Water Turned To "blood"

[alpstadt]

Over the last two days our water has turned from clear to blood red.

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Tank size: 29G
pH: OVER 7.5 but has never been a problem before
ammonia:normal
nitrite:normal
nitrate:normal
kH: ?
gH: ?
tank temp: 78

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): One red male sword recently died (had a fungus we tried to treat with maracyn), now we have a female black molley with popeye and I stared the tank on tetracycline.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: was waiting until the medicine took effect but when we went to change the filter (a cascade filter) it was really gross with all of this slimy stuff on the sponge and cascade.


Tank inhabitants: 4 danio, 2 honey gourami, 3 black molly, 1 velvet sword female, 3 lyertail swords, 2 dwarf frogs, 1 shrimp, 1 pleco.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): no new decorations, we have spongebob decor, one painted shell (?) 3 plants and a bubbler diver.

Exposure to chemicals: ? besides the ones mentioned above.

 

[black angel]

We need the stats for the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
If the filter is looking gunky then you either need one thats bigger or you need to clean it out more.
Do you have bogwood in the tank?
How long has the tank been running for and normally how much and how often for water changes?

Id say you were over crowded as well perhaps so do a 50% water change and clean the gravel with a gravel vac. Sounds like you ahve a bacterial issue in the tank and doing more maintenance will help. Meds wont help unless the water is in good condition first.

 

[Marshall..]

sounds like your filter is struggling as you are over stocked wash parts of the filter as regular as once a week in aquarium water and keep up the water changes. You may have to relocate some fish particularly the plec at some point.

 

[dabaers]

At this hour of the morning I may be remembering wrong, but I believe tetracycline turns the water red.
You shouldn't really be treating a main tank, but in a quarantine/hospital tank as these meds will also destroy your bacterial filter and you will have to recycle your tank as well.