate. If no improvement after two weeks then do a treatment. A single white spot wont kill your fish, it really needs to be peppered with them so careful not to jump the gun with treatments.

No daily water changes, am now on weekly ones. Checked stats daily though, but thanks to mature media ammonia and nitrite stayed 0. It wasn't just one spot, one of them had quite a few (why didn't I notice? ) and treatment is in now, so will have to go with that.

Another problem I have now is my external filter. I changed the water on the Rio 125 and when I cleaned out the filter I found a neon tetra!!! He was still alive, not much colour left, poor thing was probably so scared. Managed to get him back safely into the tank and he is perking up now, getting colour again. In order to avoid this happening again, what can I put in front of my filter to keep them safe?

 

[Tizer]

Nothing very effective to be honest. Anything sponge like will get gunked up and reduce the flow and mean you've got more to clean. They are normally quite good at not getting sucked up, maybe he was ill to start with and just drifted to it. I wouldnt feel too bad, my Firemouth ate 60 neons over a two week period and i didn't notice until only 15 were left.

 

[Salam]

Looks like your firemouth had a feast, nom nom nom

I wonder if it happened while he was sleeping, they are so numpty when they are in their daze. Yes, my worry is that anything would clog it up and reduce the flow, hence I'm not sure if anything can be done.

 

[Salam]

Hm, interesting revelation today. I must say, I never checked my ph or GH. This morning I run tests on all tanks for ammonia and nitrite (and everything came back to 0 btw ) and I just wondered what the ph and GH were on those tanks. So, filled up jars with water and off I toddled to the nearest LFS. What I expected to see was a ph of around 8 and a high general hardness. What I saw instead was this:

Tap water: ph 7 / GH 10
Rio 125 (Ooomigoomi): ph 7.5 / GH 9
Rio 180 (Mopani wood): ph 7 / GH 8
Vision 260 (Malawi): ph 7.5 / GH 8

My thoughts at the moment are:

I am shocked / surprised that my tap water has a nice average ph and an average hardness. Looking at my kettle, I expected the hardness to be sky high.

I need to somehow raise the GH and ph in the malawi tank. Much more limestone will be added this weekend, will this help?

How come the GH is higher in my tap water than in the tanks, especially the malawi tank with limestone? Doesn't make sense to me.

I can now really consider Bolivian Rams for the Rio 125, as they should be ok in that water. But maybe I can try to lower the ph using peatballs to make it more comfortable. The dwarf gouramis would also appreciate a lower ph. Has anyone used them successfully and can I just add them to the set up now?

Everything else if fine

 

[Tizer]

You will do far better off not piddling around with your water and just settling with what you have, the fish will be fine, most if not all are tank bred and will adjust perfectly A ok.

 

[Salam]

I suppose I'm nicely bang in the middle of everything and most fish should be ok, just wondering if I should try and raise it for the malawis and try and lower it for the gouramis / future rams.


Another question:
I want an algae eater for the Rio 125. At the moment I can only think of Otos and Bristlenose plecs, but I have those already in other tanks and I like variety. Is there anything similar to them, but small enough, to go into that tank?

 

[Biulu]

I would put limestone in for the malawis, but nothing else.
Regarding algae eaters: have you thought about SAEs? Just make sure you get the crossocheilus though and not any fakes.

 

[Salam]

Thanks Biulu

Yes, more limestone is definitely on the cards, picking it up this weekend.

Thanks for the suggestion, I never heard of them but a quick google is making me really excited about them. Sounds good, will see if I can locate any or if my LFS can order them in for me. Do they like being in groups? How many do you suggest?

 

[Salam]

Ah, just read they like being on their own which is fine. So one SAE will manage to keep the algae at bay in my tank? It's starting to look mucky, s/he would have a feast!