water problems help!!!

[shannon m]

i am new to this. we have had our tank for 4 months and cannot get it right. I only have 4 fish left out of 15. I cannot keep the water clean,every water change i loose at least one fish,so im scared to do anything now. And My plants and glass have brown stuff on them now and i dont know how to keep it off. I've cleaned and cleaned. What should i do?

[shannon m]

should I buy an algae eater to take care of this problem. Im pretty sure thats what the stuff is.

[BASSNMAN]

Welcome to AA Shannon. We will need some info from you to tackle the problems. How big is your tank? Did you start out with 15 fish or cycle it first? What are your water parameters? Do you use declor when doing water changes? How much and how often do you do water changes.

[shannon m]

29 gal started with the fish. That is what the lfs said. The tank ran for 2 wks before adding them. We use the declor and we have been doing changes every 2 wks here lately. I don't have a test kit right now, but when we take it to the lfs the nitrates are always high. that is all they tell me. Everytime i change the water at least one fish dies.Are they suppose to be taken out before the change or what? I know I'm doing something wrong!!! It breaks my heart to see them suffer. Which they are fine at the moment .

[Fishyfanatic]

Shannon I know exaclty what you are going through. I went through the same thing when I got my first tank. Everytime I did a water change, I lost fish. It may seem like a hassle but you may want to take your fish out of the tank when you change the water. We do that because we have a gravel vac that looks up to the garden hose (it won't fit on the kitchen sink faucet) and we run the water straight from the hose into the tank and it isn't conditioned yet and plus it tends to be quite a bit colder.

If I were you, now remember, this is just my opinion, purchase a couple 5 gal buckets from Wal-Mart. Mix your water with the conditioner (we use a pH 7.0 conditioner), let it sit overnight (somewhere were it doesn't get too cold), and the next day take out your fish and do a partial water change using the water that was previously mixed. We did this for all of our smaller tanks until we purchased the 55 (too many buckets). We haven't lost a fish yet since we started doing this. It can be a hassle but now we are confident that we won't lose anymore fish.

The brown stuff on your plants is normal. You may want to purchase a baby pleco. Now when I say baby I mean a small one. This will help control the algae. I have been told not to clean my plants at each water change because you will lose too much bacteria but we do anyways and our fish have not suffered. The pleco won't get rid of the brown entirely, but it will help. I recommend getting a very small one because I went to the lfs last week and they had two HUGE pleco's in their tank. By purchasing a small one you can have him for a longer period of time.

BTW- Welcome to AA! This was just my opinion.

[Fishyfanatic]

Also, you may be feeding your fish too much or they may just naturally be "dirty" fish. What kind are they?

[jsoong]

Few points:
1. What fish are they, some are more sensitive to changes than others.
2. How do you do your water change? and how much water do you change out? Small frequent changes is much better than infrequent big ones. I typically do a 10% change every week ... this seems to keep the parameters pretty stable. With infrequent changes ... the water in the tank drifts further & further from your tap water over time (with regards to pH, nitrates, etc.), and when you do a big change, there is a big change in water parameter & some fish can't stand that.
3. Do you match the temperature when you do a change? Sudden change in water temperature (esp. drops) is bad for fish, brings down the immmunity & brings on diseases like ich.

PS - I suggest you get your own test kit, then you can monitor the tank much more closely. Also, unless you find a really good lfs <that is interested in the fish rather than trying to sell you something for all ills - real or imagined> DON'T trust what they tell you!! I would always double check with a book or on the net if the advice sounds dubious.

On the net, try the KRIB FAQ - http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin.html - considered to be the best source of info on fish, everythign from beginners to advanced stuff.

[TheManichaean]

Shannon,

Don't worry too much, you're doing a good job. We just need more info so that we can help you. (sorry if I'm repeating previous posters' questions)

1. What type of fish? What size are they?
2. What are your exact test values? (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp, pH)
3. What type of filtration are you using? Please give the name and number (i.e. Fluval 304) and amount of gph if known.
4. Do you vacuum the gravel?
5. What type of substrate and decor do you have?

Tony

[SeriousDude5]

Well do you declorinize your water? Is it near the regular temperature of your water? Also how much do you take out for each clean...

[Kasakato]

The water testing is what we really need to even start fixing this problem.

[TankGirl]

I would really advise against taking the fish out to do water changes. That is extraordinarily stressful to them, and is not necessary. You might be doing 1) too drastic of a water change, so that the new water is very different from the tank water (i.e., suddenly very low nitrate compared to the high level before the water change) or 2) not matching the temperature properly so there is a sudden change in temp with the addition of the new water.

If your water has chlorine and chloramines (most municipal systems do) then your dechlorinator needs to handle both of these.

This is aside from the fact that you may have a cycling tank (read the article here at AA about the nitrogen cycle) and this is very stressful for fish. During this time you don't "clean" the tank at all, because you will destroy beneficial bacteria that will make the water safe and sound for the fish.

The brown stuff is diatom algae that you need to ignore for now - it is harmless - and it may just go away on its own. At any rate, it is not hurting anything and efforts to rid the tank of this are not going to help things at this point. Let's put that on the back burner just for the time being.

I echo the idea that you need to get yourself an ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kit, liquid reagent form, and test the tank yourself.

Do not add any more fish. This will put a strain on your bacterial colonies and we need to get a handle on the problem you are having before any new fish go in there.

Good luck!