What Is Going On !?!?

[Rinderm]

I work in the fish industry and our systems doing 20 percent water changes every day automatically our Ammonia is 0 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, and Nitrate are 10ppm sometimes less pH is around 8.0. We have a decent load in our system but the problem is that we cannot keep tiger barbs (green,albino), Giant danios, rainbow sharks, clown loaches, redtail sharks, bala sharks, bosmani rainbows, black mystery snails, chinese algae eaters. I might have forgot some other fish but these fish die off at rapid rates after receiving them. We float them for 15 mintues sometimes longer depending on customers needing assistance with the lights off, we have tried everything from lower our salinity to zero which did nothing, now we are running our salinity at 1.008, which has seemed to have slowed down the death rate of the problem fish. We don't have any problems keeping any tetras including neon tetras we lose maybe one a day. I've even tried slow drip acclimation with no success. We have tried a different vendor with the same fish losses. Is the water too clean? I think we also have a black algae problem as well. It looks like a cynobacteria IMO. It covers dirftwood and looks black. On the glass it looks greenish. Does anyone have any suggestions?

thanks

 

[zoekin8yg]

for all freshwater fish there shouldnt be any salt, not sure about why they fish are dying but it could be linked to the salt, but if you changed it it might not be.

The algae is probably not helped by the lighting, if you can cut down the amount of light the tanks get it would help

 

[merry78]

IMO you cannot have too clean a system, unless your filter bac is inadequate/being removed by your cleaning, which it doesn't sound like is the case.
perhaps you could add plants and shelter to reduce stress and see if your death rates change?

 

[ICEEGRL]

Have you tested the water that they come in to see what the difference is between theirs and yours?
How soon do they die after you add them to your tank?
How do they act/look before they die?

 

[arvlyn]

You said you float them, but do you also slowly add a little of the new tank's water every 15 minutes or so to get them aclimated to it as well?

 

[Rinderm]

We do not do the cleaning ourselves its all automated, It feels the sump up with water and it overflows to the drain in the sump thus changing the water. The water coming to the tanks is around 76 degrees F. We have tested the water coming in from our vendor and to our suprise it was actually very good, no ammoina, no Nitrites, hardly any nitrates and the pH was 7.8 if i remember correct. I have never had this problem before and have ran systems that were 1600 gallons. Now sometimes bags will come in that are just nasty but the majority are very clean. It would take too long to acclimate that many fish by doing a drip or adding water every 5minutes its just not possible with the amount of fish we get in, i'm also limited with the amount of resources I have. The filtration is like a marineland tide pool but on steriods, its bigger than the one you can buy off the internet. They are about 4 ft long. They have huge biowheels and we can also but two sheets of filter floss in it and one carbon pack if we needed, which we have, we have tried not running carbon and its still the same. *Salt reduces stress, prevents diseases, fish like mollies, platies, swords, etc are brackish water fish or like to have some salt to the water. There are dissolved salts in nature in some environments, i'm not saying i'm 100% correct there is alot of confilcting info in this hobby. If the amount of salt we have is bad than the tetras would be doomed as well as others that we carry that are doing great. The specific gravity is now around 1.004. Also when we get fish we don't have a spike in ammonia the next day. We added plants (java fern) and have plenty of decor in the tanks for them to hide in or around. Were open 12 hours a day and everything is automatic so keeping the lights off during the day does not help customers see the fish, its not an option right now. The lights are on about 15 hours a day. When I work at night I turn them off as soon as we close. You can't expect other people to remeber to do this, most are concerned with their own departments or the minority is just waiting for payday and not concerned about anything. Some look like they are breathing through their mouth. I'm starting to wonder if theirs too little oxygen. But if this was the case than wouldnt the other fish be stressed as well and dieing? like I said before we are keeping neon tetras alive with ease. We didn't lose any today and we have about 50-75 of them. I'm not sure what else I can test that can help me out.

R

Today ammonia 0ppm, nitrite 0ppm nitrate 10ppm maybe less. phosphates were .02 ppm. this is in every system we have seven different systems and they all have the same test results. I'm not including the feeder tank.

 

[Rinderm]

deleted to save room. oops

 

[Rinderm]

sorry triple post ???

 

[Dave Spencer]

I think we also have a black algae problem as well. It looks like a cynobacteria IMO. It covers dirftwood and looks black. On the glass it looks greenish. Does anyone have any suggestions?

thanks

I was involved in a discussion about BGA a little while ago on another forum. The general concensus was that it originates in the substrate where it is exposed to daylight through the tank glass. I dropped the sand level below the level of the trim on my Juwel Lido, and have never seen any since. It has also been linked to low nitrates in a planted tank.

If it has broken out of the substrate in to other areas of the tank, then a three day black out will clear it for you. Remove as much of it as you can by hand, change 50% of the water and then cover the tank totally with bin bags or thick blankets for a three day black out. When you have completed the black out, carry out another 50% water change.

Dave.

 

[Rinderm]

I thought BGA was like a cynobacteria. If I'm correct BGA is a type of bacteria not an algae. If it is a bacteria it doesn't need light to survive, cyno thrives where the tank has low flow or their is an abundance of nutrients it can feed off of. I've heard cyno called many things i've heard people descibe it and call it a number of things as well. For example, BGA, Red Algae, blanket algae, red algae w/ bubbles underneath etc.... I could be mistaken about what type of algae it is. There may be a difference on what you are talking about. because of the common names we hobbists name everything by it can be confusing talking about certain uncommon fish or anything else. If only scientific names were easier to remember and more people were exposed to them. That will never happen because of some people who have fish who don't care what the scientic name is for a fish. In the end its all in the name that could possible sell a fish. thats just my opinion.

R

 

[Dave Spencer]

BGA is cyanobacteria and not an algae, although BGA stands for blue green algae. Anybody calling it red algae is wrong in both its colour and type.

Cyanobacteria obtains energy through photosynthesis, so a black out will work. It is a proven method for beating it.

Dave.

 

[Rinderm]

I'm talking both fresh and saltwater. I've seen red cynobacteria. I've treated it, You might want to google it or search it on www.reefcentral.com . there is a store in Saint Louis, MO that every tank they have has red slime algae/ cynobacteria. Furthermore,Wemust understand that there are two processes going on in our tanks, or any body of water all the time. Oxydation and reduction. This is called Redox and is measured in milivolts. The higher the reading, the purer the water is. Freshly mixed seawater reads about 230 and anything under that means that the water is not as pure as when it was mixed. As things start to decay and algae and microbes die the redox lowers. When it gets low enough cyanobacteria will grow. It is a sure sign of deteriating water conditions. Red algae or cyanobacteria contains carotenes which are anti-oxidants, they prevent oxidation. We can removbe the reducing compounds like dead or dying algae, clean the filter to remove rotting matter or us a oxidative agent like Ozone (O3). I don't know this stuff for nothing.

 

[Dave Spencer]

I don't know this stuff for nothing.

My apologies. I thought you were asking for advice when you asked does anyone have any suggestions in your original post.

I solved my cyanobacter problems. Good luck with yours......and your dying fish.

Dave.

 

[Rinderm]

I even put the flowers smilie for you to help you understand that I wasn't trying to be rude but only discussing this with you. I thought it was rude that you said I was wrong but when in fact i was not I just took it as a misue of words and I don't know what tone your using. Oh how the internet takes all of our emtions away. I could care less about the cyno as I can eventually get that taken care of. I had problems with these fish before the cyno problems. i don't even know if it is cyno and if it is that will be another day.

R

 

[Dave Spencer]

My apologies if I misinterpreted your tone. I didn`t realise the emoticon was holding a bunch of flowers, so you`ll have to be less of a cheapskate and send a bigger bunch next time.

Dave.