Qattarra

I have matto grosso's at 2" and queen arabesque at no more than 3". The queens are my faves.

I only use Prime. If you check your ammonia levels after using it it will give you a FALSE reading. Nothing to be concerned with though . Non of the others give me the results I need .

:welcome: to AA

You'll need to keep this set up cycled so getting it cycled would be first priority. I keep "extra" fishes in mine that I can move to the main community tank when I need the QT. For me that's either africans or sometimes jewel cichlids. The things you need are filter, I use sponges as it doubles as a hiding place as well as I get less evaporation. A HOB would work well too and with the HOB you'll be able to add the carbon to remove meds. A heater is needed for most fish, a submersible is better. A light helps you see but most sick fish do well in subdued light , less stressful . Plants are helpful too , I use fakes as my usual tenants like to eat real ones. I have sand on the bottom but it isn't needed.

It was 2.49 a lb at Aquagiant on 50th St . It is dirty and most sinks but needs work .

:welcome: to AA

:welcome: to AA What are you keeping?

Welcome and IMO , no it is not cruel to feed live foods, including smaller fishes. It is best to raise your own. You are more likely to keep your "foods" healthy and disease/parasite free.

Stop feeding for at least 3 days.Do a large water change (at least 50-60%) vacuuming out the gravel. After the 3rd day do a water change and tidy up in the gravel and rocks. IMO 20-30% water changes are not always enough. I do 50% weekly on all my tanks. About every 3 months I tear apart the non planted tanks (most of them ) and give a really good gravel cleaning because I am guilty of overfeeding. Keep in mind if you do a good cleaning leave the filter alone or you'll lose too much good bacs and cause a mini cycle. The bacterial bloom is almost always too much "food" in the tank, you'll need to starve the bloom and this means your fish will have to go on a fast . This won't hurt them at all , it'll be good as it'll clean out their systems. If at the end of 3 days there isn't enough improvement you may need to do a few more days. This bloom can not survive without being fed. You might want to leave the lights off but only to keep the fish calmer during this time, it'll be a repose for them . IME this is the best and most effective way to deal with it . I prefer not to use additives/chemicals to treat the simptoms, best to cure the problem .

Sounds right to me . Don't feed the fish while you have any issues going on. Give the good bacs time to catch up. How many plants do you have in there? The more the better, if you could add even more it'll help bring the nitrates down too .

Pictus do like company of their own kind. They will eat eggs, young and dead. They live well with most africans and mild cichlids. IME rams would be bothered by these guys as they both want the bottom 1/3 of the tank.

Yeah Gillian!!!!!!!

I've been thinking about trying this too . I was thinking I'd use a wet saw and cut the rocks in half in order to have a flat side to stick to the back, also to save room . Great tank Jason .

Check out the Hydor canister too at Trident Pet supplies as they also have an inline heater. I've had one for 8 years now with no problems. Quiet too.

Jason would know best (better than I), my suggestion was just to get it back to basics to figure out where there might be an issue.

I suggest not feeding for a few days or until things are back under control. I also would stop all additions of ferts CO2 etc. Doing a 50% WC, checking for dead things and just keep an eye on things for a few days. After that start things up one at a time with close observations for any changes. This should be enough for your bio filter to catch up (fingers crossed).

Really kewl ! Here's my friend Shawn's website. His business is in Edmonton but he does give classes. He is very much an artist and has done a lot of jobs in Calgary too. He may be a good lead as to where to find your materials. http://www.frontstepforge.com/

Is there too much CO2? I have no clue on that one, just asking a possibility. The thing I suspect is that if you are getting anything above 0 on the NO2 and ammonia that there is an issue there for a cycled tank will read 0. You may want to test levels at different times of the day too as they may spike at night and not as noticeable during the day . Any possibility of a corpse or dying foliage somewhere hidden that may be throwing your levels? How deep is your substrate? How many plants? etc. Unfortunately I don't know anyone on here who has not gone through something like this and esp. me included.

Firefox. Does the browser make a different? (not puter savvy).

:welcome: to AA Nice to have ANOTHER pro photographer ! Some of us need the help lol . Sue

For me , maybe not for others (dunno), the pics are twice as big as they need be . I can only view 1/4 of the pic at a time.

I'm loving your articles , keep it going ! Mods can we make the pics smaller?

That is great . Any way to make the pictures 1/2 the size? I always add the prime and then fill . I am very grateful to John (seajays) for showing me this. Doing water changes by hosing out/hosing in is the only way I can maintain my tanks.

Our sponsor , Nature's Corner Store caries it and it's a great time to shop anyway . I have the plants on top of my fry tank , the little livebearers hide under it . My africans eradicate it so I too feed the extras to them . My apple snails also can't get enough. I have one 5 gal tank which only has the duckweed, I keep the lights on it 24hours a day just to grow it out fast as feed.

They look like they took a huge bite of something as their throat starts to swell . Often you can almost see through the skin and see eyes. A good early sign is the "chewing" as she rolls the eggs around in her mouth.