Fish Tank Water quality?

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flashgurultd

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I have a fish tank that is about 160 litres, in it i have:

- Two giant orandas, orange
- One baby blackmoor
- One large blackmoor
- One Lionhead
- One baby oranda

And to keep it tidy:

- 2 plecs, 1 tiny, 1 small
- 4 loaches, all pretty small

The tank has various live plants and two medium size air stones.

Ive had the tank setup for about 7-8 weeks and did about a 40% water change yesterday, i made sure all the water i added to the tank was treated with AquaSafe first. Today ive tested the water and am a bit concerned, because one of my giant orandas is spending alot of time at the top of the tank, sometimes gasping, sometime still, every now and then he will have a swim around and then head back to the same spot in the tank at the top.

The test results are as follows:

- PH: 7.5 -7.6
- Nitrite: 1
- Amonnia: 0.25
- Nitrate: 40
- Temperate: 73 F/23 C

I would imagine that by now that tank has cycled, so am a bit worried why the ammonia level is still not zero (will it ever be exactly 0?), and the nitrate level could do with been a bit lower, maybe down to 25-30, the nitrite level should also be zero by now, no?

What should i do? is the water quality the reason the giant oranda is at the top of the tank alot? or does he now have a disease? if so i suspect a slight Swim Bladder infection, how do i get rid of that?

He has lots of air i would imagine, or am i overfeeding the fish? i feed them once a day with flakes, 3 pinches and pellets, 2 pinches, is that too much? should i feed them twice a day and less pinches? or should i stop feeding them flakes?

Any help will be much appreciated.
 
Feed them twice a day. Once when lights go on and an hour before lights out. This will stop excess break down of uneaten food. You can feed them 3 times as long as all the food or most of it is consumed. I had an ammonia problem and my tank was smelly. I put these small rocks called ammonia sorb in my filter and in about 3 days the level was just below 1. It is hard to get an ammonia level at exactly 0 but try my pointers.
 
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