Hi Lee,
I'd seriously suggest your getting at least an ammonia test kit. A master
test kit containing most of the important individual test kits are available
for $20 or less, though; this is an API (Aquarium Pharmaceutical Inc.)
master test kit, which is good quality and easy to "read" the colors. This is
the only way you have, to be able to know exactly what the parameters of your
tap water and your aquarium water are, and the test results are essential
to be able to keep your fish in a healthy state, in good water conditions.
I see you do have a pH test kit though, and you state yopur pH is very
high. Further, your local pet shop also told you the area's water's pH is very
high. They are correct in telling you that don't have to (and shouldn't)
worry about it -- PROVIDED that you keep up with a regular regimen of doing
sufficient PWC's at sufficient intervals so as not to allow the organic waste
products of the fishes to elevate to toxic levels. As you have no other
test kits besides one for pH, at this time, you can't know the condition of
your water and what waste products might be in it.
The monthly partial water changes are rarely frequently enough to maintain
a tank's water in proper enough condition to promote the health of fishes.
You don't say how large of a partial water change you do monthly, but the
general rule of thumb for a properly (and not excessively) stocked tank is to
do between 25% and 33% PWC's weekly. I'm highly suspecting that your too
infrequent PWC's have resulted in an increase of at least one of the organic
waste products normally found in the nitrogen cycle at one stage or another.
If for some reason your nitrogen cycle isn't working properly (as possibly
being interrupted), your ammonia may well have increase to toxic levels.
The higher the pH, the more toxic the ammonium/ammonia becomes, as more Free
Ammonia is released from the Total Ammonia (combination, ammonium and
ammonia) due to the increase in pH. Ammonia is highly toxic to fish -- and Nitrite
is even more toxic. Even nitrate can reach toxic levels when insufficient
PWC's aren't performed, and monthly PWC's are fasr from frequent enough.
Without changing enough water, you may eventually expect your fish to get
illness -- Fungus certainly being one of them. High levels of contaminents
(organic waste products not being removed) will stress fish to the point of
weakening them, causing them to contract these illnesses. As you don't have
any other test kits on hand at the moment, I can only advise you to make a
series of small PWC's over the course of the next several days, replacing
whatever salt you remove when taking out water. As soon as you get your test
kits -- and you need to check if the nitrite and nitrate kits are provided in
the master test kit (one of them needs to be bought separately, but I don't
recall which one) -- do your tests for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and
give us the results -- in numbers. For now, without reducing the suspected
contaminents, you're risking that their levels may even reach beyond
toxicity to lethal. If by some strange chance that you water contains very little
contaminents (which I doubt), the PWC's will never be harmful to your
fishes, so it will never be done in vain, but it's your best bet now to help your
fishes without knowing your water's condition.
I notice you are doing PWC's evey day lately, because of the hot weather.
The water you add should never be more than 2 o cooler that that of your
tank. Any greater difference can also stress your fishes. After the new water
is added, you may help cool the aquarium more slowly by placing an electric
fan at one end and letting it blow across the surface, unless you have a
full light fixture over it. The fan will evaporate the surface water,
inducing some cooling effect. Some hobbyist use zip lock bags with ice in it, but
here you need to balance how much ice as compared to the size of the tank.
For smaller tanks, you shouldn't use too much ice. Another method is to
place a soda bottle half full of frozen water into the tank, with lots of
circulation in the tank. This should only be done in larger aquariums, and even
then, the thermometer should be monitored to prevent the temperature from
dropping too far and too fast. The aquarium should never be allowed to drop
in temperature more than 4 or 5 degrees (slowly) in one day, as without you
being there to help in cooling it off during the night, it will only rise
again and this fluctuation is also stressful. BTW, please give us the size
of your tank. If there is any procedure outlined here as being adverse to
what one should do, and if you've done any of these wrong procedures, let us
know to inform us further in offering advice.
Ray</HTML>
Please, DELETE this line and EVERYTHING below it when replying, Thank You.
���`�.��.><((((�>.���`�.��.���`�.�><((((�> �.���`�.�. , .���`�..><((((�>
PLEASE, when you REPLY to a post, DELETE all TEXT that is NOT important to the reply & if CHANGING the TOPIC of the original message MODIFY the SUBJECT LINE -> i.e. "new subject (was re: old subject)" <-
<�((((><.���`�.��.���`�.�<�((((><�.���`�.�. , .���`�..<�((((><���`�.��.
We Thank You in Advance for Your HELP in this matter.
If you do not want all of the groups emails, instead of unsubscribing, you can change your delivery option by clicking on "Edit My Membership" on the home page.
Or e-mail aquaticlife-digest@yahoogroups.com to receive the digest, which includes up to 25 posts at a time in a single email
Or email aquaticlife-nomail@yahoogroups.com for the No E-Mail option where you will still be able to read messages on the group and post replies.
Or email aquaticlife-normal@yahoogroups.com to receive individual e-mails.
No comments:
Post a Comment