What's Going On?

[hensonc4098]

Hi guys,

Having issues with the wee 35L tank. Been set up probs about 3 years now and up to this point not had any problems, but just recently started getting algae everywhere, plants not really growing and certain fish species dying...

Current stocking is just a single male betta.

Tested for nitrate first because I thought perhaps I had been a bit lax in my water changes (monthly) with only having one fish, but level was low - between 10 and 20 on the scale thingy.

Temperature is 25[sup]o[/sup]C, and the tank is filtered internally.

I have just done another 20% water change and tried my best to clean the algae. It is long, stringy green stuff that seems to be growing on every available surface: glass, plants, sand... It comes off very easily if you just brush it with your fingers though.

As far as fish go, the betta is fine, eating well and making regular bubble nests. However I added 4 pigmy cories from one of my other tanks a few weeks ago that had been living happily in the big tank for a few months, put them in the smaller tank to turn the substrate over and pick up any food the betta misses, and within literally a couple of days, they had all died. Put a nerite snail in there last week to try and control above algae issues mean time while I sorted out what was going on and it died too. Yet the betta carries on fine...

The plants in there at the moment are a couple of small cryts, couple of amazon swords, amazon frogbit and a piece of wood with java moss and java fern on. Previously, my plants had been growing really well, and I had been using the tank as a "grow-out" tank for plantlets from the mother swords in the big tank, however nothing has really grown at all in the last month or so. Even the frogbit hasn't grown, which is saying something. Instead it is almost wasting away.

I don't know if it's something really daft that I'm missing or what. But I've looked at everything that I can think of so thought I'd ask the real experts

Thanks guys,

Claire

edit: typo

 

[coldcazzie]

Dont know about your plants, but your betta could be killing the additional tank occupants. Bettas are funny - sometimes they will happily have other companions, sometimes not, but it's possible that yours killed the corys and snail because he didn't want to share his home!

 

[hensonc4098]

Well I did wonder this, and watched him with the cories after the first one died, and he wasn't bothering them at all. They would be swimming around fine and then would just lie down on the bottom after a day or two and just.....die

 

[coldcazzie]

Hmm I don't know then. He could've been going for them during the night when you weren't watching. I had some angels like that. Lights on, everything was fine. Lights off, they went into stalk mode

Or it could've been that you didn't give them long enough to acclimatise to the new water? I always give fish at least 3 hours with a drip siphon on, even between tanks in my house where I know the water is more or less the same.

ETA: the fact that it's both fish and plants suggests that it's something in the water? Did you change dechlorinator or add any meds? Has there been anything near the tank like a scented candle, deodorant or room spray? Tricky, because plants deteriorating suggests water issue, and adding new fish and them snuffing it suggests it's just that tank, but that the betta has gotten used to it.

What is your water change routine?

 

[Tizer]

nitrate tested i see, but what about the important ones, ammonia and nitrite?

 

[hensonc4098]

I changed dechlorinator recently, but the problems had started before then.

No meds, room sprays etc.

That's what I'm thinking. And I know bettas are pretty hardy wee things so it could be that he's just not affected by it but nearly everything else is. Although an interesting point is that I had some harlequins in there for a couple of weeks while the big tank was being sorted out and they were totally fine.

As far as water changes go, I usually take out about a quarter to a half of the water, (only did about a fifth today due to time - had rehearsals to go to lol) clean the filter media in the old tank water and replace, clean the glass if necessary and fill up using dechlorinated tap water, just a bit cooler than the tank water I'd reckon. I don't fuss about temperature too much tbh.

Ammonia and nitrite both 0. Sorry never mentioned earlier. I had checked those first thinking something crazy had went on in my filter or something but nothing.

 

[RadaR]

Do you add anything to the tank like ferts?
Sounds like you have algae and poor plant health due to lack of nutrients. I believe this even stronger when I read this...

Even the frogbit hasn't grown, which is saying something. Instead it is almost wasting away.

The frogbit has light and CO2 readily available to it because it's close to the light and it can gain CO2 from the atmosphere. That just leaves nutrients.

Can you ID the algae from here? http/www.jsctech.co.uk/theplantedtank/algae.htm

How much light is over the tank and how long is it on for?

 

[hensonc4098]

I have added ferts on and off since the tanks setup and previously the plants grew fine I use (when I remember) TPN+.

That site has actually been very useful, thankyou. It looks to me like BGA, which it said can be caused by low nitrates, which I now have due to only having one fish. And the time of the algae bloom does seem to coincide with me changing it to a betta only tank. So that could explain it. Do you think if I dose TPN+ regularly, that would help? It contains nitrogen, but I'm not sure what form it is in, as I can't find anything on the leaflet that tells you.

However I am still perplexed by the fish deaths. I experimented yesterday after the water change by adding a pest snail from the big tank to it. It died. It seems like a good testing method for now though lol

My dad had wondered if there was perhaps some sort of toxin in the water from somewhere that could have caused this, and suggested maybe putting some carbon in the filter. Do you think that would help?

Thanks for all the help.

Forgot to mention that the lighting is a 14w T8 which is on for 7 hours per day.

 

[RadaR]

Well BGA is pretty nasty stuff anyway and can harm some animals.
TPN+ will bring up the nitrates
The other causes of BGA are:

Dirty substrate
Dirty filter
Lack of flow/circulation
Concentrations of ammonia (these can be undetectable on a fish test kit).

Rectify all of these (including the nitrate) and the BGA will go. Follow all the advice on Jame's site that I posted.

As I understand it, people still freak out about flow and Bettas so maybe try all the other methods and leave flow till last. Unless ofcourse you will comfortable improving the flow/circulation. It could just be a simple matter of re-positioning the filter.

Carbon in the filter is ok. Contrary to believe it barely takes out any ferts.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Does your tank get any natural light from windows etc? I was on another forum and around spring time loads of people developed algae issues lol from the intensity of natural light from windows changing. Could be your betta killing other fish, I had one that was mental, during the day happy as, but lights out I woke up one night to hear splashing and it was my betta in full on flare up mode biting chunks out of everything. Dunno about snails tho, I never seen a betta kill snails. Another thing you could do is, if its something in the water and seeing as its a small tank, take out the betta for a couple of days and do a complete water change, keep the filter media so it gets cycling quickly, have a good dig around in the substrate before the change as if you have sand it can hold toxic gasses given of by rotting plant roots. Just a few ideas anyway, I had a 28litre do this (without the betta) and it was ok after giving the tank a complete clear out.

 

[hensonc4098]

Ok. I put some carbon in the filter and have dosed TPN+. Also yesterday, I bought 6 danios cheap and put 4 in the big tank, and 2 in the small "problem" tank. I know this isn't ideal, but I didn't want to put all 6 in if they were all going to cop it. However I did very slow acclimatisation, took about 3 hours or so, and added the 2, and so far they seem to be totally fine. So I'll give them a couple of days and if they're still fine, then add the other 4 to help raise the nitrates and sort out this freggin algae.

I cleaned out the filter yesterday again (I did it when I waterchanged the other day) to eliminate that possiblilty, and the substrate got a good stir up when I was adding new water the other day too.

The tank doesn't really get a lot of natural light. The light never shines directly on anything in my room as I have a light diffuser blind thingy on my window as it's my bedroom. The fact that the algae conincided (now that I think about it) with it being fishless for a while and then only having one betta strongly leads me to the conclusion that it has something to do with the low nitrates.

 

[RadaR]

and the substrate got a good stir up when I was adding new water the other day too.

After a stir up, it's important to do a water change to suck up anything that has now been dispersed into the water column.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

and the substrate got a good stir up when I was adding new water the other day too.

After a stir up, it's important to do a water change to suck up anything that has now been dispersed into the water column.

I second that, think was in my original post actually lol, otherwise you'll get more spikes.

 

[coldcazzie]

Ok. I put some carbon in the filter and have dosed TPN+. Also yesterday, I bought 6 danios cheap and put 4 in the big tank, and 2 in the small "problem" tank. I know this isn't ideal, but I didn't want to put all 6 in if they were all going to cop it. However I did very slow acclimatisation, took about 3 hours or so, and added the 2, and so far they seem to be totally fine. So I'll give them a couple of days and if they're still fine, then add the other 4 to help raise the nitrates and sort out this freggin algae.

I cleaned out the filter yesterday again (I did it when I waterchanged the other day) to eliminate that possiblilty, and the substrate got a good stir up when I was adding new water the other day too.

The tank doesn't really get a lot of natural light. The light never shines directly on anything in my room as I have a light diffuser blind thingy on my window as it's my bedroom. The fact that the algae conincided (now that I think about it) with it being fishless for a while and then only having one betta strongly leads me to the conclusion that it has something to do with the low nitrates.

When I got BGA I'm pretty sure that low nitrates was the root cause. However, and I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, raising the nitrates did absolutely nothing to resolve the problem.

 

[RadaR]

It would then make sense to try address the other causes of BGA:

Dirty substrate
Dirty filter
Lack of flow/circulation
Concentrations of ammonia (these can be undetectable on a fish test kit).