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Originally posted by morpheus
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reading through the thread i would make the following comments:
1) You may be under powered in terms of filtration. i generally dont trust what a filter is "rated" for in terms of tank size or gph flow. jsut the one 2217 may not be doing the job. no such thing as over filtering the water. could be a buildup of waste in your filter too.
how often do you clean out the inside of the unit?
how often do you feed and amount?
2) I have had hit or miss results with petsmart. i have had some tanks completely destroyed after some fish had some parasite when purchased. fishland i have never had issues with in the past. some stores are more reliable than others, but many of the employees do not know all that much at petsmart. i have jumped in when they tried to sell africans with mollies to someone saying "they are the same size and should be fine".
nitrates in 80-100 ppm is not excellent and will poison fish. can chalk that up to the employee who old you that. i agree with the daily water changes to drop that level into an acceptable range.
3) I personally dont add that many fish at once, but its not unheard of at all in established tanks.
4) Do you acclimate the fish prior to adding them? Or just dump them into your tank? the shock can cause a lot of stress if water params are drastically different
5) Do you add the water from the store into your tank? this can introduce bacteria if in store water.
6) The liquid test kits generally i find to be more accurate. they do sell master kits for about $30 and it has ph, high range ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. the GH and KH are sold separately
when ammonia is high they will burn their gills and cannot be cured. most fish will act lethargic, not readily eat, sit near bottom breathing heavily, colors can change, etc.
once a fish becomes lethargic they will get harassed by healthier fish
your last WC of 75% at 2 months ago is too long. i would do WCs every 1-2 weeks. i personally do a 50% change every 10-14 days in my 75gal cichlid tank (any my tank is under stocked in terms of bio-load)
7) The 88F is pretty high, but fish can tolerate it. i keep my cichlid tanks in the 80-82F range.
the heat is one thing, but heat decreases oxygen which is just as dangerous. with temp that high be careful putting meds into the water. meds will decrease oxygen further, and when coupled with high temp, can suffocate the fish
surface agitation is key when the temp is high. you have multiple air stones and can even drop the water level a bit so the filtered water drops into tank
8) Barbs are probably ok with africans if large enough and in large enough of a group. usually tiger barbs when in low numbers can be more aggressive, so usually groups of 10+ are recommended. i personally have never mixed the two together
i would stop adding fish all together at this point until you consistently test the water to be in good ranges as well as not have any die offs for a while.
1) You may be under powered in terms of filtration. i generally dont trust what a filter is "rated" for in terms of tank size or gph flow. jsut the one 2217 may not be doing the job. no such thing as over filtering the water. could be a buildup of waste in your filter too.
how often do you clean out the inside of the unit?
how often do you feed and amount?
2) I have had hit or miss results with petsmart. i have had some tanks completely destroyed after some fish had some parasite when purchased. fishland i have never had issues with in the past. some stores are more reliable than others, but many of the employees do not know all that much at petsmart. i have jumped in when they tried to sell africans with mollies to someone saying "they are the same size and should be fine".
nitrates in 80-100 ppm is not excellent and will poison fish. can chalk that up to the employee who old you that. i agree with the daily water changes to drop that level into an acceptable range.
3) I personally dont add that many fish at once, but its not unheard of at all in established tanks.
4) Do you acclimate the fish prior to adding them? Or just dump them into your tank? the shock can cause a lot of stress if water params are drastically different
5) Do you add the water from the store into your tank? this can introduce bacteria if in store water.
6) The liquid test kits generally i find to be more accurate. they do sell master kits for about $30 and it has ph, high range ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. the GH and KH are sold separately
when ammonia is high they will burn their gills and cannot be cured. most fish will act lethargic, not readily eat, sit near bottom breathing heavily, colors can change, etc.
once a fish becomes lethargic they will get harassed by healthier fish
your last WC of 75% at 2 months ago is too long. i would do WCs every 1-2 weeks. i personally do a 50% change every 10-14 days in my 75gal cichlid tank (any my tank is under stocked in terms of bio-load)
7) The 88F is pretty high, but fish can tolerate it. i keep my cichlid tanks in the 80-82F range.
the heat is one thing, but heat decreases oxygen which is just as dangerous. with temp that high be careful putting meds into the water. meds will decrease oxygen further, and when coupled with high temp, can suffocate the fish
surface agitation is key when the temp is high. you have multiple air stones and can even drop the water level a bit so the filtered water drops into tank
8) Barbs are probably ok with africans if large enough and in large enough of a group. usually tiger barbs when in low numbers can be more aggressive, so usually groups of 10+ are recommended. i personally have never mixed the two together
i would stop adding fish all together at this point until you consistently test the water to be in good ranges as well as not have any die offs for a while.
morpheus -
Thank you for taking the time respond! Yes my filters haven't been cleaned in 2 months with my overseas trips. Did order master test kits and switched off my heater.
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