Urgent 2 of 4 dead

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That is alarming. Maybe a bunch of water changes.

What chemicals have you been using?


Hey autumn the only thing i have used before now is tetra easy balance and tetra aquasafe plus

I got paid today and I will be getting the api master kit and seachem prime today.

As far as the things in the water they are definetly coming from our female the platinum looking bekko. They have a small slime casing it looks like then a mass attached. Not sure if its just poop and shes possibly sick or shes trying to lay eggs
 
Maybe Anchor worms? google those. I had them in my pond a couple years ago, they attach to the fish.

Thanks for that, i did a search, definitely not those,

To give it a better description, the gel casing on it, has the color and consistency of albumin, then the "yolk" looking piece in the center of it was the color and size of a Hikari gold mini pellet.

It was the gel casing was about half an inch in length and oblong shape,

I will post up some new water numbers once i get home tonight. I have already purchased the API kit i just have to pick it up.

I also plan on a remodel of the tank. Going to remove the gravel replace with aquarium sand give the hishes a couple hiding holes and plants also a good water change
 
Here are the master test kit results.

Ph between 6.4 and 6.6
Ammonia .5 to 1.0
Nitrate 0 to 5 ppm
Nitrite .25 to .5 ppm

I did a partial water change a few days ago adding the seachem prime after the test.
 
That ammonia is high, I'd do another large 50% water change.

You can tell a lot from the smell of the water as well. No joke, I smell the water every time I feed them. If it smells like hot dog water then probably high nitrates. If it smells like sewer water then you probably have high ammonia.
 
A couple big pwc.

But also is your tap water the same pH?

I think you should add calcium to get the water level to a better pH for GF.

I have low KH and need to add Calcium regularly. A few months ago I hadn't added the calcium in a while I had a sick looking fish, added the calcium and literally the next day fish was doing great and his scales were perfect. The correct pH is important for the fish to be able to maintain its body in the type of water it is in.

Osmoregulation I believe so if the water is in good parameter for the fish, the fish's system is functioning properly and has better ability to keep healthy/fight off illness.

I would add a little salt too if you haven't done that yet. Maybe a 1/4 tsp per gallon, dissolved first, then added. Help the slime coat.

Then the Calcium. I use Kent's Marine dkH superbuffer. Works fine with FW too. As directed. Easy to use just add to tank in water flow.

More recently started using Seachem Replenish, it seems to be doing a great job. I still will add a little of the Kent's now and again as the kH /alkalinity, gets low. scroll down to read the description of how it works.
https://www.seachem.com/replenish.php
 
A couple big pwc.

But also is your tap water the same pH?

I think you should add calcium to get the water level to a better pH for GF.

I have low KH and need to add Calcium regularly. A few months ago I hadn't added the calcium in a while I had a sick looking fish, added the calcium and literally the next day fish was doing great and his scales were perfect. The correct pH is important for the fish to be able to maintain its body in the type of water it is in.

Osmoregulation I believe so if the water is in good parameter for the fish, the fish's system is functioning properly and has better ability to keep healthy/fight off illness.

I would add a little salt too if you haven't done that yet. Maybe a 1/4 tsp per gallon, dissolved first, then added. Help the slime coat.

Then the Calcium. I use Kent's Marine dkH superbuffer. Works fine with FW too. As directed. Easy to use just add to tank in water flow.

More recently started using Seachem Replenish, it seems to be doing a great job. I still will add a little of the Kent's now and again as the kH /alkalinity, gets low. scroll down to read the description of how it works.
https://www.seachem.com/replenish.php

I did a test from the tap and the ph was 7.0. Our tap water varies greatly though by the city a few weeks ago it was over 8

In one of my koi books it suggests using baking soda to bring the ph back up is that still a valid way or is it safer to go with the premix chems like the seachem?
 
What is your water change schedule......% and frequency?

Add crushed coral to the gravel if you want to raise the pH.

IMO, you should add 1 TEAspoon of salt for every 5g of water at all times with a GF.

I second doing more frequent water changes based off your water test.
 
So the aquarium has been running about 2 week's now doing weekly changes only did 10 % last week will do 30+% thia time . i have never tried to raise ph nor have i used salt so this is all new to me hence all the questions.

i was thinking since they are going to stay in the aquarium a couple months. I have decided since I need to repair some things on the pond I will upgrade it and make it larger for them. So why there in the aquarium iam thinking of switching from gravel to sand and switcjing from a penguin 200 to a penguin 350 filter system. But getting this water education is priority before that.

My new test kit doesn't test hardiness the old strips did when i tested it. Recently kh was basically non existent 0 ppm

So what do I need to fix first
 
If you still have the strips you can use the to see the possible amount of Gh - general hardness and KH Alkalinity or carbonate hardness aka amount of calcium in the water.

These are important to keep a stable pH. If you don't have calcium at all you have a very high probability of having a pH crash. Very unpleasant and often deadly outcome.

Baking soda is a variable additive which is short lived making it the least best way to handle it inmho.

Since it is very fine, and compact substantially with handling, measuring by weight would be most accurate, though usually I don't see calculative amounts in weight but by teaspoon or grams or whatever the metric versions are.

A small amount can change the water very quickly and cause the fish additional stress. This would not be my choice.

The Kent's marine is really useful, and I had been using it for a few years along with the magnesium sulfate aka Epsom salts. To make the

I couldn't find the info link I initially wanted to post, I believe I read this one before and it was a good explanation about all kinds of things relating to water chemistry, 3 parts. not positive but it should be good basics. Since I am just able to understand it myself mainly for my tanks, I would rather someone with better grasp of it all can explain it more accurately and completely.
https://m.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=60


Will post further... just sending this before my internet stops and I lose what I got already!!!
 
With -0- KH registering on the test, I frequently have the same, it is wise to get the KH to a level which can keep the pH stable.

After experiencing a horrifying pH crash, and not knowing really any thing to actually correct it, I lost all the fish which couldn't survive in the acidic environment. My beautiful lively tank of the month winner went to being basically a waste land tank. It was an awful experience.

I found after time how to test for kH and to the the GH/KH test additional tests from the master test kit (of course, more $). BUT, that helped me to get a better grasp on what was going on, and I feel so much better being able to test it.

I used the Kent's Marine superbuffer dKH - Calcium because it was easy to dissolve and suggested as an easy way to get calcium into the tank.
Kent Marine » Superbuffer-dKH | Products

There is special bottles of pH up and pH down and I really can't speak to those products, other than the experience of persons having HUGE amounts of problems with their tanks probably because they aren't understanding what on earth they are doing.

So when you have 0 kh you need to raise it, but a reasonable amount so you don't shock the fish as detailed in the Live Aquaria link.

Also to help in osmoregulation (just a wiki link so as to not misinterpret it)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmoregulation

I read that magnesium is another important building block of correct water so that pH can maintain stability. The word I am looking for is escaping me atm! argh!

Anyway I started by using a small amount and making it so that I could gauge what MY water needed to stay in a good range.

Some of each calcium and magnesium sulfate were used to add the amount needed during water changes.

My water company switches water sources during the year making things quite a challenge.

So this past year I picked up a couple bottles of the Replenish because they were on clearance to move the product and make way for a different product line. I read what they had in them and because I use RO and RO/DI water for my tanks, I thought it was a super bargain.

Then I realized it was great for convenience for the maintenance amounts to keep the mineral content at a good place and maintain pH.

I use both the replenish and my diy combo of Kent's calcium and Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) presently based on how much time I have and which tanks it is for.

So that is where I would start.

more next post...
 
There are more types of products to help you with parameter issues...

There are products to help bind/break down ammonia and nitrates. They won't really magically solve a problem but can really help manage while you work to solve the problem.

Again there are various companies with similar products.

here is one I just found similar to Prime
https://www.seachem.com/amguard.php

Zeolite
https://www.seachem.com/zeolite.php

here is a chart of what and how the contaminant is handled, I thought it looked pretty useful
https://www.seachem.com/filtration-removal-chart.php

There are many options.

You can get this water and cycle thing worked out either way.

If you can get the pH normal the fish might just get better more quickly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These offer HUGE surface area for BB to colonize on others of similar types are available from different companies with similar results. I use these and have bought Marine pure block - marine pure biofilter media comes in balls cubes blocks and slices! Kinda many to fit all filtering needs. You can read about these to get an idea of what they do here is a quote of the surface area for their product
Compare MarinePure Products

Surface area (per indvidual piece)
1½” Marinepure Sphere: 240 sq ft
2" Marinepure Cube: 720 sq ft
8"x8"x1” Marinepure Block: 5,750 sq ft
8"x8"x4”Marinepure Block: 23,000 sq ft


https://www.seachem.com/matrix.php
 
50% weekly if not more frequent should be the standard. More filtration the better
 
I guess there is no end in sight for the miracles of water additives - just found this one. Don't know anything about it or how to use it but perhaps worth checking on!
https://www.seachem.com/gold-buffer.php
https://www.seachem.com/gold-trace.php



:thanks: First off, Thank you for everything you posted.

I did end up picking up seachem prime yesterday and did a small treatment as an additive to tide things over, today i plan on doing a water change, i will treat all the water with the seachem prime before adding back. It will be a couple of days before i have the money to purchase any additional additives, hopefully a large volume water change with nutral water will help with the PH a little to give me time to fix it.

My current filtration setup on this tank is the following.

Marineland Penguin 200 with a single Type C Cartidge

I have also added a handful of ceramic rings and bioballs these were used in my pond before it was disassembled.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BFIUU74/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The aquarium doesnt have much of a light source as i had ot make shift it in an emergency, it is using the LED lights off my 10 gallon aquarium currently.

Then i also have a air pump rated for 40g tank use only 1 hose atm, connected to a 10inch air stone.


Here is my plan let me know what you guys think
Swap substrate to sand over gravel
Purchase penguin 350, use 2 filters and add Maxtrix bio material
purchase gh/kh add on kit for my api kit
Get Seachem Stability for starting up again with new filter/materials and substrate
Get seachem Calcium for PH
Add epsom salt as needed as well
add 2nd air stone on 2nd outlet to ensure extra o2 in system
(Possibly add live plants once everything is sorted out)

Does that sound like i got everything you guys suggested in order to try and fix the issue?
 
Update

Did 50 % change. I moved koi to holding tank. While I did it.

I have the system cycling some to give time for prime to fully saturate through i used a bit extra .

In testing the cycling water. The ph has come up slighlt to about 6.6ish. Amonnia is now only about .25 nitrite is down to 0

Strips are still showing 0 on in but interestingly they show like 20 to 30ppm nitrates but API kit says 0
 
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