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Re: Troubleshooting



>  >I have  a 30 gal with goldfish, an algae eater,  and some guppies , as
> well as some live plants which have been up til recently flourishing
> in this envirionment. I never turn off the flourescent light and
> occasionally add aquarium starter to  the water to keep ammonia levels
> stable. I also do not use a test kit.  Recently my plants
(snip)
>have begun to  gradually turn brown from the
> tops down and seem to be dying. They were doing  >perfectly well since
> the beginning of the year and now seem to be failing despite my not
> having changed anything about  my routine.

There's something not quite right about your tank. A fully cycled tank
shouldn't show any ammonia or nitrites. Your plants should also keep those
things down, as well as the end-product, nitrates.

So I suggest you get some test kits and find out what's going on.

Also, I recommend rethinking your mix of fish. You can avoid a lot of
problems with goldfish when you keep them at temperatures below 75F and in
base pH (not that you can't keep them at all warmer). Goldfish also tend to
be clumsy swimmers and to sleep at night when many algae eaters are most
active. So there is a risk involved even if you've been lucky so far.

Greg. Tong
San Francisco, CA, USA
gtong at sirius_com

"Every infinity is composed of only two halves."