New tank gone south quick

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reilly960

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Feb 2, 2006
Messages
6
Location
Rochester, NY USA
Came into some cash around the holidays, so finally bought that 80 gal tank I have wanted for a while. First time with an aquarium, but did tons of research and felt pretty good. Community tank seemed to be the best way to start, so headed in that direction.

Got an emperor 400 filter, 2 200w heaters, 300lph airpump just for aeration, 2 thermometers including a digital, artificial plants that look real, a couple resin rock caves for extra hiding places and a few pieces of driftwood.

Set it all up (perhaps not rinsing everything as well as I should have due to the excitement of putting it all together) and ran the tank for 2 days before starter fish. People seeing the tank were impressed, and even motivated 2 folks to get or restart their own aquariums. I am feeling real good at this point.

There is a bunch of small particles floating in the water, but I figure the filter will deal with this over time

Got 5 platies and 3 swordtails as starter fish I planned on keeping, floated the bags for temp, and kept the LPS water out of my aquarium.

By day 2 I figure out that one of the FM swordtails is pregnant, and by day 4 I have some quantity of fry (wow they are small). Momma swordtail continues to spit out fry for next couple days.

Somewhere about this time Ich started, but I do not diagnose it as such until day 7 (as it starts to really get bad). 25% water change here, and overall ammonia levels are still barely measurable.

Day 8, momma swordtail is dead, by day 9 no evidence of fry any more. Mail swordtail has not been seen since yesterday and I fear the worst. If he does not show himself today I will start pulling decor out to try to find him.

For the Ich - I have gradually raised the temp to 86 over last 2 days to avoid meds (since I am planning on inverts) and all but one platty and one swordtail have it bad now.

It is now day 11, PH is a little higher than I wanted (7.3) but taking no action there based on advise. Used stresscoat for dechlorination on startup and water change. Still no nitrite or nitrate registering. I am using dip test strips for all.

Bad luck, or am I missing something?
 
The test strips are not as accurate of a test kit. You need to get a liquid reagent kit such as the Aquarium Pharm. Freshwater Master Test Kit. It sounds like possibly ammonia poisoning since the tank is not cycled. I'd get a test kit ASAP and do a water change today. Are you using an airstone?
 
Ok, will do on the test kit and water change. Was planning a 50% tomorrow night due to time. Thanks for that.

I have one airstone inside one of the resin caves (it has a hole on top), one flex wand buried under gravel and an air disk - all on the airpump through a gang valve (different bubble sizes look nice and figure you can't have too much aeration).
 
As soon as you get the test kit test for Ammonia and Nitrites and report back with the results.

BTW- Welcome to AA Reilly!
 
Although your aquarium is not cycled at this point, I doubt that the few small fish in that very large aquarium have produced enough ammonia to poison themselves, especially since you have been doing water changes and have measured it. Even though the test strips are not incredibly accurate, they will still display results showing dangerous levels of ammonia.

My feeling is that these fish have simply succumbed to ich.

pH of 7.3 is great! Don't do anything to adjust it artificially.

The fish you have might not make it through this bout of ich, but you should consider both a salt and heat treatment for ich if it happens again in the future.
 
Salt and heat - thanks, any idea where to find info on different FW species tolerance to salt, or all should be ok for a short period and.. well it is better than ich?

On the test strips/ammonia, that makes total sense but either way likely get the test kit Fishyfanatic recommended for peace of mind down the road.

Would the pregnancy and move to new tank at the same time have been enough stress to get the ich going? Since the momma passed on first, assuming got the ich first, but that could be flawed logic.

AA is great, and I do feel welcome :). thanks.
 
I would guess she was already somewhat stressed and weakened due to her condition, which may have been a contributing factor to her succumbing first.

I would also highly recommend the AP test kit, by the way.

Best of luck!
 
Update:

ich seems under control now, in the end lost 6 of 8 fish but did learn a lot (thanks to those who had a part in that!). Will start dropping temp again in a day or so.

One of the two fm platies that survived has fin damage - wonder if that will heal?

Got that Aquarium Pharm. liquid reagent test kit, and ammonia still .25 ppm, no nitrite, no nitrate, but...

the pH on the test strips seems to be way off. I am reading 8.0 on the new kit (multiple times) after a 37% water change. when using the test strips still looks to be 7.3.

So I tested my tap water with the reagent and it reads 7.4. Seems I am raising pH somehow.?. that would explain these little guys getting stressed!

Any thoughts on how I may be raising pH?

Anything to do except more water changes?
 
Keep the temp up for two weeks after the last ich cyst disappears. The little devils can still live in the water or in the substrate or a while. Two weeks is generally sufficient to kill them.
 
don't do anything to adjust your ph. The fish will adjust to the higher ph than they will react to any chemicals used to lower it.

I used dip strips at first too, until i read in many places that the liquid tests were better. The dip strips said my ph was 7.0, then when i did the liquid test, it said it was 7.8. I did some back and forth to make sure, and everything kept coming back the same (dip strip said 7.0, liquid kit said 7.8). I have done nothing to change that level, and all of my fish are happy and healthy.
 
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