# Hello



## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

My wife and I are returning to the wonderful world of the housekeeping of fish and plants, alas here arises our problem I had an underwater gravel filter with my 40 gal breeder tank I had a fluval filter, planted tank and fish. 
my wife had several tanks she had planted tanks with different fish eheim filter and filters on the back.

We now have a 55 gal tank and a 14 gal tank 
In the 55 gal tank it is planted with gravel there are 2 angels 4 mini graumies 7 tetras 2 catfish 1 mini pleco 4 snails and 2 Japanese algae eaters

The tank is 6 months old and the fish keeps dying mainly angels all the angels keep dying and we are at a loss

There's some algae do to over feeding bad habit on my part love to watch them in a feeding frenzy

So why do the angel fish keep dying in our tank? 
The water tests are normal
PH 6.0
NH3/NH4. 0 
N02. 0
NO3. 0
See attached foto for test page

Anyway any help would be greatly appreciated





































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## mbkemp (Jul 4, 2015)

Make sure you shake your nitrate like and earthquake before you use it. It should not read zero. 

How warm is your water? Angels like it warm


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

mbkemp said:


> Make sure you shake your nitrate like and earthquake before you use it. It should not read zero.
> 
> How warm is your water? Angels like it warm
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Oh boy that was a newb mistake lol the nitrate was 5 and the water was at 79f degrees

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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

seems you don't have you fish ID'd very good, or at all. lol. 
Post pics of each fish you have so we can properly ID them. Catfish and gourami are very vague.... So is mini pleco, and Japanese algae eater.... Those are commercial names..


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

As I guess I've been out of the trade for many years and may have forgotten much and so I reported what the store employee told me

So please do correct the posting from the pics provided as I would love to know about the catfish I'll try to get better pics of them and post

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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

Why are the snails trying to kill each other by the way ??? 


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

Also I’m wanting to set up a tank for convict cichlids does anyone have a good idea for tank set up ? 
Can the convicts be in a semi planted tank ? Because I really hate fake plants 

After I get tank stand built and tank cycled I will be looking for a mating pair. 

The wife likes the pinks I like the blue / black can they breed? 


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

Thank you for responding to my posts 


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

clownaroundclown said:


> Thank you for responding to my posts
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


*edit*


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

clownaroundclown said:


> As I guess I've been out of the trade for many years and may have forgotten much and so I reported what the store employee told me
> 
> So please do correct the posting from the pics provided as I would love to know about the catfish I'll try to get better pics of them and post
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Ok here is a couple better pics of the cat fish
















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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

DutchMuch said:


> *edit*


Dutch what do you mean by "edit"

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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Are you fertilizing the plants? What are you adding to the water, like dechlorinator (Prime), GH builder (Equillibrium), etc.? Do you do routine water changes?

How did you get such great photos of the fish? Mine won't stay put long enough for me to get more than a colored blur when I photograph them. I don't see any fish that I would expect to be a major problem for you, but I know Angel fish can get pretty mean towards each other. They look more peaceful than they are.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

clownaroundclown said:


> Dutch what do you mean by "edit"
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


edited my post to nothing, would've deleted it but it wasn't an option.


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

API leaf zone and Flourish excel and flourish advance with a liquid co2 booster

We do not put these in the tank on a schedule just randomly 

We do weekly water changes 20-50% depending on what’s going on in the tank 

I get the fish to set still during feeding they like the shrimp pellets 

All the fish were small when we put them in our main tank and so in a sense they’ve grown up together and when we try adding little fish into the tank the angles try to eat them ( we put 15 tetras in the tank next morning we had 3 left it was an expensive treat for the angels ) 


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

clownaroundclown said:


> API leaf zone and Flourish excel and flourish advance with a liquid co2 booster


 Flourish Excel is a "liquid CO2 booster", so what is the second "liquid CO2 booster"?


> We do not put these in the tank on a schedule just randomly


 It is much, much better to do any dosing on a schedule. You can dose once a week, every other day, etc., and you will then be able to see the effects and change accordingly. Also, Flourish Excel only lasts about a day in the aquarium, so dosing randomly does more harm than good. The harm it does is that the plants never get to adjust to having or not having it available, and that isn't good for their health.


> We do weekly water changes 20-50% depending on what's going on in the tank
> 
> I get the fish to set still during feeding they like the shrimp pellets
> 
> ...


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

Hello per hoppycalifs recommendation we have been putting plant food in on a schedule time and now here's a new thing that I've never seen help please























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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

Our nickel sized angles have grown like weeds






























Still struggling with the algae and getting the fertilizer down adding the right amount lol trial and error

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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

glad ur updating this, fts?


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

Sadly I have to report that after my last water change two of my angles have stopped eating and almost all of my fish are flashing there are no white spots or any visible signs of sickness like ick etc 
my second tank I lost all my fish snails had a good dinner had to flush another one yesterday and this morning I’ve got meds going into the main tank trying to save what I can but what to fight against 

The fish are dying I’m heart broke and need advice 

What the heck happened it was just a regular water change water test done everything is inside normal parameters 

S.O.S
Help they are all dying


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

How do you perform your water changes? I had a Very similar incident happen to me a bit ago with my 65 gallon as you may have heard...

If you use buckets, like 5 gallon buckets like i commonly do to either put straight into the tank or put a pump into the bucket, then leading into the tank, either way- was your bucket dirty? bleach in it? anything like that, anyone use it..?

City water or well water? use a DE-chlorinator? seachem prime?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

You need a dechlorinator, like Seachem Prime, if you do more than about 15-20% water change. It is best to dose it based on the total amount of water in the tank, not just the amount of the changed water. 

For a long time now I have believed that all of us learn the best practices when keeping a planted aquarium, then we follow those without even thinking about it. As a result, when we give someone advice we often fail to include a lot of important stuff just because we never think about it. I used to learn a lot by just being there when an experienced person was working on their tank.  Some of what I would observe always came as a big surprise. This is one of the main values of a local aquatic plant club. When ours was active we would sometimes meet at a members home and get to watch what he/she was doing. That is what I miss the most now that our club is inactive.


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

hoppycalif said:


> You need a dechlorinator, like Seachem Prime, if you do more than about 15-20% water change. It is best to dose it based on the total amount of water in the tank, not just the amount of the changed water.
> 
> For a long time now I have believed that all of us learn the best practices when keeping a planted aquarium, then we follow those without even thinking about it. As a result, when we give someone advice we often fail to include a lot of important stuff just because we never think about it. I used to learn a lot by just being there when an experienced person was working on their tank. Some of what I would observe always came as a big surprise. This is one of the main values of a local aquatic plant club. When ours was active we would sometimes meet at a members home and get to watch what he/she was doing. That is what I miss the most now that our club is inactive.


I would love to have a club that we could attend

When have a hose attached to the sink and add the chlorine remover as water is added

At least it was a 15% water change maybe 20% will do another water change tomorrow

The water is city water

Any other advice I did not want to loose my angels they where acting like a mating pair

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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

Of course we do not use all at the same time the stress coat is the one we have been using after water changes

I will do another water test and see what it looks like today

Fish still flashing and angels still not eating like they do normally 
Added a corner filter to help out canister filter and over the back filter

Have been watching YouTube one making sumps and am liking the idea very much to clean out the main tank of all the crap hanging inside of it

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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

clownaroundclown said:


> Of course we do not use all at the same time the stress coat is the one we have been using after water changes
> 
> I will do another water test and see what it looks like today
> 
> ...


Well we have one corner of the tank the fish are going to to die we have named ot the corner of death

Currently there are 4 fish fighting for their lives and I'm really afraid what ever is in the water is going to kill all our fish

One tank has been taken down and cleaned out completely all fish died in it main tank is following suit. Doing water changes according the instructions on med bottle

Any advice on how to find out the culprit

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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

clownaroundclown said:


> Hello per hoppycalifs recommendation we have been putting plant food in on a schedule time and now here's a new thing that I've never seen help please
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Update on the algae we put rams horn snails in the tank and wow they are cleaning machines I'll bet within the month the tank will look very nice 









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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

An update for those who are looking at my struggles and happy moments as we start into the fish keeping 

After loosing one tank to who knows what and 5 other fish from my main tank things started looking good the plants have really taken off the rest of the fish have been looking good except one angel still fighting for his life ( we had to take down QT tank for house inspection and are still waiting for them to show up grrrr) anyway we did maintenance on the tank tonight after work. I ran to the store and came home to a surprise, we are now with a breading pair of angels and they laid a bunch of eggs (photo at bottom) 
So the cat fish I was trying to find out about is called an long fin upside down catfish and the store owner said they would stay small lol but not small enough for our tank. They are very neat looking fish and I would be willing to trade if anyone’s interested. 
So bought a second 55 gallon tank was going to put convicts in it but now am thinking of making it a breeding tank , but it’s still up for anything goes 

Here are pics of the fish 


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

hey i got the same UV  UV TWINS!!!


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

Better pics of the cats
















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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

DutchMuch said:


> hey i got the same UV  UV TWINS!!!


Do you like yours? 
Apparently angels like to lay eggs on them lol of all the places to choose it was funny

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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

clownaroundclown said:


> Do you like yours?
> Apparently angels like to lay eggs on them lol of all the places to choose it was funny
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


yea ive had mine for a while now, works great for green water issues whenever you have them. Or just extra water flow. :bounce:


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

We also have been happy with ours it seams to really help 


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