I received 12 chili raspbora Fry yesterday - I had ordered 4 but they sent 12, but they are all just barely coming out of Fry age. There had been quite a delay because their other Chili Rasboras were showing signs of fin rot so they weren't going to send those, so I really didn't know when to expect them along with some Pleco's I ordered. These Chili Raspboras are 11.99 each - I ordered 4 but they sent 12. All 12 are still alive. I picked this species because they reportedly get along well with Betta and I had one in that 6 gallon tank. When the new fish arrived I realized I really needed to do a water change on the tank - the substrate is large pebbles so I removed those to uncover a HUGE amount of dirt and debris which I quickly suctioned out of there. I replaced the water with fresh declorinated and PH neutralized water (our natural PH is 9.4 which kills off everything so I use a chemical neutralizer to adjust it automatically to 7.0). It works well on my other tanks - with some drifting down due to only having moderate levels of buffering power. Water Hardness i in my tanks are 10.6 making the water moderately hard. KH is 5.3 - a little on the low side. So after I adjust PH I get some drifting down over the course of a week - usually no further than 6.4 to 6.8 - by then it's usually time to do another water change which will bring it back to 7 - which is perfect for all the fish I stock.
Added the Raspbora after a period of temperature acclimation in their bag, as well as dripping in water from the tank into their bag. They did fine. I added them to the aquarium. By this time my Betta is just hanging out in an upper corner of the aquarium. I noticed he seemed terrible stressed from the water change (since he's the only fish in the tank I only do these monthly and it always stresses him out for a day or two). Well this time he died.
I took measurments of the water (this is after a 70% water change and was shocked to discover: Ammonia ,25, Nitrites 2.0, Nitrates at 80 ppm and a pH of 6.8. It occurred to me that this tank never completely cycled, but I had never seen values like this before. So today I did a 50% water change (any more than that and I risked picking up some of the Rasbora fry) and I replaced the water from the cycled tank next to it that currently has perfect water parameters. It seemed to make sense rather than add "from scratch" water - take it from a known perfect source. Well the only parameter that changed was my PH went up to 7 from 6.8 with the first water change. The babies are doing fine, I'm feeding them twice a day but for the life of me I cannot understand why I didn't get SOME drop in NItrites and Nitrates. The Nitrite was is probably what killed the Betta rather than stress, but the Rasbiras all seen to be doing fine.
I'm thinking I should do another 70% water change tomorrow (I'm out of time today) but I simply have no idea why those Nitrites and Nitrates stayed so high after 2 significant water changes. Any ideas? The pebbled bottom on the tank has lots of white stone many of which are now covered in Algae. There is an abundance of snails - but they don't seem to be helping with the Algae situation. With the first water change I removed all the rock because there was a huge pile of dirt on the bottom floor of the tank - so I was able to remove that nearly completely - and I think I must have stirred up some trouble when I did that. It was probably better left alone. But once I removed it - you'd think at least the Nitrates would have dropped considerably even if nothing else changed - no idea where those high numbers are coming from. The tank has a Aquaclear HOB filter with a layer of floss, sponge, carbon and bioballs. - it's perfectly clean and functioning. I also have a thermometer that keeps the water about 78-80 degrees F. It is a 6 gallon tank. I assume all 12 of the Rasbora are still alive - they move too quick to count them!
Any ideas as to what is going on. I'm dreading losing all those Raspora - a small fortune of them, 8 of which were basically gifted to me from the breeder due to the long delay in shipping to ensure I got healthy fish.
Added the Raspbora after a period of temperature acclimation in their bag, as well as dripping in water from the tank into their bag. They did fine. I added them to the aquarium. By this time my Betta is just hanging out in an upper corner of the aquarium. I noticed he seemed terrible stressed from the water change (since he's the only fish in the tank I only do these monthly and it always stresses him out for a day or two). Well this time he died.
I took measurments of the water (this is after a 70% water change and was shocked to discover: Ammonia ,25, Nitrites 2.0, Nitrates at 80 ppm and a pH of 6.8. It occurred to me that this tank never completely cycled, but I had never seen values like this before. So today I did a 50% water change (any more than that and I risked picking up some of the Rasbora fry) and I replaced the water from the cycled tank next to it that currently has perfect water parameters. It seemed to make sense rather than add "from scratch" water - take it from a known perfect source. Well the only parameter that changed was my PH went up to 7 from 6.8 with the first water change. The babies are doing fine, I'm feeding them twice a day but for the life of me I cannot understand why I didn't get SOME drop in NItrites and Nitrates. The Nitrite was is probably what killed the Betta rather than stress, but the Rasbiras all seen to be doing fine.
I'm thinking I should do another 70% water change tomorrow (I'm out of time today) but I simply have no idea why those Nitrites and Nitrates stayed so high after 2 significant water changes. Any ideas? The pebbled bottom on the tank has lots of white stone many of which are now covered in Algae. There is an abundance of snails - but they don't seem to be helping with the Algae situation. With the first water change I removed all the rock because there was a huge pile of dirt on the bottom floor of the tank - so I was able to remove that nearly completely - and I think I must have stirred up some trouble when I did that. It was probably better left alone. But once I removed it - you'd think at least the Nitrates would have dropped considerably even if nothing else changed - no idea where those high numbers are coming from. The tank has a Aquaclear HOB filter with a layer of floss, sponge, carbon and bioballs. - it's perfectly clean and functioning. I also have a thermometer that keeps the water about 78-80 degrees F. It is a 6 gallon tank. I assume all 12 of the Rasbora are still alive - they move too quick to count them!
Any ideas as to what is going on. I'm dreading losing all those Raspora - a small fortune of them, 8 of which were basically gifted to me from the breeder due to the long delay in shipping to ensure I got healthy fish.