Driftwood not sinking

[Colin_T]

They are just an aquatic worm that lives in the substrate. They don't normally affect fish or snails but are an indication there is something not right about the tank. When worms and snails try to get out of the tank there is usually a water quality problem. If the tank had a lot of rotting organic matter (fish poop) then that could cause the worms to try and get out and would also encourage protozoan and bacterial infections in the fish, and possibly cause high nitrate levels.

The easiest way to control aquatic worms is through regular water changes, gravel cleaning and minimising the food going into the tank, especially meat based foods like fish, prawns, bloodworms and brineshrimp.

If the tank is nice and clean and the worms are still everywhere, you can use my trusty and faithful friend that nobody here likes, copper sulphate. You remove the shrimp, snails and fish and then double dose with copper, wait 48 hours then drain and refill the tank a couple of times. Add some carbon to the filter after that and your good to go
And yes I know everyone is going to say no copper, but it works.

If you don't mind removing the gravel you can boil it to kill the worms and flush the tank while the gravel is boiling. then you don't have to use copper but there might be a few worms on the plants.

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Use the calculator in the How To Tips at the top of the page to convert drops to ppm. 1 drop = 17.9ppm if I recall correctly.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

They are just an aquatic worm that lives in the substrate. They don't normally affect fish or snails but are an indication there is something not right about the tank. When worms and snails try to get out of the tank there is usually a water quality problem. If the tank had a lot of rotting organic matter (fish poop) then that could cause the worms to try and get out and would also encourage protozoan and bacterial infections in the fish, and possibly cause high nitrate levels.

sorry, forgot to mention that I had been testing the water on that betta tank and parameters were perfect. That was with the liquid test kit. So it wasn't water quality.

I'm not trying to argue by any means, as every thing you said was everything I read about as well. Though one thing (don't remember exactly where it was from) said that there are some types of planaria that are bad, like attacking my snails. Oh and no gravel, just sand.

The easiest way to control aquatic worms is through regular water changes, gravel cleaning and minimising the food going into the tank, especially meat based foods like fish, prawns, bloodworms and brineshrimp.

I wasn't feeding the betta much, just a few pellets twice a day so I don't think it was over feeding either.

If the tank is nice and clean and the worms are still everywhere, you can use my trusty and faithful friend that nobody here likes, copper sulphate. You remove the shrimp, snails and fish and then double dose with copper, wait 48 hours then drain and refill the tank a couple of times. Add some carbon to the filter after that and your good to go
And yes I know everyone is going to say no copper, but it works.

Other than the regular tanks, when I first moved those snails over, the totes were completely clean. I did add a piece of driftwood, but I want to say it was not in the tank first, just an extra piece I had. And those things multiplied like crazy and attacked my snails. I almost forgot...I made a video of how they were acting when I put them in a plastic bowl temporarily. Here is the link. You can see that the snail is trying to push itself out of the shell. Poor things....it was hard to watch. And they did get out of the water above the spray bar due to the higher flow rate that these things don't seem to like.

If you don't mind removing the gravel you can boil it to kill the worms and flush the tank while the gravel is boiling. then you don't have to use copper but there might be a few worms on the plants.

Well since the pleco is out of the tank...I'm tearing it down to bleach everything. Substrate is sand so I'm tossing that and will put new. I'm tossing the sponges on the filter and replacing with new ones. The plants are all plastic so good to bleach them too. The only thing is the piece of driftwood which I was thinking of boiling, though I'm not sure for how long. Not afraid to use copper if I have to, but hopefully I wont.

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Use the calculator in the How To Tips at the top of the page to convert drops to ppm. 1 drop = 17.9ppm if I recall correctly.

Thanks! I will go look it up! I just seem to stay on this page and forget there are other things on the forum....lol.

 

[Colin_T]

You can boil the sand rather than chucking it out. Just put it in a pot on the stove and bring it to the boil. Let it boil for 5 minutes then take it off and let it coil down, then put it in a clean bucket. Same with the wood. If you don't have a pot big enough you can bake wood in the over.

Most life forms on this planet die when the temperature hits 60C (140F), so if you get the water up to 100C (212F) for a minute it will kill anything on the sand or wood.

You can bleach the sponges from the filter, however if the sponge is polyurethane foam it will fall apart in the bleach. If its plastic sponges, then you can bleach them without any problems.

You can also dry the sponges, wood and sand. Aquatic organisms can't live out of water so if you dry everything for a couple of days it should be safe to use. You can use salt as well. Just fill the tank with rock salt or swimming pool salt until the salt can no longer dissolve. Leave the filters running and after 24 hours, drain and refill the tank a couple of times. Then fill it up, add dechlorinator and let it run for a few days before adding fish.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

You can boil the sand rather than chucking it out. Just put it in a pot on the stove and bring it to the boil. Let it boil for 5 minutes then take it off and let it coil down, then put it in a clean bucket. Same with the wood. If you don't have a pot big enough you can bake wood in the over.

Most life forms on this planet die when the temperature hits 60C (140F), so if you get the water up to 100C (212F) for a minute it will kill anything on the sand or wood.

You can bleach the sponges from the filter, however if the sponge is polyurethane foam it will fall apart in the bleach. If its plastic sponges, then you can bleach them without any problems.

You can also dry the sponges, wood and sand. Aquatic organisms can't live out of water so if you dry everything for a couple of days it should be safe to use. You can use salt as well. Just fill the tank with rock salt or swimming pool salt until the salt can no longer dissolve. Leave the filters running and after 24 hours, drain and refill the tank a couple of times. Then fill it up, add dechlorinator and let it run for a few days before adding fish.

Thanks for the tips! I don't mind throwing the sand out, easier and faster than trying to boil it.

It's a small piece of driftwood so I can boil it.

I don't know exactly what the sponges are. I guess I can try to bleach them and if they start coming apart I can replace. I bough some tetra safe start to restart the cycle and I can also squeeze a sponge from my cory tank in it. So good to go there.

If I did salt...would regular aquarium salt work? I have that on hand. Or even regular table salt without additives?

 

[Colin_T]

if there are no fish in the tank then any salt can be used, including iodized cooking salt. I use swimming pool salt because it is a lot cheaper (about $5 for a 20kg bag) than other salt and does the job. You need to put a bit of salt in the tank so depending on tank size you might require quite a bit of salt.

You just keep adding salt until it no longer dissolves, then leave a layer of salt over the bottom and wait 24 hours. You can stir the sand up while the salt is in there and it will kill just about everything.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

if there are no fish in the tank then any salt can be used, including iodized cooking salt. I use swimming pool salt because it is a lot cheaper (about $5 for a 20kg bag) than other salt and does the job. You need to put a bit of salt in the tank so depending on tank size you might require quite a bit of salt.

You just keep adding salt until it no longer dissolves, then leave a layer of salt over the bottom and wait 24 hours. You can stir the sand up while the salt is in there and it will kill just about everything.

Thanks, I will think about that! No livestock at all right now. It's a ten gallon tank. How much do u think I may need? Should I do a water change and suck the gunk out of it first and then do the salt since it's a very dirty tank?

Here are some test results! With the liquid test kit.

Agitated well water- 7.4 to 7.5
Agitated water from other house- 7.4 to 7.5

Standing well water- 7.2 to 7.3
Standing water from other house- 7.5.

I don't think a little variance hurts anything....I will do more tests in maybe just under 24 hours and see where we are at. So far I've been doing water changes once a week of at least 50%. The only thing I notice is that on my 20 gallon the malaysian trumpet snails like to climb the walls after.

 

[Colin_T]

yes do a gravel clean before adding salt, and wash the filter materials out too.
you will probably need at least 2kg (4-5pounds) of salt for a 10gallon tank, maybe more.

A slight variation in the water should not affect the fish but if the snails come out after a water change there might be something in the water they don't like. Malaysian livebearing snails are normally nocturnal and only come out during the day if there is food or something wrong with the water. If there is a slight trace of chemical in the well water they might be picking it up and then trying to escape. After a day or two they are use to it and are no longer bothered by it.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

yes do a gravel clean before adding salt, and wash the filter materials out too.
you will probably need at least 2kg (4-5pounds) of salt for a 10gallon tank, maybe more.

A slight variation in the water should not affect the fish but if the snails come out after a water change there might be something in the water they don't like. Malaysian livebearing snails are normally nocturnal and only come out during the day if there is food or something wrong with the water. If there is a slight trace of chemical in the well water they might be picking it up and then trying to escape. After a day or two they are use to it and are no longer bothered by it.

That's a lot of salt! Lol. I may just bleach stuff instead...it may be faster. Lol. I'll think about it though so thanks for the tip!

As for the snails....I don't think mine are very nocturnal....lol. I see them all the time. Unless my tank is growing a slow but steady supply of algae for them which is very likely. The also clean up dead plant matter very fast and are all over the algae wafers I put in there. Lol. Lots and lots and lots of them, which is fine since I want them in other tanks! Lol.

 

[Colin_T]

if you use bleach make sure you rinse everything really well afterwards. They add a surfactant (soap) to most household bleaches and that can take a bit to wash off.

As always, safety when handling bleach. Glasses, rubber gloves and lots of ventilation so you don't pass out or burn your lungs

 

[cowgirluntamed]

if you use bleach make sure you rinse everything really well afterwards. They add a surfactant (soap) to most household bleaches and that can take a bit to wash off.

As always, safety when handling bleach. Glasses, rubber gloves and lots of ventilation so you don't pass out or burn your lungs

Gloves! I need gloves! Mine got a hole in them...Hopefully I can remember to buy some! Lol. I usually do it in my bathroom and fill the tub up with water and put in lots of dechlorinator to soak stuff after. Then rinse really well. Thanks again for the tips! I will post more test results tomorrow if I don't get busy!

 

[Colin_T]

you can use granulated swimming pool chlorine instead of household bleach. You just add a heap of the granulated pool chlorine to the tank and leave it to run for a bit then drain and refill several times. Then fill and double dose with dechlorinator. Pool chlorine doesn't have surfactants in so is easier to clean after.
Again tho you need good air flow so you don't pass out from the fumes.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Test results from faucet outside well and the other house. Agitated was what I did yesterday, I did not redo that. Lol.

Agitated well water- 7.6
Standing well water- 7.4-7.5

Agitated water from other house- 7.6
Standing water from other house- 7.6

So...they are almost all equal...still strange. tomorrow I will test my tanks I think and see what I get.

Oh, and I got that 10 gallon drained today, now to take everything out to clean it up. Yippee....lol. Butch is doing well in his temporary 5 gallon tote. (That is exactly how much water I put in, not the size of the tote!)

 

[cowgirluntamed]

@Colin_T so I tested the pH of 3 tanks.

The 10 and 20 gallon, both running on just sponge filters, are now testing at 8. These have both been going for a while and have normally tested at 8.2. (Suffice it to say....I haven't tested them in a whiLe except with test strips and they were always around 8.2 as well...)

I also tested the 55 that I filled up last week to do the driftwood but I haven't gotten the filters in yet so it's stagnant water. 7.4-7.5.

Could my well water have changed? I just don't understand this....it was stable for so long....if this is the true reading now...is it going to hurt my fish doing my 50% water changes once a week? Nobody has had any problems so far.....

 

[Colin_T]

Your well water will be stagnant and possibly oxygen deficient. This would explain why the pH of the stagnant water remains the same but when it's agitated, the pH goes up. The water has lots of carbon dioxide (CO2) but little oxygen (O2) and when aerated the CO2 comes out and the oxygen goes in and the pH goes up.

Is there any shells or limestone in the tanks where the pH has gone up?

A pH change of 0.2 points is not going to affect the fish if you do a 50% water change, but a bigger change might stress them a bit. However, if you have been doing 50% water changes and the fish have been fine, then continue with it because it hasn't affected them

Well water should not change. There is a possibility something fell in the well and is rotting, causing the pH to drop. It could be leaves or something else like a small animal, but most likely leaves. The other option is something has changed in the soil and underground rocks in your area. If the well is only 10 or 20 feet down then changes in the soil around the area could drop the pH. If the well is 40 or 50 feet deep, then it is unlikely to change because the water normally has to go through rock to get to the underground reservoir.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Your well water will be stagnant and possibly oxygen deficient. This would explain why the pH of the stagnant water remains the same but when it's agitated, the pH goes up. The water has lots of carbon dioxide (CO2) but little oxygen (O2) and when aerated the CO2 comes out and the oxygen goes in and the pH goes up.

Is there any shells or limestone in the tanks where the pH has gone up?

A pH change of 0.2 points is not going to affect the fish if you do a 50% water change, but a bigger change might stress them a bit. However, if you have been doing 50% water changes and the fish have been fine, then continue with it because it hasn't affected them

Well water should not change. There is a possibility something fell in the well and is rotting, causing the pH to drop. It could be leaves or something else like a small animal, but most likely leaves. The other option is something has changed in the soil and underground rocks in your area. If the well is only 10 or 20 feet down then changes in the soil around the area could drop the pH. If the well is 40 or 50 feet deep, then it is unlikely to change because the water normally has to go through rock to get to the underground reservoir.

I believe the well is pretty deep, but I can't say for sure how much. My dad has told me before but yeah...lol.

And it's not that the tank ph has gone up...the well water has gone down so now my tanks seem to be going down. Even doing regular testing with just the well water was showing 8.2.

I took a sample of water from my kitchen faucet and one from the bathroom (opposite ends of the trailer) to see if there is anything to that. I will test tomorrow and let you know!