Loaches Online Forum

can you give us the results of your water tests for the new tank?
beautiful fish a ram is it?

pH 7.2
high range pH 7.8
Ammonia .25
Nitrate 0
Nitrate 5.0

those are as of yesterday

Yes it is a ram.
A female.
I would like to get her a friend one day.
She loves to swim with the Loaches.

I know the ammonia should be @ 0 as should the nitrate and nitrite.

those are good results for the short space of time. my tank cycled quickly as well (upgraded to 60g) but i seeded from an old tank.
rams are lovely fish and your right they should be kept in a pair.
the nitrate doesnt have to be at 0. 10ppm is a fine level to have it at.

What do you mean by "seeded?"

I took the old filter from my 10 gallon and rubbed it onto the new filter cartridge before I even added the fish. I also put it a little bit of the water from the 10. I made sure to check the levels.

I feel like I've become a tad bit obsessed with the fish and the levels in the tank tho. Not that it's a bad thing. I want to keep them alive and healthy. That's all. I've been doing my reading every night still with the loaches, tetras and the newest ram.

I've been having an issue with the food tho.

I got the ram New Life Spectrum Cichlid good, 1mm sinking pellets, and the tetras go right for them before she's had the chance to even see them. So she tries to eat their flakes (i try to feed them at the same time but in different spots of the tank) and she spits them out. I have a friend who has kept many different types of fish since she was a child and she told me it would be ok to get them a community type food. The loaches eat what I give them. They ALL love bloodworms as a treat.

I just want to make sure they all thrive and get the nutrients they need.

ive kept kribensis also a type of cichlid that can be kept at lower ph and they do fine on the flake food and a red granule food (not sure what its called). the granule food is good for bigger fish as they get a bigger mouthful and my loaches also love it. its also less toxic when it breaks down in the water compared to things like catfish pellets.

i was obsessed with testing the water as well when i got my new tank set up but now only do it once a week.
by rubbing the old filter on the new you kind of seeded- transferring already established bacteria into the new filter it speeds up the cycling process. i took my old filter and put it in the new tank with my new filter running as well so my tank was cycled in 2 1/2 weeks.

What kind of water conditioner do you use?

Just an FYI: Prime gives a false positive with the API test kit. There's an $8 indicator made by Seachem that works with Prime to give you accurate readings. You hang it in the tank and as long as it stays yellow, your tank's ammonia is good. It is a great way to make sure the ammonia doesn't cause any problems. It works for a year.

I bought two and rotate them through the tanks.

i use aqua safe water conditioner by tetra

TayHudson wrote:What do you mean by "seeded?"

I took the old filter from my 10 gallon and rubbed it onto the new filter cartridge before I even added the fish. I also put it a little bit of the water from the 10. I made sure to check the levels.

I feel like I've become a tad bit obsessed with the fish and the levels in the tank tho. Not that it's a bad thing. I want to keep them alive and healthy. That's all. I've been doing my reading every night still with the loaches, tetras and the newest ram.

I've been having an issue with the food tho.

I got the ram New Life Spectrum Cichlid good, 1mm sinking pellets, and the tetras go right for them before she's had the chance to even see them. So she tries to eat their flakes (i try to feed them at the same time but in different spots of the tank) and she spits them out. I have a friend who has kept many different types of fish since she was a child and she told me it would be ok to get them a community type food. The loaches eat what I give them. They ALL love bloodworms as a treat.

I just want to make sure they all thrive and get the nutrients they need.

Try retra color granules. my rams love em.

I use the tetra min tropical flakes for the tetras mostly, but it even has a ram on the container. Lol. Must be why shes been eating them. I feel dumb that I didn't even notice that! Thanks for the advice!

I added the last of my fish today.

my tank looks green in that last one, lol. my walls are green.

TayHudson wrote:I use the tetra min tropical flakes for the tetras mostly, but it even has a ram on the container. Lol. Must be why shes been eating them. I feel dumb that I didn't even notice that! Thanks for the advice!

I'm telling you, try the granules (what used to be color bits) my rams doubled in size in only 6 months (went from a little over an inch to just under 3 inches) and got really thick on the granules. My loaches go ape for them also.