Goldfish won't swim??

[Seleya]

180 liters is 47.5 gallons -- since you're from the UK I wondered if it was liters and not gallons. I tend to change half of my goldfish water at least once a week and preferably twice. With that nitrate reading, your third fish should be affected as well, but not as obviously as the first two. Definitely get those nitrates down asap. You can toss some goldfish friendly plants in also to help with the nitrates, keeping in mind goldfish will eat most plants quite eagerly (which is good for them!) and wreak havoc on any attempt for aquascaping. Frogbit, duckweed, water lettuce, anacharis and water sprite are all pretty good nitrate sponges. I go through duckweed like it's going out of style and every second or third water change finds me finally collecting all the anacharis stalks and reanchoring them! LOL

 

[smedley]

Yeah, I only just noticed tonight that I had it down as gallons not litres!! Wow, that's gotta be some size tank 180 gallons lol! I'm gonna send hubby out to the fish store tomorrow to pick up some plants to put in the tank. I don't mind having to replace them on a regular basis, we tend to put fresh plants in intermittently anyway. I called him and told him to start doing some water changes, I'm gonna try changing out half the tank 2 to 3 times a week for a couple of weeks and see if that with the plants starts the readings coming down. The third fish is a definite mystery though, it's just not showing any signs of stress or disease, maybe it's made of stronger stuff! I'll keep you all informed as to my progress. Should I be testing once a week now to make sure my nitrates levels are starting to come down?

 

[Lotus]

Python in the UK: http://www.aquatics-online.co.uk/Z158292.asp

I was wondering if it were litres you were talking about! You still need to be changing at least 36 litres a week, if not more (especially to get your nitrates down).

 

[smedley]

More questions on the python, if it puts water straight into the tank from the tap is this not dangerous for the fish? We usually allow it to stand in the bucket with tap safe for a bit before adding it to the thank with the fish?

 

[Seleya]

I pour the dechlor in when I first start the python back up to fill. I dump it right into the stream and haven't had any problems.

 

[smedley]

Thanks, I'm going to order my python tomorrow. Got hubby to do a 50% water change today and he has added 3 plants as well. Will report back as I see progress, many thanks for all your help, it has been much appreciated