# Fairly new to fish keeping



## webby (Jul 20, 2007)

I have been keeping me P's for a month now and love every minute of it.

I do a 20-30% water change weekly and also test the water before the water change.

Over the last few days i have noticed my P's are starting to get finrot and im very gutted as i thought i understood the water levels and thought i was ontop of everything.

Please could you clarify the water levels i assume are correct:-

PH - 7.0
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 40ppm or less

and the current levels of my tank are

PH 7.8 i have been trying to lower this by using JBL PH minus and this has failed to work, i strongly advise you NOT to use this.
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 2.0ppm
Nitrate - 10ppm

Water temp - 80 F
I have real plants in the tank (if this affects anything)
and i treat the water before adding it.

I ran this tank for 2 weeks and got the water levels nearly perfect before putting the fish in.

Do you think my water levels are causing the finrot?

Im looking into buying a diffrernt brand of PH minus stuff to lower the PH levels.
Whats the best ways of correcting the other water levels?

Many thanks, your help is greatly appreshated

Nick.


----------



## maddyfish (Sep 16, 2006)

First- don't worry about the PH 7.8 is fine. Anything that is designed to lower PH will be acid based. 
Second- Your tank is still cycling, the nitrIte reading indicates that fact. You probably have 2 more weeks of cycling.
Third- Any chance of a picture of the fin rot? There are tons of things that can cause fin troubles, many require different remedies.
Fourth- Clean water is your friend. Change some more water now, won't hurt, and will lower your nitrIte.

Main thing is--First do no harm. Do not add anything to the tank unless you're absolutely sure it is the right thing to do.
Alot of the time doing nothing is the right thing, so long as you have clean water in a cycled tank.


----------



## webby (Jul 20, 2007)

i dont have a camera at the moment, the only one i have is on my phone and thats shite.

Ill attempt to describe the finrot, the Dorsal fin is fine, the red Anal fin is turning black and has a rough edge on it (i hope i make sense) the Caudal fin now has a rough edge and looks like it has been slit with a blade.


----------



## maddyfish (Sep 16, 2006)

Well, what I'd do is a water change, get the nitrItes down some, then watch for a day or so and see what develops.


----------



## Piranha Dan (Nov 11, 2007)

Are you sure this is fin rot? All my reds have a black-grayish tipped anal fins (now you've got me worrying). A couple of mine have ragged tail and anal fins too, but I'm pretty sure this is just from them nipping at each other.


----------



## webby (Jul 20, 2007)

Piranha Dan said:


> Are you sure this is fin rot? All my reds have a black-grayish tipped anal fins (now you've got me worrying). A couple of mine have ragged tail and anal fins too, but I'm pretty sure this is just from them nipping at each other.


Im not 100% but from what ive heard about finrot its very simular. Do you have any pics of your red's? ive tryed to take pictures but i cant get a clear enough pic.


----------



## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

Once your tank completes cycling they should recover fine. Unsure of how much damage is caused to the gills due to the ammonia and nitrites you exposed them to but throw in some predissolved salt in the tank and let the cycle complete. According to your readings the ammonia is already at zero so i would say a few days more to a week at most.


----------



## webby (Jul 20, 2007)

Many thanks!


----------



## Piranha Dan (Nov 11, 2007)

webby said:


> Are you sure this is fin rot? All my reds have a black-grayish tipped anal fins (now you've got me worrying). A couple of mine have ragged tail and anal fins too, but I'm pretty sure this is just from them nipping at each other.


Im not 100% but from what ive heard about finrot its very simular. Do you have any pics of your red's? ive tryed to take pictures but i cant get a clear enough pic.
[/quote]
Unfortunately I can't take pictures of my tank right now (no camera), but basically the anal fins on my Reds are all bright red with a very narrow black strip on the edge. What kinda made me think it was just nips was the slit you were talking about--I don't think fin rot does that. Has it gotten any worse?


----------

