G
Guest
Guest
not sure if this should be in unhealthy fish, or if it should be general knowledge.
in an effort to keep my tank sparkly clean, i decided to do a complete cleaning, the inside glass, rinse the filters and remove the carbon and go carbonless, and a thorough sand vac, not 50% of it, the whole bottom 100%. when i was finished, i was so proud of myself i thought my tank should be on the cover of time magazine.
a day or so later i noticed a catfish flashing into the sand. over time a dojo loach, then both dojo loaches, then the clowns. so i looked real close for ich and couldnt see any white spots at all. no where, not on one fish. none of the tetra's seem affected, mainly the bottom dwellers, the scale-less fish. i posted in the un-healthy fish section and figured they had ich in their gills, being loaches i figured they are very susceptiple to this parasite and would get it first, then it would spread like wild fire.
i start treating for ich by raising the temps to 88f and doing water changes, and as was suggested, sand vacs to remove trophants or whatever they are called, ich cysts in the sand. in the mean time i am cursing petsmart because i am thinking this is where i got ich in the first place and they are dirty no good fish people.
but during my routine water tests i notice i have high nitrite readings, so this worries me. i would do a pwc and later in the day my nitrite would be the same, not zero where it should be. so i stop doing sand vacs and put the carbon back in action(my preference only). i add a little extra floss inside the filter for extra added surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow on as well.
after 9 days of 88f the same fish are still flashing but show no signs of ich, and now im a little pissed to be blunt. so i turn the heat off because i know that they do not have ich at all. i do a 50% pwc and the next day i test for nitrites again, which test at zero. i watch the fish for a long long time and guess what? no flashing. the temps back to normal, the fish are happily happy the heat wave is over.
i could be wrong, but i think when i originaly did my wonderful job cleaning the tank so well, i threw it into a mini cycle and the nitrites irritated the gills of the bottom dwellers to the point of flashing. and i kept the mini cycle going by making one mistake after another trying to battle ich. i mis-diagnosed due to in-experience and not looking at the obvious things in front of me.
in an effort to keep my tank sparkly clean, i decided to do a complete cleaning, the inside glass, rinse the filters and remove the carbon and go carbonless, and a thorough sand vac, not 50% of it, the whole bottom 100%. when i was finished, i was so proud of myself i thought my tank should be on the cover of time magazine.
a day or so later i noticed a catfish flashing into the sand. over time a dojo loach, then both dojo loaches, then the clowns. so i looked real close for ich and couldnt see any white spots at all. no where, not on one fish. none of the tetra's seem affected, mainly the bottom dwellers, the scale-less fish. i posted in the un-healthy fish section and figured they had ich in their gills, being loaches i figured they are very susceptiple to this parasite and would get it first, then it would spread like wild fire.
i start treating for ich by raising the temps to 88f and doing water changes, and as was suggested, sand vacs to remove trophants or whatever they are called, ich cysts in the sand. in the mean time i am cursing petsmart because i am thinking this is where i got ich in the first place and they are dirty no good fish people.
but during my routine water tests i notice i have high nitrite readings, so this worries me. i would do a pwc and later in the day my nitrite would be the same, not zero where it should be. so i stop doing sand vacs and put the carbon back in action(my preference only). i add a little extra floss inside the filter for extra added surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow on as well.
after 9 days of 88f the same fish are still flashing but show no signs of ich, and now im a little pissed to be blunt. so i turn the heat off because i know that they do not have ich at all. i do a 50% pwc and the next day i test for nitrites again, which test at zero. i watch the fish for a long long time and guess what? no flashing. the temps back to normal, the fish are happily happy the heat wave is over.
i could be wrong, but i think when i originaly did my wonderful job cleaning the tank so well, i threw it into a mini cycle and the nitrites irritated the gills of the bottom dwellers to the point of flashing. and i kept the mini cycle going by making one mistake after another trying to battle ich. i mis-diagnosed due to in-experience and not looking at the obvious things in front of me.
Well, minus the ich diagnosis. Did a big gravel vac, then when the tank cleared replaced all the now dirty filter media ....... and went to bed. Luckily sometime at work the next day I realised what I had done and grabbed some Bio Spira on my way home. Ammonia was already at .25. But I was lucky & stopped the mini cycle right there. 
