New 75 Gal - Tank All Was Fine Until I Cleaned It!

[Smells a bit fishy]

Get more live plants to try and drive out the algae, get your ammonia down to 0 (which you are doing) and lower the lighting period. Turn the lights on like 4 hours a day

 

[osikorn]

Is there a particular plant that works better?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

It depends on your lighting situation...


Have a jog over to the planted section. The Plant Resource Center has some great information. Also, the folks over there can give you some great advice on it. Generally speaking, the faster growing plants will out compete the algae more effectively.

 

[raptorrex]

you can't, unless you know your stuff, do anything but change the cartridge. unfortunately i have to say, GET RID OF THIS FILTER.!

first off, its, a lot more than, 10 years out of date. secondly, and quite honestly, it useless. as the OP has found out. how on earth can you keep a tank cycled, if you have to throw away the entire cartridge, on every clean?

sorry but this whole problem is caused by the use of a defunct filter.

I know this may not be palatable to the OP, but its no less true for that.

 

[osikorn]

HELP! The tank was getting better.... I left for a few days and my husband was in charge if feeding the fish. I got hone today and they Are all dead the tank is white foggy And obe of the dead fish is cacooned in white fuz.

What is this? How can I save my last two remainig fish?

 

[raptorrex]

HELP! The tank was getting better.... I left for a few days and my husband was in charge if feeding the fish. I got hone today and they Are all dead the tank is white foggy And obe of the dead fish is cacooned in white fuz.

What is this? How can I save my last two remainig fish?

stop feeding, change all the water in your tank for fresh de-chlorinated water. you will need to do 50% changes daily. get yourself a water test kit. then please post the results here. we will go from there.

 

[osikorn]

I had done a water change. I questioned my husband about all the food in the tank that came up while I was cleaning. I had been doing daily water changes tryig to solve my initial problems, and the tank was very clean when I left. Apparently my husband didn't understand what a pinch is. He basically made the tank a snow globe of food.

So I cleaned everything again. Took out all my dead guppies, mollies, loach, shrimp, all the dead fry. We had a mass funeral with the kids. And my husband learned a valuable lesson at a high price.

On another note, the water test only shows elevated ammonia. I'll be testing again tomorrow.

I have unplugged the heater, and keep the lights off. I can't seem to keep the temp of the water under 78.
Is there a way to cool the water. I think the water is warm and that is why the algea keeps coming.

If a piece of tropical fish food is left in the tank within a day is blossoms in white mold looking thing.

Also, on a few of the dead fish there was a white worm looking thing attached to them. Is it possible to have an infestation of worms too?

I need a house call!

My tank is now home to two yellow and black platys(?) (live bearing fish) one sucker algea eater, 2 glass catfish, and a blue lobster (that is no longer blue). I also have three plants and a moss ball that is not doing so well. I threw out the java moss since it was filled with umfortunte fish and algea ridden food remnants.

I'm still trying to get back on track. I'm not giving up.

Thank you for any assistance.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

You can add ice to the tank to cool it down - place dechlorinated water into the freezer and when the cubes form, place a few at a time into the tank. As they melt, they will slowly bring the temp down. Depending on how big your tank is, how many you will need to do the job.


Also, keep the lid OFF your tank, and the water will evaporate more quickly - also lowering the temp.

Another option with the lid OFF is to blow a fan across the top of the water - also increases evaporation and will lower the temp.

 

[osikorn]

I'll try it those aregreat ideas.

My lobster died this morning.

And my two fish have white spots around their tails. I am not sure that it's ich because the spots are just around the outline of the fish and not the on the Gills or body. Any thoughts?

I fear that by the end of day I will only have the two catfish. Who seem remarkably unaffected by the goings on in the water.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

It could be finrot.

 

[osikorn]

I tested the amonia .. it spiked to 1.5. my fish are swimming in poison! oh man I am not doing well on this fish tank thing.

My research is pointing toward tail/fin rot and/or fungal infections.

I'm gonna try treating the fungal infection for 7 days and see what happens. After 7 days i'll do a 25% water change.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

To be honest the best thing for the fin rot and everything else is a lot of water changes. Considering that the ammonia is already spiking, you can't afford to wait 7 days to do a water change.


Do a 90% water change now, and at least 50% water changes over the course of the next week. See how the fish's fins look then. You might be surprised. With clean water, the fish have an amazing capacity to heal themselves. The key is the CLEAN WATER! Do the water changes, and forget about the medicine right now. The best medicine for the REAL problem is clean water.

 

[osikorn]

I don't disagree but I just seem to be causing or encountering more problems as I go. I've been doing regular water changes this whole time.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The issue is that NOT doing the water changes would be worse. Changing the water isn't CAUSING the problems (assuming you are using dechlorinated water and the temp is at least close to the same as the tank), the problems are happening IN SPITE of the changes.


As long as all you are doing is a gravel vac to remove excess detritus from the bottom and filling with clean water (as above) then the water changes are helping, not hurting. Don't rinse out your filter (or replace the media). Heck, don't even touch the media until things have settled in. A fish-in cycle can take quite a while to get fully sorted, sometimes as long as 8 weeks, with a fully stocked tank, it could take even longer. Stick to it, and do the water changes EVERY TIME the ammonia/nitrite is at or above 0.25ppm. If you want, then by NOT acting, you are making things worse. Water changes are NOT harmful to fish if done properly (as above). Not doing water changes IS harmful.

 

[osikorn]

I see your point. I am cleaning the gravel while doing water changes. I'm not touching the filter or media. I've learned that lesson the hard way. I am going to get a siphon that attaches to the sink to make the water changes more bearable and faster.

I am putting cooler water in the tank during water changes in an attempt to keep the tank water from getting too warm. the water is a little cooler than room temperature.

I know that fin/rot can be caused by stress, but if there is a fungal problem will water changes be enough?