Tuesday, November 8, 2016

KG Tropicals FB Group Rules

The Tank Talk group is a place where fish keepers can congregate and share there love of this beautiful hobby. John and Lisa will be sharing tons of great KGTropicals content daily so join today!

Group Rules:
1. No advertising businesses in this group. There will now be no tolerance for this, to many times people have been warned about it, they've said they'll never do it again only to spam again a couple days later.
(KGTropicals is the only exception)

2. No advertising of other Facebook groups. This tends to flood the feed with everyone advertising every group under the sun.

3. This group is not age restricted, please refrain from using foul language.

4. NO videos of fish death, no matter what you think these videos are NOT cool!

5. With KGTropicals I have made it my mission to focus my attention on new fish keepers. People know this and many of them follow me because of it. With that in mind there will be ZERO tolerance for members insulting or badgering other members.

6. We all know of the "drama" that tends to pop up in groups and forums. I don't need to explain what I mean by "drama", you know what it is. If posts or comments are posted with the specific intent of inciting this type of drama please report it to admin. This is not the place.

Keeping Gourami Fish with Silver Dollar Fish?

It really pays to know what brand the tank is. If its aqueon or AGA u need the 48/18 aqueon versa tops. If its a marineland or tetra tank u need the 48/18 perfecto lids. There's very little difference but the brands are not interchangeable.

They are good enough for a quick read and give enough information to know if things are majorly out of whack...  Makes sense on why they cost so much...If you want to use strips for a quick read, get inexpensive Tetra Easy Strips.

This is too funny fellas because just for shits and giggles I bought the tetra strips and by god I cannot make heads or tails of the colors. I just did an eye test a month ago and the Dr said my color vision is exceptional! The GH and Kh color range is too narrow between one shade to the next and they look the same http://gourami-fish.com/three-spot/

Don't use the strips. Make the switch to liquid chemical reaction test kits, they're far more accurate. I was using strip based tested for years - I've had aquarium silver dollar species with lots of cichlids. decided to buy a API master kit and haven't looked back since. The variation in readings are crazy! But a little more on topic - those Nitrates are getting high! 

Wheres does everyone get there fish from? I travel an hour and a half to get to the fish store. Anyone else go on an adventure to get fish? Please comment with your recommendations:
Problem: My Tap water quality is poor. a few days ago, I was concerned about some cloudiness in my tank so I ran tests on the water inside the aquarium both pre and post Water change. I noticed that my Ammonia and Nitrate levels did not improve. I suspected something fishy (no pun) hehe with my tap water so I ran the same tests on it. I was bummed to find out that my tap water comes is at 20 Ammonia and 20-30 Nitrates. Yes...that means that when I do a water change I already come in at a deficit.
Additional Info: Due to my tank's location, I cannot use a faucet where I can temperature match my water for WCs so I actually pre-fill a 35 Gallon Tub and use as a reservoir. I pre-treat with water conditioner and keep a heater in there set to a temperature slightly higher than my tank water. I found a conditioner that removes the ammonia in the reservoir where it now tests at zero prior to introducing into my tank. I however cant find a conditioner that would do that with Nitrates.
Tank is:75G with 22 ACs. Cycle is steady apart from my nitrates never falling under 40 (because I cant get Tap water at 0) My Tank does cycle the ammonia down to 0 and Nitrites to zero but my Nitrates hover at 40-60 and creep up to 80 (when testing with API).