sorry to hear mike.. thats two in two days. something must not be right in your tank.. how are your ammonia nitrate nitrite levels.. how much of a water change have you done and what are you feeding them .. somehting must be causing it..

:( sorry mike

sorry

nahh its the same guy... he looked kinda sick after a few days i got him... everyone else is fine and happy =) ... but my nitrate levels are 0 and nitrite is 0 and ammonia is 0 - .10 and im feeding them spirulina flakes and frozen food ( not sure what it is but i think its brine shrimp.) thanks for your concern

Aww, sorry to hear Mike.

Why are your nitrates 0ppm?

because my filtration is excellent and i take very good care of my water.... i have an EMPEROR 400 and a 280.... my tanks water gets turned over 18 times every hour ( i have a 38 gallon tank ) emperor 400 means 400 GPH .... soo 400 + 280= 680.... now since i have rocks in my tank that would lower the gallons of water in my tank Therefore increasing the amount of GPH FILTERIZED... 680 DIVIDED BY 38 is approximately 18

Kay, imma stay out of this one, don't have the energy to try and explain this, all you bud.

GUYS IM NOT TRYING TO BE MEAN OR NOTHING>... I DIDNT MEAN IT iF THATS WHAT YOUR GETTING FROM MY RIGHTING .... im just informative

dude wayne gimme a call when u get a chance

mike mac, I was just asking...

because filtration in conventional freshwater systems does not eliminate or remove nitrates.

Fish/waste/detritus produce ammonia. Bacteria converts ammonia to nitrite. Another type of bacteria converts nitrite to nitrate which continuously accumulates (i.e., a 'cycled tank'). Water changes or some other type of export measure removes nitrates; no amount of filtration can. To have 0ppm suggests that nitrites haven't yet been converted into nitrates, as nitrate is always detectable in a completely cycled unplanted tank. However, denitritors and certain chemical media can greatly reduce nitrate levels as well. I was just wondering, not trying to 'start' anything. :)

In any case, sorry for the loss of the yellow lab. :(

I don't think you're being mean, I just don't think you understand the Nitrogen cycle fully. I'm going under the asuumption that this is a new tank...The fact that you have no nitrates or nitrites but trace amts of Ammonia would indicate that your tank hasn'r cycled fully yet (Ammonia NH4 gets degraded to Nitrite NO2- and then finally to nitrate NO3) Nitrates in low levels (

It cut me off there Hmmm. Nitrates in low levels (less than 50 ppm) are harmless to all but the most sensitive cichlids although you should try to keep them below 20 for ideal conditions. All the filters in the world won't take out Nitrates only water changes will do this (25%/week). You also stated that you feed brine shrimp...A big no no for mbunas and tropheus (esp. tropheus) as this food has been linked to "Malawi Bloat" a very serious and mostly fatal disease. Anyways I hope this helps. Cheers. J.