butters

So I've been doubling up on the water conditioner for now and I don't seem to be getting anymore cloudy water. I will still buy the prime next time around. I'm pretty sure you guys are right with the bioload as well. I'm in definite need of a new tank and filter sometime soon, my fish are getting pretty big for this tank.

I had a good visual of it too and laughed my @$$ off! haha! Where would I find lily pads? I've tried looking for them before and had no luck.

So my Piranhas keep jumping out of the tank when they get startled. Considering I am selling my apartment, the last thing I need is one of them to jump out when the agent is walking around with a potential buyer haha. Does anyone know where I can buy some plexiglass and get it custom cut as well. Or do any of you have any other lid suggestions?

Some information, thanks! Actually I'm not doing anything to lower my PH. I just tested some straight out of the tap water and it is definitely 7.8, and then I just tested my tank again and it's about 6.4 to 6.6 now. I don't have any drift wood or anything either in my tank. I did forget to mention that I do have a Aquaclear 70 on the tank as well, with the regular media in it plus an ammonia filter bag which I forget what it's called, it's the one where you are suppose to "recharge" it with saltwater or something or other, except I have never "recharged" it and just left it in there.

Thanks for all the responses people. I've had this tank running for over a year now with fish. I did go through a complete cycle for 6 weeks before I put fish in. The cloudiness is noticable as soon as I put the water in, and eventually goes away a few hours later. Water parameters are currently reading.. 6.6 to 6.8 pH, Ammonia is a 0 now but it was about 1-2.0 earlier, Nitrites are reading 0, and Nitrates look to be about 1.0. I use the Big Al's Multi-Purpose stuff. I have a Eheim 2213, and honestly I don't clean it very often at all. It's in a 55 gallon tank. I think you guys may be right, this is the first time I have used this particular water conditioner, and I don't remember the water going cloudy when I was using different stuff before.

So the last few times I've done water changes the water goes a little whiteish/cloudy, and I noticed the ammonia levels spike briefly and the fish gasp at the surface for a while. I'm changing about 40 percent of the water, I use the proper amount of water conditioner, and I make sure the temperature is the same. I've tried to do some research and I can't figure out what is causing this?

Yeah the eye thing is weird, they are even still slightly popped out.

So I moved this past week and I had to move my Piranhas, Cichlids, and Pleco. They were in a couple of decently sized buckets for about 6 hours before I had them back in the tank again. When I did put them back in though the fish were almost completely white in color, all of them. The Pleco looked like a Zebra! Plus the Piranhas eyes were puffed out big time. As of now they have got all their color back but the Piranhas seem to still have slightly puffed eyes. Is this normal for fish to turn color in a dark stressful situation? I have no idea.

I guess I spoke too soon as well. The last week or so one of the Black Belts was constantly chasing the P's around. Today I was watching TV and noticed all 3 P's chasing the Black Belt around now very aggressively, when I checked up on it a little bit later now the Black Belt has a mangled face and sitting by himself in the corner. -roll- And as for getting bitten, I normally stick my hands in the tank with no problems, I am obviously very cautious and I make sure to push them to the opposite side of the tank that I'm working on. But they are starting to get pretty big so I don't think I'll be taking the risk much longer.

15 red bellies in a 33 gallon tank! Even if they were babies, no wonder they ate each other haha.

It is 55 gallons for right now. I'm not even sure if they are male and female, is there an easy way to tell?

So I have two black belt cichlids with my three Red Bellies right now. I originally got the cichlids as food when they were really small (i know, i know). But the P's wouldn't have them as food obviously because they are still there. So now these cichlids have grown dramatically in the past few months, they were no where near the size of the P's but now they are getting close. One of the cichlids is very agressive, he chases around everyone in the tank. The P's have nipped their tails a couple times but that's about it, they don't normally chase them around or anything. So, basically my question is will I have trouble in the near future with the cichlids if they become the same size or bigger than my Piranhas? I'm only worried about the Piranhas really.

So I was in Big Al's yesterday and I noticed they have some Freshwater Barracuda's now. Don't these things grow to insanely big sizes?

So one of my black belt cichlids has a somewhat transparent gel goopy looking stuff directly on one of his eyes, I don't think this is good, anybody have any idea what this is and how to treat it?

An update on my red bellies. I've had them for uhhh... about 3 months now I guess, they are now almost 5 inches big amazingly. I got them when they were probably 1 inch or so. I'm amazed at how fast they grew. My pleco is still living large in the tank and still chases them, he has had a couple fins nipped but they have grown back fine. The one P I have with one eye which I call "popeye" always gets picked on, his fins are pretty beat up most of the time. He is hilarious though, he can't see the food most of the time and he swims at an angle hahah. They ate all the guppies I had, except one, plus the guppies had babies before they got eaten so now I got about 4 more small ones once again. I introduced some very small minnow feeder fish about a month ago and they are still alive, I believe because the P's can't catch them yet. The most interesting thing to me is that I decided to buy some larger feeder fish for them for the first time. I saw some black belt cichlids that are about 2-3 inches and they were on sale for cheap so I got two of them. I threw them in the tank and Piranhas were chasing them quite a lot, but when it came down to it they would hesitate. They pretty much ate both of their tail fins, but that's about it. Now the last couple of days it's the black belts that are chasing the Piranhas, I don't get it! lol

I keep my red bellies with a pleco and some guppies. The pleco is much bigger than them and they leave him alone for the most part, in fact the pleco chases them away for their food a lot of the time. He doesn't even like eating his algae discs anymore, he just wants the shrimp. As for the guppies the Piranhas seem to completely ignore them, I haven't seen any agression towards them whatsoever as of yet. I've heard of people having similar experiences with Tetra's. I may try and put a few in as well. As long as you keep them happy with their space and feed them well then it seems a lot of people have had success with a variety of different fish.

Sounds good, thanks for the replies!

So I was sitting on my couch a few minutes ago and I heard a splash come from my tank, and I look overly quickly to see two of my Piranhas fighting. After their little scuffle I decided to take a closer look at them, and I noticed one of them has a decent sized chunk missing out of his belly now. Fortunately, it doesn't look like it is big enough to actually be life threatening. Even know he looks fine and is swimming alright I'm not sure if I should be taking any precautions. Any advice, or should I just leave him be?

I bought a 48" AquaticLife fixture after reading some good reviews. So far so good, I love it.

I had one pleco, he was probably about 8 inches and only in a 30 gallon tank so I had to let him go. I ended up donating him to Big Al's, but now I've upgraded and I wish I had kept him.

Exactly what I wanted to know, thanks! :thumbs:

Hi, I'm new around here although I've been doing some reading. I've been trying to figure out about adding a new canister filter to my aquarium. Right now I have a 55 gallon with a Eheim 2213 and I'd like upgrade soon. How would I go about putting the new filter in? Can I just throw it in there for a couple of weeks along side the other, or do I need to cycle it elsewhere before adding it? Thanks!