About ready to give up this hobby...

[Deleted member 149562]

Pristine is not required, its a water clarifier...and the majority of clarifying chemicals do more harm than good and unless your aquarium looks like a seiously foggy day in mid winter you have no need to clarify anything, and even with a very badly fogged aquarium, chemical additives usually make things worse...they have a nasty tendency to wipe out or drastically alter KH if dose is not absolutely spot on, it can also affect the ability to breathe sometimes too, so fish tend to either gasp for air at the surface or drop to the substrate and sit there in a lethargic state.

Clarifiers, imho, are the worst thing ever. They cost a fair bit, they have nasty side effects that are generally not warned about on the bottle and in all honesty, there really is no actual need for them.....but the firms who make them lure a fishkeeper into buying them with promises of extremely clear water....which when you do appropriare maintenance, you will get anyway without resorting to chemical intervention.

 

[itiwhetu]

What's cool is that all of you guys go into explanations about how bad this stuff can be, and I have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

What's cool is that all of you guys go into explanations about how bad this stuff can be, and I have no idea what you are talking about.

I have zero chemicals in my aquariums....but I have seen others use things like clarifiers in their aquariums and ended up suffocating the fish....usually the time when I get a knock on the front door and a neighbour in a panic wants help to sort it out.

(I have been known to ask the neighbour to show me their additive collection and apart from the dechlorinator, they all go straight into the bin.)

 

[itiwhetu]

I have zero chemicals in my aquariums....but I have seen others use things like clarifiers in their aquariums and ended up suffocating the fish....usually the time when I get a knock on the front door and a neighbour in a panic wants help to sort it out.

(I have been known to ask the neighbour to show me their additive collection and apart from the dechlorinator, they all go straight into the bin.)

I went to a rescue tank once and removed $240 worth of chemicals and potions from under the tank, the owner said what are you doing with that, and I said I'm throwing them out. You don't need any of that stuff.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I went to a rescue tank once and removed $240 worth of chemicals and potions from under the tank, the owner said what are you doing with that, and I said I'm throwing them out. You don't need any of that stuff.

Yep....its downright scary what people buy sometimes. Usually due to the person in the store recommending "this and that...oh and don't forget so'n'so....oh and you'll be wanting this too"

You wouldn't pump chemical fixes into any other pet without knowing what they actually do and what side effects there are...so why do it to fish (which tend to be more fragile than the average cat or dog and fish cannot run away or refuse to "take the medicine" cos they have no choice but to swim in it)

 

[GaryE]

The money is in the water treatment chemicals. We can't all run our tanks off rainwater cisterns as @itiwhetu does, and most of us need to neutralize chloramines (in the US) and chlorine in most other places. Agicides, clarifiers - they are used to remove money from your pockets.
It's a 5 gallon, so it can hold very few fish. That's an issue.
Corys have a wonderful habit of swallowing surface air (they absorb oxygen via their intestines and exhale out their butts), so that behaviour is normal and healthy. Your poor lonesome Cory (they are social animals - aquatic herd animals really) is going up for air.

Simplify. Dechlorinate. Prime stinks. That's all.

 

[FishyJoe]

Some water conditioners add a sulpha compound to neutralise the chlorine/ chloramine.

Stop adding chemicals to control algae. Algae grows anywhere there is light and water. If you have no live plants in the water, then algae will grow instead. To control algae, either add live aquatic plants or reduce the light.

If a fish every act unusual like in this case, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. This will dilute any toxins, chemicals or poor water quality and give the fish the best chance of surviving.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Don't change filter media unless it starts to fall apart. If you have filter pads, add some sponge from a different brand of filter. Leave the sponge and filter pad together for at least one month, then throw the filter pad away and don't replace it. Sponges last for years and only get replaced when they start to break down. You squeeze sponges and filter pads out in a bucket of water and re-use the pad/ sponge. The bucket of dirty water goes on the lawn.

You don't need carbon in a filter and it will remove things like plant fertiliser, medications and algicides (things that kill algae).

So per the exact instructions of a local fish expert (she owns a fish store and has been in business for decades), I have a bucket (5g) which I add my tap water to and then add the Prime and Stability (per amounts prescribed on the chemicals). I add the tap water to the bucket at least a day or two in advance of adding it to the tank for water changes. Also attached to the bucket is an extra heater, so when I do the water change, the water is closer to tank temp.

I also have a live plant in my tank (see above pics), and I only use the light that was provided to me by the set about 8 hours per day. There is no direct sunlight, but the room does have two windows, and so the tank will get indirect light.

I did a 50% change last night and 50% this morning. The molly is slightly more active, but the cory is still darting to the top like it needs air. I did add a second pump to aerate the water last night.

Now, questions. This is where I get confused since everyone has so much different advice. I was told to change the filter media (and by filter media, you mean the charcoal) about once a month. The filter pad (or foam block that holds the charcoal in one pocketed area and the biomax in another), no one has ever told me to change. I've been told it is OK to rinse it and squeeze out the old water, provided that the biomax NOT be rinsed.

But what do you mean "I don't need carbon in a filter"?

Secondly, how can I better control the algae? If there is going to be algae on the glass, it totally defeats the purpose of having a tank, which is to see the fish. I'm having to clean the glass 20 minutes after I clean the glass.

 

[Slaphppy7]

WAY too many chemicals in this tank. All you need is water conditioner (Prime), and that is it.

The only reason you ever use carbon is to remove meds from the water column after treatment, otherwise, it's generally useless. Use other media (ceramics, sponges, etc) in it's place.

How long are the tank lights on? Is the tank near a window? The easiest algae fix = less light, NOT chemicals

For algae on the glass, use an algae scraper or a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, ORIGINAL style only...the kitchen/bath ones have detergents, the original does not

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Secondly, how can I better control the algae? If there is going to be algae on the glass, it totally defeats the purpose of having a tank, which is to see the fish. I'm having to clean the glass 20 minutes after I clean the glass.

Live plants help with algae control, but even with those, most of us need to clean the glass too. I leave algae to grow on the back and sides for my algae eating fish, but it takes only a minute to scrape algae from the inside front glass during a weekly water change, which is all it requires. Should be even quickly on a tank that's only five gallons.
If your fish store owning friend recommended you keep a single cory, and a single molly, in a five gallon, that alone means I wouldn't trust her advice.

If she's also the one selling you on all these chemicals, then she's ripping you off while putting your fish at risk, and I can't blame you for wanting to quit the hobby.

 

[Back in the fold]

I loved my five gallon. The first one that is , the one I got from my Dad in 1965. I had all kinds of fish but that's the way it is when you're starting out . I would see a fish and just have to have it. I had two friends in the neighborhood that had fish and we would trade or give them to each other so we could run up to the SS Kresge's store and get another fish we saw and had to have. Sometimes that five gallon had too many fish and it would get cloudy and the cure was always break it down completely , wash everything and put the fish back in. The one thing we didn't put in our aquariums was any type of chemical. Ah , ignorant bliss. How it worked I'll never know but it did. I loved that five gallon and I love the two I have now. How did everything get so complicated ?

Edit : Just one more thing. Back in the day we used carbon in our box filters. Maybe that's how we got away without dechlorinater . I think carbon should make a long overdue comeback .

 

[Slaphppy7]

If your fish store owning friend recommended you keep a single cory, and a single molly, in a five gallon, that alone means I wouldn't trust her advice.

If she's also the one selling you on all these chemicals, then she's ripping you off while putting your fish at risk, and I can't blame you for wanting to quit the hobby.

+1 to the above.

 

[Rocky998]

+1 to the above.

+2

 

[FishyJoe]

Pristine is not required, its a water clarifier...and the majority of clarifying chemicals do more harm than good and unless your aquarium looks like a seiously foggy day in mid winter you have no need to clarify anything, and even with a very badly fogged aquarium, chemical additives usually make things worse...they have a nasty tendency to wipe out or drastically alter KH if dose is not absolutely spot on, it can also affect the ability to breathe sometimes too, so fish tend to either gasp for air at the surface or drop to the substrate and sit there in a lethargic state.

Clarifiers, imho, are the worst thing ever. They cost a fair bit, they have nasty side effects that are generally not warned about on the bottle and in all honesty, there really is no actual need for them.....but the firms who make them lure a fishkeeper into buying them with promises of extremely clear water....which when you do appropriare maintenance, you will get anyway without resorting to chemical intervention.

Thanks. I've gathered that Prime and Stability are the most used in all aquariums, and these two have been the "go to" and "only used" for most of the "experts" I've talked to (those experts include several decades long enthusiasts, fish store owners, and pet store fish people who've been in the hobby themselves for decades).

I've been adding Prime and Stability to my water since the beginning, and this has not seemed to have any detrimental impact or harm on my fish. It's gotta be one of the other stupid chemicals I was pushed to buy or made my own stupid decision on at some point (API Algaefix, Pristine, API Stress Coat, etc.).

 

[FishyJoe]

Live plants help with algae control, but even with those, most of us need to clean the glass too. I leave algae to grow on the back and sides for my algae eating fish, but it takes only a minute to scrape algae from the inside front glass during a weekly water change, which is all it requires. Should be even quickly on a tank that's only five gallons.
If your fish store owning friend recommended you keep a single cory, and a single molly, in a five gallon, that alone means I wouldn't trust her advice.

If she's also the one selling you on all these chemicals, then she's ripping you off while putting your fish at risk, and I can't blame you for wanting to quit the hobby.

This most current person at Petco told me contradictory stuff in the same conversation I had with her. However, to be transparent, we had the cory from way back. He's survived like everything. Hardy fish he is. The molly we bought based on someone else's recommendation.

Now, moving forward, this lady told us that mollies are school fish and cory's like to be in 2s and 3s to have friends. But of course, 5g tanks are not geared to support lots of fish. She said we need to have more fish, but can't have more fish, and so we can get other smaller fish.

What I'm mad about is that Fluval sells a 5g tank. All 5g tanks should be illegal. They are for one fish and shouldn't exist because of the amount of work one needs to put in and the amount of knowledge you need to know to make it successful is so much more with a smaller tank it's just not d*mn worth it.

 

[FishyJoe]

Simplify. Dechlorinate. Prime stinks. That's all.

So, ONLY use Stability?