My Freshwater Fish Adventure

murankar · Mar 1, 2020

Today I added my corridora catfish. I was supposed to add 6 but got 7 and 2 guppies. I cant find the second guppy.

Here is a small group of the curries. This guys just want to hang out at the bottom sucking on rocks. That's why I got them. I threw in an algie wafer just to make sure they were not super hungry. Fish will eat till they explode .

The guppy is hard to photograph. Friday i plan on getting a good number of guppies to finish up the fish population.

We had to remove the mollies today. After adding in the corries and the algie the mollies became over aggressive with the corries. sorry but it's not their tank only. After a week in a Mason jar we shall see if they are willing to play nice again. If not then they need rehomed.

Decided to run my tests tonight because I had to top off the water. I noticed my amazon sword is starting to really take off. I mean this thing in the last two weeks started a new plant. So I was curious to what the water was doing.

Ph 7.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40.

I think tuesday could be a water change day. Maybe do 15 gallons in the 40 and 5 gallons in the 10 gallon tank. My 10 gallon keeps going to 8.4 with in a week of a 50% water change. The last time I did a 50% water change I had to add chemicals to drop the ph. The platties can tolerate that high but prefer the 7.4 range. So today I got a chemical that's just for dropping the ph. I did 2 half doses just to make sure I didn't need a full dose. In the end it needed a full dose to drop it the 1 point per 10 gallons.

Tony · Mar 2, 2020

Need to get that nitrate down, that is pretty high.

and yes, Cori-Cats are great to have in a tank. Definitely help clean up detritus.

murankar · Mar 2, 2020

Going to do a water change tomorrow and then retake readings. Hoping 15 gallons is enough.

murankar · Mar 3, 2020

I just completed the huge water change day. As of today my numbers have improved. Thus is based on a check about 2 hours after the change. Friday will be a better telling story if things are improved. So on friday i will post the numbers . The 40 gal everything was looking good. Ammonia is spiking only because i added more fish, and my nitrates are down to 5 ppm.

My 10 gal the ph is around 7.4 as of today. O. Friday we will know for sure. I still may need to add some acid additive. The 10 gal is a huge pain to maintain.

murankar · Mar 7, 2020

Today's adventure included adding 10 guppies and 4 corry cats to the tank. I also added 30 gallons worth of APIs quick start. Gave the tank a boost in bacteria just so it doesnt spike to bad. The tank is now starting to come to life. We have about 30 fish in this tank. I have am now satisfied with the population. Now it's time to add some more plants. I'll have to do a YouTube video and show the tank in action.

murankar · Mar 8, 2020

Here is the video. I need to work on the quality.
I have nor used the video camera much on the note 10. So I dont know what my settings are. Anyhow this is my tank live and at night.

murankar · Mar 19, 2020

February and March have been really bad with the tank. Lost over a dozen fish due to a bad balance in the water.

I had to do an aggressive water change to get the nitrates under control. I have had readings over 40 ppm which is way to high. I started with a 50% change and waited a week. Did a 15 gallon change. Then i relaxed for 2 weeks because my tank started to cycle again. Added more quick start and that helped keep things leveled out. This week I did a 10 gallon on monday followed by 5 gallon changes for the rest of the week. My snail colony is thriving because of the algi that has grown. Hopefully by going these 5 gallon changes daily I can get uh under 5 ppms by next week.

My issue apparently is that my tank can process a bunch of ammonia and nitrites really quick. I must have a good bacteria colony going. Anyways in about a month I'll add another 12 guppies and see what happens.

Tony · Mar 20, 2020

One thing to note is how many fish you added in a very short period of time. That put a much higher load on the nitrifying bacteria thus it is going to make your nitrates go way up quite quickly. There is no need to keep adding quick start after the first month, there is enough bacteria in the tank, on the substrate and fixtures and so on to keep it going. Just add fish a little more slowly and allow the tank to stabilize before adding more.

General rule of thumb is one inch of fish per gallon of water.

murankar · Mar 20, 2020

Yeah, my goal is to get another 12 guppies and call it good. I just added 3 more plants to the substrate to help process the water. Until this pandemic ends I wont be doing anymore fish stuff.

murankar · Mar 23, 2020

Give this sometime for full hd. I just uploaded it and I dont think the hd end has caught up to it yet.

This is my tank as of last night. Enjoy the fish playing around.

murankar · Apr 10, 2020

I ha e been running into a few problems with the tank. Nothing serious just can't add anymore fish right now. I think I am at the limit my tank can process.

Now for the serious issue. I have a red tetra (watch my videos of the tank and you will see it. Its the only red fish I own.) that keeps twigging out. It does this flippy thing where he is doing nose in flips and it violent like. I believe it is having seizures. What would be the best course of action for it? Do I kill it to end suffering or do it let it live and continue to suffer? I am not trying to murder more fish but whats the humane thing here?