Fungal bloom taking over my aquarium?? What is this?!?!

[Abbitha]

At what level should I allow the ammonia to climb before giving in and doing a water change for them. I just want to be prepared when going into this and caught off guard on what I should do. I also have prime but I feel too much couldn't be good for the fish. Thanks in advance

 

[Mebbid]

Im not sure if you have a filter running on your tank or not but theres a filter media made out of zeolite which will absorb ammonia. You could stick it in that and it should help take care of your problem.

Also, prime is quite safe for fish.

 

[Abbitha]

I only have one power filter and I don't want to reinvest it again by sticking it in the tote. I'm working on cycling their aquarium... Can I still use the media without a filter somehow? Okay, it says up to 5 times dose can be used as an emergency. I guess this is considered one

 

[Mebbid]

I only have one power filter and I don't want to reinvest it again by sticking it in the tote. I'm working on cycling their aquarium... Can I still use the media without a filter somehow? Okay, it says up to 5 times dose can be used as an emergency. I guess this is considered one

That's a 5x dose at a single time It breaks down fairly quickly once it's in the water.

Another thing you could do is something like this but instead of the filter padding just use the zeolite.

Cut a water bottle in half, cut dozens of slits on the bottom half with a razor blade, put some gravel in bottom for weight, add zeolite over gravel, lift tube to top of bottle, nest the two halves together, and then drop an airstone in the top of the bottle. It'll pull water through the bottom and pass it through the zeolite pulling the ammonia out of the water.

 

[Abbitha]

Will I need to raise the bottle a little in the water or will it be able to just sit on the bottom floor with the same effect. What kind of tubing is that? It looks big. I'll have to see if I can find some at petsmart.

 

[Mebbid]

Will I need to raise the bottle a little in the water or will it be able to just sit on the bottom floor with the same effect. What kind of tubing is that? It looks big. I'll have to see if I can find some at petsmart.

It'll be fine on the bottom of the tub. The tubing is an uplift tube made for sponge filters. Pet smart won't have any but you could try other places. There's two LFS in my area that have it. It will function without the uplift tube although not quite as well. It's still way better than nothing either way.

 

[Delapool]

At what level should I allow the ammonia to climb before giving in and doing a water change for them. I just want to be prepared when going into this and caught off guard on what I should do. I also have prime but I feel too much couldn't be good for the fish. Thanks in advance

I played it by ear (instead of running for buckets like I normally would do). Regardless if the nitra-zorb was in there or not, if it said say 1ppm but the fish looked fine and perky, I assumed it was detoxified. I've had it go up to 5ppm in a mini-cycle and without the liquid test, i would never have picked it. I can only assume I was lucky to keep it detoxified as ph was 7.4 or so.

If it said say 0.5 and they were sulking, I changed the water and re-dosed the medicine. I'm sure there is a better way. Annoyingly I've just learnt there are tank badges that will say how much toxic ammonia is in the water (and exclude ammonium I assume).

 

[Mebbid]

I played it by ear (instead of running for buckets like I normally would do). Regardless if the nitra-zorb was in there or not, if it said say 1ppm but the fish looked fine and perky, I assumed it was detoxified. I've had it go up to 5ppm in a mini-cycle and without the liquid test, i would never have picked it. I can only assume I was lucky to keep it detoxified as ph was 7.4 or so.

If it said say 0.5 and they were sulking, I changed the water and re-dosed the medicine. I'm sure there is a better way. Annoyingly I've just learnt there are tank badges that will say how much toxic ammonia is in the water (and exclude ammonium I assume).

The tank badges are junk. Also, no they wont exclude ammonium.

 

[Abbitha]

Wondering if throwing in so,e Eco complete would be beneficial for them? I just purchased some bags and have a little left over.

 

[Mebbid]

Wondering if throwing in so,e Eco complete would be beneficial for them? I just purchased some bags and have a little left over.

It's doubtful that they would care plus it would trap detrius. One thing you can do to help is siphon the poo out of the tote and then add the water back in. You can use something like a stocking or filter media bag rubber banded onto the siphon to trap the debris.

 

[Abbitha]

Very good idea, thanks!

 

[Delapool]

The tank badges are junk. Also, no they wont exclude ammonium.

Oh well, thanks - much appreciated on the info.

 

[Abbitha]

So apparently I have three assassin snails, not two lol in a couple of days I'll be moving fish into their aquarium! I'm so excited to get them out!

 

[Masha]

Wow I'm sure you will be happy for this particular adventure to be over!

 

[Abbitha]

After 3.5 very long years my guppy isn't going to make this ordeal. I've grown quite attached to her and will miss her familiar face. She is the oldest fish in my aquarium. I'm terribly sad she won't get to enjoy being in the aquarium. I've set her up in a separate 5 gallon bag floating in the tank so she can pass peacefully without the fish picking on her. I didn't think her death would bother me too much but it has. I guess she was just too old to handle this

 

[Masha]

I'm so sorry. Poor old girl.

 

[Delapool]

Sad news

 

[Abbitha]

Ok you would not believe this. My guppy is still alive and is actually looking a lot better! This morning when I found her she looked terrible. Her body was contortioned into a weird shape. Like her spine had broke or something it was like a complete U shape. and she as unable to swim. Well, she still has a very slight "S" shape to her but it's very slight and she is actually able to swim around a little bit. (I have her in a net, in the 5 gallon bag to offer support since she wasn't able to swim) she's looking better! I offered her a tiny little piece of flake and she gladly took it! I have to drop it right next to her otherwise she gets excited and has a weird spazzing moment trying to catch the flake and he body starts twisting. Not really sure what's going on. But on a very slim hope that she might recover I will keep her as calm as possible and hopefully rest and meds will make her get better. I'm dosing her with pimafix and melafix because I'm unsure of what this is. Her body looks normal. No fungus or scrapes besides bits of her tail that I'm sure the others were starting to pick on her as she was laying funny in the tank this morning unable to swim. I saw the gourami take some bits anyways.

So this old guppy is such a fighter it's ridiculous. But I can't just let her die by getting eaten and picked on to death. She deserves dignity, peace, and quiet until she goes. (sorry if I sound corny, but I love all creatures, even fish!)

On another note, all the fish are moved back into the aquarium and I now have to start my very slow process of cycling. I'm sure a fish in cycle requires lots of water changes which will probably slow down the cycling process right? I've also dosed the entire tank with pimafix and melafix because they have a few scrapes on them from the QT tank. They probably brushed up against those hard ornaments and to also add an extra safety precaution because I'm super paranoid lol I like these meds because they are light meds when used correctly and it smells nice. The only problem is I had to take my carbon out of my brand new filter cartridge and turn off UV. Fingers are crossed the next few weeks are a breeze and no one gets sick or dies in this stressful process :/

 

[Masha]

Well, I think you deserve a medal. Awesome work on pulling through. I hope the rest of the process is smooth.

Can you get filter media or sqeezings from a cycled tank? That will help a lot, to get your filter seeded with BB

 

[Abbitha]

I think it's back. I noticed my bio wheel wasn't spinning and then I noticed the filter was back flowing into the tank so I opened it up and there is this white stuff growing all over the walls in my filter and waving with the flow. Do diatoms grow into the dark and do they get long enough to wave around in the water flow? Seems to flourish in the dark and high water areas the most.