New To This.

[Spikey1007]

Hello everyone!

I was lurking on this forum a month back when i was preparing to get some fish. Because i had this tank out in my shed i got from someone and it need to be used.

I did look at all of the relevant topics, cycling, maintaince ect.

I have had relatives and freinds which had kept tropical fish before so i knew bit about the spicies. But had no idea about keeping fiush till i came here.

I have some questions and concerns which i hope you good folks could answer. And will just do a little anicdote from Day 1

So i got my gear from the fish shop. filled my tank with filtered water, added declorinater which apprently had the ammonia feeding bacteria in it (i was skeptical about that because thiss tuff just sat on shelf all day not in a refigirator). I washed my gravel stuck that in the tank and put a plastic plant in there.
I had the tank running for a 2 weeks with no fish, just let a (supposed) bacterial colony get started.
After the 2 weeks i got 5 neon tetra as test fish to see if the tank was fit for fish, but i would of been very upset if any died. i hate to see things die for no good reason.
Well the neon survived and i had them in there for 2 weeks till i got some glowlight tetra .
I tested the water every week during those stages and everything was fine.
Then after a month or so i got 3 silver sharks 3 cherry barbs and 3 harliquain fish. And some live plants.

Unfortunatly one of the Sharks died, from getting himself caught in the plastic plant so one fish down.


My current situation is now.

Well about 2 weeks ago i noticed some degrading fin on one of the neon tetra it had white on it so i assumed finrot. And bought some Antibacterial stuff.

I followed the instructions and gave them the daily dosage for the 7 days (made sure i took out the activated carbon). However the neon still has the finrot...so what should i do?

Now that the activated carbon was removed i guess any bactierial colonys i had on it are dead. Also this antibacterial medicine its gonna kill off any
bacteria in my tank no wether it be good or bad? So will i have lost my Ammonia feeding bacteria aswell?

My other question is this. I have only perfomsed one water change which i think is risky. I followed the instuctions on the forum using kettle water then declorinating it. but the water was way too cold when i got enough of to do the water change. but i went ahead and put it in the tank... and the fish were fine. Can someone give a really detailed list of what to do. please.

It says i should replace my filter sponge, but wont that just remove all my tank bacteria? So shouldn;t i just wash it to get rid of any broken down plant matter in water same temp as the tank? But what about the chlorine in that aswell?

1 of my plants is fine and dandy. The other 2 are taking a beating, im not sure if its the water, but the people in my local trustworth fish shop said threy are good for my tank. Well alot of the leaves are dying and going brown then falling off, which will add alot of ammonia to the water which i don't want. What do i need to give the plants to stop this. They have good lighting, but i havent fertilized them as of yet becuase fertilizer has ammonia in it! Also how are my plants to get CO2?

And just yesterday a neon tetra got caught behind the filter. i heard about this stuff before. I was lucky i found it in time so it lived, any way of preventing this happening again?

I look forward to answers and thank you in advance.

Cheers, Spikey1007.

 

[Paavn]

generally antibacterial medicine is supposed to kill all kinds of bacteria so i assume its going to kill the bacteria in the filter as well... (you asked a question i never thought of, i thought finrot was a fungus )
since you said you treated it and it didnt go away if you can post a picture of the affected part im pretty sure someone will come along and be able to tell you what it is.
generally activated carbon, as stated multiple time on this form (not from my experience) becomes useless after 3-4 days depending on the number of fish and waste they produce. if you really do have a bacterial infection in your fish i see no way to save the filter media with the colony on it becaue it would have the bacteria you are trying to get rid of in it.
about the water change and the kettle i have no idea. im still trying to figure out how im going to do that as well because im pretty sure we have a copper water heater and i live in an appartment so water spils on the second floor arnt good at all....
Once you have cured the infection in your fish, you should get filter media along the lines of ceramic rings, floss (really good for water polishing) and sponge, and when you rinse your filter sponge you DO NOT do it in tap water at all. instead when you are going a gravel clean or a water change, rinse it in the water you take out of the tank, that way you dont have to worry about chlorine killing the bacteria and the water should be around the same pemperature
if your filter has inlets on just one side or two sides you can try and fill the back of the filter with the substrate you have in your tank, i think that should help a bit

 

[Spikey1007]

Thank you, anyone else got any info on my problem?

 

[rdd1952]

Hi Spikey and welcome to the forum.

First, using antibiotics is usually the last resort most of us go to. We try to never add any chemicals (except dechlor and fertilizers) to our tanks unless absolutely necessary. Usually problems can be treated with water changes as most problems are a result of bad water parameters.

What type bacterial medication are you using? Some of them indeed do wipe out your entire bacteria colony meaning your tank is back to square one with no beneficial bacteria. If the meds have wiped out your bacteria (and yes, removing the carbon did remove a large portion of you bacteria), then it realy won't matter much how you clean the filter as there aren't any bacteria there to worry about. As a general rule though, you should rinse the filter in old tank water or fresh dechlorinated water, ot under the tap.

If you are using one of the products that will kill beneficial bacteria, you will need to start daily water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels down. If there is an issue with water temperature, I would suggest that after you do a water change, go ahead and run water for the next day and let it sit at room temperature until you are ready to use it. That will be much warmer that what you get from the tap.

As far as the plants are concerned, it is quite likely you have been sold some plants that aren't true aquatic plants. A good guide is that most plants with varigated leaves can not survive under water. A lot of LFS/LPS sell them but they will die rather quickly.