Aquarium Owners Can't Agree on Water and Feeding Basics
21 posts in the last 30 days, all from r/Aquariums.
“i just bought a fighter fish (betta fish i think) and a small bowl (0.5 to 1l max) that's always open at the top, classic spherical bowl. i smoke cigarettes and cannabis in the room, mostly always with the doors and windows closed. i didn't think about the smoke until coming…”
“My almost 1 year old aquarium suddenly has 0 nitrates according to my tests. I noticed my fish has not been eating for about a week. I thought she was getting tired of the food, or was scavenging it off the bottom after I turned the lights off in the evening. I noticed today…”
“My ammonia is at 1ppm, nitrite 5ppm, and nitrate 50 mg/L. Do I continue to ghost feed the tank, or should I stop feeding it, and wait untill ammonia is 0 and nitrite is 0, do a water change, and THEN add the fish??? The ammonia is going down, the nitrite is going up, and nitrate…”
Several posts express frustration and questions related to aquarium maintenance, including water cycling, fish food selection, cleaning tanks (especially sterilization), dealing with algae/stains, and stocking appropriate numbers of fish. Users are seeking advice and resources for proper care.
SOURCES (60)
“i just bought a fighter fish (betta fish i think) and a small bowl (0.5 to 1l max) that's always open at the top, classic spherical bowl. i smoke cigarettes and cannabis in the room, mostly always with the doors and windows closed. i didn't…”
“I've seen the standard 20% change weekly advice, which is what I was going to do. But I've also read that it depends on amount of plants, bioload, clean up crew, etc. It's a 20 gal, I currently have 6 stem plants and 10 more on the way (including some low cover plants that I hope takes over all the substrate eventually). There are 4 fancy guppies in there now. Planning to add 4 more guppies, 6 amano shrimp, and a couple snails. Eventually I also want to add 2 African dwarf frogs. I s”
“My almost 1 year old aquarium suddenly has 0 nitrates according to my tests. I noticed my fish has not been eating for about a week. I thought she was getting tired of the food, or was scavenging it off the bottom after I turned the lights off in the evening. I noticed today, that her fins were tucked and I began to get concerned. I watched her for about 20minutes after I put food in, and she didn't even make a move towards the food. I decided to check the water parameters even though I just”
“Hello all, Sorry for the noob question but seeking guidance on what to do at this point. I have a 10 gallon tank and am doing a fishless cycle. No plants/no life. A day ago my tank (or so I thought) finally cycled. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, acceptable amount of Nitrate so following guidance I added about 40 drops of fishless ammonia to see if the numbers would stay consistent. Waited over 24 hours and retested the water. Ammonia is back to green and nitrite is back to purple. I assume this means my”
“i have a 20 gallon cycling currently and am planning to get small tetras such as neons, neocardinia shrimp, pygmy corydoras, and a dwarf gourami. tips for making sure all fish get enough food, what types of food i should buy, and how much to feed? i have only kept bettas before so i dont have experience w a community tank. submitted by /u/Pristine_Jello5018 [link] [comments]”
“I bought this yesterday, how often do i feed them, I give 8-10 grains and the orange one eats them mostly, they eat it as long as they see, probably gave them like 4-5 times till now and when to change water and what else I need to do, etc. Fish food was colourful small grains like. Tell me all necessary things please. Thank You. submitted by /u/itsgemmy706 [link] [comments]”
“After 20 days my Ammonia is 0, nitrites are 0, and my nitrates are also very low which idk if it’s good or not since I have a lot of plants in my tank, but am I good to add fish? I did a 20% water change today and everything seems stable in my tank so am I good to go? submitted by /u/No_Entertainment6515 [link] [comments]”
“Hey there! I've had 5 synodontis polli whites in my aquarium for a week now, however they dont seem to react to food whatsoever. I have tiny granules and smaller sinking pellets. The sinking pellets took their curiousity once and they nibbled on it and seemed put off by it. they have been ignoring them ever since. The granules dont seem to get much of a reaction from them either. I do hope they eventually eat them when they sink and spread out in the tank. I added 7 checkered barbs this week”
“In my classroom, I have a 20 gallon tank with a betta, neon tetras, and some otocinclus catfish. I want to know what to do as far as feeding them over our first school break of the year. A brief search online said that tetras and the betta can fast for up to a week, but I'm concerned about starving them. I know the betta and the otos will be fine. I've fasted bettas before and the otos eat the algae in the tank. I'm worried about the tetras. Will they be okay fasting? Do I need to ta”
“So I set up my tank about a year ago and did a fishless cycle. It was fine and thriving with a load of neocaridinia. I moved house in June this year, had to nearly fully drain the tank to move it, kept the filter in the water as much as I could. It took at most an hour to move the tank and get it all plugged back in. In the next few days a few shrimp died, I did a water change and bought more shrimp about a week later. After adding these shrimp all of them and my existing shrimp died. Tank was e”
“So I was planning to get a 60x36x36 cm tank with 6 sparkling gourami 9 clown kili 9 cpd some shrimp and amano I was going to get northfin nano pellets but are there any other good food brands not including fluval submitted by /u/Ok_Top6537 [link] [comments]”
“TL;DR: Looking for suggestions for improvement in my community aquarium’s diet! Guppies, tetras, corydoras, and kuhli loaches. I’ve got a 20 gallon community aquarium (working on upgrading to 37 gallon) and I want to make sure I give all my fish a healthy and varied diet, but I have no idea where to begin! I’ve been researching and trying different things for a while now, but I’m struggling with the specifics of what to feed and how often. Current tank stock is 4 guppies, 4 black neon tetras, 5”
“My ammonia is at 1ppm, nitrite 5ppm, and nitrate 50 mg/L. Do I continue to ghost feed the tank, or should I stop feeding it, and wait untill ammonia is 0 and nitrite is 0, do a water change, and THEN add the fish??? The ammonia is going down, the nitrite is going up, and nitrate is also going up. I’m very new to tank cycling and I get the process of ammonia to nitrite to nitrate, but how do I progress after I reach the right water parameters? submitted by /u/No_Entertainment6515 [lin”
“that’s biofilm on the shrimp I think but nitrite is .25 and ammonia is 0 and I have 0 nitrate still, it’s been approximately 1 week and two days since I put this this tank up submitted by /u/SnooChickens6701 [link] [comments]”
“10 gallon- 2 cories, 15 exclamation point rasboras, shrimps 10 gallon- 7 strawberry rasboras, shrimps 20 gallon long- 7 zebra danios, 6 otos, 2 ancient endlers (like 3 years old) All heavily planted, auto lights, sponge filters submitted by /u/aligpnw [link] [comments]”
“Here is cinna, my betta fish. She has moved cross country by car. This is her heated temporary tank. I’ve been trying to do water changes every day along with some prime to help detoxify water but she is still stressed. I had to leave my tank and all decorations, gravel, and my master water test kit behind at my old house, so I must get a brand new tank. I tried to transport the filter media but the water leaked everywhere and now its useless. So when I do get a new tank in a week or so, fish in”
“Hi all, I’m very stumped. I have two cycles going and neither will budge. One is fishless and the other with fish. Both have been going for four weeks now. Fishless: A five gallon aquarium with HOB filter loaded with ceramic media. Pure ammonia was added day 1 and holding steady at 2.0 ppm. That tank has a heater set at 80 degrees. I have a sponge filter in there and an air diffuser stone. I’ve got a few bags of ceramic media in there along with extra sponges for my Fluval 407 (for my 55 gallon”
“this is my first aquarium and I wanna make sure I get my facts right, I looked it up on Google and it said 1 time daily but im not sure if that’s correct knowing how Google is with pet care, so if anyone here is experienced with black skirt tetras please inform me on how much I should feed these fish daily please! submitted by /u/Dapper-Language-2847 [link] [comments]”
“This is probably common but I'm totally new to this. I've been doing a fishless cycle for a week and my tank got up to 4 ppm ammonia. I wasn't seeing any changes day 5 so I did a 10% water change then the next day nitrites started going up! Now on day 7 Nitrites are still rising, but my ammonia levels are still about 4ppm... Should they be going down? I haven't added any ammonia. I ghost fed on days 1 and 2 and that was it submitted by /u/Knittinmusician [link]”
“Im starting my first aquarium with about 8 tetras and 4 guppies. what food do you reccomend? im on a budget as well. submitted by /u/Necessary-Badger3539 [link] [comments]”
“I ser up this 50L tank a month and a half ago, and it's still not cycled and no improvement showed. I don't know what to do. I have two other aquarium (300L and 20L) both cycled with live creatures in them. When i started the 50L, i added half of tap water with conditioner and half of the big aquarium water, the tank has a filter, a heater (24/7) and light (around 8-9h a day). I added beneficial bacteria, liquid CO2 for the plants. The plants are growing really fast but the cycle is real”
“20gal, week 10 of cycle. Properly cycled in ~3 weeks, added 2 crawfish and a few minnows, ammonia spike happened sometime after that I attribute to either overfeeding or the craws tearing up the couple plants I had in there or both. Since then ammonia has gone down to ~.25-.5ppm, and back up again (been keeping it down with weekly water changes/ammo lock when needed which works, but a week later back up to >8) , and these are the other parameters I’m working with. EVERYTHING is off the charts”
“I currently have a tank with 1 swordtail, a Bolivian ram, 12 tetras, 10 harlequin rasboras, 10 shrimp(can't remember the exact name) and 6 corydoras. I was reading a bit more about the corys and based on what I read a lot of sources state that I should have specific sinking food dedicated to them? Is this true? I don't want my Cory's to starve, but I also want to make sure it's okay to add another food, and will the other fish steal it. Then a second question. I've been feedi”
“Bought some brine shrimp eggs and a hatchery and wanting to feed a 420 litre tank (110 us gallons). Can anyone tell me how much of the eggs I should use? Stocked with around 15-20 tetras (haven't counted them in a while), 3 small albino threadfin acaras, 3 small angel fish, 12 threeline corries. Other things are some amanos, nerites and rabbit snails but I dont think they count lol. Also is it right that they will only be usable for the one day really, like I can't mix up a batch and use”
“When cleaning water change equipment (water siphon, tweezers, etc) do I wash it with tap water? I’m worried that a bit of the chlorine will get into my tank and kill my fish submitted by /u/Accomplished-Pop6582 [link] [comments]”
“Hello! This newbie needs advice! I’ve been reading about the nitrogen cycle and how to cycle a new tank before adding fish. I have Dr. Tim’s Ammonium I’m going to use to kick start the cycle. My question is, can I use the Seachem Stability and Prime with this? Stability seems to be the bacteria starter and Prime the conditioner. But would I be better off using Dr. Tim’s bacteria starter instead? Also, the Seachem Prime says it also detoxifies ammonia, nitrates and nitrites, but when I’m cycling”
“Relatively new to tanks, decided to buy some daphnia bags and start my own little culture. I read that you can put paprika in the greenwater feed to make them reddish + help naturally boost your fish's pigmentation, but also the primary way to tell if your daphnia are stressed or infected with the Nuke Your Whole Culture Bacteria is the degree of vibrant pink/red they might be If you start feeding paprika to your daphnia, is there a way to tell the difference between Healthy Paprika Red vs L”
“About 2 weeks into a fish in cycle, just today showing no2. Do I 25% water change? Or wait? Temp 26C submitted by /u/KaptainDumbass [link] [comments]”
“I have one established tank & want to start a new one. I know that the beneficial bacteria doesn't live in the water column & instead lives on the surfaces of items in the tank That being said, if I vacuumed the gravel of my existing tank would I grab enough bacteria to transfer to another tank? Or do I have to move the actual substrate medium to transfer the bacteria? Thanks!!! :) submitted by /u/CatskillSprouts [link] [comments]”
“i have some corydoras and a bristlenose pleco that she doesnt bother but i added some mollies and i had to remove them because it was chasing and trying to eat them, i was thinking tiger barbs or another female and make it a speices tank but im not sure. there is also no plants because she insist on dragging them out the sand. shes a peice of shit. any suggestions help because everything i read says that their peaceful and mollies or tetras would work but maybe my fish is just mean submitt”
“I recently set up a new walstad aquarium at 50 gallons with a 800l/h internal filter for flow. After a week of day heavy feeding for ammonia, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all 0. I’ve added shrimp and they seem to be happily grazing on the dead plants. Now I need some stocking ideas! Ideally I want fish that won’t eat the shrimp and plants while keeping it pretty lightly stocked. Please give me some ideas for this :) submitted by /u/United-Conference-97 [link] [comments]”
“I already have the plants in my 5 gallon aquarium and put tap water and 20 percent is from otger aquarium.I realized that its wrong so Im asking right now how to treat the water correctly.I searched on google and say I can just add vitamin C in the water because i dont have water dechlorinator and conditioner at the moment.I will go to the petstore and get dechlorinator .how many days after I should add the fish after putting dechlorinator? The tank still dont have fish yet submitted by &#”
“I've seen people use yeast and citric acid for their diy system, but which should I use? I have a 5 gallon tank with shrimp and baby fish, and how do I make sure it'll work, currently have instant yeast. submitted by /u/Miserable-Low5267 [link] [comments]”
“I've done a lot of searching and I just can't seem to find a good answer, so I will try reddit. I have a 62L planted tropical aquarium with silvertip tetras and khuli loaches. I used to have a gourami, but he passed away after getting ill. I tested the water after he died, and my ammonia was at 5ppm!? So I did a water change with the appropriate conditioners and tested the next day and it was at 1ppm. So starts my quest to get rid of my ammonia problem. I have removed all bio waste I can”
“I have sixteen neon tetras and they are aaaaaaabsolute goddamn pigs, bless their greedy little hearts. Their standard food is slow sinking micro pellets, and I worry about over feeding them. The recommended time of 1-2 minutes of active eating seems way too long given how quickly they vacuum up anything I give them. Does anyone have educated reckons around roughly how many micro pellets neons should be eating in one go, or how long I want to aim for eating time for neons specifically? subm”
“Hi folks! Hoping to get some advice here. I have a 40 gal breeder tank I am trying to do a fishless cycle with. It's been about 5 weeks since I fed the tank with ammonia starter. My tap water also has chloramine in it so there's a little extra juice from that as well. About 2 weeks in, I put a small amount of material from a betta fish tank I have that has a strong cycle and also dropped a bit of bacteria starter I had. Now on week 5 I have put Prime Stability in the tank for 4 days now,”
“Summary: sick betta in a planted 7 gal, ammonia is constantly at 0.2, even after water changes. What can I do to solve this? Hi. I’ve currently got 3 tanks, a 33gal community, a 6 gal with a betta and 2 nerites, and a 7 gal with another betta. I was away from home for a while (over a month) and someone was feeding my fish and doing water changes on the tanks. When I got back my one betta that is in the 7 gal was really sick, she’d lost all her colour and wasn’t lively or eating, and to make matt”
“I’m thinking 3 tetras, but I need opinions! I’m a beginner, so nothing too complex. The water fluctuates usually between 77-80 degrees Fahrenheit. I’m not sure about anything beyond that. Any opinions? Also, any advice is appreciated! submitted by /u/Mrs_P0tat0_Head [link] [comments]”
“Hi all! Tomorrow I'm getting blackline pygmy corys (6) and emerald rasboras (8). What is some last minute or often overlooked information you can share? I already know the basics of care and everything, just wanting some little things people often forget about. Thanks in advance! submitted by /u/sillyghosty [link] [comments]”
“Hi so my fish have bred for the first time and im a bit confused on what to do, its a variatus platy I have it kept in a floating tank do it shares the same water quality as my other fish, i feed ot crushed up fish flakes as I dont have access to baby brine shrimp but heard that crushed fish flakes are a good alternative, im a bit worried about trying to clean its tank up as the floating tank is small and my Gravel cleaner might suck it up Am I doing everything right or is there something im mis”
“Dear all, I plan to do a Tank with only low amount of female adult Medaka - so they always keep population stable. That s why I only need to know which live food for adults, as I want to keep water change to minimum. Adult Artemia? Moina? Baby Artemia? Copepods? Fairy shrimp? What is recommended in terms of nutrition and correct size? THXXX submitted by /u/Practical-Zombie-761 [link] [comments]”
“I have a 10 gallon tank that’s been in cycling for a month and I pinch a bit of flake food in once in the morning and once at night. I also add more water because of evaporation once every two weeks. Unfortunately, my ammonia, nitrate and nitrates are still all zero and haven’t moved since the start. What am I doing wrong? submitted by /u/GH0SHI [link] [comments]”
“So I just got five platys and a gourami dumped on me today in plastic bags and had to set them up in my old 60 liter tank real quick. I've done a fish in cycle in the past years and years ago but not with this level of stocking. How do I keep these poor little guys alive? I've dosed the tank with prime and stability, I have a API test kit arriving tomorrow. Haven't fed them yet. Plan on putting some rocks and plants in tomorrow. submitted by /u/Chance-Selection-198 [link]”
“I have a 75 G with a school of 11 serape tetras, 2 paradise gouramis, a bristlenose pleco, and about 10-12 peppered corys. I know the rule of “feed only what they can eat in 3-5 minutes” but these guys are pigs and will devour ANYTHING in that time. I worry if I feed that much they will be over eating… but I also don’t want to under feed and risk not everyone getting something. I currently feed sinking pellets for the cats, 1/2 a veggie round for the pleco (which usually gets stolen by the corys”
“I currently have tap water that I dechlorinate and it's relatively harder water. I thought it would be fine with cardinal tetras but I lost one out of 8. I already did a water change and there was signs where one of them was gulping and floating at a 45 degree angle. The others look really healthy and it's a planted tank 32 gallons that had been established for months with only plants and a snail and starter. I only added the cardinals 8 cardinals and 4 ottos 3 days ago and about 10 cher”
“Hi, I promised a friend of mine that I would feed his fish while he is out of country. He set up an automated fish feeder that holds 15 days worth of food. He gave me a quick demo of how to refill the food in the feeder before he left few days ago, but I forgot the complete process. I will need to refill the food day after tomorrow and I’m nervous I will mess it up. I vaguely remember the feeder being a flat disk shaped one and he asked me to long press power button. I am not sure if I’m suppose”
“Hi all, long time lurker here. I have a 40 gallon planted tank, with quite a bit of livestock. I believe there are 6 yo-yo loaches, a few julidochromis (recently had some fry!) an ADF, three SAE, a few ember rasbora’s, a dwarf guorami, and like 3 rice fish. My tank is fairly heavily planted with aqua soil. I’ve read countless posts here on water changes and top offs. My first year with this tank I did about a 4 gallon water changes weekly, which turned into monthly a few months later. Since the”
“Hi all, just added my shrimps, and I wonder if they’ll have enough to eat. So I had a community tank with tetras and neocaridina but the fish all got NTD so I had to take my neocaridinas out to properly clean and re cycle my tank. So I bought a used one and took everything I could from my former 22 gallons to fill this new 8 gallons dedicated to the shrimps. Old substrate, old hiding spots, old plants and old water (because shrimps are not affected to NTD and I get to keep most of my beneficial”
“I'm at a fish store and I had them check my water. I told her I was cycling my tank without fish and she said you aren't supposed to do that. I'm so confused submitted by /u/HHallowqueenn [link] [comments]”
“Cycled by Thursday...old media is no joke! But srsly, (with a water change) is this safe for fish yet? The ammonia must be coming from the stratum, but will it just be full blast nitrates for a while? submitted by /u/101101011010100 [link] [comments]”
“Hi all, I am trying to cycle my 20G tank for almost a month now but not having any luck. Attempting to do a fishless cycle and started with ammonia at 3 ppm and Fritz7. After 4 weeks ammonia has come down to 0.5 ppm but both nitrites and nitrates are zero. Have two sponge filters, temperate at 80F and PH is 7.6. My second tank (5G) was not cycled and has a betta in it. Just have regular sponge in the filter compartment and didn’t add any nitrifying bacteria. Ammonia and nitrite show 0 ppm and ni”
“When you buy a school or community fish how often do they all survive? I recently bought 8 serpae tetras and within 24 hours lost 1 of them. It’s a well cycled 20 gallon tank, no obvious water parameter issues. Seems like every time I get a school of community fish from local pet store like Petco or pet supplies plus they never all survive. Makes me nervous to ever buy “nicer” expensive fish. submitted by /u/beerandfishtanks [link] [comments]”
“I have a 75 gal tank for over a year with Congo Tetras I removed but also have 2 festivum 2 angels 1 pearl gourami 2 Bristlenose 2 panda garra What else could I add factoring in I want either a solo or a schooling fish but have 2 establish cichlid pairs matured in my tank? Let me know thoughts so I don’t hurt any fish. submitted by /u/critmcfly [link] [comments]”
“Hi, I have a newly cycled 20 gal I'm wanting to make home for some pygmy corydoras. My waters pH naturally sits around 8. Should I try to lower it with cattapa leaves or will it be okay for them? submitted by /u/nervouslibra [link] [comments]”
“Hello all, hope everyone is doing lovely! I’m two weeks into a fishless cycle at the moment. My ammonia is reading about 4ppm; is that too much? Should I do a water change to get it down to 2ppm, or should I just let it be? I’m not expecting the cycle to be complete anytime soon, but I also don’t want to stall it. submitted by /u/Necessary-Bunch9797 [link] [comments]”
“For my class im given about a 15 gallon tank and told to keep 5 fish in it and all of them have to live. I have to put aquatic plants and such. I know barely anything about fish keeping and i’d like suggestions for hardy species of fish that could survive in a 15 gal until i move it to a pond or much longer tank. Any suggestions on how to prevent filter deaths, keep plants alive, Shrimp/aquatic isopod care? Im gonna do separate research but i feel like a 15 gallon tank is so small for 5 fish and”
“I got my betta almost two months ago from petsmart(I know the opinions on the company but he was so small and not over 10 dollars). He was an on the whim decision, so he was breifly homed in a 1.5 gallon tank while I worked on getting a 10 gallon. He was in the 1.5 for three days. My 10 gallon is a planted tank. A few weeks into getting him, he developed spots on his fins from what I belive came from a peice of driftwood given to me by a mutual acquaintance who seemed really smart. I noticed it”