I'm in need of a little help ASAP.

[wackywocky555]

I've had a tropical, fresh water aquarium for about six months now and it started to stink a couple of days ago, so I took out all my fish and put them in a big plastic container. Then I changed about 60% of the water and put new sponges in the filter. Then I put new water in (Not warm water from the sink) and then put Tetra Aquasafe in the water. After that I put my fish in. I Have about 20 small, black mollies. 1 Betafish. 1 sucker fish, not sure what kind. I also have 3 snaileaters. I don't know what kind of fish the snaileaters are, but they have black spots on their back and they have a light brown
body. My tank is a 60 liter tank with 7 plants, no rocks or shells and about an inch of gravel. When I woke up today, the water was cloudy, the snaileaters were dead and the aquarium stinks even more now. What should I do? My parents want to get rid of the aquarium if the smell does not go away ASAP. Please respond.

 

[happygirl65]

What kind of plants do you have in there and how much light do you have? Are the plants turning brown or yellow? Has any fish died or been un accounted for recently? And how often do you change the water?
It is common for it to be cloudy for a little bit after a water change especially if you stirred things up really good while doing so. Did you clean the gravel with the water change as well?
The aquarium really should not be stinking, we can help you figure this out.

I should also note that you have way too many fish in the tank. I don't know how big the mollies are but you will need to find a home for them as they grow.

 

[SparKy697]

Just a couple comments about maintenance...

A tank should never smell. Doing regular water changes is a good way to keep things from getting too stagnant. To get things back on track you can start doing weekly water changes and start running some carbon in your filter, if you have that ability. What kind of filter do you use?

When doing a water change it is important to match the temperature with the tank. I have done 60%+ water changes with no adverse effects on the life in the tank. There is no reason to remove the livestock from the tank while doing a water change. In fact you may be stressing the fish even more by doing this.
Your tank is small enough that I would consider using a bucket for water changes. It is a bit of a pain, but until you get it right it can help keep you safe. Fill your bucket with water and heat it to the same temp as the tank. Add your dechlor. I'm not familiar with the product you mentioned, people here seem to like seachem Prime. I have been using that for years without issue as well.
Drain the water you want to replace from your tank, fill the tank back up with the prepared water. That's it.

When servicing the filter, never just replace the pads. If there is more than one pad you can replace one at a time. There is a lot of bacteria living in that filter that you need. If these are foam pads you should be just rinsing them in some old tank water and reusing them.

Get a test kit. You have a lot of fish in a small tank and parameters can and will change fast. You need to keep on top of that.

Go to the article section of this site, read and learn about the nitrogen cycle.

After you get your test kit and understand that cycle you will likely understand exactly what happened to your tank.

 

[wackywocky555]

I'm not quite sure what the plant names are, but I can describe them if that will help at all. I have 3 plants that look like grass. They grow really fast and they tend to need to be cut a little every week. I have 2 fern like plants that also grow really fast. The last 2 plants I have are thees Lilly pad plants. The lilly pads are about an inch in diameter and the don't tend to grow very much at all.

The gravel? No, I did not clean it. Now that I think over it, I probably should have.

Yes, I know I have to many fish. I was actually thinking about selling them yesterday. My mollies don't get much bigger then an inch and a half.

 

[wackywocky555]

Oh, I forgot to tell you how much light my aquarium gets. It gets about 8 hours of light a day. To much?

 

[happygirl65]

I think that the issue you are having is like sparky said, you will need to clean the gravel with your next water change, but do it slowly, don't disturb too much at once then each week work a larger area. You likely have anerobic bacteria pockets building up (can also cause a stink when they are released and can kill fish) I agree with weekly changes for a bit until you are able to clean all the gravel.

8 hrs of light is fine, but I was thinking more in terms of wattage but with your tank that might not be an issue. The main thing is whether the plants are growing and healthy. I was just thinking of another cause for the smell would be rotting plants but it is pretty obvious when a plant is rotting.

So keep up on those water changes and things will get better.

 

[DragonFish71]

Let me tell you a bit about Tetra Aquasafe.

I bought it to use for regular water changes on my tanks. It has live bacteria in it and is supposed to be a good product. Maybe for some, but I had negative results. I used it with water changes on our 55 and our 20L one afternoon. The next morning those tanks stank like you wouldn't believe. My boyfriend was also in the hospital at this time having a 3rd surgery stemming from a car accident last year. So I'd come home from the visiting him and have to do water changes. After 3 weeks of daily changes both tanks finally recovered (It took me one and a half weeks to realize it was the Aquasafe causing the problem). Not after losing all bettas in the 20L and losing 3 pictus cats, 1 jack dempsey, 1 jewel in the 55. I was so frustrated finding all those dead fish, tired from the long hours visiting my boyfriend in the hospital that I sat down on our dining room floor, stared at our 20 and cried. I finally figured out that it was the Aquasafe throwing the tanks into new cycles and changed tap water conditioners. Now I use Prime and haven't had a problem. The only time I use Aquasafe anymore is to start a new tank.


After talking to my LFS who has been in business 20 some years, I found out that those live bacteria products aren't as good as people think. I also did research. Most of the bacteria has died off by time we open that bottle. There aren't enough nutrients put in the bottle to last them during shipping, sitting in a warehouse, stocking, someone buying a bottle and then usage. By time we add it to our tanks, we are adding mostly dead bacteria. From the research I found (I should have kept those links) Aquasafe is one of the few where more of the bacteria tend to survive. But since having negative effects from it, it is relegated to being used for starting a new tank only.

 

[wackywocky555]

Wow, if I do regularly water changes, stop using Tetra Aquasafe, start using prime and clean my gravel, my tank should be fine. Works for me. Thanks for the help everybody it means a lot to both me and my cat. She likes to stare at my fish all day long.

 

[susankat]

Depending on the type of mollie they can get up to 3 to 4 inches. I had some black mollies that got to 3 inches.

I have used Tetra aquasafe and its ok, I just like prime better.

The snail eaters that died was probably loaches, They probably died from shock going into a tank with a lot cooler water. Did you just dump them back in or did you let them float to adjust the temp?

I would imagine that the cloudy water is a bacteria bloom caused by changing out filter pads for new. So you lost a majority of your good bacteria.

I would do at least 50% water changes everyday, and vac part of the gravel every couple of days until it straightens up. Don't vac the gravel to much at a time as it has beneficial bacteria on it also. Do not mess with the filters to much except once in awhile rinse with tank water that you have removed every few days. Should clear up in no time.

I would remove most of the mollies and return them or give them to other people as it won't be long till your tank is over flowing with babies. If your algae eater is a common pleco that thing is a major waste producer that will get up to 18 inches if given enough room to grow. You would be better off with otos instead as they stay small.