Brisbane water Question!!!!

[vince]

Hello, mates:

My discus are doing ok....they grow rapidly.

I just find they are scared of me sometimes. Unlike the ones in the shop, my discus are never as friendly. (They hide when i feed them, when i walk away, they start eating)

Is it my Water 's problem to blame?

My water : PH: 6.4

GH: 120

KH: 80

Ammonia: nil

Nitrite: less than 5

Nitrate: 5-10

I just use aged tap water, no buffer is used as my homemade CO2 will bring the PH down from 7.7 to 6.4

May i ask that, for hobbies in brsbane area. How do you prepare the water?

Do you use RO mix?

Many thanx

[samir]

your nitrites have to be zero. when did you cycle your filter ? and what filter do you have for what tank ? your filter may still be cycling, the nitrobacter that oxidise nitrite to nitrate take longer to establish, up to 2 or 3 weeks. i think this may be your problem. you could add aquarium salt to your tank at about 1 teaspoon per 10-15 litres. this will give some relief from the nitrite. keep monitoring nitrite levels and keep doing water changes. you could add some cycle or sera nitrivec (thats what i think it is).

[Dee]

Vince,

Samir has pretty much hit the nail on the head there mate. My call would be the NitrIte readings could be the reason for your fishes shyness. As Samir said use a little salt to help with the NitrIte and keep up your water changes and feed lightly until your filter is fully cycled.

Your filter is fully cycled when the only reading you get is a NitrAte reading ... no Ammonia and no NitrIte. 5ppm(mg/L) NitrIte is quite high IMO.

Can you please tell us your WC regime ? you may need to up your WC frequency and %.

HTH

Cheers,

Dee. :)

[vince]

Mate:

I am using Eheim 2215 connected to a Pondmaster 11w UV and a fuild bed filter. Plus another Eheim Aqua ball internal filter (550l/hr)

The tank is 3 foor by 18'' by 20''

Holds about 180 L water (excluding the substrate).

The tank has been set up for 8 months.

vince

[Dee]

Hi Vince,

Well you have more than ample filtration on that tank and in theory it should all be fine if the tank and filters ahve been running for 8 months, but the NitrIte reading indicates that the bio filt has taken a knock some how.

Have you used any medications or water additives lately ? or had the PH drop below 6 at all ? a low PH will impair your bio filt if it drops too low.

Whats your WC regime at the moment mate ?

HTH

Cheers,

Dee.
:)

[samir]

i would advise you to turn off your uv till your nitrite readings go down. the uv slows down the cycling process dramatically ,after that it is magic.

[Cuong]

Just out of curiosity in what order are the Eheim, UV and FBF hooked up?

[vince]

Thanx mates:

I do 30 % water changes twice a week.

I do get some direct sunlight on my filter for about 30 mins a day.

I was thinking maybe the sun light reduce the effiency of my filter bioload.

I connect My filter outlet to UV and then to Fluid Bed filter.

The PH has been stable. I use a yeast based CO2 system. As Brisbane tap water has pretty high buffering capacity, i dont think PH will get any lower than 6.4

I think you guys are right. Nitrite may be to reason to blame.

I did have a sky high nitrite reading couple of weeks ago.

I did not use any chemicals in the water apart from Sera peat liquid, Seachem flourish excel, and Seach Prime.

any other comments?

[vince]

I have turned off my UV for about a week.

The nitrite reading does seem to gonig down.

But even with water changes still cant get it down to Zero right away.

I have added some Stress Zyme, stability, Sera Nitrivac (seperately)....


hope it may help....

[Cuong]

Swap the UV with the FBF, so the new order is Eheim-FBF-UV. I think the nitrite is going down because the FBF is starting to work. It's now getting exposure to live bacteria, whereas before the UV was killing them before they got to the FBF.

[vince]

Schmuck:

Thanx for your recommendation.

I think you are absolutely right!!


vince

[Cuong]

With the FBF working now it should help decrease the nitrite but it still doesn't quite explain the high nitrite readings. After 8 months, just with the Eheim working correctly everything should have cycled by then :?

[vince]

About two weeks ago:

I had 3 disucs dies in that tank.

Reason maybe that i pulled 3/4 of my plants out....

The H2S may came out from the substrate.

Or maybe i did not put enough Dechlorine in.

Maybe i used a new bought water drum.

Maybe the CO2 was on at night...and not enough oxgen

For whatever reason, 3 fish died.


The dead might caused the high nitrite reading.



I am still wondering sometime: is FBF a good filter?
Cause many people do not have them and still have good bioload.

[samir]

dont know about a FBF, the best filter in my opinion is the el cheapo top filter. i dont know why hardly anyone in Oz uses them.

[Waldo]

does your water come from well water? here many places have nit's in their tap water.

just a note but with nitrites reducing the ability the fish has to process oxygen in it's gills and a CO^2 unit occupying volume in the water could we possibly look at the low dissolved oxygen levels as being a culprit and a result of a few things?

Do me a favor. Look in your tank up at the surface. Do you see film, oil, bubbles or anything? If so find something to break the surface tention. A power head, bubble stone... doesn't matter. This might help for some of the problem. And as mentioned before adding salt does help the gills to retrieve O^2

[samir]

i'm afraid you'll just have to wait till your filter cycles completely again. once done keep your uv at the end of the filter queue. add some bio starter, it does help a bit.

[vince]

Waldo:

As i do frequent water changes, the tank surface has always been clean without any film at all.

I do put a internal filter blow vertically to break the water surface.

You are right, high nitrite reading is the culprit causing fish gasping. it was not the Oxgen level.

nitrite, nitrite.......i need to solve that....

[ozarowana]

You may have nitrite in your tap water... I do :cry:

[vince]

wa.........you just reminded me.

I will do a test tonight.

How to get rid of it anyway?


a good carbon filter...may help?

more money to spend again!!.....

[vince]

to ozarowana:

I have seen the yellow melon you bred.

Absolutely stunning!!

Do you just use tap water to keep them (I mean aduts or semi-adults)?

What PH do you keep?


vince

[Waldo]

kewl beans. Just wanted to throw that one out just in case.

[sunshinediscus]

Vince, Chuong is right, we have nitrites in our tapwater sometimes. An easy remedy is to use clorine in the storage tub , just enough to oxidize that nitrite into nitrate before you do your water changes.

[samir]

i have three tanks connected and the last one is for water changes. that way the new water after aging, first goes through the cannister before reaching the fish. i hope that has my nirates covered :?

[ozarowana]

All my fish are in Bris tap water which is about 7.4 I think (haven't measured it in a while).

The yellow fish were bred in tap water aswell. I definately need an RO unit if I want to breed properly.

[vince]

To sunshinediscus:

Mate, i normally put dechlorine in my aging drum.

By puting in the chlorine, the water will become toxic to the fish?

I have measured the tap water today, actually the Nitrite reading is zero.

Maybe it only happens occasionally.


vince

[sunshinediscus]

yes Vince, you are correct, we only have nitrite occasionally. Thats why it is important to test your water and then you really know what is going on. Clorine cannot exist where nitrite is present, its easy to prove to yourself simply by testing the clorine content of your tapwater when you do find nitrite there. You will see that there is no clorine present and it is absolutely pointless adding a clorine remover. Clorine oxidizes nitrite , if you add it in the correct dose you will not have any residue clorine as the nitrite present breaks it down. They ahve a cancelling affect on each other. Off course you should aerate the water afterwards and filter over activated carbon to remove metals and other contaminents for 24 hours and also to improve other water dynamics.

[ozarowana]

Adding to what Rod said, you will still need a dechlorinator that takes care of chloramines if you have it which I'm pretty sure you do.

I have also found HCl works aswell, with the added benefit of lowering the Ph. Although it is more hazadous to use.

I have nitrites all the time in my feed water :? :shock:

[vince]

I am glad that i got a water drum and can play with the water before i use it.

Will active carbon get rid of the nitrite?

I am thinking about using a 0.5 micron fine carbon tap filter to prefilter the water before i introduct it into the drum, shall this help?

by the way, rod, your fish is doing great in my tank and eat like pigs...haha... i really like that!!


vince

[sunshinediscus]

Vince, glad you fish are doing well :)

Unfortunetly carbon won't remove nitrite although i think it is an excellent idea to add carbon filter to your tap as it will improve your general water quality. Most people use overdose of prime to detoxify water of nitrite, i've never had experience with that so don't know the effects. I like clorine because it is really cheap and effective.