My loaches think they are tiger barbs

[FarrinDrell]

my test kit on the nitrite gives me 0 .5 1.0 3.0 5.0 10.0 as reading indicators

the tank is about 6 months old and the water is very clear

i just happened to pick up some prime while i was at my lfs. while they were testing it.

when i do my weekly water changes i add tetra easy balance, stress coat, and salt

[mikev]

API nitrite testkit gives you 0.25, this is better. OK, assume that nitrites are OK. Use prime to suppress ammonia.

Check your conditioner to ensure it removes chlorine and chloramines.

Add prime to the tank. Slowly lower the temp to 78F, this will make ammonia a little less toxic.

Do extra water changes (15% daily for a few days) to remove ammonia and salt. Use prime on new water. DO NOT ADD SALT. Salt and loaches do not mix.

good luck.

[angelfish83]

my test kit on the nitrite gives me 0 .5 1.0 3.0 5.0 10.0 as reading indicators

the tank is about 6 months old and the water is very clear

i just happened to pick up some prime while i was at my lfs. while they were testing it.

when i do my weekly water changes i add tetra easy balance, stress coat, and salt

Aaaaaaahhhh....

You add salt to a loach tank? That's no good...
You should not use Tetra easy balance if you keep your water changes up. It is not particularly organic, is expensive, and unnecessary.

I do not recommend stress coat as a water conditioner. It is a very primitive slow acting and relatively ineffective formula and is much more expensive than vastly superior products from other manufacturers.

Seachem Prime is recognized as the best water conditioner. Another reasonably decent one is Tetra's Aquasafe. Seachem is more concentrated and much cheaper and more effective.

Never put Easy Balance or Salt in your tank ever ever again. Ever. Whoever told you to do that is not to be trusted.

Salt is used with certain fish which require some salt as a trace in their tank. Fancy goldfish, for example, benefit from the addition of some salt. Then you have your brackish fish, and some livebearers like mollys etc. Salt can also be used with some fish to help their breathing, as a trace for african cichlids, etc.

Scaleless fish, like loaches, generally speaking don't like salt. There are tonnes of exceptions to this rule, but as far as loaches go, all of them don't like salt.

[angelfish83]

API nitrite testkit gives you 0.25, this is better. OK, assume that nitrites are OK. Use prime to suppress ammonia.

Check your conditioner to ensure it removes chlorine and chloramines.

Add prime to the tank. Slowly lower the temp to 78F, this will make ammonia a little less toxic.

Do extra water changes (15% daily for a few days) to remove ammonia and salt. Use prime on new water. DO NOT ADD SALT. Salt and loaches do not mix.

good luck.

Prime is a poor ammonia suppressor. You're better off using something like AMMO LOCK 2 to convert it into ammoniUM. Prime is a more effective nitrite suppressor. It does work on ammonia to some degree but its effect 'sputters out' if you will.

[Kitishane]

Thank you both for your replies. Since I'm not at home to help him with this at the moment, I appreciate having others who know what they're talking about available.

It seems our LFS (as is normal with so many) has been giving us poor advice. We started adding the about a month and a half ago, before we added our loaches, because the girl at one of our LFS said all tanks needed it, regardless. Neither of us had ever heard of that, but figured that a "pro" wouldn't lead us astray, and another associate at another LFS said the same, so we believed them. Big mistake. If I remember correctly, the first LFS employee told us to add 1 tbsp to the tank every time we changed the water.

While he was out, and before he made his test results post here, I called him up (frantically, might I add, after reading another post) and told him to pick up some Prime ASAP!

As for the Ammo Lock 2, I have a small bottle of just plain "Ammo Lock" here at work that I could bring home for him to use (I used it on my work beta tank). I'm not sure if the "2" makes any difference, so I figured I'd ask.

We have been doing weekly 10% water changes, using the Stress Coat as our conditioner. Would you all suggest we keep up with the 10% weekly schedule, and instead use the Prime and Ammo Lock 2, or is there a better way to make sure both are effective?

[adampetherick]

I'd try and up it to 25% 1 or preferably 2 times a week

[mikev]

I'd try and up it to 25% 1 or preferably 2 times a week

Concur. -- but lets make sure this is about the routine maintenance. You need a bit more now.

IME, Prime is sufficient, your ammonia readings are not too high.
Add Prime to the tank based on the tank volume, then start your water changes.

[shari2]

And while you are involved in all this heightened maintenance it might be good to test your water am and pm, just to make sure your tank is not involved an a mini cycle for some reason. If it isn't, great, you just used up a bunch of testers. If it IS, you will be more likely to catch a spike before it does major permanent damage...

[FarrinDrell]

the 2nd i was watching died as well. the other 4 don't seem to be having any issues as of yet the one thing i do remember when they were added to the tank the 2 that died were the 2 that hid, standoffish and didn't interact with the rest of the tank.


hers a pic of the tank setup i am going to add a few more live plants to help remove toxins and add some more hidey places for the loaches



here is 2 of the littles guys haven't named them yet a tiger and our pleco RW

[FarrinDrell]

prime did the job on the nitrites 0

and everyone is looking quite happy
did a 8g water change with NO salt ill do another one on Wednesday

i also added more live plants and 1 more piece of driftwood for hidey places



i read somewhere that bubbles or my bubble wall will not help the plants is that true, and to add current i was thinking about either adding a 20 gallon power head to the tank or upgrading to a different filtration system canister style.

With that if i were to switch to the canister setup if i were to buy a larger setup in hopes i can switch that to the larger tank would that do more harm than good to this 30g tank

[mikev]

Good job. Hope your loaches do fine now. The tank looks pretty nice.

Not sure you need a canister filter. In one of my tanks (29g), I use a very small airstone connected to a strong air pump: this creates a vertical current loaches like to play with. I'd probably go with this type of cheap solution and start planning a larger tank.

Be careful with this decoration. I've seen it at the store here and there were sharp edges inside.