Tracyp

I have had a pearl, a sunset, and a golden all in a 30 gallon but the golden is a jerk to the others. I agree with sumadis; stick with the dwarfs they're pretty and peaceful. Cheers.

Just had to share, I found two baby red crystal shrimp!! First time breeding shrimp now hopefully they'll survive lol. Anyone have any suggestions to keep them happy? They're currently in a Fluval ebi tank filled with live plants and driftwood and one lonely panda loach; using a sponge filter, heat at about 23, levels all seem normal. Recently added a number of red rillis and cherry shrimp (before I knew there were babies)and feeding fluval shrimp pellets. Any tips much appreciated!!

Good idea Super Guppy Girl!!

Thanks for all the help! I checked it today and there was still a very small leak. I opted to just switch it out to the Ehiem Ecco this way I could get rid of the HOB I had going as well as this one is rated to 60 Gallons and my tank is about 55 plus it's more energy efficient! Now what to do with the Nexx, I like it but don't fully trust it....

Thanks for the video! I only have the one module and from what I can see it seems to be leaking from the two outlets on the base that connect with the canisters. I think it might be that an o ring was twisted or something and not allowing it to seal properly. Ill check it the seals out tomorrow and do what you advised with the vaseline, right now it seems ok.....go figure

So I acquired a 55 gallon tank complete with a number of different kinds of cichlids and everything to go with them including an API nexx filter. I've had it for about 3 months now and it runs great except I did a filter change tonight and it decided it didn't want to seal anymore. I've heard of the same issues with these filters but was wondering if anyone has had any experience with them? As it is I ran out in a panic and bought an Ehiem ecco 60 but when I got back the nexx was no longer leaking. I'm going on holidays for a week and am a bit nervous of leaving it if it's faulty. Any help greatly appreciated!!

It seems that everyone is doing well I think increasing the water changes helped a lot. Thanks to everyone for your help!

So I tested everything except the iron and phosphates as my kit doesn't include that. Everything was fine although the nitrates were a little high ( 20-30ppm). This isn't a huge surprise as it seems to rise rather regularly which makes me wonder if the filter isn't doing it's job right. It's only about 4 months old and it's stopped working 3 times due to the impeller getting stuck, every time I take it apart clean it out and it's fine. I always clean the media using tank water, I have the sponge that it came with and ceramic bio-rings in an old piece of pantyhose. I haven't noticed any parasites, protruding bellies, or things coming out of the anuses of any fish. I have since done a 50-75% water change, thoroughly vacuumed the gravel and cleaned out the filter. I have 2 white clouds and a platy in there now to see how they do. It seems that the fish are the best indicator of something wrong as any testing comes up with nothing so I will see how these guys do and if they start looking unhappy I'll switch them out and take down the tank or maybe change the filter? Thanks again for the help!

Thank you so much for the replies! So it's a 12 gallon Marineland bowfront tank I got used off Kijiji, I don't see any places where silicone was used. It was cycled when I added fish and shrimp. I haven't detected any ammonia I test it with the liquid kit not strips every week. I have noticed that the nitrates can rise up to 20ppm within a week but I do 25% water changes once weekly. I have a Fluval U1 internal filter which is supposed to be good up to 15 gallons and the tank has always been understocked (no more than 5 fish). Substrate is gravel that came with the tank and is vacuumed once weekly I also have a bubble wand for aeration. I'm wondering if the tank may have been treated previously with a harmful chemical or perhaps something is still in the gravel? (Only 50% of the gravel is what came with the tank the rest is new)

This may be a long shot but I'm at a loss as to what is going on with my one acrylic tank. It's been set up for 4 months and over that time I've had a few RCS, a couple platys and a number of guppies all either disappear or die. At first I had ick run through the tank which I treated with increased salinity and heat which seemed to work well although I did loose 3 guppies to ick. Ever since then (2 months) it has leveled out, the parameters are stable and my plants seem to be doing well but every so often I seem to either loose a guppy or I find one dead. They exhibit no symptoms leading up to the death. I decided to transfer my one female and her fry to a separate tank and they seem to be doing well. The fish were healthy from the pet store when I got them but I thought I would get a few from a breeder in the hopes of having a healthier fish but they also died. Has anyone heard of acrylic tanks having any effect on fish health? Any help is much appreciated as it is now I'm thinking of taking it down and getting rid of it. Cheers.

Thank you for your help! Yea I think I'm going to have to wait a few years, they do sound more demanding then what I'm willing to dedicate to them, still a bit of a newbie I kind of figured they wouldn't be an easy fish it makes me wonder how many get bought up at the pet stores only to die a few months later

Thank you, I think you're right because I can't find a thing on " German Puffers" I'm beginning to wonder if I read it wrong or maybe it's just a 'Petland special' lol. Looking at pictures now and I think it was probably either a figure eight or a green spotted puffer it def. was not the south American or the dwarf. What are your experiences with the figure eight and or the green spotted puffers?

So I just saw some gorgeous looking puffer fish at Petland of all places, they were calling them German Puffers. Just wondering if anyone has heard of them or has any experience with them as I'm thinking of dedicating a tank to a few of them. I know they are aggressive as the pet store was feeding them feeder goldfish so I'd be relocating my guppies for sure! Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you!

Thank you for the advice! I did rinse it and soaked it for about 6 hours also I use the liquid type test kit; it's about 2 months old. My other tanks (no driftwood) are maintaining a ph of about 7 which leads me to believe it must be the driftwood in this tank. I haven't done many large water changes but I think I will try that out. I'm reluctant to take it out for a month but If the water changes don't work I just might. Thanks again!

So I added a nice piece of Mopani driftwood to my 8 gallon planted shrimp tank and it lowered my ph from 7 to 5.5. Luckily there's nothing but some hitchhikers (pond snails) in there as I've been letting it cycle for awhile. But I'm eager to add some shrimp and or a CPO or two and am thinking I will probably have to raise the PH. I don't want to use any checmicals so I was thinking of added a small bag of crushed coral to the filter. Has anyone else tried something similar? Are there any shrimp of dwarf crayfish that can handle such a low ph? Any help is greatly appreciated!!

I used vinegar on a tank I recently bought it seemed to work quite well. You may want to let it soak for a few minutes it'll help loosen it up. I used a scrubby sponge and most of it came right off, some people have used a razor blade to scrape major build up on the glass just be careful to not scratch the glass. I also used a natural household cleaner that contained 5% citric acid and it really eats through the build up. Hope that helps!

Wow that would be great fishclubgirl! My tank is 20" long, what kind of light is it?

Great, thanks for all the input! I'm thinking of moving my 2 platies and guppies to the 20 gallon and making my 12 gallon a dedicated planted invert tank with maybe a few endlers. I was thinking of the lights on legs but from what I can find the price is a little steeper than I would like. Any ideas of where can I find a new light insert?

So I found what I thought was a good deal for a 20 gallon tank, lid/lights and filter on Kijiji ($30). Once I got there it turns out that the tank is tall and the ballast for the lights is corroded so I don't know what to do with the canopy although it did come with a Aquaclear 70 in good shape. I bought it anyways figuring it was a good deal (was it?) but now that I'm thinking of it I don't know if my livebearers would be happy in there? Would it be a better idea to resell it and get a 20 gallon long? Also if I do keep it what should I do for a top and lights? Any help muchly appreciated!!

Very nice! Makes me want to get more How are the Sulawesi Cardinals to take care of? I'm new to shrimp and just have a few FRS and Amanos but I love the look of the Sulawesi, are they expensive?

Ok yes that makes sense I wouldn't doubt I did have an increase in phosphates as I did notice an increase in algae and I hadn't realized just how much debris (poop, decaying plants) I had in the tank prior to the onset of ich. Since I've been doing frequent cleanings the algae seems to have calmed down. I found cleaning the filter out after doing a good clean really helps to clear out all of the debris and decrease the nitrate issue. If the decaying plant matter and such is just left in the filter I imagine it would just keep pumping out nitrates. (of course don't clean with tap water; only tank water)

No I don't have a kit to measure any phosphates and didn't know it could cause any issues?

Thanks for the help! I ended up not using Paraguard as everyone seems to be cleared up and my babies are still doing great. I did end up euthanizing the molly ( realized what I was calling platys were in fact mollies..oops) as she was clearly suffering and not getting any better

Thanks Fisher, So everyone is still ok but don't look overly happy, the hard done by platy is still alive and interested in food as everyone else is but still has laboured breathing. One of my other platys gave birth though so I have about 5 babies! I was speaking to someone and she suggested I use Seachem ParaGuard which is apparently safe for shrimp and plants? Not sure if anyone has had any experience with it, I would rather not kill off my baby platies though. Any tips are much appreciated!

Thanks for the reply! I ended up raising the salinity over the course of the day and everyone seems to be handling it ok, including the platy that I thought for sure wouldn't make it another day. Here's to hoping it works!