Floofems<3 wrote:
Yeah, you were right about the poisoning - I checked the parameters as soon as I got home from school and the ammonia had spiked from 0 to 1ppm so I'm guessing that was what killed them. However, I'm really not sure what could have caused the ammonia spike; it may have been with me changing some of the filter media, or maybe one fish got sick and died, then began decomposing and that caused the spike? I'd say the latter is the least likely because the night before they were all swimming around happy and as normal.
That does sound like cycle crash as I believe 1ppm is pretty high(at least that would be the case with nitrite)... Of course the dead fish could have caused the ammonia to rise up even more, but techically when cycle is working as it should there should not be that fast and drastic rise in ammonia/nitrite even if stuff is decomposing. Like I've had one dead fish in my tank probably for couple weeks before I found the body, and the water parameters were fine for the whole time(though I don't have ammonia test, just nitrite and nitrate). Though I think you have smaller tank than I do, and with those the water quality can change much faster.
wildfire456 wrote:Hello! I'm currently keeping guppies in a pond just outside my house. There's a filter and a heater installed, and a water feature to keep the water flowing. The fish seem happy and healthy and they're breeding like crazy.
I live in Australia and we're currently in the middle of a heat wave (with the hottest day supposedly tomorrow). Is there anything I should be concerned about regarding the water temperature of the pond? I've been thinking about manually filling the pond with more cool water over the course of the day but we already have a topping-up system.
Any suggestions or recommendations are appreciated. This is the first big heat wave we've had since getting the pond fish and I'm not sure if I need to cool them down or not. Thanks!
(Also just for reference the maximum temperature we should hit is like 40 degrees Celsius. It might be higher)
Little late perhaps, but usually water tends to stay cooler than outside temperature, especially if there's lot of it and it's in ground rather than in a container on top of ground level. Just keep the pond well aerated and monitor the water temperature. Guppies are pretty hardy, so I think they can tolerate couple warmer days.
Adding cold water to replace the vaporated water is good. I know some people even add ice cubes to their tanks when the temps start to rise too high too quick.
valiant. wrote:thanks to everyone's help on here i created my set up for my betta yesterday! 
so here and here is my finished 5 gallon, planning to cycle it for a few weeks before getting the fish!
planted amazon sword and some java fern with a mix of gravel and white sand!
i would love any further advice and tips for the tank. in these pictures the water hadn't settled completely yet, and after some advice from the tumblr community i took the roots of the java fern out of the soil so they would grow properly!
Looks like nice set up.
Just remember to keep those plants fed even before you get the betta. What cycling method do you plan on using?
.sav wrote:Howdy, I need a lot of help with something...
So my dad gave me his old 20 gallon tank that he hasn't used in years and I want to eventually get a divider to it and put Mufasa and a new betta in it. However, this tank has had water in it and has been sitting in front of a window for a few years, so there's a ton of algae on it to be cleaned, but it comes with a filter (that I need to buy filter cartridges for) and a heater... So on top of starting a cycle I'm going to be sending a few days cleaning it XD
Basically, I have two questions:
1) Mufasa is already in a cycled tank... How would I move him from his little three gallon tank to the 20 gal? The move is obviously not going to be for weeks because the new tank needs to cycle, but I'm worried about changing his tank. I've never changed a fish's home before
When moving fish you do basically the same thing you do when introducing new fish to your tank. Though you might be able to skip the temperature evening phase as I'd assume you are able to move him pretty quick and have the new tanks temp same as the old one's. 3gal is pretty small, so I might actually just empty some of it's water to the new tank, and then add some of the new tank's water gradually into the old tank until it's about 50:50 ratio between old and new water and then move him over to the new tank.
Cycling the new tank is going to be pretty easy as you already have one that's cycled. c; Just stick the new filter materia into the old tank for somedays(if they fit in there that is) and they should pick up the good bacterias, and then you can also run the filter from the 3gal in the 20 gal for some days after moving your fish to spread out even more bacterias. You could also take what ever bottom material you have in the 3 gal, put it in a cut off pantyhose and keep it in the new tank, since bacterias are all over the surfaces of cycled tank.
