JulieB
Aquarium Advice Regular
I'm going to apologize right now for the impending novel. I just want to give you guys as much info as possible about my tank to help you help me figure out what's wrong.
I have a 56 Gallon plexi-glass tank with a built-in wet/dry filter. I have 2 pearl gouramis (Male & Female), 2 angel fish (one veiled), 1 pleco, 4 assorted cory cats, 2 yo-yo loaches, 2 black skirt tetras, 2 serape tetras, 3 congo tetras, 1 columbian tetra, and 2 Boesemani rainbows (was three until today), and maybe a dozen neon tetras. I feed them flake food (never clouded the water before and I've been using it for over 5 years now) and sometimes blood worms. The tank is planted with very healthy, thriving plants. There are a few sandstone rocks and a couple of pieces of driftwood/roots (everything purchased from an aquarium).
I do weekly water changes (I take out about 1/4 - 1/2 of the tank water while vacuuming and remove all of the water in the filter). I rinse the carbon and ammonia and nitrate pads at this time, and change them monthly. I change the non-treated filter pads weekly.
Now that you know my tanks life story, here's my problem: About 4 weeks ago, the tank got cloudy...really cloudy. I kept up on the water changes and used a water-clearing solution I got at the store, no change. My husband did a major water change last week (took out about 3/4 of the water). At this time he filled the filter chamber with scalding water to kill the hundreds of snails, then vacuumed it and the dead snails out before refilling the tank. The tank was clear for about a day, then it clouded back up.
About 2 months ago the tank was overrun with algae and I finally got rid of it with "Algae Destroyer". It did cloud the water, but I haven't added it for about a month now.
I'm afraid that whatever is in the water making it cloudy is hurting the fish. They are all acting fine, but still, it can't be healthy. And today, I found one Boesemani rainbow with hair-like strands sticking out of her left gill, and there was a white cottony mass in her throat attached to the hairs. I'm guessing this is fungus. I put her down because she was pretty far gone already, gasping and her color was very dull and gray. The rest of the fish look fine though.
What can I do?? Nothing has changed since we set up the tank in April. I treat the water with API's Stress Coat water conditioner and add Flourish fertilizer.
The parameters are:
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrate: 25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Total Hardness: 120ppm
Total Alkalinity: 40ppm
pH: 6.4
Temp: 84 Fahrenheit
Again, I apologize for the novel! I'm just so worried about it, I don't want my fishies to suffer!!
Thanks!
Julie
P.S - So I just realized that I posted this in the wrong forum (I'm blaming this on the fact that I'm new here) but if you have any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it!!!
Thanks so much!
I have a 56 Gallon plexi-glass tank with a built-in wet/dry filter. I have 2 pearl gouramis (Male & Female), 2 angel fish (one veiled), 1 pleco, 4 assorted cory cats, 2 yo-yo loaches, 2 black skirt tetras, 2 serape tetras, 3 congo tetras, 1 columbian tetra, and 2 Boesemani rainbows (was three until today), and maybe a dozen neon tetras. I feed them flake food (never clouded the water before and I've been using it for over 5 years now) and sometimes blood worms. The tank is planted with very healthy, thriving plants. There are a few sandstone rocks and a couple of pieces of driftwood/roots (everything purchased from an aquarium).
I do weekly water changes (I take out about 1/4 - 1/2 of the tank water while vacuuming and remove all of the water in the filter). I rinse the carbon and ammonia and nitrate pads at this time, and change them monthly. I change the non-treated filter pads weekly.
Now that you know my tanks life story, here's my problem: About 4 weeks ago, the tank got cloudy...really cloudy. I kept up on the water changes and used a water-clearing solution I got at the store, no change. My husband did a major water change last week (took out about 3/4 of the water). At this time he filled the filter chamber with scalding water to kill the hundreds of snails, then vacuumed it and the dead snails out before refilling the tank. The tank was clear for about a day, then it clouded back up.
About 2 months ago the tank was overrun with algae and I finally got rid of it with "Algae Destroyer". It did cloud the water, but I haven't added it for about a month now.
I'm afraid that whatever is in the water making it cloudy is hurting the fish. They are all acting fine, but still, it can't be healthy. And today, I found one Boesemani rainbow with hair-like strands sticking out of her left gill, and there was a white cottony mass in her throat attached to the hairs. I'm guessing this is fungus. I put her down because she was pretty far gone already, gasping and her color was very dull and gray. The rest of the fish look fine though.
What can I do?? Nothing has changed since we set up the tank in April. I treat the water with API's Stress Coat water conditioner and add Flourish fertilizer.
The parameters are:
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrate: 25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Total Hardness: 120ppm
Total Alkalinity: 40ppm
pH: 6.4
Temp: 84 Fahrenheit
Again, I apologize for the novel! I'm just so worried about it, I don't want my fishies to suffer!!
Thanks!
Julie
P.S - So I just realized that I posted this in the wrong forum (I'm blaming this on the fact that I'm new here) but if you have any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it!!!
Thanks so much!