mr5oh

I've had some problems with one of my tank, and any time I plug the fish tank heater in, the tank always sits at a constant 80 degrees (with it on the lowest setting), according to two different thermometers. Here recently I've had to separate two of my mollies from the other fish as they where way too aggressive for the other fish in the tank (Strange I know). So I started a 10 gallon tank using gravel and water from my larger tank.

Thinking it was my cheap heater causing the tank to be 80 degrees all the time, I bought two new heaters.

So now I have a:

20 Gallon tank w/ 50 gallon filter, and 150 watt heater.

10 Gallon tank w/ 50 gallon filter, and 150 watt heater.

Both have a separate 30 gallon air pump with two large air stones in each tank.

The 10 gallon tank is perfect with, it sits at a constant 75 degrees.

The 20 gallon tank though for some reason has weird hot and cool spots, the front top of the tank tends to be 80 degrees, the back half of the tank is colder, .....

My 20 gallon tank is a little on the full side, and does contain 15 small fish, all roughly 1" or so in length. I'm using a bio-wheel filter that is meant for a 55 gallon tank. My water always stays crystal clear, and my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate etc, always look good. However I'm going through filters like crazy, I have to put a new filter cartridge in the filter about once a week, the filters I pull out are so clogged they won't flow water. I'm feeding my fish a pre-measured amount of brine shrimp, once in the morning, once at night before I go to bed, so I don't believe they are being over fed. I can't find reuseable cartridges for my filter, so this is starting to get exspensive. Is there another type of filter I could use, perhaps a canister type filter?

I just can't believe a filter should only last 7 days?

I had been feeding my fish regular flakes, along with a pinch of sinking style food. Here recently I've switched to feeding them brine shrimp and blood worms on a fairly regular basis. I still give them flakes everynow and then. So now the question, I've notice some rapid growth in all the fish, even fish that I've had for almost a year have gone through a growth spurt in the last few weeks.

All the fish are growing like crazy, and one of my little guys who has had many problems with what I believe to be a swim bladder infection has been very healthy here lately.

So is the brine shrimp and blood worms, just that much better for them? Can I feed it to them all the time rather than even messing with the flakes? Would it be better for me to buy live brine shrimp rather than the frozen stuff I've been buying?

How large can a mystery snail get? When I got mine they were about the size of a standard marble, now they are larger than anything else in the tank?

Not that I care, because they are my favorite thing in the tank, but just wondering how large they really do get? Do they stop growing eventually?

I really like the colors of the Red Platys, but I can't get them to stay alive for some reason. I tried some when my tank was about a month old, and never had any luck. 7 months later (tank is not about 8 months old) I've tried them again, 2 days later I already have one dead one. They are eating, and don't seem ill, I just come home and one is dead? Are they really that picky of a fish?

I have a 20 gallon tank, and use aquarium salt. Using a biowheel filter for a 55 gallon tank. Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate are all basically 0. In the tank is, 4 X-ray Tetras, 3 Black Mollies, 4 (now 3) Red Platys, 3 Snails, 2 catfish, 3 Small Dwarf Frogs, 1 loach, and 1 small algae eater.

The Xray Tetras we've had since the beginning and they are doing fine, one of the frogs is original too, and all seem to be doing fine.

Is there anything I could be doing wrong? I know my tank is a little full, but the fish are all pretty small, I have a good filter, and stay on top of water changes.

I have a 20 gallon tank. We went on vacation for a week, the in-laws extremely overfed our fish. The fish weren't fat or anything the water was just a horrible dark brown. I did water changes until it was clear again. Took care of the tank for a week, and then had to go out of town for 2-weeks. My wife fed the fish during this time. For some reason half of the fish died, and one of our snails died. One of the fish that died after I came back was ballooned up to about 3 times his normal size. None of the other fish that died balloned up like this. None of my x-ray tetras have been showing any signs of being ill, its been the other fish so far. Except now one is having trouble floating, he's always sinking, still swims around and eats though. I've been feeding them a varierty of sinking food, flake food and every now and then brine shrimp.

Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate levels are all fine, and this is an established tank. Could there be something wrong with my tank?

So I have two mystery snails in my tank, best I figure they are both male. They have been eating very well and have grown noticeably in size (They are starting to look a little cramped in their shells). Will they eventually grow a new shell if they out-grow their current shell? Will they continue to grow, or will they only get so large?

Ok so I have 12 fish in my tank, along with a few other things (snails, loaches, frogs, etc.). I have two fish that are food hogs, and pretty overweight. Is there anything I can do? (The other fish get food, but these two guys are really getting fat, it can't be healthy?)

My tank was fully cycled quite a while ago. Now though my levels never rise, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate, stay at basically zero at all times. About my tank: In my 20 gallon tank I have 20 things, and the filter is a bio-wheel actually meant for a 55 gallon tank. The water always stays crystal clear. (I know what a horrible problem to have?)

So do I still have to do the water changes? Or are water changes unnecessary unless the levels start to rise? Is it safe not to do any water changes until the levels rise?

Well I have both light and dark blue gravel in my tank, for some reason all the light blue gravel is starting to collect algae. I don't want to wash all the gravel, because I don't want to kill the bacteria I have built up.

Would it be safe to just take some of the gravel out, just the top level to clean it? What works best to kill the alage (what can I wash the gravel with)?

Ok I got a snail for my tank, however I'm getting mixed information on what they eat? Will they be fine just on the algae in the tank?

I've tried some of the algae wafers in my tank, but neither the snail or the algae eaters find the wafers before they dissolve. Or the fish swarm the wafers and chase the snail away.

If they can't live on just the algae, can they eat live plants?

Thanks in advance for any responses!

Ok after many weeks and questions, my tank has been ever so slowly cycling, its still has never fully cycled, but my levels have been staying at a safe level.

Today I added two fish, and added some water conditioner to help keep them from getting stressed. Everything seem fine, when I got home from work tonight the water is super cloudy! My water has never, ever, been cloudy in all these weeks its been crystal clear.

I used my dropper tests, and everything is in check:

Ammonia: 0-0.25, its not quite 0 but not 0.25 either.

Nitrite: 0.25

Nitrate: 0

Now that is the lowest my Nitrites have ever been, which I took to be a good sign? But if it is good, why did my water get cloudy?

Is it ok to do a 20% water change, or is this part of the cycling and I should leave it alone? I have some stuff that is supposed to clear up cloudy water, but I don't want to add anymore chemicals to it until I know its safe to do so?

The filter I use on my 20 gallon tank can hold two filter cartridges. One sits right behind the other.

My thoughts were; I've been running the second filter (which obvisuly doesn't gets dirty) to allow bacteria to build up in it. Then when the first filter needs replaced I move the second one forward and put the fresh filter in the second spot to allow bacteria to build up in it.

Am I rotating these correctly, or am I wasting my time and money running two filters in there?

So I took some fish tank water up to the local PetSmart to have it tested, and my Nitrite and Nitrate levels were off the charts. So I did a water change and back about 36 hours later, and it was still higher than their test strips charts would go. They use the test strips that you dip in the water.

So I bought a dropper style test to do at home, as I figured I'd be in for a series of water changes, but when I tested it with the drops everything came out normal? My levels weren't 0 (my tank hasn't completely cycled yet) but they were at a safe level?

So which do I believe? Do those test strips go bad after a while maybe?

So our X-Ray Tetra had slowly been filling up with eggs, but its been over 2 weeks now and she still hasn't released them? How long before fish normally "lay" their eggs?

We recently picked up two female platy fish (I didn't realize they were female at the time). We already had two male platy fish in there. The female fish don't seem very active (we've had them for a few days, so they should be used to the tank by now), they just tend to hide a bunch, but they do come out and eat, and both seem to have quite an appetite.

Is this just the way female platys act, or is having the males and females in the same tank making them act funny? Should there be more males, or more females or is the same amount fine?

So I've been using distilled water in my fish tank, intially my alkalinity was at 80. Within a couple days it dropped to 0 and has stayed there. From what I understand alkalinity helps the water resist pH changes? But then I read alkalinity is bad for the fish's gills and eyes?

So whats the deal, is having my alkalinity at 0 bad? Is there anything I can do to modify the alkalinity if I should have some? What is a normal / ideal alkalinity level?

Thanks in advance!

Yeah, I have another question about tank cycling. My tank is relatively new so it is still cycling.

The first numbers there are two days ago, the numbers on the right are todays numbers:

Ammoina- 0.5 ..|.. 0.25

Nitrite- 10 ..|.. 5

Nitrate- 20 ..|.. 20

Chlorine- 0 ..|.. 0

Hardness- 75 ..|.. 75

Alkalinity- 80 ..|.. 0

pH- 7.8 ..|.. 6.8

Ammonia and Nitrite are dropping, which I take it is a good sign.

Why didn't the nitrates raise in the nitrites went down? I do have the order right, right? Ammonia --> Nitrite --> Nitrate

What is alkalinity, and should this be 0? Seems like 80 to 0 is a drastic change, but I don't know what it means so...

Thanks in advance!

My fish tanks problems, have spanned several weeks and questions here, and therefore the whole story is rather long, all the details I have posted here for reference:

http://bbb.quadratec.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ub...

The bulk of my new question is here:

Finally getting smart, I figured maybe my tank was never cycling as much as I was changing the water, so I've just left it alone for about a week now. (I haven't done any water changes since the change to the 20 gallon tank). It’s been a little over a week so I had the water checked today:

Chlorine - 0

Ammonia - 0.5

Nitrate - 20

Nitrite - 10

Hardness - 75

Alkalinity - 80

pH - 7.8

Since my Nitrate and Nitrites are finally testing something other than zero, I assume this means my tank is finally beginning to cycle? How do these levels look for week and half old tank roughly? Should I do anything, or wait it out longer and see what the water checks in another week?

Thanks in advance!

BestBuy owes me $127.79 and I can prove they owe me the money, what can I do?

I purchased a service plan for my laptop. My laptop needed a new battery. They can’t get the correct battery. Following BestBuy’s instructions I bought a new battery directly from HP, and faxed in the appropriate information to them for reimbursement. I was told I would have a check with in three weeks.

We are going on week 6 now, and every time I call they tell me they don't know if that department got my fax, or even if it is being worked on. I'm told the reimbursement department is separate and they do not take phone calls, and I can not talk to them.

-I have documentation for everything, I have when I called, and what I was told, but I don’t have all the names of who I spoke to.

-I am still in possession of their incorrect replacement, and will not send their battery back until I have a check.