Arghh Not Sure Whats Going On

[emmag21]

My tank is really cloudy, despite large daily water changes its not improved. Fish have started rubbing on things (dont show any sign of disease like spots or anything though apart from one fish looking like its gills are swollen). Im waiting for my new tester kit to arrive to check the stats but i wondered if you had any ideas as to what is going on or what i can do to help as i dont want my fish to suffer.

I recently changed to sand from gravel but the cloudiness is more green than white so i dont think its that. Ive altered the filter output to try to oxygenate the water more and ordered some more live plants to try to help. Im feeding them less and having the lights on for less. I just dont know whats going on. Help

 

[5teady_2012]

Just to add for emma...

the sand in it is from argos, emma has fully cleaned it til the water was running clear, so that can be ruled out.

 

[CentricOregon]

constant water changes can just make your tank go through a cycle again, I did the same thing and my tank had to cycle all over again.Leave it be and see what happens, as for the rubbing,when it happens with my fish and theres no sign I just leave it or ad a bit of salt and everything turns out fine.Leave your tank to settle and just clean it 50% every 7 days and see how it goes.Green water can be algae growing I think, try using green away it worked for me.

 

[emmag21]

constant water changes can just make your tank go through a cycle again, I did the same thing and my tank had to cycle all over again.Leave it be and see what happens, as for the rubbing,when it happens with my fish and theres no sign I just leave it or ad a bit of salt and everything turns out fine.Leave your tank to settle and just clean it 50% every 7 days and see how it goes.Green water can be algae growing I think, try using green away it worked for me.

How much salt should i add?

Is greenaway safe to use with all my fish- mollies, guppies, corydoras, harlequin rasboras, glowlight tetras, platys x

 

[5teady_2012]

constant water changes can just make your tank go through a cycle again, I did the same thing and my tank had to cycle all over again.Leave it be and see what happens, as for the rubbing,when it happens with my fish and theres no sign I just leave it or ad a bit of salt and everything turns out fine.Leave your tank to settle and just clean it 50% every 7 days and see how it goes.Green water can be algae growing I think, try using green away it worked for me.

How much salt should i add?

Is greenaway safe to use with all my fish- mollies, guppies, corydoras, harlequin rasboras, glowlight tetras, platys x

Aquarium salt gives instructions on the box hun.

 

[CentricOregon]

constant water changes can just make your tank go through a cycle again, I did the same thing and my tank had to cycle all over again.Leave it be and see what happens, as for the rubbing,when it happens with my fish and theres no sign I just leave it or ad a bit of salt and everything turns out fine.Leave your tank to settle and just clean it 50% every 7 days and see how it goes.Green water can be algae growing I think, try using green away it worked for me.

How much salt should i add?

Is greenaway safe to use with all my fish- mollies, guppies, corydoras, harlequin rasboras, glowlight tetras, platys x

yeah green away is safe,it's not really a fish treatment just a water treatment, it does nothing to the fish.If your water isn't bad don't worry but if your water is at the point where it's a light green in colour and cloudy then use it and you should possibly see a change in a few hours.Your tank is a 240ltr right? if so then add about 2 and half - 3 teaspoonfuls of salt to your tank and it should help whatever is making your fish rub and flick, could easily just be a small parasite, salt will kill it plus stop any other parasites attacking your tank.Just incase though keep an eye out for whitespot incase it pops up unexpectadly (rough guess on how to spell that lol).Large constant water changes can possibly give you whitespot due to different temps.My advice, if doing a water change before a week is up,add salt to prevent disease outbreaks.I did until I ran out of salt and thought it wouldn't matter,couple of weeks later I did an early water change due to having fungus,5 days later I got whitespot,2 days after that I got finrot and so far have lost 6 fish.All in all, I will def be using salt from now on lol.

 

[5teady_2012]

constant water changes can just make your tank go through a cycle again, I did the same thing and my tank had to cycle all over again.Leave it be and see what happens, as for the rubbing,when it happens with my fish and theres no sign I just leave it or ad a bit of salt and everything turns out fine.Leave your tank to settle and just clean it 50% every 7 days and see how it goes.Green water can be algae growing I think, try using green away it worked for me.

How much salt should i add?

Is greenaway safe to use with all my fish- mollies, guppies, corydoras, harlequin rasboras, glowlight tetras, platys x

yeah green away is safe,it's not really a fish treatment just a water treatment, it does nothing to the fish.If your water isn't bad don't worry but if your water is at the point where it's a light green in colour and cloudy then use it and you should possibly see a change in a few hours.Your tank is a 240ltr right? if so then add about 2 and half - 3 teaspoonfuls of salt to your tank and it should help whatever is making your fish rub and flick, could easily just be a small parasite, salt will kill it plus stop any other parasites attacking your tank.Just incase though keep an eye out for whitespot incase it pops up unexpectadly (rough guess on how to spell that lol).Large constant water changes can possibly give you whitespot due to different temps.My advice, if doing a water change before a week is up,add salt to prevent disease outbreaks.I did until I ran out of salt and thought it wouldn't matter,couple of weeks later I did an early water change due to having fungus,5 days later I got whitespot,2 days after that I got finrot and so far have lost 6 fish.All in all, I will def be using salt from now on lol.

Just to let you know, Emma has 2 bristlenose catfish in the tank, is it not a good idea to add full ammount of salt if not even any?

 

[tenohfive]

Just a side note - until you've got a testing kit I'd recommend carrying on the water changes. Once you've got the kit and can see whats going on, then consider the wait and see approach.

 

[CentricOregon]

constant water changes can just make your tank go through a cycle again, I did the same thing and my tank had to cycle all over again.Leave it be and see what happens, as for the rubbing,when it happens with my fish and theres no sign I just leave it or ad a bit of salt and everything turns out fine.Leave your tank to settle and just clean it 50% every 7 days and see how it goes.Green water can be algae growing I think, try using green away it worked for me.

How much salt should i add?

Is greenaway safe to use with all my fish- mollies, guppies, corydoras, harlequin rasboras, glowlight tetras, platys x

yeah green away is safe,it's not really a fish treatment just a water treatment, it does nothing to the fish.If your water isn't bad don't worry but if your water is at the point where it's a light green in colour and cloudy then use it and you should possibly see a change in a few hours.Your tank is a 240ltr right? if so then add about 2 and half - 3 teaspoonfuls of salt to your tank and it should help whatever is making your fish rub and flick, could easily just be a small parasite, salt will kill it plus stop any other parasites attacking your tank.Just incase though keep an eye out for whitespot incase it pops up unexpectadly (rough guess on how to spell that lol).Large constant water changes can possibly give you whitespot due to different temps.My advice, if doing a water change before a week is up,add salt to prevent disease outbreaks.I did until I ran out of salt and thought it wouldn't matter,couple of weeks later I did an early water change due to having fungus,5 days later I got whitespot,2 days after that I got finrot and so far have lost 6 fish.All in all, I will def be using salt from now on lol.

Just to let you know, Emma has 2 bristlenose catfish in the tank, is it not a good idea to add full ammount of salt?

think that is roughly the full ammount, not to sure.bristlenoses are pretty hard fish and since it's nothing dangerous theres not really any need to add the full amount.ok just added it up,altogether you should add about 10 table spoonfuls but really you can cut that in half, even less.add 4 or 5 table spoonfuls. sorry for confusion, thought it was teaspoonfuls but turns out it's tablespoonfuls.

Just a side note - until you've got a testing kit I'd recommend carrying on the water changes. Once you've got the kit and can see whats going on, then consider the wait and see approach.

well doing the constant changes is just gonna encourage a bloom and it's gonna be to much temperature changes and could possibly encourage diseases.I have had the same thing before constantly and not once did I do water changes, I did them when they were due.

 

[tenohfive]

If I'm understanding things correctly from this post and another in Tropical Discussion, her fish are showing signs of ammonia poisoning. So constant water changes - whilst encouraging an algae bloom or similar - is still necessary until her testing kit arrives and we can rule out ammonia as the cause for her fish flicking and the swollen gills.

 

[5teady_2012]

Bristlenose plecs do not like salt, it can harm them. also emma has corys and small amounts of salt can harm them, scaless fish hate salt and should be avioded.

Scaleless fish – Scaleless fish, particularly cordydoras, are very sensitive to salt. Even a small amount could harm them. Tetras are also fairly sensitive to salt.

 

[Dave Spencer]

well doing the constant changes is just gonna encourage a bloom and it's gonna be to much temperature changes and could possibly encourage diseases.I have had the same thing before constantly and not once did I do water changes, I did them when they were due.

Water changes are one of the most potent weapons we have against algae. Change 50% of the water and you remove all those algae spores. Algae hates being hassled in this way. Especially in immature tanks. I change 50% of the water daily for two to three weeks when i set up a new tank.

Dave.

 

[JenCliBee]

yep cory's and plecs hate salt and 2 a certain degree harmful, not sure y doing water change would cause u 2 have 2 recycle ur tank the benificial bacteria is in the filter media there is very little helpful bacteria in ur water it self so doing water changes will do no harm wot sover as long as the water is dechlorinated and adding back 2 the tank at at similar/same water temperature it should be fine, i do 20% wter chnages for 3-5 days on a trot 2 encourage breeding in plecs and they seem fine with it so not sure where u got this info from


jen

 

[pauly]

Has it only been cloudy since you changed from gravel to sand? Do you have filter wool in your filter?

How are you adding your new water? If you're just pouring it in from a bucket, that could be moving the sand around every day, not giving it chance to settle.

If the tank is in direct sunlight, move it. And keep the lights off completely for a couple of days.

I agree it does sound like ammonia but could be generally poor conditions. Are you being careful with your water changes so not to cause daily fluctuations in Ph and temperature? I would suggest drastically cutting down on feeding. A little bit every other day until the problem clears up.

Test your tap water when you get your test kit, particularly for Nitrates.

Pauly.

 

[CentricOregon]

Bristlenose plecs do not like salt, it can harm them. also emma has corys and small amounts of salt can harm them, scaless fish hate salt and should be avioded.

Scaleless fish – Scaleless fish, particularly cordydoras, are very sensitive to salt. Even a small amount could harm them. Tetras are also fairly sensitive to salt.

bristlenoses and corys do have scales? plecs and corys and very hardy fish, I have both bristlenoses and corys and ad salt all the time and they do fine with it