Ok Question Time

[swaylight]

Hi all,

A little about my tank before i start.

Size: 2ft x 1ft tank - 60L
Filter: Fluval U2 & Fluval U1
Planted: Yes
Inhabitants: 4 Guppies (adult), 3 Zebra Danios (2.5cm), 1 Giant Danio (3cm), 2 Angel Fish (3.5cm), 4 Amano Shrimps, 2 Bristlenose (1x5cm 1x3cm), 6 Cardinal Tetras (adult). all approx


About 3 weeks ago i came home to find the electric had tripped out and my tank dropped to 22 degrees and noticed alot of white bubbles on the bottom of my tank bed. Which went after a few hours of my tank being back on.

Then i noticed one of the male guppies flicking in the sand (ICH) unfortuantly i can't afford any treatments at the moment so i took to the idea of raising the temp to 30.2 i upped from 25 degrees by 1 degree a day. The tank has been sat at 30.2 for 2 days now. My mum has actually got some white spot treatment but it's the interpet one which i've heard people are having no luck with recently.

I've been doing 30% water changes every 2 days for the past 2 weeks. I've noticed no flicking in the sand for 2 days now.

(quick note, the guppies and bristlenose are going into my daughters tank next week once it's finished it's fishless cycle.)

So questions...

1) How long do i need to keep the tank at this temp as my fish seem to hang around the top untill i put the air pump on, then they swim around getting to there usual business.
2) Is it worth me using the interpet treatment?
3) Do i need to take the carbon out my fiter if i used interpet white spot treatment?
4) Would the treatment affect my shrimps? (who have over the past week taken to hiding under a coconut shell, they always used to be out and about)
5) Also once the guppies and a bristlenose comes out. would you still say my tank is stocked? I know it is at the moment hence the extra filter.

On another note...

I kinda feel i rushed into furnishing my tank in order to start my cycle and get my fish in. I now find it hard due to placements of plants, bogwood and shelters for fish to be able to clean my tank bed properly. I'd say i can get about 50% of the poop out. I made the mistake of having the sand bed flat. So i was planning on taking everything out and to redo my tank so it slopes. Hoping that this will make the poop all fall into one place and make for an easier clean. I just wanted to know how long i could keep my fish bagged up in order to do this, also would the tank being cleaned and set up differently affect my fish being put back in afterwards. I'm planning on keeping about half the tank water to put back in afterwards.

Many thanks to all who reply.

I just want to give my fish a good home.

Regards

 

[Juggler75]

Sorry to hear of your troubles.

1) How long do i need to keep the tank at this temp as my fish seem to hang around the top untill i put the air pump on, then they swim around getting to there usual business.
2) Is it worth me using the interpet treatment?
3) Do i need to take the carbon out my fiter if i used interpet white spot treatment?
4) Would the treatment affect my shrimps? (who have over the past week taken to hiding under a coconut shell, they always used to be out and about)
5) Also once the guppies and a bristlenose comes out. would you still say my tank is stocked? I know it is at the moment hence the extra filter.

I used Interpet treatment to cure ich but it did take longer than others (I beleive it's as it doesn't contain copper).

1. Keep your air pump on constantly during treatment as raising temp or adding meds lowers O2 levels. You should keep the temp higher until all the symptoms have been gone for at least 3 days (Life cycle of the ich parasite) to ensure that ich does not return when it drops.
2. I would, it worked for me although it did take 10 days.
3. Yes
4. My shrimps were ok, I didn't raise temp as high as yours but that was reason I chose the treatment as it was supposedly shrimp safe.
5. I would say it was pretty close if not already full.

Hope this helps

 

[swaylight]

Hi juggler 75,

thanks for the quick reply.

I'm just about to do another water change. Just wanted to be sure (not sure if you know.) Is the carbon in my filter the two pads as there are 3 sections (one black side/one white side) Just want to make sure before i take these out and to leave the sponge in.

Also will i need to replace them? or what's the suitible storage for them while i'm using the interpet treatment?

Also what why did you introduce the treatment? ie did you just pour some in the tank. or mix it in with your fresh water for the tank.

 

[the_lock_man]

Ordinarily, the activated carbon is a black powder/granules in some sort of container. If you're not sure, post up a quick photo, and someone will tell you what's what.

The Interpet med worked great for me, make sure to follow the instructions to the letter, which if I remember correctly, says to take some tank water, mix in the dose, and pour the jug back into the tank.

Has the carbon filter been in there a long time? If so, buy a new one, and some new biomedia. Once the treatment is finished (and the instructions are quite clear on when this is, regardless of whether you think the spots have gone), bung the carbon back in for a couple of weeks, then take it out, chuck it away, and put the biomedia in. Then get another new carbon filter, leave it in the cupboard until you have to use a medication again.

I don't have carbon in my filter at all, and I know many people on this forum don't either.

 

[dh058977]

A little word on your stocking, Zebra Danios should be in groups of at least 6 and in a tank of at least 4ft. Your Angels should also be in a bigger tank.

Ordinarily, the activated carbon is a black powder/granules in some sort of container. If you're not sure, post up a quick photo, and someone will tell you what's what.

The Interpet med worked great for me, make sure to follow the instructions to the letter, which if I remember correctly, says to take some tank water, mix in the dose, and pour the jug back into the tank.

Has the carbon filter been in there a long time? If so, buy a new one, and some new biomedia. Once the treatment is finished (and the instructions are quite clear on when this is, regardless of whether you think the spots have gone), bung the carbon back in for a couple of weeks, then take it out, chuck it away, and put the biomedia in. Then get another new carbon filter, leave it in the cupboard until you have to use a medication again.

I don't have carbon in my filter at all, and I know many people on this forum don't either.

With the Fluval U series filters the Carbon comes in a Poly/Carbon pad thing rather than powder/granules.

 

[swaylight]

Hi the_lock_man, dh058977,

thank you for your respone.

I've had the fluval u2 filter from new for about 4 months now

a quick search online for u2 carbon replacement shows me the black/white pads. not the sponge. so i'll take these out and leave out while i'm using the meds.

as for the danio's i used to have a red tailed black shark, which seemed to attack them. woke up one day one danio had no tail and was dead. 2 days later a few nips out of anothers tail, he died the next night. i did the lamp in the room light in the tank off trick and notiched the shark was the one attacking. so i left it that night as had no other tank to use woke up the next day and another danio gone. so i made the choice to take the shark back to the LFS. I was planning on putting my danio's in my mums 4ft tank but it's coldwater with 4x (5cm goldfish) in. wasn't sure if it was a good idea?

Just doing a 50% water change as we speak. will remove carbon pads. do i leave the white biomedia in? only been in there since i got it? although i brought some biomax (white pebbles) for an old filter which broke the day after due to a split in the plastic and losing power. should i replace my biomedia with this?

 

[the_lock_man]

With the Fluval U series filters the Carbon comes in a Poly/Carbon pad thing rather than powder/granules.

Cheers dh.

Just doing a 50% water change as we speak. will remove carbon pads. do i leave the white biomedia in? only been in there since i got it? although i brought some biomax (white pebbles) for an old filter which broke the day after due to a split in the plastic and losing power. should i replace my biomedia with this?

Yes, leave the biomedia in, otherwise there'll be no bacteria to process the ammonia.

 

[Juggler75]

You could replace the removed pad with a sponge cut to shape (I use cheapo generic ones from garden centre that I think are for pond filters - 3 huge differnt grade ridged sponges for £5) will give some mech filtration and allow extra bio bacteria to grow there if needed.

 

[swaylight]

ok so what i've just done is...

a 50% water change
my filter as 3 compartments. 2x1 sponge with also a slim black/white pad. the pads are what i took out, left the sponge in along with the other compartment which has the biomedia in.

and added 5ml of interpet whitespot treatment which does 50L of water.

i'm going to do 25% water changes every two days.

any other advice?

thanks for all your help

 

[tmh0921]

I had ich come in with two mail order dwarf cichlids....I raised the temp to 85 degrees F at a rate of about 1 degree per hour, and added aquarium salt at a dose of around 1.25 - 1.5 Tablespoons per 5 gallons and kept it there for 6-7 days. The ich symptoms were gone after about 2 days, but I left it as is for the additional 5 days to make sure it was all gone. Then I did a 25% water change once a day for a week to gradually reduce the salanity, and slowly dropped the temp back to normal by a degree every 2 hours. I did add 3 airstones running wide open to add O2 due to the higher temps, and everyone did fine....except the two fish who had ich...the <not so nice word> guy who sold them shipped them with ich...the stress of shipment, ich, and treatment was too much...they were in bad shape when I got them.

I have the following fish in this tank, and they all did well. I'd check your particular stock's salt tolerance levels before going this route:

2 Clown Plecos
2 Apistogramma Agassazi (the ones who had ich)
2 Apistogramma Rotpunkt
2 Kribensis
14-16 Zebra Danios
6 otos
Blue Mystery Snail
Malaysian Trumpet Snails
Ghost and Amano shrimp
Various live plants
(75 US Gallon Tank)

I have 2 external canister filters running on the tank, and only had mechanical and biological filter media.

Edited to add: I have since received 2 BEAUTIFUL replacement Apistogramma Agassizzi.

 

[swaylight]

Hi tmh0921,

Thanks for your advice but i've already started the interpet treatment. Sorry to hear your two dwarf ciclids were shipped with ich, your think the person would have sorted that before they we sent out But glad to hear your tank is back to normal. I'm on day two on my treatment. Every fish seems ok and so do my shrimps. Although they don't seem to come out as much but hopefully once the temps back down to normal they should be ok. I keep my air pump running all day and then turn it off at night so that i can sleep as it's rather noisy.

I've not seen any signs of ich now though for around 3/4 days so i'm hoping that everything will be fine at the end of the weeks treatment.

Regards