Established aquarium in distress!!!!!

[Big C]

Hi, I'm new to this forum business. My daughter signed me up, after seeing my frustration with the 30g tank she gave me for my birthday last April . After several months of trial and error I finally got it going with 12 happy fish. Someone convinced me to change the plastic plants for real ones. Did that with the advise of the local aquarium last friday and now I have half the fish and all the others are not eating at all.

Last night my clown loach (Big C) died and it made me really sad. It was the oldest fish I had (8 months!). The only advise I've heard so far is "let them be. They'll come around". I'm just watching them die!


Don't have a test kit, but took samples of water on Saturday and Monday to the aquarium. On Saturday they told me that the nitrates were slightly high and that may be the new gravel they sold to me had some toxins (!). And to do a WC of 40%. I did. On Monday water quality was good. I changed 10% yesterday again, just to remove the food lying on the bottom of the tank.

I have left: 1 denison barb, swimming around but not eating. Two gouramis, one very letargic, the other one sort of eating. One pleco, who will die on me anytime because, he is in a total hungry and swim strike. And two little marigolds (I think that is the right name). Only one of this little marigolds, have a couple of white spots on the top part of the body. Look like fungus. But the other fish are only letargic. I also have 4 ghost shrimp that we bought with the plants, last friday.

The clown loach was only a little whitish, other than that he looked fine.

The water is sort of cloudy, but it's been like that for a few months, and no water change or scrubbing can get the cloudiness out.

Because the first casualties were immediately after the changes (8-10 hs after) I think it has something to do with the gravel. I washed it for 10-15 minutes under running water before adding it on top of the old gravel.

I thought of changing it all again. I know that more changes would probably cause more stress, but it looks like they will all die anyway.

I hope you guys understand how sad I feel. My family thinks: "It's only fish!!"

Thank you!

 

[Guest]

Are you treating the water you are putting in your tank with a product like aquasafe? (a dechlorinator). Are you using tapwater or store bought spring/distilled water? It seems like maybe your fish have an infectino or possibly ick. Are there tiny white spots on the fins/body of your fish? If its a 30 gallon tank, change another 10 gallons of water and if you have aquarium salt, add a rounded tablespoon per 5 gallons. What is your water temp at? maybe your heater is malfunctioning. Try turning the temp to around 82 or so (84 is recommended for treating) you might want to try to hit 84 by sometime tomorrow. Take a visual look at the plants to see if they have anything unusual about them. Sometimes they can carry parasites, etc on them, and it seems like you started to have a problem with either the plants or the gravel. Also, you might be over feeding. Since they arent eating that much/at all anyways, only feed minimal amounts 1 or 2 times a day untill things improve.
Keep us posted.
HTH
-Stewie

 

[Big C]

Yes I treat the water every time. I always use a little extra to help protecting the fish's coat. I use tap water. They don't have ick. I've seen and succesfully treated that before in another tank. I don't know what is aquarium salt.

The temperature is always at 79-80.

The red lotus has something that look like fish eggs. But would parasite kill the fish in just a few hours?

Do you think I should change all the gravel?

 

[BrianNY]

To answer your question Big C, no. Parasites would not kill fish in just a few hours. Something has gone environmentally wrong in your tank in a hurry. WHy would you think the gravel is toxic? Is it sold as aquarium gravel? Improper rinsing won't look pretty, but it shouldn't cause the fish to die either.

What kind of filters do you have, and have they been turned off for any length of time?

 

[Big C]

I have a Penguin bioweel filter. It is working fine. Water flows as usual and the wheel is spinning. I had added some extra filtering cloth recommended by the aquarium people, but I removed it yesterday thinking it would improve the circulation. It doesn't seem to make a difference.

The gravel is also from the pet shop and is the same as I had before. I don't know what to think anymore! :?

 

[Meredith]

You poor thing! I recently had a fish (an oto) that showed no signs of being sick really other that after a while he stopped eating and got really thin. I didn't know what to do for him so I basically watched him die. I would say just keep up with your partial water changes. 10 or 20 percent every other day or so and see if that helps at all. Good luck to you!

 

[docrak]

What color and size gravel do you have?

Where in Ontario do you live, and what is your source for tap water, well water, city?

What else do you have in the aquarium, decorations, drift wood, other?

What kind of plants?

How often do you clean the filter?

What size filter do you have, model number?

How do you change the water?

Have you introduced any toxins to the tank, Windex or soap from washing your hands?

What chemicals are you adding to your tank, or have added, ammonia remover, water clarifier?

If the fish aren’t eating and are losing coloration, it kind of sound like some sort of toxic poisoning. Are the gills red, or more redder, that normal on the dieing fish? Don’t worry, this kind of stuff happens to every one starting out. First, don’t add any new fish. Second, let’s find out what lead up to everything going wrong so that it doesn’t happen again. Another thing, plastic plants are all bad, live plants can be a real challenge for a beginner. It’s too easy to screw up live plants by not following the rules. Another thing is to get some test kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. A Ph kit or a hardness kit might also help but aren’t as important as the other three.

 

[Big C]

What color and size gravel do you have? Blue, medium size (Spectra Stone- Estes)

Where in Ontario do you live, and what is your source for tap water, well water, city? Toronto - City water

What else do you have in the aquarium, decorations, drift wood, other?
Two decorations (pirate ship and alligator), some shells from different places but that have been thoroughly washed many times several months ago.

What kind of plants?
1 red lotus
1 onion bulb
4 jungle val
1 amazon sword
1 rotalla indica

How often do you clean the filter?
once a month

What size filter do you have, model number?

How do you change the water?
Scrub glass w/algae removing foam
vacuum gravel and remove 20% water approx.
fill up bucket - check temperature - add conditioner - mix well - let rest for a few minutes - add slowly

I was doing 15-20% WCs every week. Since last friday I've changed 40% on Sat., 10% yesterday and 20% today. I always use conditioner for the chlorine and mix it very well with the water before ading to the tank

Here's some more info.

Just went to the aquarium and bought a test kit. The results are all "safe":
NO3 40 ppm
N)2 0
Hardness 120
Alkalinity 80
pH 7.2
NH3 .25
Water temp is 80F

One of the marigolds has white fuzzy spots (like fungus). The pearl gouramy is becoming whitish all over like he is sheding (?).

I don't have another tank only a small fish bowl.

Thank you!

 

[docrak]

How often do you clean the filter?
once a month

Just went to the aquarium and bought a test kit. The results are all "safe":
NO3 40 ppm
N)2 0
Hardness 120
Alkalinity 80
pH 7.2
NH3 .25
Water temp is 80F



Thank you!

I'm thinking your tank may going through a mini cycle. Your Ammonia levels should be zero. You are doing every thing else right. Odds are with all the water changes you've been doing that your ammonia NH3 levels may have been around 1.5 to 2 ppm. The symptoms you've described are classic for toxicity poisoning.

Now when you clean your filter, how do you do it? Do you just replace the media or clean it.

 

[Big C]

Forgot to answer this two:

Have you introduced any toxins to the tank, Windex or soap from washing your hands?
I don't know! I always wash my hands and arms and rinse well. I use windex in the outside, ALWAYS with the lid closed.
What chemicals are you adding to your tank, or have added, ammonia remover, water clarifier?
I always use Big Al's multi-purpose water conditioner. On friday I added ne teaspoon of Leaf Zone , aquarium plant food.

What else should I know about plants other than proper lighting and food once a week? I guess a lot more! But that's all they told me at the pet shop.

 

[Big C]

The filter: I change the media and I clean the filter all over. The only thing I don't touch is the bioweel.

 

[Punkymom]

When you're cleaning your filter, I wouldn't throw away all the media because then you are just throwing away good bacteria. To be honest with you, I wouldn't ever throw it away until it got to the point to where it was falling apart. I just take some aquarium water in a bucket and gently rinse the media in that and then put it back in the filter. I think your Nitrates are a little high if it really says 40 ppm. Safe I think is 5-10 ppm.

 

[docrak]

When you're cleaning your filter, I wouldn't throw away all the media because then you are just throwing away good bacteria. To be honest with you, I wouldn't ever throw it away until it got to the point to where it was falling apart. I just take some aquarium water in a bucket and gently rinse the media in that and then put it back in the filter. I think your Nitrates are a little high if it really says 40 ppm. Safe I think is 5-10 ppm.

I've had nitrates higher than 80ppm. Usually when I don’t do a water change for about three weeks. Most fish can tolerate high nitrate conditions as long as they build up slowly. You know your nitrates are starting to affect your fish when their eyes start bugging out. I can’t remember the name of the condition but it has to do with too much of some gas getting absorbed into the blood (either O2 or Nitrate, or nitrogen). My tanks are around 20-40ppm and I have never had any problems.

As for changing the media, yes I agree it is bad to discard your filter media, especially monthy. You never get to build up a good colony of bacteria. I run two filters on my tanks just for this reason. I only clean one filter at a time.

 

[docrak]

The filter: I change the media and I clean the filter all over. The only thing I don't touch is the bioweel.

I don't care what anybody says, but bio wheels are a scam. Every body has a different theory on how they work. Their biggest problem is lack of surface in the filter media for bacteria to build up. I just use a regular tried and proven Aqua-Clear. They have always worked for me and are easy to maintain using two sponge method. You only clean one at a time so that to don't destroy all your bacteria.

 

[Psyhampster]

The whitish stuff definitely sounds like fungus. Is it sortof "cottony" looking? The hunger strike stuff dosen't fit with it though. If it is fungus, I highly recommend Jungle's Fungus Clear Tank Buddies. I used them to treat a fungus outbreak recently, and was very satisfied.