green beard algae
It looks like you have 0.0ppm nitrate but that you have 0.5ppm of ammonia… which you should not have in a tank that has been set up as long as yours. You might want to double check your ammonia test results and your nitrate test results. Of course, since you haven’t done filter maintenance, your filter could be clogged up with detritus and it’s causing your nitrogen cycle issues.
Of course, I wonder if something happened to your biological filtration (the nitrogen cycle) since you are having 0.0ppm of nitrates where you should be getting a high nitrate level.
Also check the dates on your API test kit since you are getting such strange numbers for your pH. Here’s a site that explains the coding on the API bottles and other brands as well. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/test_kits_life.php You should either use the regular pH or the high pH test kit.. not both of them. If you use the regular and it reaches the top level, then use the high kit to get an accurate level. I doubt that your pH is 8.4 although you do have rather high GH and KH levels (which is a good thing in most cases).
Of course, if your nitrogen cycle is acting up, that will cause your pH to bounce around a little also but I’m not comfortable with the numbers you’ve posted.
You should do weekly or at the least, monthly filter maintenance depending on the bioload of a tank. Otherwise, all the stuff that the filter catches will start to break down and go into solution in your tank becoming “food” for algae (and plants, of course) and pollution to your fish.
Yes, you have far too many BIG fish in your tank. The pleco, flying foxes, gouramis and clown loach are going to be way too much for your 54G tank. You should rehome the clown loach since they should be kept in groups of five or more and since they grow to over 12″ and up to 16″, folks need a 120G+ tank just for a group of them. If your pleco is a common pleco (the ones that get BIG), then you should rehome him also and maybe go with a dwarf species like a bristle nosed or clown pleco (there you go.. replace the clown loach and the common pleco with one fish of the same names..lol).
The waste from your large bioload in your tank.. even with an extra large filter… needs to be removed so you should be doing weekly filter maintenance and you need to start keeping a log of before/after water test results (taken at the same time each time) so you can “learn” how your tank reacts to your maintenance schedule and you’ll see when you need to increase maintenance as your fish grow.
For larger fish, they actually grow by eight times, each time they double their length so a 4″ fish is equal to eight 2″ fish. An 8″ fish is equal to eight 4″ or 64 2″ fish. You can see how even one 8″ fish would be a HUGE bioload on a 54G tank. Would you put 64 2″ fish in a 54G tank? Of course not but people do it with the bigger fish species all the time… with plecos, goldfish and oscars being some of the most abused. It can be done but only if one is prepared to do frequent PWC’s and filter maintenance so that the water quality stays in excellent shape.
Lenny Vasbinder Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com (Links to articles referenced above listed on the right side under Archives - Year, Month and under Labels)
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
