Everything Except Betta and Plants Die

[Autodidact]

Something is going on in there that I don't have a test for nor know what to test for next.



Here's a rundown of what's happened so far:

I have a 10 gallon tank. I've had it for probably 5? years with a Chinese Warty Newt.

The newt died (presumably of old age...although now I don't know). This was about a month and a half ago. He had only been dead overnight so I did a total water change without cleaning the gravel much and didn't touch the filter.

I picked up a Betta, 3 Otos, and a couple more plants at the local store. I admit I was excited to get a new tank going so I neglected to test the water parameters. The Otos were dead after a few days. I did the water tests and found that my ammonia was 0.5 and nitrites were 5.0! (dumbdumb!)

So I went about doing 25% water changes everyday and dosing with Prime. It took a couple of weeks for everything to get down to 0. It didn't help that the Anacharis that I had just gotten started to decay. I finally just pulled the whole thing out. The other plants are doing great. The Betta seemed healthy and active the whole time. I didn't even see him gasping at the surface.

Finally when all of the levels seemed right I picked up an Apple Snail, a Tiger Nerite and a Zebra Nerite. I did a very gradual introduction into the water with the bag floating and adding water to it over an hour. They were crawling around that first night but by the second they had shut their traps and didn't come out again. They were alive for several days but never moved. Finally, the Apple and the Tiger Nerite were dead about a week later.

The Zebra Nerite is still alive but has been stuck to the glass just above the surface for about a week now.

The tank is gaining a lot of algae so I just dosed with algae destroyer today(several things online said safe for snails) and I lessened the hours on the light timer.
I also just noticed today that the Betta's fins are just starting to have tiny tears at the edges where they hadn't been up until now.

Our tap water is hard and ph is 7.5 but my aquarium store says they use the same tap water and it shouldn't be a problem. -that messing with the ph would cause more problems than it's worth.

Here's a run down of everything in my tank at the moment:

10 gal
Fluval submersible filter - no carbon or anything, just the sponges
ViaAqua heater
thermometer: fluctuates between 74-78
1/4" gravel
5 year old piece of driftwood
2 granite rocks
Hairgrass (I think?)
3 Anubias
Pennywort
Banana Plant
1 African Almond Leaf (to lower ph. Didn't seem to effect it though)
1 Betta Splendid
1 Zebra Nerite Snail

Water Readings:

Water: hard
Ph: 7.5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: btween 0-20 "safe" on test strip

 

[Autumnsky]

Sounds like there is indeed something(s) not quite ideal in the tank.

Algae destroyer and other items of that nature can damage more than algae. I was doing some reading on it and not sure of that particular item but the data sheet on algaerid was definitely a poison.

First off you might just need to do a couple of complete 90-95% pwc remove the Betta to a container with half new treated water and half tank water, and the start acclimating him over an hour or so to new all clean water. Then take out half add half new a few times to get him into fresh clean (treated) water.

Just to be clear I always mean treated water where fish and plants and filters are concerned even if I just mention water.

If your town uses chloramines for water treatment, it requires more Prime to break them down.

Consider checking with your water supplier / company about whether they have done any work on lines or done any cleaning in the lines. Sometimes this time of year water supples change and they add strong antibacterial cleaners for lines. for drinking water safety.

Otherwise please get all that Algae killer out of your tank.

You can scrape the glass, remove algae from items /clean off rocks with hydrogen peroxide in the sink and rinse when finished scrub with a clean old toothbrush or new cheapo one.

When you rinse the sponges in your filter, used treated water. Otherwise you kill your BB with the stuff in the water for water treatment to make it "safe" to drink.

Fresh clean water will help his fins quite a bit. Put him back into a clean fresh water environment in the tank.

Keep tabs on water quality and see how he's doing.

 

[Autodidact]

No Changes Yet

Thank you for your advice.
To be clear I haven't been dosing with algae destroyer at all up until just before that post so it couldn't have had anything to do with the problems I've been having.
I did however do a 90% water change. So far the Betta is doing fine and the last remaining snail is still alive. It does move around a bit, as it's in a different spot everyday but only within a few inches.
I will be doing a 50% water change every few days to see if that helps correct something and gets the snail happier and away from the surface of the water.

Follow up question: Is it possible that the Betta could be picking at the snails so much that it they never come out much and even caused them to starve because they couldn't come out of their shells? Maybe it's not a water problem at all and is just the Betta being a Betta...

 

[Autumnsky]

First I am wondering about Warty Newts and if they give off any toxins, after a quick glance maybe not the really toxic ones but I can't say in death maybe something was released. Maybe you know the actual latin name for the guy and can match the animal with the name to double verify it (so you can do futher checking on any reports or known toxicity).

I would probably clean the rocks out. You might have a ton of muck in the bottom and it would be good to start the tank out with clean substrate. Nitrates will be released too from the muck. So it is good to gently rinse it with treated water, maybe keep some good BB.

Then wipe down all glass surfaces maybe with baking soda and vinegar and quadruple rinse everything, then run carbon to help get anything you can out of the water.

Otos are sensitive out of the store, then after they survive the transition they tend to be pretty tough.

Maybe someone else has something better to provide as an option.

 

[Delapool]

Not really much to add but good thoughts above. Would also try running carbon.

I was wondering if anything changed (eg light increase) when the algae started to take off. Is it normal green algae?

It seems odd the snails were in one place. Even with the beta going for them I'd expect a bit of movement.

 

[Autodidact]

Update - good news

I really appreciate all of your input!

Autumnsky, that's a really good point that I hadn't considered about the newt possibly having had left traces of toxins. They can give off toxins when disturbed. I'd never seen or felt him do that when I handled him so I assumed he just didn't feel threatened enough. But if toxins existed in his body I don't see why they wouldn't have leached into the water when he died or even as a result of stress during death... that's a sad thought.

Regarding the city water, I talked to my local aquarium store about it and he said that we use the same tap water so it's probably not that. He recommended just staying on top of water changes.
I also just took the biggest of those rocks out completely and siphoned the heck out of the gravel.

I have done several water changes since the last post and discontinued the use of algae destroyer (I don't think I'll ever use that again) and instead have been using flourish which ironically helps control algae while fertilizing the plants.

Delapool, it was brown algae. I think you are right that it was the lights specifically the duration. There is still some brown algae here and there but it's manageable. There is a lot of new growth on the plants which is also a great sign!

The remaining snail just picked up one day and started jamming around! Two baby snails have even appeared! Only time will tell if they are nerite or something less desirable.
I also added more plants as I have been reading about just how great they are at cleaning the water. Something just must have been off that I could not measure with my tests. Water changes and addition of more plants helped it balance out. I am now doing less WCs and things seem peaceful.

As for the Betta's tatters, I jumped to the perhaps inaccurate conclusion that it was fin rot and put him in a QT jar with aquarium salt. It has been about 10 days and I THINK the fins are looking better but it's hard to tell. His fins definitely still don't look as good as when I first got him when comparing photos. That being said, I think I might have mistaken fin rot for just mechanical damage. I had tried to buffer the flow as much as I could but it still created quite a current. My next experiment when I reintroduce him into the tank is to leave the filter off completely. It is only a mechanical filter anyway so it just catches debris. Those I can just be diligent at siphoning out. I have been reading in forums that in a well planted tank you don't really need a filter because the plants do so much. Any thoughts on this?

Side note: I also added sand to the substrate as prescribed by my local aquarist for the plants. I also now have 5 pygmy cories and they have been doing well for several weeks now.