Please Help?! Water Issues In An Established A.C. Tank

[jbsig120408]

Hello, thank you for having this forum. I've researched the posts/threads as much as I could and I wasn't able to locate a topic that was similar to mine.


I have a 150g African Cichlid tank (set up 5 yrs @ current location) and we do water changes every 6-8 weeks. Feed every other day. It's got 14 a.c.'s (largest 4 are approx 3inches) all others are 1 inch and smaller (babies born in tank). Also have 1 pleco (4 in) and 1 raphael (5 inch). We lost a 6yr old raphael but he was very deformed from a small baby when we got him. He was 4 in long and nearly that 'round'.


I use 2 magnum 350 canister filters (1 has biomedia 'stars' and carbon the other just carbon). We rinse the blue filters when the outflow decreases (every 8-12 wks).


Water has 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia, pH is about 7.0-7.2 range, 0 chlorine, nitrates are about 20, soft water and no alikline.


My problem is the water has bubbles that are remaining on the surface (sometimes a little foamy in corners). The bubbles pop but it takes a while and they never disperse like they should. We lost another fish today (about 1 inch long). He's free of spots or fin famage. All the others in the tank look well. Have acacia wood and mopani wood (newest piece is almost 1.5 years old). No chemicals have been added, no medicines, tank does have algae on the wood & water seems to 'slow down' the smaller bubbles from rising to the top quickly (sounds odd but water seems 'heavier or more dense' due to the tiny bubbles rising very slowly.


Suggestions & advice are welcome and greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[stormhawk]

The foam you see appearing, are likely due to proteins present in the water. With a cichlid tank you must do water changes at least once every week. They are voracious eaters and are epic poo machines. African Cichlids usually prefer hard, alkaline water, instead of a softwater setup, due to the lakes they come from. These are rich in minerals so most tap water in the USA is sufficient for their long term well-being.

You might want to consider investing in a small pump/wave maker for some extra water flow, if your Magnums are not producing enough flow throughout the tank. Dead spots in the tank where there is close to zero water flow can be a bad thing for some fish. Add in a skimmer if you will, just to suck in the "foam" back into your filters, and increase the frequency of your water changes.

[jbsig120408]

The foam you see appearing, are likely due to proteins present in the water. With a cichlid tank you must do water changes at least once every week. They are voracious eaters and are epic poo machines. African Cichlids usually prefer hard, alkaline water, instead of a softwater setup, due to the lakes they come from. These are rich in minerals so most tap water in the USA is sufficient for their long term well-being.

You might want to consider investing in a small pump/wave maker for some extra water flow, if your Magnums are not producing enough flow throughout the tank. Dead spots in the tank where there is close to zero water flow can be a bad thing for some fish. Add in a skimmer if you will, just to suck in the "foam" back into your filters, and increase the frequency of your water changes.

Thank u so much for your reply! We do weekly 25% water
changes and try not to overfeed because that's a sure way to make the water nasty. We'll look into a skimmer and definately 'redirect' the outflow of the 350 filters because I can definately see dead spots. Is there another way to bump the hardness up w/o adding too much pH? Or is that the best way? Thank you again!! This will be extremely helpful!!

[stormhawk]

You can add in some coral chips in a small mesh bag and leave it hanging in the tank so you can remove it later on. Make sure you boil the chips before use, just in case, or microwave it in some water in a plastic microwaveable container. Rinse the stuff off with cold water and it should be good to go. The hardness will go up slowly but you just got to be patient. Sometimes even with the best of intentions and with a lot of effort, it does not pay off so you got to be prepared for any scenarios that might happen later on.

Also, if you have any painted ornaments etc made from resin or some plastic, please remove them and check for defects. Sometimes, they do not seal the paints right and the chemicals leach out into the water and cause problems for the fish. Any new plastic stuff should also be rinsed well under warm water, because often, the lubricants used during the molding process at the factory will still be present. Failure to rinse the stuff properly can result in the lubricating oils being released into the water, and this too is a bad thing for most fish. I remember using a clean plastic tub brand new from the store to house some fish temporarily. Within an hour the fish were showing signs of stress. When I moved them to an older container they stopped behaving like that. While rinsing the tub, I could feel the oiliness on the surfaces, and that was when I realised I should have done the necessary rinsing much earlier.

[leecs]

I have a cichlid tank too and I do 50% water change every 2weeks. Been doing this for the last 5 years. So far so good. Good fish husbandry will definitely reduce all the potential problems associated with fish keeping. Even if no time, I would do a quick 25% water change so as to keep the water 'fresh' for the fish.

Try to get the water to alkaline/hard condition. African cichlids thrive in those water conditions. Stormhawks idea of small mesh bag with coral chips is a great ideal to slowly increase the hardness level.