keeping tropical and cold water fish.

louisdog

In that case you could try keeping on adding the fish food daily until your ammonia tests at 5ppm or so.

Mankysteve

You might as well though that Nutrafin in the bin for what its worth. PFK Tested a range of so called Cycle buster and found little to no improvement.

You really need to get some proper ammonia so you can both cycle the tank and actually see if your tank is breaking down ammonia.

http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Household-ammonia-500ml_923908/?CAWELAID=334516103&cm_mmc=Shopping%20Engines-_-Google%20Base-_---_-Boots%20Household%20ammonia%20%20500ml

Cheap as chips

Boots and home base both do it. Just check the ingredients, only has water and ammonia in it.

Also handy for cleaning around the house.

calella

Hi Covlass
I am also from Coventry, and I just wanted to let you know that I spent a couple of years struggling to set up a community tank. Had problems with fishy deaths, fungal infections and snails. I just couldnt keep the water balance right and as forever trying to treat it. In the end I gave up and now keep Malawi Cichlids. You might want to check them out as an alternative? Tough as old boots, and they seem to love our naturally hard water! They destory plants, so plastic ones are fine, but they need plenty of rocks to live/hide/swim in. Best of all, to prevent agression, it is best to keep the tank overstocked and over filtered, so our tank is always bright and colourful which my children and their friends love! I hope you have better luck than me, and can set up your tank successfully, but just thought I would offer you an alternative :dance: if you start to struggle to keep the fish you have chosen.
Calella

covlass

Hi Calella

Thank you for that I will keep that in mind. May I ask where you got your fish from ? I going to go to coventry Aquatics on sat to see what they say.

louisdog

I wouldn't recommend an African cichlid set up unless your tank is at least 200L tbh.

Good luck though, let us know how you get on! We need pictures!

I am currently fighting snails in my tank

calella

Hi Covlass
I have been to Covaquatics before, but they do not have much of a range of Malawis so I usually go to World Of Water which is part of Blooms Garden Centre going towards Rugby. If you fancy a trip out of Coventry, then A5 Aquatics is also very good. I tend to get my cichlid food and accessories from Pets at Home as they seem to have a lot of the main brands but cheaper than the aquatics shops. My water testing kits I usually buy from ebay. My tank is 220l and so is quite large I suppose with lots of rock and some plastic plants. If I can work out how to put photographs up I will have a go over the weekend. Let me know how you get on!
Calella

atrixblue.-MFR-.

louisdog wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend an African cichlid set up unless your tank is at least 200L tbh.

Good luck though, let us know how you get on! We need pictures!

I am currently fighting snails in my tank

snails are not at all bad for the aquarium, and a good source of food for some fish species, do not strip down your filter like advice of pets at home advice and put new pads in. only use a copper based treatment as a utter most last resort!!!!! then you;ll have to remove the filter pads in order to treat the water (snail eggs live in your filter and then once hatched will get thrown out into the aquarium)
by a clown loach or any other snail eater to keep the numbers down!! rather than disturb the whole water conditions. ive got a good dose of snail they dont bother me i dont bother them i do crush small ones, keep the biggies. another methos id to put lettuce in the aquarium weighted down before you turn lights off and go to bed, in morn wake up go down take out lettuce and underneath will be snail just bin it and repeat for a few days, then do it till you see loads again.

louisdog

Hiya atrixblue.-MFR-

Unfortunately the snails are not a good thing in my aquarium and being a nano (with no dwarf puffers) the residents refuse to eat them! so I def want rid.

Alas I have had heard bad advice from PAH in the past I worked there in 1996 and imho gave good advice in fish section but heard some howlers - hopefully they are getting better.

I used a copper treatment already, and it had zilch effect on snails :mad: I have now diluted it out with big water changes, annoying tho and have written to manufacturer to complain about ineffectiveness.

Why a last resort, effect on inverts or the fish?

I don't have room for clown loaches, I have been crushing (yuck!) or manually removing.

I tried cucumber with limited success, is lettuce better? Also just bought a snail trap from LFS.

Wondering about assassin snails next...

What tank do you have, any pics?

Cheers
Alex

Froglet

Assassin snails are supposed to be the best way to get rid.I had a lot of problems with snails and tried everything,but that was before the assassin snails were heard of.In the end i got 2 clown loaches which cured the problem.However,though i have a 4ft tank they have not fully grown,probably just as well,but you are right,they do need a large tank and should be in larger groups.I was not told of this at the time.They seem happy enough though at the moment.

The only time i used a snail treatment all it did was kill most of the plants! i was not impressed!

Gingham_Ribbon

Why a last resort, effect on inverts or the fish?

Inverts mostly, I think. I think shrimp can't cope with it.

I agree about danios and fighters together. The fighter is far too slow so the danios zooming about could be quite stressful.

In my experience the best way to deal with snails is to catch them on the glass in the morning and kill them, and keep the nitrates low.

Covlass, your cycle will speed up if you have a squeeze of muck out of another filter. If you have a decent LFS (local fish supplier) they will be glad to give you some. You also need to keep the temperature up and the pH fairly high. A SMALL amount of bicarb of soda will do this. The fishfood method is quite slow though so just enjoy watching the changes and planning your fish!