# I Need Some Help!



## PiranhaMike661 (Jul 9, 2010)

Ok, my sister just called me and asked me to test her water params because one her fish looks sick. These are african cichlids, not piranhas. so I tested and here are the results ph 7.4 ammonia 0ppm nitrites .5ppm and nitrates 80ppm. Ive got her doing a 20 percent water change and told her to stick to a 10-20 percent water change every day for the next week and ill come back to check. I'm not familiar with cichlids but i was hoping that somebody on here could help me out. Also, shes got one fish with cloudy eye, and another starting to show some signs of cloudy eye as well. Also, she said that she has been changing out both filter pads every month...I told her to just change out one at a time and alternate changings. Also, just a heads up, she's running a 55 gallon tank with a Aqua-tech 30-60 HOB filter. Anyway, can I get some suggestions as to getting her tank where it needs to be? oh, and should I have her do anything about the cloudy eye (i.e. does with salt?) or will it work itself out as the tank stabilizes?


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

She needs more filtration. At least a bigger hob with old one also. Should have a higher pH which makes ammonia that much worse.


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## Tensa (Jul 28, 2008)

you dont need to changeout the filter pads you just need to rinse them with tank water every few months. the tank will never be cycled if she is replacing the pads that often. once the media is left alone the tank will go back to normal. the nitrates are high so regardless of the cycling issue which is the cause of the ammonia she is likely not changing enough of the water on a regular basis.


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## PiranhaMike661 (Jul 9, 2010)

Her ammonia levels are at 0ppm. Also, my ph on my tank for my reds is @ 7.4 too, no issues. I also tested the city water, its also @ 7.4.


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## Tensa (Jul 28, 2008)

i ment nitrites because your reading nitrites sorry for saying ammonia. but the nitrites show the tank isnt cycled in this case as a result of the media constantly being changed.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

BRUNER247 said:


> She needs more filtration. At least a bigger hob with old one also. Should have a higher pH which makes ammonia that much worse.


 Agreed. It sounds like her tank is either over stocked or under filtered. The fiters she has arn't all that adequet by themselves as they can hold little to no bio media so she has to rely on waterchange for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite removal. Id suggest something like a cannister filter so she has a filter that can hold actual media. She also doesnt need to replace the mech pads that often. A simple rinse is fine though like you said mayby rinse one at a time every 1-3 weeks or something


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

PiranhaMike661 said:


> Her ammonia levels are at 0ppm. Also, my ph on my tank for my reds is @ 7.4 too, no issues. I also tested the city water, its also @ 7.4.


Guess i read that wrong I thought ammonia was high.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Both nitrites and nitrate are too high if ammonia isn't. For africans she may want a marine type substrate to increase the pH a bit if she doesn't already as african cichlids often live in higher pH's


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## PiranhaMike661 (Jul 9, 2010)

Ok, I talked her into droppin some cash on a fluval 305 (on sale at petsmart for 125.00) as well as a couple boxes of biomax. I just set it up for her, packed all the biomax in there and left the HOB filter as well. When I took out her driftwood, there was a few dead fry underneath....she neglected to tell me that her fish had bred about a week ago, but only had two fry (that's cuz all the others were dead!). Anyway, did a about a 40 percent water change with a hardcore gravel vac and told her to follow that up with 10 percent water changes everyday for the next week. I'll go check her water params after a couple weeks. Does anybody have any experience with cloudy eye? Is that something that will work itself out as the Nitrites/Nitrates drop?



CLUSTER ONE said:


> Both nitrites and nitrate are too high if ammonia isn't. For africans she may want a marine type substrate to increase the pH a bit if she doesn't already as african cichlids often live in higher pH's


What type of marine substrate do you think? live rock?


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