Hello Hello

[Harlow]

Hello everyone. I'm relatively new to keeping aquariums. Dad had a 75 gallon for over a decade while I was growing up, I've had a few smaller ones over the years, but I haven't considered myself to actually be an aquarium enthusiast until about 6 months ago. My wife and I ran out of bedrooms at our old house (that's what happens when you keep having babies) so we moved into a significantly larger one, and with the extra space I decided to begin keeping aquariums. I have 2 of them currently. Both are smaller, but I have put much dedicated time and effort into both. One is a 20 gallon which keeps a couple dwarf fire gouramies, a handful of neon tetras and zebra danios. It has a VERY efficient Fluval 50 filter system in it. It is very clean and clear, and looks terrific. I had that aquarium for about 4 months and felt confident enough to begin another one, but was kind of forced into doing on account of some overly playful albino Buenos Aires tetras who wouldn't quit nipping my gouramies. I'll go into the set up of that a further later I'm sure. Anyway, it was a 30 gallon tank, I was shooting for semi-aggressive fish. It held 10 tiger barbs, a pictus catfish, a large rhino pleco, and four albino Buenos Aires tetras. Thanks to a nasty ich outbreak, that tank is now empty.

I came across this forum while searching for an answer to a specific question and have found it quite useful. I thought it would be even more useful if I joined. As well as fun and enjoyable of course. Surely I will be on the receiving end of most advice until I have this aquarium stuff figured out a little better. I sure do enjoy it, and so do my kids.

 

[jlk]

Welcome to AA!!!

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard. We are glad you found us here at AA.

 

[redsea]

Welcome to Aquarium Advice!

 

[mistersprinkles]

Next time you get an ich outbreak just turn the temperature up to 85 for a few days.

 

[Harlow]

Next time you get an ich outbreak just turn the temperature up to 85 for a few days.

I turned the temp up to about 80. As I said before, I've really only been keeping aquariums for about 6 months and this was my first ich encounter. There were plenty of mistakes I made while trying to treat the tank. The most crippling for my aquarium I think followed after I turned the temp up gradually and reached about 80. about a day and a half afterward, I vacuumed the gravel, and removed about a third of the water from the aquarium. I didn't replace the water. In my inexperienced mind, this made sense because it was less water to treat, and the the aquarium size was still more than enough for the amount of fish in there. the problem was that I didn't realize the water level had dropped just below the heater, and thus dropped back down to room temp quickly which in my basement is roughly 67 degrees. the shock of that alone probably claimed several of my tiger barbs' lives.

Live and learn I suppose. As I stated initially, I'll be on the receiving end of most advice in this forum for a while.