Changing gravel/substrate help

not sure what stone it is ... could very well be ceramic

 

All I can say is WOW!!!! I hope I can get my tank to look like this one day! And you concerned about which algae exactly????

Well done on a stunning tank!

 

the algae on the gravel... Thanks for the compliment....

 

Thing is you can only keep one Oscar in that tank and maybe a large bottom dweller.

I would concentrate on getting rid of the fish first before trying something risky like changing the substrate.

 

What species of catfish do you have?

 

synodontis catfish..

 

- You could do this in situ, but I would rather get some buckets move fish and water, remove hardscape and pebbles - add the washed sillica, add hardscape - run water water (normal WC routine) make sure temporary container temp and now filling tank are +_ the same ... add fish back treat as a possible new tank, might hit new tank syndrome depending on filtration (but that you should have left alone and hope it did not dry out) .

BTW why you adding salt?

Later Ferdie

 

LFS and alot off guys are using salt ... so i tried and it works ....

 

100% just wondering if you are trying to fix something or have sick fish that you are treating since I would not recommend a BIG change if you are medicating at the moment.

Yeah .. it gets a thread every now and again here also Who still uses salt in their freshwater tanks

 

What type of salt are you using?

Scaleless fish are very sensitive to aquarium salt,aquarium salt is usually only used in the treatment of sick fish and speeding up the healing of wounds.

LFS isn't exactly the best source of information.

 

LFS did advise regarding scaleless fish , But i am trying to get rid of alot of my fish cant seem to find any takers,
i have a hifin in there but he seems very happy... perhaps the ratio of salt to volume water im using isnt that harmful?

 

Well you aren't going to see the bad effects of the aquarium salt until after a month or 2.

What's your salt to litre of water ratio?

Also take a look at Epsom salt.

 

im using 5tsp per 20 liters , what are the bad effects of aquarium salt?
I have got rid of the fish. only have the parrots and deacon left. so now i can start planning properly what i want to do.
Planted tanks are in my head at the moment.

 

Thats seems a bit overdosed,the usual is 1tsp per 20L.

Salt causes Kidney failure and can wipe out your filter bacteria.

It's better to go without salt and only use it for treatment of the fish in a hospital tank.

 

ja maar jy weet LFS . So what can you suggest in terms of water conditioner before/While doing water changes ?
I think also whats a decent test kit cost ?

 

Well you can age your water.

1.Put tap water in a barrel/container that containes about 30% Total volume of your tank (250L tank means about 75-80L or so container)

2.Treat the water with Seachem prime (other products can be used)

3.Aerate the water with an airpump

4.Put a heater in the container a few hours before doing your water change so the water in the container reaches a temperature close to your tanks water.

Remember to plug out the heater before doing the water change,the heater will burn out if it's not submerged and may damage the container and can produce a fatal shock.

You can either use the bucket system to get the water from your container or a small waterpump with a pipe.The pipes can be bought allot cheaper at builders warehouse then at your LPS.

The water needs to be aged for a minimum of 2days,most people do 2xwaterchanges a week so it fits in nicely.

You can fill up the container again and repeat the steps from the top after each waterchange.

If you are looking for test kits then you need one that can read NH3,NO3,NO4 and PH.

Test kits are usually only used when the fish are sick,displaying unusual behavior or if you are cycling a new tank so you can check when it's done cycling.
Some test bottles need to be replaced a few weeks after use since they can crystallize and become useless.

A cheap test kit i am using is called TetraPond Freshwater testkit.