managing right Amonia & nitrate levels wid home made devices

[sahil]

Hi friends.

my name is Sahil. i have recently joined this forum & read articles on this forum. it would be really nice of you guys to help me with my aquarium. to start with i have a freshwater aquarium sized at 48L,18H,15B in size approx 40gallons. i live in India & its hard for me to get the right devices to manage the water quality & i am also not sure how to manage it well. to some extent i have been able to do it on my own by getting knowledge from these forums & online help.

to give u a brief information abt my tank. i have 3 blood parrots they are 4 years old, 2 koi carps approx 1.5 years old, 2 tiger shark approx 3 years old & a recent addition of 2 mono angel. the blood parrots in my aquarioum have been living happily & i was able to give them the environment to breed too but i could not hatch the eggs & they eventually ate it. i have tried it couple of times but have failed. with the parrots breeding properly in the tank i realised one thing that the aquarium is in good shape. my parrots have grown well in size & they are approx 6 inches each i am also planning to move to a bigger tank approx 60L,30H,18B

would like to know from u guys, if i can manage the right amonia & nitrate level in the tank with home made techniques & how to test them & how to condition the water. i normally change the 80% water in every 3 mnths with chlorine free water & add water whenever required. the filter that i have in my aquarium is a pretty simple one i am not sure what would u call it but it has a sponge used as a filter media & an electronic motor which regulates the water through the sponge making it adsorb the fish waste in it & thus requires frequent cleaning. it would also be kind of you to help me with some filteration methods & how can i create the algea scrubber as mentioned in this forum. coz i am not sure if i can get a motor which will circulate the water.

it would be kind of you to reply to me on my email address ie. sahil_arora@dell.com or i will check this webpage for ur replies

Thanks & Regards
Sahil Arora

[SantaMonica]

Do you have sand, gravel, rock or wood?

[sahil]

i have gravels. crushed marbles. no rocks or wood. if wood would be beneficial please let me know which one to install inside the tank & how to do that & how to maintain the same.
also if u can help me on one more topic. as i already mentioned i recently got 2 mono angels added to my tank. the one out of the two is acting very aggresive & it bothers one of the koi carp that i have also does not let the other angel swim properly. it always makes these 2 fish (koi & other angel) scared. despite of the small size it has been bothering the koi carp. the koi is almost 6 times bigger than this angel. i happen to see bruises on koi carp might be done by the angel or may be it must have hurted itself. should i return this mono angel & get another one or what would be the best.?????

[SantaMonica]

You can build a simple algae scrubber, and it will keep water conditions good without any water changes at all, and without the sponge too. You can keep the sponge, but it won't be needed for water quality. As long as you have at least a half inch, up to an inch, of gravel on the bottom.

Sounds like you feed a lot. Use this to figure the size of the scrubber: Each cube of frozen food you feed per day needs 12 square inches of screen, with a light on both sides totaling 12 watts. Thus a tank that is fed one cube a day would need a screen 3 X 4 inches with a 6 watt bulb on each side. A larger tank that is fed 10 cubes a day would need a screen 10 X 12 inches with 60 watts of light on each side. If you feed flake, feeder fish, or anything else, you will need to blend it up super thick, strain out the excess water, pour it into a cube, and see how many cubes it is.

As for your fish questions, that is better asked in a fish forum.

[Floyd R Turbo]

How big are all these fish that you have in this tank? It sounds like you have way too many fish. The "gallon per inch of fish" rule is all relative to the size of the fish, if you have a big oscar, it's more like 5 gallons per ich, or even 10. That's not a bio-load requirement, it's a swimming space thing. Big fish need more space.

It could also be a territorial issue with mixed species. SM is right though, you should find a fish forum to discuss those issues with someone who is familiar with the species. For FW, I like www.aquariumadvice.com

[sahil]

thanks for ur reply guys

Monica:i am sure that i am not over feeding at all. i feed my fish twice daily as much as it can consume in 2 mins, i give them worms, flakes, egg white, vegies, fruits, chicken etc. will certainly try to get the algae scrubber ready in sometime. it would also be kind of u to advice me how to monitor the right level of amonia & nitrate levels without any technical device as i dont get them here locally.

Floyd: i have 9 fish in the tank. yes u are right abt the thumb rule of 1 inch per gallon. my parrots are now grown up abt 6 inches each & yes thats the reason i am planning to move to a bigger tank. as mentioned earlier i am soon moving to a 5 feet with 3 feet tall aquarium which i think would be sufficient. the 2 angel fish that i have are pretty small in size its just 1 inch in size each. i have been trying to get myself register to the forum u adviced & it seems they have some technical issues in getting me registered so i have marked them an email regarding the same hoping to get the same in somtime. in ur comment u've mentioned "SM is right though" what do u mean by SM?? please reply

[SantaMonica]

You should have at least some ammonia test strips, or better, an ammonia test kit.