Bacteria in water...100% water change?

[unknownsoldierr]

I believe I have a pink bacteria in my water. When I turn the filter off in my 15 gallon aquarium it floats via a million pink flecs which turn in to string (looks much like floating nests of string algae). I had a fish die of a second bacterial infection and the new fish die in two days. I have decided to take my fish out of the tank and clean the tank before putting it back together with new gravel. First of all,

1. Is it safe for me to put 2 small tropical fish in a 2-3 gallon bucket for about 30 minutes while I clean the tank?

2. Do I put the previous (contaminated)
tank water the fish are in back in to the tank afterwards or do I just put them in to a 100% water change?

3. I use 2 different algae clear treatments and still get brown muck looking algae which is sometimes stringy... Could this be something else besides algae?

Thanks you guys... You're the best. I couldn't do this by myself.

 

[i3k]

I would just do 50% water changes every day until it's gone. Vacuum the gravel with the water changes.

 

[DragonFish71]

It kind of sounds like the stuff that's in my fluval filter tubes if I don't flush them out and clean them with the brushes.

I'd stop with the algae treatments and like i3K said, do water changes. Try cleaning or just flushing out the filter tubes (depends on the type of filter)

 

[Jason7894561230]

Agreed also Jamie i almost didnt reconize you with the new Avatar lol

 

[unknownsoldierr]

Thanks for the help! I appreciate it And I'm just wondering why I should stop the algae treatment if the algae is still there?

 

[Roscoe Jackson]

You are better off finding out why you have excessive algae growing, rather than treating a problem with chemicals. How long are your lights on? What is your stock,tank size, and how often,and how much are you feeding? Is the tank planted? Are you dosing ferts? Is any direct sunlight getting into the tank?

There is a reason algae grows. Finding out the cause and fixing it is better than adding chemicals to your tank, IMO.

 

[DragonFish71]

Agreed also Jamie i almost didnt reconize you with the new Avatar lol

A girl has to try on a new dress at some point in her life. *Laughs* I found this one and thought it fit my attitude lately perfectly.

 

[DragonFish71]

You are better off finding out why you have excessive algae growing, rather than treating a problem with chemicals. How long are your lights on? What is your stock,tank size, and how often,and how much are you feeding? Is the tank planted? Are you dosing ferts? Is any direct sunlight getting into the tank?

There is a reason algae grows. Finding out the cause and fixing it is better than adding chemicals to your tank, IMO.

+1

Honestly, a healthy tank only needs a good water dechlor. Adding any thing else can cause any balance to go off-kilter.

 

[unknownsoldierr]

Thanks, you guys are right. They upsell you so much in the pet stores with all their treatments that just make the situation worse. :-/ too bad. I'm glad I'm more aware of this now. I had to learn this lesson with stress coat too. Anyway I found the source... I've got my tank in a room with lots of outdoor sunlight, explaining the brown algae and such... still doesn't explain the bacteria... but I semi-took your advice, and I changed the water in the tank 60-75% after a good cleaning with aquarium safe cleaner, and cleaned the filter thoroughly, doing 50% water changes the following 2 days. Now since I don't plan on moving the tank, I'm going to get an otocinclus (dwarf catfish) algae eater to take care of the problem.
Thanks again everybody! And Dragonfish, it was really spooky (not in a bad way) getting a reply from you... I semi-named the fish that just died that I bought "dragonfish" because he looked like a dragon... which is when I decided to change the tank. Just thought I would tell you.