Columnaris

[SLIM]

Hi Everyone

I have a 61 litre tank which is currently cycling. Im on week 3 and my Ammonia is 0.50 Nitrite 1.0.
Unfortuately i went with fish cycling as i knew very little about cycling
when i bought all my equipment. I cycled with 5 Fancy guppies and 2 baby Angels.
I kno the tank isnt big enough for 2 angels, i am planning on getting a 260 liter once i gain more experience.
Im sorry to say all my fish died! Which broke my heart. Athough what killed them was
an outbreak of Columnaris not the Ammonia or Nitrite. I originally though it was ich and bought cemicals and turned
up the heat which only made matters worse for my poor fishes and killed what little benificial bacteria
i had. Im continuing to cycle my tank but fishless at the moment.
My question is.... Will the Columnaris remain in the water and attack the next fish i introduce once cycled?
Should i treat my fishless cycling tank for Columnaris? If so what can i use that wont effect the
benificial bacteria?
Please please help me. Thank you

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Paul and welcome to our beginners section,

OK, as I see it, you have two things to start working on. Post a short message over in the emergencies section and see it that pulls a response from someone who knows about the Columnaris (somebody here might come along also, and your own web searches might turn up something.)

The second thing and the reason I'm commenting is that since you are now doing a Fishless Cycle, it's time to jump in and work on all the details of that. Have you read the baseline articles? (The Nitrogen Cycle, The Fishless Cycle and The Fish-In Cycle in the BRC) Have you picked up a good liquid reagent based test kit? (Most of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit.) Have you searched and found articles that help you with how to find the right household ammonia? (Boots in UK, Ace Hardware in US for instance.)

I recommend you bring your temperature up to 29C/84F and use baking soda (at a rate of 2 teaspoons per 50L as a starting trial) to bring your pH within 8.0 to 8.4 (unless it is very close to 8 already.) Make sure you have very good surface movement to try and achieve the highest DO (Dissolved Oxygen) level possible. Post up your tap and tank test kit results and mention whether you have a feeling your water is soft or hard.

A fishless cycle can take anywhere from a month to something over two months, depending on circumstances that are large beyond your control. These bacteria are among the slowest growers/reproducers of the bacterial world. The get their carbon from CO2 rather than organic material like heterotropic bacteria do. Good luck and I hope we see you doing a fishless cycling thread.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[SLIM]

Thanx for the warm welcome! Il take your advice and post somethin on the emergencies section in the morning.
I do have a liquid API master test kit and Tetra liquid test kit and have been testing daily.
Ammonia is 0.50 Nitrite 1.0 Nitrate 0.50 and PH is 8.2. I dont however have a test for water hardness?
Is that important??
I have also done alot of research on buying Ammonia for my cycle and found it on Ace Hardware in the US like you said.
Altho having said that im kinda nervous about adding pure ammonia because of additives so have decided to cycle using fish food!
(am kinda toying with the idea of using raw shrimp too)
Since my fish have died i have researched and studied for hours on cycling and am pretty confident im moving in the
right direction and know what im doing. What worries me is the Columnaris. Iv research Columnaris too but cant seem to find out
if it stays present in the water after the fish have died. What i dont want is to get to the end of my cycle, introduce new
fish and then lose them to Columnaris all over again. Iv orderd some Maracyn and some Maracyn Two from the US which is apparently very good at fighting gram negative bacteria such as Columnaris and apparently doesnt effect the benificial bacteria. Should i treat with this before adding new fish and if so shud i do it whilst cycling or after? or will the Columnaris just die off on its own without any fish present?

Thank you for your time

I look forward to any responses

Paul

 

[Aqua Tom]

I am no expert but have found this explanitory link about Columnaris it suggets that good quality water & regular changes will help prevent the fish getting stressed & so catching this disease.

 

[waterdrop]

Paul, No, I doubt you want to do this. Fishless cycling with organics like fish food or shrimp/prawns can be done but we've watched many beginners give up in frustration over this. I'm almost sure your concern about your ammonia is unfounded. The stuff from Ace Hardwater (I went and looked at it and I remember it as a translucent whitish plastic bottle with I believe red labels) has been used my many of our members very successfully. It meets the requirements in that it does not have dyes, fragrances, surfactants or soaps (you look for the bubbles to subside within 2-3 seconds just as if it were plain water as opposed to foaming.) Using ammonia gives you -much- more control over the process and -much- more feedback that you can understand and the process is faster. Its going to take a lot of patience as is, without adding to it.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[SLIM]

Hmmmmm... Prehaps your right. Plus ild definately need a more efficient way of cycleing when i end up getting my 260litre in 6 months or so. Ok assuming i do go ahead and buy the ammonia, how many drops per day per litre/gallon do i add and how high do i want the ammonia? Around 4.0

Also thanx Aqua Tom for the link.

Last thing.. Can someone please tell where the emergencies section is on this site? Thanx

 

[karin]

Paul,

Use this link to calculate the ammonia you need to add: http/www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm
Ammonia is very easy to use, I used the same stuff you have from Ace to cycle my 60 and 10 gallon tanks. No problem.
Yes you want the ammonia up to 4 ppm
As far as where the Emergency section is, go back out to Tropical Fish Forums and scroll down to the category Tropical fish. You are posting under New Freshwater Tank section under the larger heading of Tropical fish. Two spots lower is the Emergencies section.

Hope this helps.

I'll just add that guppies are very fragile fish and even under the right conditions people tend to lose many of these fish. The are pretty overbred. Angels are fairly hardy in my opinion if the water is stable but they seem particularly sensitive to nitrites and lack of oxygen.

It was helpful to me as a beginner (which I still am) when someone on this forum suggested that we are waterkeepers first and fishkeepers second.

Good luck.

 

[SLIM]

Iv just spent half an hour on Ace hardware trying to purchase Ammonia but it just keeps asking me for shipping information even tho iv typed it in 10 times!! lol. How frustrating. Maybe they dont deliever to the UK.
Waterdrop mentioned BOOTS. Can i buy Ammonia from BOOTS?? If so whats the brand?
I really dont want to buy the wrong stuff and make my water toxic.

Thank you everybody for all your help

 

[SLIM]

Thanx fishahilic for the link and where abouts of the emergencies section.
Just need to find ammonia now

 

[Aqua Tom]

<Waterdrop mentioned BOOTS. Can i buy Ammonia from BOOTS?? If so whats the brand?
I really dont want to buy the wrong stuff and make my water toxic.

Thank you everybody for all your help>

Boots do the exact stuff that you need. Boots Household Ammonia. You will not be able to buy it instore but you can pay for it online & have it delivered to your local shop for free, then just go pick it up.

Hope this helps.


ps this is the stuff that I personaly used in cycling.

 

[BIG BAD BARRY]

Ring your local store (bigger one). I did and they had one already in!

 

[SLIM]

Nice one Aqua Tom. Its been ordered and is on its way to my address, didnt even hafta have it sent to my local store.
Thanx

 

[waterdrop]

Thought you were in the USA the way you were on about Ace, they've got you sorted now, there are more of our cases using Boots ammonia than there are one's doing Ace.

You'll want to be posting up your tap water parameters if you've got your testing kit, or have I just missed that?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[SLIM]

I have tested my tap water but i only tested PH which was 7 and Ammonia which was 0. Didnt see the point of testing for nitrites and nitrate.
Should i?

 

[SLIM]

And my tank water now as it stands is Amonia 0.50 Nitrite 1.0 Nitrate 0.50 PH 8.2
The tank has been up and running for 3 weeks now. Ammonia and Nitrates has remain consisiant and hasnt moved for over a week but Nitrites are slowly rising. Like i said before, i think adding cemicals to deal with the Columnaris messed things up abit.