DougAdel

I have a 60 gallon tank 48x24x12 with a mdf stand. I got the tank and stand 2nd hand and it was in good shape when i purchased it about a year ago. I have noticed that there is a little bit of a bow in the center of the stand. Less than a cm. You cannot see through to the other side. I believe the bow was caused from water damage and the mdf has just sagged. There is no center brace on the stand, but there is no sagging that i can tell from underneath. How much trouble am I in? What stands or places in Edmonton that i can get a good stand. Preferrably under 300 bucks as money is a bit of an issue.

Thanks Biodives! The lips have gone back to normal and I think I will separate into different tanks incase there was some aggressive lip locking going on behiND the scenes

I like that idea! Should I boil them first? I Google it and the Internet seems to be torn on the subject.

Thanks for the tips guys! He's still eating like no tomorrow and I'm doing partial water changes to keep it healthy in there. I'll see about alder cone or almond leaves. I know aquarium central use to have leaves, but I haven't seen any there in awhile. I'll update if he gets worse.

Male Cockatoo Apisto with bright red lips. It looks like he's going for a night on the town. No other lesions and other colours seem to be fine. A little bit of clamped fins. The lips aren't swollen just bright red. 60 Gal 0 ammonia 0 nitrite About 20 - 30 nitrate Another Male Cockatoo showing a little bit of the red lips, but not nearly as bad. They don't squabble and actually seem to be buds. Everyone is eating fine. No spitting out soaked NLS pellets. 2 things that happened. CO2 had an end of tank dump and had some sluggish fish. No one was gasping for air at the top. Did a water change and got everything back to normal within a few hours. Mystery snail died. I hadn't gone looking for it in awhile, but I found an empty she'll a few days before I noticed the red lips. I did an ammonia and nitrite test after I found the empty shell and there were no readings, but there could have been a mini cycle within a few days. No red gills though so I don't think it's an ammonia burn. I've searched a couple other forums. No white cotton like spots, no lesions and nothing else to suspect columnaris. I dosed with API E.M. Erythromycin to see if it was bacterial. Any input? I know the picture is horrible, but he's camera shy.

That was exactly it! There were some little eggs this morning and she has since eaten them. Thanks!

In a new turn of events my fully grown angelfish that I've had for about 5 years in the same established tank has decided it's biggest enemy is the heater. Params are all fine. No ammonia or nitrites. Nitrate is about 5 ppm. PH is around 7.8. This is where it has pretty much always been. Temp around 78 again pretty much where it always is. 33 gal. Albino bn Pleco still acting the same (living under driftwood) and 2 assassin snails and a nerite chugging along like normal. When I go up close the angel still comes up to me looking for food like she always does, but when I sit back and just watch she starts mauling the little tube heater. The only thing I can really think of is the last of my schooling fish died. After about 3 years my 8 or so black phantom tetras kicked the bucket. I assume they just lived out their life. Is the angel bored? Does she need something smaller to kick around? Is the heater calling her names? Any ideas?

Sigh... I was really hoping it was just ich, but you're right it doesn't look like it from the pictures I've seen of it. OK, fungal issue. I've never had to deal with that either. Any suggestions?

I have a Tetra in a 30 gal planted tank. Parameters are 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite and about 10 Nitrate. The temperature was set for 74 degrees. A couple days ago I noticed my Blank Phantom Tetra had some large white lumps around it's tail fin. It was still feeding and acting normal, but the white lumps does give it some trouble swimming I have never had an ich outbreak before, but white and lump made me jump to that conclusion. I have a BN pleco in the tank so I thought it best not to add any aquarium salt. I bumped up the temperature to 85 (my heater is a little old so I couldn't get the temperature to land directly on 84). I haven't seen any improvements. None of the other fish in the tank have been infected and everyone is acting normal (aside from some extra food begging with the higher temperatures). Any ideas? Here are a couple links of the best pictures I could get of the Tetra: http://tinypic.com/r/spaee8/8 http://tinypic.com/r/vgvq/8 Any help would be great!

I ended up putting the little guy down today. He couldn't even make it halfway up the tank.

I had tried API General Cure as a member here had suggested Praziquantel might help if it was fluke related. With no success there the little guy has just gotten worse. He can no longer physically swim to the top to at least try and get food. He can't swim straight and he is breathing quite heavily in an almost U shape on the gravel. Is it time to euthanize him? He looks like he is in a lot of distress. I don't want him to suffer. He's been a favourite of mine for some time now

Thanks Jvision. It was a bit larger of a PWC than I usually do, but still less than 50% I'll keep that in mind from now on though. The poor guys is trying really hard to get up to the top to grab some flakes, but he gets 1, slinks back down and spits it out. He's sitting with a bit of a curved spine on the gravel and with his troubles swimming I'm beginning to suspect it might be a swim bladder issue. I've read a couple of tips to try and help the poor guy out, but he didn't even look at the shelled peas I put in (to help with potential constipation issues). Some forums have recommended "salt baths", but I'm not entirely sure this is a real thing and not just old fish keeper lore. Anyone out there have ideas?

So, just as the title reads my Apistogramma Hongsloi is very sluggish. He can barely get up off the floor. He usually comes up to the top to eat, but was struggling quite hard today. He also looks as if he is breathing very heavily. He was just fine yesterday when I was doing the feeding. When I went to feed him today he struggled his way up to the top only to spit out the couple of flakes he took in. I assume all water params are fine, but I didn't test because I noticed this right after a water change. I can do a couple tests when I get home, but no one else was acting weird. Nitrates may have been a little high as it was water change day. I also noticed what looked to be a fungus spot on a rasbora so I treated the tank with Pimafix (Primafix?). The Apistogramma was lively a couple days ago (as he usually is) so I'm not entirely sure what happened. No other symptoms to report. The tank is a little overcrowded as a result of having to combine 2 tanks, but everyone gets along just fine in there. It's 33 gal with an Angel, 2 Bolivian Rams, a Bristlenose Pleco, 6 Harlequin Rasboras and the Apisto (I know I know I know). Tons of driftwood and a couple of big plants. Moderate lighting. The tanks were combined back in December and the Rams were put into the current tank. I've never seen a negative interaction between any of the cichlids (except the occasional chase between the Rams). I had the Apisto for a month or 2 before that. He came through this site off of someone who was shutting down his tank. The previous owner did mention that he was a little older. So, any suggestions?

Thanks again for all the info! I've been scanning Kijiji and the classified ads here. Hopefully something will turn up soon to my liking!

I have some Tahitian moon sand as a substrate and have a few rocks in the aquarium as well for little caves. I did the "vinegar test" on the rocks and saw no bubbling, but I kind of doubt the validity of the test. My understanding of gh and kh are pretty limited. I know gh is general hardness and is basically the measure of a bunch of elements that are normally found in water. kh I'm fairly certain is just dissolved carbonate. How these measurements effect ph is due to hydroxide ions being formed which is usually a direct result of kh. The actual chemistry equations I have no idea on, but this is my very basic understanding of what's happening in my tank. I googled the water quality from the tap and my hardness test is WAY off (I assume ppm = mg/l) which would make more sense, but I just bought the blasted thing today. My ph tests were pretty similar to that of Epcor's. Do you think it could be another faulty kh tester? I bought the API one...

I've had my 20 gal tank set up for about 8 months now. I did a full fishless cycle with ammonia and after a small battle with some parasites everything has been hunky dory. I have 2 penguin HOB filters and have been running 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and about 10 nitrate since the introduction of 2 bolivian rams and about 8 peppered cories. The rams don't get along, but have their own areas set up and have never had any real issues. They both eat well and frolic to the front when it's feeding time. One thing I've learned from forums and LFS is to not play around with ph as it is better to have a stable ph then to mess around and have fluctuations. I hadn't checked my ph in quite some time so during some routine maintenance I decided to give it a go. Knowing that we have hard water in Edmonton i expected it to be around the 8.0 range, but the test instantly went dark purple closer to the 8.6 range. Thinking this was high I did the kh test and ended up adding about 2 drops before it turned blue (approximately 2dKH and 35.8 ppm GH/KH). I tested again today and got 8.4 on the ph and the same numbers from a brand new kh test (the other had expired so I thought I should get a new one). The water parameters are the same today 0 ammonia 0 nitrites and about 10 nitrates. Why is my ph so high when my kh is so low? I always thought we had hard water in Edmonton, but it's coming out 1 drop to turn blue from the API KH test. The fish are behaving normally, but with the low KH I am worried that the ph has been fluctuating for quite some time and that I've done some long term damage. Any thoughts? Should I add some alkaline buffers (I don't want the ph to go any higher though...). EDIT: there is currently no driftwood or anything like that in the tank. I could easily put some in and I also have some indian almond leaves hanging around I could throw in too, but I'm not positive they would have any real effect.

Got it. Sounds like the classics are the way to go. Now the task of finding one for a good deal! If anyone has seen a 2215 for a good price be sure to get at me.

Thanks for the info! Another questions. If I am going to be investing more money in to this new filter would it be worth it to jump up to the Eheim Pro 2071? For an extra $50 or $60 it seems like I'm getting a better product. Increased water flow, stabilized media baskets and a primer. Worth it or just a bunch of extra bells and whistles?

I have been running an Aquaclear 300 (70) on my 30g tank for over a year now. The filter was used when I got it and has always had a few issues. Long story short I am in need of a new filter and after doing some reading I've decided that the Eheim 2213 should be my next aquarium related purchase. However all of this reading has come from online forums much like this one and some information is very vague or unjustified. -Why do canister filters work better? -If you've ever used one what are the cons of using this particular line of filter? Anything else better at approximately the same price point that I may not be aware of? -Cleaning canister filters seems a lot more tedious than HOBs. Any tips or tricks to make the process a little simpler for me? -I've read the online manual and the reports of the manual being useless seem to be justified. Tips for set up? Any other info out there is appreciated.

I just got an Apistogramma Hongsloi off of someone on here who is shutting his tanks down. He's been in there about a week and is already quite the character! No shyness at all after I introduced him. Always coming up to greet me whenever I walk by and flares up whenever food hits the tank.

Gotcha! I've gone through a bout of parasites with this tank and stress colours set off alarms in my head now. I didn't even think they could mean the opposite! Thanks!

I don't think this is an emergency, but whenever I feed my angel it gets deep black fins and stripes under it it's eye like stress colours. It can hardly wait to eat and chomps at the surface of the water often leaving little air bubbles in it's path. It eats well and behaves normally otherwise. Harmless or something I should look more in to?

Well that was a long process, but I think I got everything out. There were a bunch of worms in the filter media so I sterilized it too. I'm in for a lot of water changes in the next few days, but hopefully it's for the best. This thread has kind of taken a new turn so I'm going to stop updating it. I'll hopefully post some positive news in a different category once all the treatments are done. Once again I'd like to thank everyone for their input and support. This community here on AA is fantastic and I'm glad to be a part of it

I have some Flubendazole in the tank right now. When I get home I'll sterilize everything! Then I'll try and treat again on Friday.

Another question. Could the worm eggs get in my filter? If I'm boiling or replacing my substrate and then changing my filter media could I be in for a wicked mini-cycle?