I'm Happy With My Gouramis...BUT

[L u]

They are much more hardy than Goldfish..and they are labyrinth so they
can breathe oxygen. The water is crystal clear at last. The only problem
is the ammonia level is off the wall. I have to do water changes almost
every night, and even after I change like 90% of the water, the card
still reads a dark green!

WHY? Will the ammonia level ever drop down?

[ExPat]

On Mar 29, 2:36*am, (L u) wrote:
> They are much more hardy than Goldfish..and they are labyrinth so they
> can breathe oxygen. The water is crystal clear at last. The only problem
> is the ammonia level is off the wall. I have to do water changes almost
> every night, and even after I change like 90% of the water, the card
> still reads a dark green!
>
> WHY? Will the ammonia level ever drop down?

Maybe.maybe not. Your still dealing with a small tank and an overly
inefective undergravel filter I assume. Undergravel filters are a trap
for junk which produces ammonia. And all fish breath oxygen, they just
get it in different ways.............To be honest, IMHO a gold fish is
very hardy.......and IMHO your skating onthe edge by having labryinth
fish as if it or any other had to assimilate its o2 intake OUT of the
water they wold have died. This is not a sign that gouramis are more
hardy by any means, and its not how fish are really judged to be hardy
or not. The ammonia levels can certainly catch up and burn the fishs
gills and yes they do have gills, as well as possibly cause more
problems with pathogens that are deadly to any fish be it a labrinth
type or not.

[L u]

Yeah.....that small tank and that stupid undergravel filter. Do you
recommend the Aqua Clear hang on the back filter? I keep adding AmmoLock
to the water every other night, cause the ammo levels are scary. Gosh,
changing 90% of water, you think would at least help a BIT. Yeah, I do
see some buried crap under that stupid filter. Should I maybe not use
ANY gravel?

Why is the water finally so clear, if the ammonia is so high?

[ExPat]

On Mar 29, 1:41*pm, (L u) wrote:
> Yeah.....that small tank and that stupid undergravel filter. Do you
> recommend the Aqua Clear hang on the back filter? I keep adding AmmoLock
> to the water every other night, cause the ammo levels are scary. Gosh,
> changing 90% of water, you think would at least help a BIT. Yeah, I do
> see some buried crap under that stupid filter. Should I maybe not use
> ANY gravel?
>
> Why is the water finally so clear, if the ammonia is so high?

No relationship between the two. Water can have ammonia, nitrite and
nitrates off the scale and still be clear.

My personal preference in hob filters is the Aqua Clear simply because
its been around so long and its a tired and true design that works and
is so simple and quick and cheap to maintain...........There are lots
of good hob filters out there but they will nickle and dime you to
death on keeping them supplied with filter media as well as cleaning
them. You should just not have to add that amount of ammo lock. I
personally have never used one drop of the stuff in my life. Its plain
to see with high ammonia you simply do not have any conversion to
nitrite to nitrate going on which is the sign of a healthy system. Its
like you have a perpetually cycling aquarium. Get a AC40 or better
yet a 70 and a 10 gal tank at a minimum

[L u]

YEA!
Tonight the ammonia level dropped down!
Far from perfect, but it's dropping!

Thanks for your advice. I want the Aqua filter and a bigger tank.

Lu

[[email protected]]

clear tank or pond water is a danger sign. it means everything is dead, the bacteria
and the algae.

Sometimes when I had tanks (and UGF) I would get a nitrate problem from rotting
vegetation and would have to draw the water down to a few inches, then run water in
one side and out the other. I had a couple rubbermaids I used for this, run the
water into one, add the dechlor, then pump it out.
http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/care/hardware.html#AGING
once I got rid of the gravel I didnt have that problem. Ingrid


On Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:41:55 -0400, (L u) wrote:

>Yeah.....that small tank and that stupid undergravel filter. Do you
>recommend the Aqua Clear hang on the back filter? I keep adding AmmoLock
>to the water every other night, cause the ammo levels are scary. Gosh,
>changing 90% of water, you think would at least help a BIT. Yeah, I do
>see some buried crap under that stupid filter. Should I maybe not use
>ANY gravel?
>
>Why is the water finally so clear, if the ammonia is so high?