DukeNukem713
Aquarium Advice Activist
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2011
- Messages
- 126
This is terrible. A modern day tragedy. Here's the story, please help!
I got a 30gal tank off of craigslist. I go to pick the tank up and it has 2 massive plecos and 1 bottom feeder inside. The tank looks like it hasn't been properly cleaned in a year (dried white stuff all over the filter, tank cover, and the rim of the tank. All is OUTSIDE the tank, ei. not touching water). When we took the tank home and added water and let it sit for 3 days, we noticed how much waster was in the gravel.
The gravel is about 3 inches deep. I did the first water change and got ALOT of crap out of it using a pump (as of now i've down 5-6). I changed the filter cartridges and let the thing run/settle for another day. Then i started getting fish.
I've gotten 4 angelfish, 5 painted mirror fish, 7 guppys, a small catfish, a flame guarami, a clown loach, and I've kept the old sucker fish and gave away the two big plecos.
My first fish were an angelfish, 4 guppys, the guarami, suck fish, catfish, and the 5painted mirrors. Out of these, the angelfish, 2 guppys and 2 mirrors have died. The first to go was the angel fish after about a week. I noticed she started becoming inactive and was hanging out by the filter/top of the water.
So I did a water change, got more muck out of the gravel. The next day a mirror died. So i figured it was because of the change in temperature from the water change (my tanks hangs around 75/76 during the day and after a change drops to 70/71 that night) I put a heater in my tank, the temp went up to 78 or so, I decided to take it out. Two days later I found one of the male guppys dead. He hadn't been acting strange.
The next day (so far its been a week and a half since i put fish in) I got more fish, 3 more angelfish. A couple days (2-4) go by, sure enough one of the female guppys starts getting really sick. Her gills puffed up and got very red and she became extremely thin. She was constantly gasping for air at the top. She died.
So now I do another water change, a lot more muck is picked up from the gravel. 2 or 3 more days go by, another dead angelfish (this was is much larger than the first that died).
Two days ago I get more new fish. 4 more guppys (1 male three female) and the clown loach.
So yesterday (2 days after this last angelfish death, 2 and a half weeks after putting the original fish in the tank) I decide to re do my whole tank. I take all the rocks and live plants out, do a massive 15-20 gal water change. Now during the water change I sucked up ALOT of the much (its mostly brown dirt looking stuff) from the gravel. Atleast 60% what was possible using a pump. During this the water level dropped below the filter so I unplugged it.
Now my fish are swimming around in pretty dirty water because a lot of the dirt was floating around from the water change and hadn't resettled yet. My girlfriend calls me, so I spend an hour on the phone, meanwhile my fish are swimming in this non-filtering mucky water thats in the process of settling. DURING THAT HOUR one of my female guppys died. My biggest one! She wasn't acting so wierd, she had been hanging out at the top water layer a bit but my other guppies do that too.
So I fill the water back up and turn the filter on. Later that night I feed my fish and almost non of them were eating except the guarami. This morning one of the mirror fish were dead and 1 of the angelfish was extremely close to death. Just laying on the ground barley moving. I've taken her out. The good news is the rest of the fish (or most I couldn't watch them all) were eating again this morning. One of my new female guppys is hanging out at the top water line.
WHAT IS WRONG!? Is it the gravel that came with the tank, is it the large sucker fish that came with the tank? I just did a strip test, everything looks alright, the only thing that looked maybe too high was the nitrite. What should I do? I did a MASSIVE water change yesterday and two fish died that night!!!! Should I remove the gravel and boil it? Clean the entire tank?
Sorry for the long read, please help!!!!
I got a 30gal tank off of craigslist. I go to pick the tank up and it has 2 massive plecos and 1 bottom feeder inside. The tank looks like it hasn't been properly cleaned in a year (dried white stuff all over the filter, tank cover, and the rim of the tank. All is OUTSIDE the tank, ei. not touching water). When we took the tank home and added water and let it sit for 3 days, we noticed how much waster was in the gravel.
The gravel is about 3 inches deep. I did the first water change and got ALOT of crap out of it using a pump (as of now i've down 5-6). I changed the filter cartridges and let the thing run/settle for another day. Then i started getting fish.
I've gotten 4 angelfish, 5 painted mirror fish, 7 guppys, a small catfish, a flame guarami, a clown loach, and I've kept the old sucker fish and gave away the two big plecos.
My first fish were an angelfish, 4 guppys, the guarami, suck fish, catfish, and the 5painted mirrors. Out of these, the angelfish, 2 guppys and 2 mirrors have died. The first to go was the angel fish after about a week. I noticed she started becoming inactive and was hanging out by the filter/top of the water.
So I did a water change, got more muck out of the gravel. The next day a mirror died. So i figured it was because of the change in temperature from the water change (my tanks hangs around 75/76 during the day and after a change drops to 70/71 that night) I put a heater in my tank, the temp went up to 78 or so, I decided to take it out. Two days later I found one of the male guppys dead. He hadn't been acting strange.
The next day (so far its been a week and a half since i put fish in) I got more fish, 3 more angelfish. A couple days (2-4) go by, sure enough one of the female guppys starts getting really sick. Her gills puffed up and got very red and she became extremely thin. She was constantly gasping for air at the top. She died.
So now I do another water change, a lot more muck is picked up from the gravel. 2 or 3 more days go by, another dead angelfish (this was is much larger than the first that died).
Two days ago I get more new fish. 4 more guppys (1 male three female) and the clown loach.
So yesterday (2 days after this last angelfish death, 2 and a half weeks after putting the original fish in the tank) I decide to re do my whole tank. I take all the rocks and live plants out, do a massive 15-20 gal water change. Now during the water change I sucked up ALOT of the much (its mostly brown dirt looking stuff) from the gravel. Atleast 60% what was possible using a pump. During this the water level dropped below the filter so I unplugged it.
Now my fish are swimming around in pretty dirty water because a lot of the dirt was floating around from the water change and hadn't resettled yet. My girlfriend calls me, so I spend an hour on the phone, meanwhile my fish are swimming in this non-filtering mucky water thats in the process of settling. DURING THAT HOUR one of my female guppys died. My biggest one! She wasn't acting so wierd, she had been hanging out at the top water layer a bit but my other guppies do that too.
So I fill the water back up and turn the filter on. Later that night I feed my fish and almost non of them were eating except the guarami. This morning one of the mirror fish were dead and 1 of the angelfish was extremely close to death. Just laying on the ground barley moving. I've taken her out. The good news is the rest of the fish (or most I couldn't watch them all) were eating again this morning. One of my new female guppys is hanging out at the top water line.
WHAT IS WRONG!? Is it the gravel that came with the tank, is it the large sucker fish that came with the tank? I just did a strip test, everything looks alright, the only thing that looked maybe too high was the nitrite. What should I do? I did a MASSIVE water change yesterday and two fish died that night!!!! Should I remove the gravel and boil it? Clean the entire tank?
Sorry for the long read, please help!!!!