6 years a go i bought this125gallon tank and a fluvel pump404, not knowing how to clean this pump or how long i should wait till you clean it, i asked somone at the pet store, this is what tolet me wen u clean ur pump clean it with tap water, and to do it once a month and to make sure tje canaster is clean not knowing any better i did. Ur saposeto trust ppl at the pet store rght wrong. So i cleand my pump, a very harsh lesson lernd, i put every thing back together after 50 min i noticed my oscar was acting wird, my ammonia
Level and nitrte was soooo high the ppl at the pet store toled me tjer isend anuthing u can do besides doing water changes and meds .. i lost all my fish but one red zebra that did 4 years layer and i still have my 2 silverdoolars i hade 10 fish in tuat tank and 3 survied . Wtf i think he did this so i woild havto buy more fish, what could i have done to save the fish? U know it was so bad i was watchimg them deing and i dint know wht to do bc the pet store owner gave me falls info. One by one they got sooo sick, the hade pop eye blody fins, scals falling off ... i rwmber crying bc of this my nf ended up puting a tpwel over the tank and put the fish oit of ther missery bc the med wernt working . I lost my oscar name was milky he was albino 15" if that ever happens again what do u do? This pet store hase closed down now.
A sad story abaut falls info and lack of knowlege
11 posts • Page 1 of 2
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Okiimiru - Posts: 275
- Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:19 pm
You could have saved the fish by performing regular water changes to control the ammonia concentration. If you dechlorinate the incoming water and keep the ammonia around 0.25 ppm or so, the fish won't die and your tank will cycle again in about a month. Adding a living, fully aquatic plant would also have solved the problem, as they preferentially use ammonium to grow. Live plants can actually be used in the place of filter media to remove nitrogen from the water column.
Read this for more info: http://theaquariumwiki.com/Plants_and_B ... Filtration
Read this for more info: http://theaquariumwiki.com/Plants_and_B ... Filtration
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milky648 - Posts: 194
- Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2007 4:41 am
See i didn't know that and my bf feelt so bad im still upset about it to this day he keep saying if was gonna do to many waster changes ill kill them fsater or if i was gonna put them in a hospital tank id kill them faster tjoes where his words but in the end i found out tjat he was a heavy drinker and he just didnt care.
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Okiimiru - Posts: 275
- Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:19 pm
Ah. Well, if you use your feelings of guilt in a constructive way, to learn about how you can prevent the tragedy from happening the next time, then at least your next fish don't have to die that way. Now you know about water changes and plants. Now you can help others to avoid making the same mistake.
My name is Erica, and the reason why I am able to offer you advice is because I've had the same thing happen to me. My fish died, and I was sad, and I read information that helped me to learn how not to kill my next fish. I got new fish, and I used what I'd learned to keep them alive longer. I learned more and more, and now I'm able to help you out. That first batch of fish might have died, yes, but their deaths weren't completely for nothing. You can use your guilt over their death constructively as motivation to gather the tools and information you need to avoid making the same mistake twice. So I know it sucks now that your fish that you really liked died, but at least now you know. If your ammonia is high, buy a live plant. They're cheap on aquabid.com and from plant breeding websites like sweetaquatics.com. Put the plant in the tank with the high ammonia, and provide a nice nutrient rich substrate and full spectrum lights, and within hours the ammonia will be lowered as the plant starts eating it to grow. You can have a nice fish tank. You can provide your fish with a clean, safe environment for them to live long happy lives. It just takes learning about what to do right.
Here are some articles for you to read:
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles_5 ... rticle.htm
http://www.aces.edu/users/davisda/class ... Design.pdf
http://theaquariumwiki.com/Plants_and_B ... Filtration
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilize ... jamie.html
http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/topic/ ... substrate/
http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/topic/ ... t-results/
"Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" by Diana Walstad (a book)
My name is Erica, and the reason why I am able to offer you advice is because I've had the same thing happen to me. My fish died, and I was sad, and I read information that helped me to learn how not to kill my next fish. I got new fish, and I used what I'd learned to keep them alive longer. I learned more and more, and now I'm able to help you out. That first batch of fish might have died, yes, but their deaths weren't completely for nothing. You can use your guilt over their death constructively as motivation to gather the tools and information you need to avoid making the same mistake twice. So I know it sucks now that your fish that you really liked died, but at least now you know. If your ammonia is high, buy a live plant. They're cheap on aquabid.com and from plant breeding websites like sweetaquatics.com. Put the plant in the tank with the high ammonia, and provide a nice nutrient rich substrate and full spectrum lights, and within hours the ammonia will be lowered as the plant starts eating it to grow. You can have a nice fish tank. You can provide your fish with a clean, safe environment for them to live long happy lives. It just takes learning about what to do right.
Here are some articles for you to read:
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles_5 ... rticle.htm
http://www.aces.edu/users/davisda/class ... Design.pdf
http://theaquariumwiki.com/Plants_and_B ... Filtration
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilize ... jamie.html
http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/topic/ ... substrate/
http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/topic/ ... t-results/
"Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" by Diana Walstad (a book)
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milky648 - Posts: 194
- Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2007 4:41 am
Hi my name is nicole, thank that really helps question what do i do if ammona amd nitrit r high, ok ammona i lnow sory nitrit. Ya it was an bad experiance.
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Okiimiru - Posts: 275
- Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:19 pm
Hi Nicole :)
If your ammonia and nitrite are high, just add a plant. The plant will looove to eat the ammonium, and it will be gone within hours. That's what table 2 on this article shows, how long it took the plant to eat the ammonium. http://theaquariumwiki.com/Plants_and_B ... Filtration If you look at it, each entry is like 4.2 hours, 3.9 hours, 4.3 hours to eat the ammonium. That's so much easier than hauling buckets of water around doing water changes. That's why I try to keep at least one or two live plants in every tank I have. They keep the water clean. A tank with a live, growing plant in it will never have a measurable ammonium concentration. It will always be 0 ppm.
The kitty litter link is about helping plants grow. The pea gravel that pet stores recommend for aquariums is just awful for growing plants. I tried several different plant species in pea gravel and they all just died. I didn't know what I was doing wrong, so I read up on substrates, and the solution is to not use gravel. You can use lots of different things. Soil capped with gravel, to keep the look of gravel but also add nutrients. Fluorite(R) by Seachem company, which is really expensive but designed to grow aquarium plants. Or kitty litter, which is cheap and effective. Plants grow very well in any of these non-gravel substrates. In my kitty litter aquarium they get fine, tiny little roots, which is a really good thing and means they're happy.
If your ammonia and nitrite are high, just add a plant. The plant will looove to eat the ammonium, and it will be gone within hours. That's what table 2 on this article shows, how long it took the plant to eat the ammonium. http://theaquariumwiki.com/Plants_and_B ... Filtration If you look at it, each entry is like 4.2 hours, 3.9 hours, 4.3 hours to eat the ammonium. That's so much easier than hauling buckets of water around doing water changes. That's why I try to keep at least one or two live plants in every tank I have. They keep the water clean. A tank with a live, growing plant in it will never have a measurable ammonium concentration. It will always be 0 ppm.
The kitty litter link is about helping plants grow. The pea gravel that pet stores recommend for aquariums is just awful for growing plants. I tried several different plant species in pea gravel and they all just died. I didn't know what I was doing wrong, so I read up on substrates, and the solution is to not use gravel. You can use lots of different things. Soil capped with gravel, to keep the look of gravel but also add nutrients. Fluorite(R) by Seachem company, which is really expensive but designed to grow aquarium plants. Or kitty litter, which is cheap and effective. Plants grow very well in any of these non-gravel substrates. In my kitty litter aquarium they get fine, tiny little roots, which is a really good thing and means they're happy.
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milky648 - Posts: 194
- Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2007 4:41 am
Wow that is need, ya i wish i knew this 6 years ago but noq wirh all this new info it wont happen again, i have african cichlids so ill try keeping 2 plants in my tank.
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Okiimiru - Posts: 275
- Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:19 pm
Certain species of cichlids shred plants for fun. If you can find someone else who keeps your species of cichlids and has experience with plants (which ones work, which get shredded), that might help. Or you could start with an inexpensive plant and see what they do.
That's why a lot of saltwater fishkeepers have to keep refugiums, because their fish would eat the macroalgae that are doing the filtering if they were in the same tank.
That's why a lot of saltwater fishkeepers have to keep refugiums, because their fish would eat the macroalgae that are doing the filtering if they were in the same tank.
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milky648 - Posts: 194
- Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2007 4:41 am
ya i change my mind right now i wont put live plants in there my teaxes will just dig it up,lol right now hes redocorating the tank lol