# NitrAte spike



## jhatchett (Feb 27, 2007)

I do not understand what happened... I did a routine water change went to bed and awoke the following morning with 2 fish died... went to work early came home and the wife told me that 4 others passed away. These were hardy fish, I raised them from about a half inch, at the point of death they were now around 8-9 inches. The tank is a 125 gallon running two fluval 360. When I got home I tested the water with strips and it came back at ph 6.0-6.5 nitrite 0 nitrate was off the chart it could not register. But what I don't understand is that one fish is alive and shows no signs of ailments I just don't like the fact that he is by himself now. 
The water change was about 30 precent and I cleaned the class with a magnet scrubber, I wanted the tank looking well for visitors arriving the following day, just prior to the water change I did mow the grass, and my wife splashed gasoline on me and some may have gotten on my hand. I have always had a problem with planaria but nothing crazy. As of the moment I am doing around 10% water changes every other day with gravel washing inorder to get nitrate back on track. I use tetra aqua safe at every change and this time treated with metafix.
A couple of things that went trough my mind was the possibility of chlomine, in the tap water... taking too much benefical bacteria out caused the tank to recycle. And now I might have gotten the bottles for water clarifier and aqua safe mixed up (i don't even know why i have clarifier). I have never experenced a nitrate spike that killed fish. something else has to be up. But at least I have one left, to let me know I am on the right track with the water. 
I do have access to well water with a ph of 7-7.5 and zero nitrate, and nitrites but it does look a little tainted and not as clear.

Also I never ran the tank lights, only about 8 hours every other month. What are others thoughts on running tank lights and how ofter. I understand that plants are a "green" way of getting nitrates back to normal. 
Any help would be appricated.

James


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## Soul Assassin (Nov 21, 2006)

jhatchett said:


> I do not understand what happened... I did a routine water change went to bed and awoke the following morning with 2 fish died... went to work early came home and the wife told me that 4 others passed away. These were hardy fish, I raised them from about a half inch, at the point of death they were now around 8-9 inches. The tank is a 125 gallon running two fluval 360. When I got home I tested the water with strips and it came back at ph 6.0-6.5 nitrite 0 nitrate was off the chart it could not register. But what I don't understand is that one fish is alive and shows no signs of ailments I just don't like the fact that he is by himself now.
> The water change was about 30 precent and I cleaned the class with a magnet scrubber, I wanted the tank looking well for visitors arriving the following day, just prior to the water change I did mow the grass, and my wife splashed gasoline on me and some may have gotten on my hand. I have always had a problem with planaria but nothing crazy. As of the moment I am doing around 10% water changes every other day with gravel washing inorder to get nitrate back on track. I use tetra aqua safe at every change and this time treated with metafix.
> A couple of things that went trough my mind was the possibility of , in the tap water... taking too much benefical bacteria out caused the tank to recycle. And now I might have gotten the bottles for water clarifier and aqua safe mixed up (i don't even know why i have clarifier). I have never experenced a nitrate spike that killed fish. something else has to be up. But at least I have one left, to let me know I am on the right track with the water.
> I do have access to well water with a ph of 7-7.5 and zero nitrate, and nitrites but it does look a little tainted and not as clear.
> ...


sorry for the loss, quite a perplexing issue with all the unknowns, IMHO I would say your PH is to low which makes me believe that your ammo and nitrites could be off as well? what are they? 30 % water change is to much (I do 10% x2 a week) how often do you do yours @ 30%? whats chlomine? wash your hands before and after you deal with your tank. are you saying you only turn on your lights 8 hours every other month? I turn my on 6 hrs a day, 3:30 to 9:30 pm. DId you also work on your filters? maybe taking out or washing your BB colony in tap water?

sorry but cant really provide you witha good answer, try to answer some of my questions and maybe other members will have some insights for you


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## jhatchett (Feb 27, 2007)

I agree that a 30% water change was to much. I believe that I might of caused the tank to recycle, thus spikeing the nitrate levels. I will add the rest of a bottle of cycle I have from start up over a year and a half ago. 
Chlormine is a mixture of ammona and chlorine in molecular form, this is becoming more widely used at water treatment plant across the country, it does not evorprate like chlorine does in water and burns the gills of fish like smoke to a firefighter. It also can happen when chrolrine is mixed with ammona making water toxic. i usually change the water about 20% every two to three weeks, and I did a total of 50 precent water change in a period of 4 weeks (a 20 and 30), and clearing all alage from the glass at the same time. I did not work on the filters.
As of now the test strips I have only measure the following
GH 30 ppm
KH 30 ppm
ph 6.5
NO2 nitrite 0
NO3 nitrate 160ppm

the temperature of the the water is always around 72. I will hook up the timer for the light, to premote more alage growth. and continue with 10% every other day with the vacuum.


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## philbert (Mar 8, 2007)

yea there are too many unknowns to pin down what really happend.


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

jhatchett said:


> I do not understand what happened... I did a routine water change went to bed and awoke the following morning with 2 fish died... went to work early came home and the wife told me that 4 others passed away. These were hardy fish, I raised them from about a half inch, at the point of death they were now around 8-9 inches. The tank is a 125 gallon running two fluval 360. When I got home I tested the water with strips and it came back at ph 6.0-6.5 nitrite 0 nitrate was off the chart it could not register. *I would buy a real test kit to get accurate readings.
> * But what I don't understand is that one fish is alive and shows no signs of ailments I just don't like the fact that he is by himself now.
> The water change was about 30 precent and I cleaned the class with a magnet scrubber, I wanted the tank looking well for visitors arriving the following day, just prior to the water change I did mow the grass, and my wife splashed gasoline on me and some may have gotten on my hand. I have always had a problem with planaria but nothing crazy. *If you've always had this problem then your not doing a good job of cleaning your gravel, How much and how often to you water change?* As of the moment I am doing around 10% water changes every other day with gravel washing inorder to get nitrate back on track.*This will def solve the problem, water quality is the issue IMO* I use tetra aqua safe at every change and this time treated with metafix.
> A couple of things that went trough my mind was the possibility of chlomine, in the tap water... taking too much benefical bacteria out caused the tank to recycle.*Did you recently clean your filters?* And now I might have gotten the bottles for water clarifier and aqua safe mixed up (i don't even know why i have clarifier).*Lose the clarifier so this doesnt happen again* I have never experenced a nitrate spike that killed fish. *I think that its disease that comes from having high nitrates that would kill the fish not the nitrates themselves. No way to know for sure how long this has been going on and I wouldnt trust those test strips even if you recently tested.* something else has to be up. But at least I have one left, to let me know I am on the right track with the water.
> ...


I dont see a reading for your ammonia, I have also used those test strips and they dont have an ammo strip, you gotta buy it seperately.
Please do yourself a favor and buy yourself an API master test kit. It comes with everything you need. You can then use the test strips just to measure the GH and KH, thats what I do just so they dont go to waste.

Without an ammo reading reading I can only speculate but the odds are greater that they died from an ammo spike rather than a nitrate increase. Really a nitrate spike cant happen over night unless your filters were working over time that day lol
Nitrates would have been removed when you did your last waterchange so I dont think they would skyrocket over night . Also as I said its not the nitrates themselves that kill its the disease that can result from high nitrates. I forget what it's called.

Were your fish ever gasping alot at the surface or more than usual?
This would be a sign of an ammo spike. High ammo is more toxic at a higher ph and your is at 7.5. 
Test your ammo asap and do at least 30% waterchanges with a good gravel vac at least once a week, I personally do 40% once a week and have never had a problem in my 150gal.

If you say Youve always had a problem with planaria then thats a def red flag that water params were not up to par. Either your not doing a good job of cleaning up uneaten food or your not doing thorough enough gravel washes. Do you use a bucket to do your waterchanges? If you do that could explain the planaria problem.
I think its impossible to do a thorough gravel wash using a bucket because the bucket gets full after just a couple of min. Not enough time to really suck out the debris IMO.
Get yourself a python, it works much better especially when you run to your toilet and you dont waste any water. Then use the sink to fill it back up.

Bottom line I think this is a tank maintenence issue that buit up over a long period of time and eventually caused an ammo spike.

Please keep us updated on the situation. Also that last fish you have is one tough cookie to have lived through this situation, never let it happen to him again.

I'm sorry about your losses and best of luck with the last p


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

jhatchett said:


> I agree that a 30% water change was to much. I believe that I might of caused the tank to recycle, thus spikeing the nitrate levels. I will add the rest of a bottle of cycle I have from start up over a year and a half ago.
> Chlormine is a mixture of ammona and chlorine in molecular form, this is becoming more widely used at water treatment plant across the country, it does not evorprate like chlorine does in water and burns the gills of fish like smoke to a firefighter. It also can happen when chrolrine is mixed with ammona making water toxic. *i usually change the water about 20% every two to three weeks, and I did a total of 50 precent water change in a period of 4 weeks (a 20 and 30),* and clearing all alage from the glass at the same time. I did not work on the filters.
> As of now the test strips I have only measure the following
> GH 30 ppm
> ...


You're digging too deep the problem isnt the city water its you.
You're not doing proper tank maintenance, you nedd to be doing at least 30% a week.
IMO it's amazing that they lasted as long as they did those poor fish. The only way to get rid of nitrates is through water changes and a dirty tank would def result in an ammo spike. 
You need to be doing alot more tank maintenance especially with that many p's in a 125.

Good luck man and I hope you learn from this the importance of proper tank maintenece


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## NegativeSpin (Aug 1, 2007)

I have a spreadsheet that estimates the nitrate level after each water change based on some crude measurements I took of nitrate production from 5 inch pygos. I have an assumption that nitrate production is directly proportional to the mass of the pygos and the mass increases as a function of their length cubed. That said I plugged your numbers in of 7 pygos in a 125 gallon tank with an average length of 8.5 inches and performing 10 percent water changes every other day using tap water that has 0 nitrates in it. According to my spreadsheet if your nitrates were zero starting at the beginning by the 65th water change the nitrates would have reached a steady state concentration of 203 PPM. That is 130 days. After that if you stick to your maintenance schedule your nitrates would stay at 203 ppm but would drop down to 142 ppm immediately after your 30 percent water change.

I had previously worked out the numbers and you can perform up to a 40% water change before the pH changes by 0.2 or greater. If you do 1 40% water change every other day you'll have a maximum nitrate concentration of 50 PPM in your situation. If you do 40% water changes a day your maximum nitrate concentration would be 25 PPM just before your next water change. That kind of tank maintenance becomes labor intensive and is the reason people like Gross Gurke go to using a drip system for water changes. To equal a 40% water change in your tank every day you would have to adjust the "drip rate" to 2 GPH.


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

Post ammonia results like the others said. Also, plants are going to help with 160 ppm. Your going to have to control that with water changes. My best guess would be that your nitrates caused your ph to crash and thats what killed your fish or it was ammonia.


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## jhatchett (Feb 27, 2007)

All of you are right on the money, I think that this was a long time coming and that the last fish is a miracle fish as of now. I got a real test kit today, luckly there is a petco right behind work. I tested the water again using the the kit and honestly I am ashamed to post the results, but here they are. I will preform daily water changes of 20 precent daily to get things back in order.

Ph 6.2 
ammo 80
nitrite 0
nitrate 80

But i appreciate all the info so fast on getting this situation resolved, it has been a real knock in the head for me. I admit, I should have been doing more in taking care of the fish. Thank you for the spreadsheet numbers as it puts everything into perspective, also the information provided is invaluable. You knew what happened, while I was still wondering. I will work to fix this promptly in order to save the last fish, he may grow up to be the 12 incher I wanted. I also relied heavy on my filtration setup, and alway just listened to the rule of 6 fish in a 125, not accounting for size, or the amount of food and waste consumed and produced. Thank you to everyone for your concern and may you be blessed by Him.

James


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

In this hobby your always learning, it's been 4 yrs for me and everyday I learn something new everyday.
Don't beat youself up over it we all make mistakes, it's just important we learn from them and do better next time.

I'm glad we were able to resolve the problem and now you can get back on track.
Sounds to me that you're very passionate about the hobby as am I and I wish you all the best.

Since you have one pygo left if I were you I would search the classifieds or kijijji and such for some similar sized pygos to replace the ones that passed.
You could even find some cariba's and try keeping those for a change.

All the best Hatchet and keep us posted on whatever you decide to do.
If you get some new fish please post some pics too


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## Soul Assassin (Nov 21, 2006)

jhatchett said:


> I agree that a 30% water change was to much. I believe that I might of caused the tank to recycle, thus spikeing the nitrate levels. I will add the rest of a bottle of cycle I have from start up over a year and a half ago.
> Chlormine is a mixture of ammona and chlorine in molecular form, this is becoming more widely used at water treatment plant across the country, it does not evorprate like chlorine does in water and burns the gills of fish like smoke to a firefighter. It also can happen when chrolrine is mixed with ammona making water toxic. i usually change the water about 20% every two to three weeks, and I did a total of 50 precent water change in a period of 4 weeks (a 20 and 30), and clearing all alage from the glass at the same time. I did not work on the filters.
> As of now the test strips I have only measure the following
> GH 30 ppm
> ...


if your KH and GH test kit is good they are both to low, especially the KH, anything below 50 ppm will/can crash your PH, are you using/adding RO water? If not your tap is very soft and carbon deficient. Second thing is that b/c your PH is 6.2 (later post) your BB colony is not going to thrive, they do best at PH 7. Luckily for you the lower the PH the less damage ammo does to your fish but your ammo is not 80 but 8.0 lol.

jack up your temp to about 78, 72 is to low IMO

re-cycle your tank, hope your last P survives and try not to use any ammo lockers

good luck, sir


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## jhatchett (Feb 27, 2007)

PH is still about a 6.1 but it has dropped a little 
also ammo is around 2.0 now 
nitrite is at 0 
nitrate is at 120

I have been doing 20% every other day. Also is there such a thing as to many water changes. Is that possible?


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

You want to make sure there is some ammonia still in the tank so your filters can cycle. your main concern will be when the nitrites spike. I dont think the ammonia at 2.0 is that high.


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## Show_Me_The_Teeth (Dec 4, 2002)

First off we all know you got to many water changes. You also have perfect ph for me-P's are from S. America. Next I would only clean one filter at a time. You have a nice size tank so you can get away with longer waiting periods during water changes. Dont feed your fish as much. Fish dont eat 3 square meals a day. Next I would use PRIME. PRIME breaks down these harmful substances. Think of it has a quick fix to stop the fish from dying so you can fix your tank. I would go weeks without a water change with 50+ p's in a 200g and never had any chemistry problems. I would put my name on PRIME thats how sure I am of it fixing your tank.

USE PRIME TRUST ME IT WILL HELP MORE THAN CYCLE.

SMTT


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## jhatchett (Feb 27, 2007)

Got it bro. Thanks for the advice. I will be getting some more in the upcoming weeks, let me know if anything is going on.


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

Show_Me_The_Teeth said:


> First off we all know you got to many water changes. You also have perfect ph for me-P's are from S. America. Next I would only clean one filter at a time. You have a nice size tank so you can get away with longer waiting periods during water changes. Dont feed your fish as much. Fish dont eat 3 square meals a day. Next I would use PRIME. PRIME breaks down these harmful substances. Think of it has a quick fix to stop the fish from dying so you can fix your tank. I would go weeks without a water change with 50+ p's in a 200g and never had any chemistry problems. I would put my name on PRIME thats how sure I am of it fixing your tank.
> 
> USE PRIME TRUST ME IT WILL HELP MORE THAN CYCLE.
> 
> SMTT


Prime is a great product but it does not work miracles.
For the amount of p's he had and size he should have been doing 40% waterchanges
weekly with gravel washes. His problem was lack of tank maintainence end of story.


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## Bawb2u (May 27, 2004)

It was posted before but it may have gotten lost in all the informations so here it is again:

Beneficial bacteria lives best in pH of 7.0+. Lower pH slows down bacterial action, the lower the pH the slower the ammonia converts to nitrite and then to nitrate. The bacteria also propagates slower.The lower your pH the larger the area needed to grow bacteria becomes.

As was also stated your carbonate hardness (KH) is very low, which means that as driftwood leaches, fish crap deteriorates and food spoils, your pH is going to drop, which means the bacteria slows down, since it's ALL related. 
One of the best ways to raise KH is by adding baking soda to your tank. This will also raise your pH to a level where your bacteria functions best. 
Here is a applet to help you figure out how much baking soda is needed and wht the resulting pH change will be. http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/CalK...p;pHChange=0.60


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## SpecialEffect (Aug 7, 2009)

Show_Me_The_Teeth said:


> Next I would use PRIME. PRIME breaks down these harmful substances. Think of it has a quick fix to stop the fish from dying so you can fix your tank. I would go weeks without a water change with 50+ p's in a 200g and never had any chemistry problems. I would put my name on PRIME thats how sure I am of it fixing your tank.
> 
> USE PRIME TRUST ME IT WILL HELP MORE THAN CYCLE.
> 
> SMTT


 Oh snap! Someone actually mentions this stuff lol.... I just baught a new aquarium, and i was given the whole seachem kit (prime, clarity, some other thing) Seems to work well, my water doesnt get cloudy ever =)

Seachem product's make me more happy then using nutrafin cycle crap.... heh


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## Show_Me_The_Teeth (Dec 4, 2002)

Feefa said:


> First off we all know you got to many water changes. You also have perfect ph for me-P's are from S. America. Next I would only clean one filter at a time. You have a nice size tank so you can get away with longer waiting periods during water changes. Dont feed your fish as much. Fish dont eat 3 square meals a day. Next I would use PRIME. PRIME breaks down these harmful substances. Think of it has a quick fix to stop the fish from dying so you can fix your tank. I would go weeks without a water change with 50+ p's in a 200g and never had any chemistry problems. I would put my name on PRIME thats how sure I am of it fixing your tank.
> 
> USE PRIME TRUST ME IT WILL HELP MORE THAN CYCLE.
> 
> SMTT


Feefa,

Prime is a great product but it does not work miracles.
For the amount of p's he had and size he should have been doing 40% waterchanges
weekly with gravel washes. His problem was lack of tank maintainence end of story.
[/quote]

Yes it does. I have seen it save tanks not just P's but all types of freshwater fish.

40% percent water changes and gravel washes? Who has that time and more important where is the benefical bacteria going to live or establish itself to do any good. Big tanks usually have 2 filters or some type of of 2 stage filter. For example: If you have a wet/dry not only is their the filter media but the balls inside. An aquaclear filter has a sponage and the ceramic media only clean one of the medias. As for an aquaclear on a big tank you probably run 2 of them. You would only do a 20% water change and only clean one filter. That keeps the bacteria on top of things without the tank wanting to cycle again.

I ran 2 wet/dry filters with a equalizing tube between them w/carbon in my overflow. I had a UV sterilizer and 2 850 powerheads with media filter. I would do a water change of about 10-20% about every 3 weeks. Just enough to clean the gravel. I would also change the media in one wet/dry and one powerhead. I also made sure I used my PRIME. I never had any fish die or any cloudiness. Remember to much is just that. Water in the wild doesnt change that fast nor should your fish tank.

I would actually recommed a freshwater drip system. In big tanks it makes fish grow 3-5 times faster and less worries about water chemistry.


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

Show_Me_The_Teeth said:


> First off we all know you got to many water changes. You also have perfect ph for me-P's are from S. America. Next I would only clean one filter at a time. You have a nice size tank so you can get away with longer waiting periods during water changes. Dont feed your fish as much. Fish dont eat 3 square meals a day. Next I would use PRIME. PRIME breaks down these harmful substances. Think of it has a quick fix to stop the fish from dying so you can fix your tank. I would go weeks without a water change with 50+ p's in a 200g and never had any chemistry problems. I would put my name on PRIME thats how sure I am of it fixing your tank.
> 
> USE PRIME TRUST ME IT WILL HELP MORE THAN CYCLE.
> 
> SMTT


Feefa,

Prime is a great product but it does not work miracles.
For the amount of p's he had and size he should have been doing 40% waterchanges
weekly with gravel washes. His problem was lack of tank maintainence end of story.
[/quote]

Yes it does. I have seen it save tanks not just P's but all types of freshwater fish.

40% percent water changes and gravel washes? Who has that time and more important where is the benefical bacteria going to live or establish itself to do any good. A true hobbiest makes the time and the beneficial bacteria lives in your filters also. I now have sand substrate so there is no BB there at all. Big tanks usually have 2 filters or some type of of 2 stage filter. For example: If you have a wet/dry not only is their the filter media but the balls inside. An aquaclear filter has a sponage and the ceramic media only clean one of the medias. As for an aquaclear on a big tank you probably run 2 of them. You would only do a 20% water change and only clean one filter. That keeps the bacteria on top of things without the tank wanting to cycle again.

I ran 2 wet/dry filters with a equalizing tube between them w/carbon in my overflow. I had a UV sterilizer and 2 850 powerheads with media filter. I would do a water change of about 10-20% about every 3 weeks. Just enough to clean the gravel. I would also change the media in one wet/dry and one powerhead. I also made sure I used my PRIME. I never had any fish die or any cloudiness. Remember to much is just that. Water in the wild doesnt change that fast nor should your fish tank. I dont even know how to respond to that LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

I would actually recommed a freshwater drip system. In big tanks it makes fish grow 3-5 times faster and less worries about water chemistry.
[/quote]

First you say you dont need much water changed then you say that you recomend a drip system that will help your fish grow out faster, Why the hell do you think that is????? Seriously dude you're nuts and I'm not even going to waste my time on.

I will say this though, the amount of fish your stocking and their size in a single tank will greatly affect how much water should be changed and/or how often aswell


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## Show_Me_The_Teeth (Dec 4, 2002)

Thats right you dont need that much water change. You do water changes on mass scales of 40% your getting rid of BB especailly if it comes from all gravel vacing. A drip system and I mean a slow one doesnt effect the amount of BB you have since your not removing the BB from the gravel vac. Fresh water is always better but you dont have to be anal about it. Every week, come on, you got be kidding me. There is more to life than water changes.

Far as my water doesnt change that fast in the wild comment. Water ph doesnt go from 6.0 to 7.5 overnight. Levels in bacteria dont fall or raise overnight either. What I was trying to say is make changes slowly not fast. Some people dont consider that your tap water is 7.5ph or whatever and your tank might be at 6.5. That can shock fish. But what do I know I never lost a Piranha in any of my tanks due to water problems. I have even dropped ph/stimulate the rain season to trigger breeding. Even in the rain season water conditions change slowly compared to a water change of 40% with gravel vac and filter media change.

I have been in the hobby for more than 12 years; I think I am a hobbiest. I have brought them here and I have educated many people on how to keep them even if its underground here. I have worked in LFS and spread my knowledge of P's, rays, snakeheads, and other S. American fish. I have also found resources from friends with more than 40 years in the hobby keeping these band fish. In the end its not that hard to keep P's. They are a very hardy fish.

SMTT

If you want to. PM me. We can talk more there if you like maybe will better understand each other.


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

Show_Me_The_Teeth said:


> Thats right you dont need that much water change. You do water changes on mass scales of 40% your getting rid of BB especailly if it comes from all gravel vacing. A drip system and I mean a slow one doesnt effect the amount of BB you have since your not removing the BB from the gravel vac. Fresh water is always better but you dont have to be anal about it. Every week, come on, you got be kidding me. There is more to life than water changes.
> 
> Far as my water doesnt change that fast in the wild comment. Water ph doesnt go from 6.0 to 7.5 overnight. Levels in bacteria dont fall or raise overnight either. What I was trying to say is make changes slowly not fast. Some people dont consider that your tap water is 7.5ph or whatever and your tank might be at 6.5. That can shock fish. But what do I know I never lost a Piranha in any of my tanks due to water problems. I have even dropped ph/stimulate the rain season to trigger breeding. Even in the rain season water conditions change slowly compared to a water change of 40% with gravel vac and filter media change.
> 
> ...


Way to toot your own horn there fella :nod:

You keep typing but nobody's reading, at least I'm not


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

ohhh come down off that high horse feefa, its not safe to be riding a horse that has been smoking drugs


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

JustJoshinYa said:


> ohhh come down off that high horse feefa, its not safe to be riding a horse that has been smoking drugs












I'm high too though so really I don't mind.
Thanks for your concern though









I'm not on a high horse it's just that SMTT thinks he knows it all


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## ismheg (Oct 2, 2009)

try adding a pinch of salt eveytime you do a water change this will make it easier for your fish to breath


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

ismheg said:


> try adding a pinch of salt eveytime you do a water change this will make it easier for your fish to breath


salt can help to ease the effects of nitrite poisoning in an emergency and can also help with treating a few other things that may pop up in your tank, but the addition of salt is not needed in a healthy aquarium so adding it after every water change is not necessary


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## Ba20 (Jan 29, 2003)

Im with show me teeth, I do gravel cleanings like once every 6 months, your gravel bed is where the mojority of your BB is "if i recall correctly", Also if you add plants they take up nitrate like mad, in my planted tank i have to dose nitrate.


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