One thing after another... I'm so frustrated!!!

[GouramiFanatic]

I'm so sick of having problems with the 46 gallon bow tank. This is my first real fish keeping experience and it's definitely enough to discourage me from ever doing it again, but I'm not going to let it win!!

First, I had a battle with green cloudy water. When it finally cleared up, I began to add new fish again. Sadly when I did this it brought on a battle with Ich. Of the 3 fish I added (2 Pictus Cats and Pleco) only the Pleco survived and is still doing well. After treating the aquarium by raising the temp for two weeks the Ich cleared up and no more lives were lost! I was psyched to have a nice clear tank with happy and healthy fish once again and I began adding to the stock once again. I added 3 Dwarf Gouramis (they were supposed to be female, but they were male) and all 3 of them have since passed on as did some of my Zebra Danios. I don't know if it was due to an internal parasite or what, but while all of these deaths were going on I did notice that my Ph kept falling. After doing several PWC to try to get it to level off, things seem to be staying pretty stable once again. Of course now I'm back to having GREEN WATER AGAIN!!!

Is it possible that doing the 'several' PWC trying to straighten out my Ph that the tank is now trying to recycle itself causing an algae bloom? Will I ever win this battle long enough to truly enjoy fish keeping? I want so badly to get some YoYo Loaches, but I keep putting it off because of these problems that keep arising!

- Mandy

 

[Zagz]

What are your parameters now? Did you purchase all of the fish that died from the same lfs? You will win this battle and it will be worth it, I can promise that.

 

[bosk1]

The ph swing raises a couple of questions.

1. Are you sure your tank is completely cycled? What are your parameters? A falling, and then rising ph may indicate that your tank was/is cycling, which could have killed the fish.

2. Have you added any ph-altering chemicals? I've come to understand those are bad because they only give temporary results, and are likely to cause a subsequent drastic ph swing that could kill the fish.

Just my thoughts.

 

[rich311k]

What are your nitrate levels excess nutrients will cause green water.

 

[Todd2]

As bosk1 said have you added any ph altering chemicals such as pH down or pH up? Maybe your test kit is bad? You could always take it to a LFS and get it tested. If all your fish are dying from a certain LFS try a different one. Always worth a shot.

Don't get discouraged. We've all been there and felt like giving up the hobby but it'll pass and you'll enjoy your tank more. Just remeber this problem won't persist forever, you'll get your tank straightened out.

 

[GouramiFanatic]

Ok, I'll try to answer all of the questions without forgetting any..

- The tank has been up and running since April of this year. From Sept until about a month things were going perfectly! No fish deaths and I had crystal clear water. The parameters were always perfect. Then suddenly the Ph started to drop. I think that the city may have done something to the water supply because I'm starting out with 6.8 straight from the tap.

- I have not added any chemicals at all to the tank. I'm one of the people who fears how the chemicals will effect the fish. I'd be heartbroken if I deliberately put something in the aquarium and it killed my fish. So, I have never and don't intend to use chemicals of any kind.

- The fish that died were back before the tank had finished cycling or had just finished cycling at best. For the longest time I had only the 2 Dwarf Gouramis. Once the parameters said that it had cycled, I slowly started adding new fish. The Pictus Cats that I had came with the Pleco that's still alive. I believe they are responsible for bringing the Ich. Luckily, I didn't lose my Gouramis or the Plecos, just the P. Cats. The three more recent Gouramis were purchased at a different store together. They were supposed to be female, but I believe they ended up being males (there's a chance one was really female). I've gotten several fish (including the ones listed in my signature for the 10 gallon) from this store and compared to other stores they're very reliable and responsible. Their tanks are always clean and very rarely do you see sick or dying fish in their tanks. I think they probably just got a bad batch of fish.

Because the tank is at work and I'm at home, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to post updated parameters. I'm sure I'll win this battle, but it's frustrating to have a green tank when I have different people coming into my office for meetings and they can barely make out the fish.

- Mandy

 

[QTOFFER]

I had green water a few weeks ago, and it was bad enough hearing my parents comment how lousy my tank looked. I can imagine how frustrating and embarrassing it is for you when clients see a tub of pea soup in your office. A quick $80 solution for the green water would be a diatom filter. The water would look crystal clear in about an hour. Of course, you would still need to figure out the cause to prevent it from coming back.

Firstly, is there any chance that a coworker is 'helping' you feed the fish when you're not around? Overfeeding could cause all the problems you've described by itself.

How often and how thoroughly do you gravel vac? Plecos are massive poop factories and their incompletely digested wastes can drive nitrates up if not removed. You should see the stinking mess my little three inch BN plec makes every week! Dirty substrates are also breeding grounds for anaerobic bacteria that can play havoc with the pH.

Finally, do you know what your water hardness is? Very soft water has little buffering capacity against pH changes. You might benefit from some crushed coral in the filter if that's the case. I agree with you 100% about the pH altering chemicals - I would never use them either.

 

[Scottm]

a blackout for 3 days and hornwort solved my greenwater problem. The nutrient uptake on that stuff is so high it grows out of control same with my chain sword.

 

[GouramiFanatic]

I finished my testing and here are the current parameters as of this morning:

Ph= 6.8
Ammonia= 0ppm
Nitrite= 0ppm
Nitrate= 10ppm - 20ppm (looks more like 10ppm).

I don't have a test kit for the hardness so I'll have to try to locate one. Is this a commonly carried kit? I've never seen one in any of the lfs here except for the test strip kind and I've heard that these aren't that great.

- Nobody else would be feeding my fish besides me. There are only 2 other girls in my area and I know that they wouldn't feed them. When I leave the door is locked and there are only 4 or 5 people with the key.

- I try to do a PWC at least once a week, but sometimes I run out of time and miss it. Since I'm at work it's more difficult for me to fit it in sometimes. I do try though! When I do, I always do the corner where the Pleco is most commonly seen very thoroughly. He is quite the poop machine so I try to get as much of it out as possible without letting the water get to low.

- Mandy

 

[RoK]

Example of hardness kit: http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=19377;category_id=3081
If the KH is 3dH or more it should be ok. If it's less, that could be a reason for pH swings.
As far as the green water goes, frequent PWC's and lessening light period should work, eventually anyway.

 

[greenmaji]

see if you cant pick up a PO4 testkit while your at it.. it could very well be the cause of the green water..