This has been just short of two months since this tank and thread were started. It has been a while between updates. And there's a reason for that. I had a real tank disaster.
It is not easy to admit publicly, but I was so wrong on the ich diagnosis. In fact what looked like an ich spot of it actually turned into columnaris. I now believe it was a loose scale or something. I'm not sure which of the columnaris like disease bacteria it was of course. So with that said it was gray slime, had the classic saddleback look, killed some of my fish with it never showing up on their bodies, and was ultimately cured with a full round of Maracyn and Maracyn 2.
Of the 6 rummy-nose tetras I so carefully transported and added to the tank on June 1, only one survived. I have been really bummed and heart sick. The good news is my survivor fish has healed nicely and seems to be doing well. The other good news is the bio filter was not totally killed. The other good news is that theplants are still thriving.
After the disaster the water cleared up pretty quickly. I did use some charcoal in the filter to completely remove the meds. So after over week with no more signs of disease, good test parameters, and good looking and smelling water, I went to a different LFS (not that I blame the first one, just wanted to try something different) to get five more rummy nose tetras. I felt some urgency not to leave my one fish alone for too long. I made sure to have a bottle of Dr. Tim's One and Only on hand just in case my biofilter was not up to the task.
As luck would have it of course this store that "always" has rummy nose tetras was completely out of them. Now here comes the part where I feel guilty. I wasn't able to come home without fish. I got seven x-ray pristella tetras. I should've gotten more rummys to make a school for them, but that wasn't an option at this time. That was four days ago and so far so good. I breathed a sigh of relief when I got past the first 48 hours. Pristellas are much hardier than rummys are. It was nice getting them half-price on sale, too.
If you've been following you know that originally I wanted gold pristellas. There's nothing more to that change of plans except a last-minute decision to go with the x-rays.
Like many I have no quarantine or hospital tank. And like many who have been through disaster, I'm seriously trying to figure out how to get going on one. Now that I've got the pristellas in there I really don't want to add more fish without knowing they're not going to bring disease with them. Of course columnaris is endemic, but weakened fish that have just been transported succumb to it more easily. I want to add more rummys for my survivor as soon as I can. Happily he seems no more stressed with the pristellas than he seemed without them. He even schools with them sometimes.
The real good news is this is about bringing this thread to a close. While there are no guarantees that something still couldn't go wrong, the fact that my second batch of fish has lived more than 48 hours before dropping dead feels like a success. I know, its too soon to breathe completely easy, but at least its a good start this time. Daily test parameters attest to a functioning biofilter, with 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite with 8 fish. My nitrates are also 0, but I did a lot of water changes during the disaster and I do have plants. Once there are fish in the tank its really moving beyond getting started. So I'll be ending this and starting some kind of a tank journal or something. Here's a few last pictures on this thread.
I tried and failed on the static cling black background, btw. It wrinkled and got permanent clear spots during my best installation efforts. Due to that, it looked horrible. Maybe someday I'll try something different.
In closing, I'd really appreciate any ideas or advice for setting up that quarantine tank. References to good threads here or articles elsewhere would be appreciated as well as any personal experience. I'm on a limited budget for a while after all that money spent on trying to save my fish.