HtheGeisha
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2014
- Messages
- 8
Hi, Aquarists.
I bought two yellow gouramis four days ago... bear with me, as this is something of a new tank, only two and a half months old. There is a lot going on analytically in that little environment right now!
I added a piece of driftwood to the tank about two weeks ago. The shop owner told me it was already washed, just needed to be rehydrated for sinking. I didn't have a pot big enough to leech it before hand, so I sank it in the tank on slate, thinking I could just deal with the tannin leaching. It's really not that bad, amber colored dust, but I worry it's compromising my fish's immune systems and oxygen intake. So, I looked at my filter, a Tetra Whisper 40. To me, it looks more like an amphibian tank power filter and not too good for a full fish tank bio load. Maybe it's me. The gouramis were fine initially, swimming around. After the first two days, the larger male, who had started out quite lively and inquisitive, was hanging at the middle of the tank behind some plants and not eating. So, fearing the tannins in the water were stressing his gills, I bought a new filter, two days after I bought these two yellow gouramis. Now the problem is the bacteria in the filters. I decided to run both filters initially, since the first has bacteria and the second doesn't. That's part one!
Upon inspecting my fish closely to see if their gills are stressed, I noticed very tiny white spots on my Von Rios. I don't know when that actually started, but read somewhere that if there is an infection or fungus in the tank, gouramis will show it faster. Can I assume he has the same thing? The other, smaller gourami seems fine and is all but pigging out, though her color darkens to almost black. She's all over the place and continually tries to rouse him out of his corner.
If so, I bought IchAttck by Kordon, and the directions say to remove carbon from the filter so it can work. What will this do to the leaching tannins? It's kind of a pinch.
For now, I've been adding salt, raising the water temp, its at 83, and I got a Purigen pack to add to the filter the same day I got the gouramis. The large gourami is moving around more, he doesn't look distressed or anything, and comes to surface now when I feed, but I swear he's only eating bubbles! He doesn't go after the food as he did before.
They are a completely new species to me, so I really need a wider frame of reference. And the filtration/tannins?? Carbon?? Ack! I'm stuck.
FYI, water numbers are amm 0.25, nit 0, nitrate between 20-40. I've been doing 15% water changes daily since seeing the nitrates go up, but the ammonia and nitrite are on their way down from two weeks ago. (Ammonia was at 4 and nitrite was 4-5). I don't want to hurt my bacteria, but don't know what to do for the fish.
I bought two yellow gouramis four days ago... bear with me, as this is something of a new tank, only two and a half months old. There is a lot going on analytically in that little environment right now!
I added a piece of driftwood to the tank about two weeks ago. The shop owner told me it was already washed, just needed to be rehydrated for sinking. I didn't have a pot big enough to leech it before hand, so I sank it in the tank on slate, thinking I could just deal with the tannin leaching. It's really not that bad, amber colored dust, but I worry it's compromising my fish's immune systems and oxygen intake. So, I looked at my filter, a Tetra Whisper 40. To me, it looks more like an amphibian tank power filter and not too good for a full fish tank bio load. Maybe it's me. The gouramis were fine initially, swimming around. After the first two days, the larger male, who had started out quite lively and inquisitive, was hanging at the middle of the tank behind some plants and not eating. So, fearing the tannins in the water were stressing his gills, I bought a new filter, two days after I bought these two yellow gouramis. Now the problem is the bacteria in the filters. I decided to run both filters initially, since the first has bacteria and the second doesn't. That's part one!
Upon inspecting my fish closely to see if their gills are stressed, I noticed very tiny white spots on my Von Rios. I don't know when that actually started, but read somewhere that if there is an infection or fungus in the tank, gouramis will show it faster. Can I assume he has the same thing? The other, smaller gourami seems fine and is all but pigging out, though her color darkens to almost black. She's all over the place and continually tries to rouse him out of his corner.
If so, I bought IchAttck by Kordon, and the directions say to remove carbon from the filter so it can work. What will this do to the leaching tannins? It's kind of a pinch.
For now, I've been adding salt, raising the water temp, its at 83, and I got a Purigen pack to add to the filter the same day I got the gouramis. The large gourami is moving around more, he doesn't look distressed or anything, and comes to surface now when I feed, but I swear he's only eating bubbles! He doesn't go after the food as he did before.
They are a completely new species to me, so I really need a wider frame of reference. And the filtration/tannins?? Carbon?? Ack! I'm stuck.
FYI, water numbers are amm 0.25, nit 0, nitrate between 20-40. I've been doing 15% water changes daily since seeing the nitrates go up, but the ammonia and nitrite are on their way down from two weeks ago. (Ammonia was at 4 and nitrite was 4-5). I don't want to hurt my bacteria, but don't know what to do for the fish.
