Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
high ammonia levels!!
I have been getting massive ammonia levels (7) when I do my testing with the master test kit. The ornament in the centre of the tank has turned green. The water is clear otherwise. One casualty. The PH is 7, nitrates & nitrites are 0.
I have not added new fish in ages. I have been adding a disease clear treatment King British Disease Clear for my fighter’s nipped fins and a small bit of table salt for the gobies. I changed the filter cartridge 2 weeks ago.
Since I have noticed the high ammonia levels I have done a large water change(1/3) & gravel clean and have been treating the tank every 2nd day with API Ammo lock. I have also been adding API stress zyme to boost filtration. I have cut back on the feeding also. Still no change!! I’m anxious to fix this as I’m going away soon and will be entrusting my beloved fishies to someone else!
Please Log in to join the conversation.
Welcome to the forum!
You might have several problems within your tank re. the type of fish. From what I can read, the Bumblebee goby is a brackish water fish and is not quite suited to freshwater. The tetras are however freshwater fish and might not be able to cope with some salt in the water for very long. What kind of dwarf cichlid do you have ? Is he guilty of the fighter's nipped fins ?
You don't mention how long has this tank been up and running.
You are right, the level of ammonia and nitrite should be zero. However, you don't have any nitrates yet, I'd say your tank has not cycled yet.
In order to remedy to any level of ammonia, your best bet is to do water changes and fast. Ammonia is very toxic to fish and so is nitrite. You don't need any products such as ammo-lock. They don't actually resolve your problem, they just make it less toxic to your fish.
So, major water change as soon as possible is on your list of things to do
Feed them every 2nd day or so and make sure that all the food is eaten within a few minutes. Food leftovers will definitely go against your ammonia levels.
If you are going on holidays before your tank has stabilised, make sure you train your fishy-sitter before you go to check the water parameters daily and do water changes as required.
Once your nitrogen cycle has completed, the beneficial bacterias will transform the ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrates. You should then only need to attend the tank once a week
I hope this helps.
If you require any additional information, please, don't hesitate to post again
Valerie
Please Log in to join the conversation.