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Hello all, second post  I just need help all over the place. My rummy nose tetra’s and my Blue Ram seem too have issues at night. The rummies seem to loose all there red head and there tail colour becomes less defined and it seems that the Ram is swimming a little on the diagonal side. The pristellas seem to also loose some of there colour though it isn’t dramatic like the rummies. Last night I did a quarter water change and a half water change, I have been having problems controlling the nitrate levels, the nitrite and the ammonia couldn’t have lower numbers in the tank. Last night I thought the problem was nitrates again, and after the changes I tested it and it was at 20ppm. Which is the lowest it has ever been in that tank, it usually is unbelievably high past 200ppm, even after water changes. I think that I solved some of the problem when I cleaned the filter I didn’t realize how bad it was and it is an aquaclear 50. I decided that I needed to change the foam filter in it because it is green and I hadn’t changed anything for the longest time until last month I changed the carbon and I cleaned it out. It was bad. The nitrates seem to be under control, but they still have the problem with the loosing colour and such. I do know that my tap waters ph is up around 8.5 or so and it’s a tad high for my tank it needs to be around 7. The only other thing I can think is that I just added a bunch of live plants, and some of them seem to have there leaves getting holes eaten in them and start to turn clear but I have a lot of new growth. I don’t know what to do, at this point… I am looking into my light measurement I just have to run the numbers but I think it is running enough. Any help would be appreciated.

20ppm of nitrate is within an acceptable range for most fish. That is a good target level for most community tanks. It's definitely good that you have gotten those under control because high nitrates can have negative effects in the long run. I wouldn't worry about the pH. It's better to have a stable pH than to try to mess with it and have your pH change all the time.

Also, at night when the lights are out I've always noticed that my fish's (especially tetras)colors tend to bleach out for some reason. I think this is normal for a sleeping fish. As long as your fish's colors are radiant during the day and they are acting normal and eating, I would not worry about it.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Yeah, they seem fine during the day. I apreciate the comentary, it can be hard getting honest answers at a store thats job is to sell you something, and I dont know any enthusiasts that I can talk to, it took me a good three or four days to find this board.

Great site though cheers to the owners!

Thanks again

Agree with matty -

I think it's normal for fish to lose some color at night when the lights are out. My harlies get a little paler, plus the bands on my yo-yo loaches fade a bit. It happens at night. As for your ram leaning a bit on its side at night, I wouldn't worry unless you see similar behavior during the day. That sounds like a symptom of fishy sleep, if anything I know my betta does it sometimes, as do the loaches - the just kind of hang right on the gravel, leaning a little bit. It's just the way fish shut down, IMO

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Back in the saddle!

All my fish change colors at night. In fact one of my guppies doesn't just change shade of color all his yellow turns blue. My blue gourami looks nearly black and the congo tetras show of their red more. During the day the congos red area fades a bit and their blue stands out more. The gourami also turns to nearly a sky blue color instead of navy blue to black.

Mrwizerd,

Great that you like this site, I hope we will see you here more often then

I totally second Matty's statement, my neons fade to almost no color during the night. There is nothing to worry about as long as it comes back during the first 1/2 hour of lights on.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

It's quite normal that fish will lose colour at night. My Tetra's lose their colour, but in 30 minutes, they'll be back to normal.


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