Ich and Fin Rot

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Willayl

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jun 17, 2013
Messages
4
Hi All

New aquarium owner and lots of questions

I think the fish in my tank has Ich and Fin Rot, I have a 170L tank with at the moment only 4 surviving fish, an Iridescent Shark, a freshwater angel (Gold Veil), a celestial eye and a bottom feeder catfish (don't know the English name)

I did have a male Betta, some Neon Tetras, a sucker cat amongst others who all died within about 3 weeks of starting to put fish in the tank

The tank was running for 2 weeks before I added fish

current readings

Nh3 is 0.2-0.5ppm
PH is 8
Nitrate is 0.25-0.5ppm

I do a weekly water change of usually 50% (since the fish started dying) 30% before that

The LFS told me I didn't need a water heater as I live in the Canary Islands, however reading through some of the forum it states that Ich and Fin Rot can be treated by raising the temp of the tank, I haven tested the water temp as of yet

Also read that by adding Rock Salt you can treat the disease?

I'm limited in what advice I can get as I don't speak Spanish and am dealing with 1 LFS where the assistant speaks relatively good English

I am running a Haqos pump which sucks the water through a filter with Bio sponge balls + moly perlon pads + charcoal bag

The tank itself is a Haqos Q750

This was all set up when I bought the tank at the LFS

I vacuum the gravel at the bottom of the tank weekly when changing the water

I use chlorine treatment for the tap water (Aquasan) and have been using BioFilter bacteria additive

I also have some plants which are dying despite adding Proflor plant food (again sold to me at the LFS)

Any recommendations welcome

I have noticed several comments about cycling your tank (please explain)

I apologise as I am very new to this and was hoping to enjoy a colourful tank in my home office, however am struggling to keep the tank alive

Thanks in advance

Will
 
for ich and other external parasites and fungus i use PARAGUARD made by seachem. it works awesomely.
 
your plants may be dying because of your lighting what kind of light do you have? and certain plants need more light than others so if you know the plant type that would be helpful also. i would recommend not using salt unless you have somewhere else to put the catfish as they are normally sensitive to it.
 
Thanks AquaAndrew,

The plants, not sure what type they are, I bought them in a Spanish pet store and didn't catch their name, they just look like long stemmed grass almost

As for the light, the tank is in a room with a lot of natural light, the tank also comes with 2 flourescent tubes, although I usually don't have them turned on for much of the day as there is so much natural light in the tank

That leads me to my next question, is it advisable to use UV/blue tubes, don't they bring out the colour better underwater?

Will
 
natural light usually isnt a good idea because it promotes algae growth if you have it in direct sunlight. i would turn on your fluorescent tubes for 8 to 10 hours a day and see how that works out. does your store carry API brand stuff? if so i would also recommend api root tabs and api leaf zone to get the nutrients the plants need. if you take a picture of your plant and post a thread asking what it is someone will most likely be able to tell you what it is and what the requirements are
 
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