Cloudy Tank

[cooperMcg]

hi,

this is my first post i hope it is in the right place. i have a 30L biorb tank with a tropical heater kit with it. it has been set up now about 5 weeks. i bought 4 mollies to go in it (2 black, 2 dalmation) 1 dalmation died and a few days later i noticed there was a couple of babies in there. after counting them i have discovered there are 5. they have been alive in the tank with the other fish for around 2 weeks now. i noticed the 2 black ones had white spot so i treated that with white spot remover and it seems to be clearing up a bit. i was told to test my ph levels and they were really high. the man at aquatic store told me to buy a ph leveler 7.0 and put a scoop in. i came home and did this and about 6 hours later the tank went so cloudy i couldnt see the fish. after 24 hours the cloudiness went and the water is crystal clear now but it looks like it has snowed in my tank. there is a thick white layer of yuk over everything. it is all round the bottom climbing up the sides as well as all over the tops of the plant. all my fish seem to be ok but they are all swimming at the very top of the water with there mouths coming out every few seconds.

im worried my fish will die and i dont know what to do. i want to get rid of this thick layer of white stuff but i dont know how the safest way is?


PLEASE HELP!!

 

[cooperMcg]

HELP HELP HELP one has just died

 

[Paigan]

HELP HELP HELP one has just died

Hello,

I had a similar problem to yourself, the water went cloudy and i got ICH. Do not worry, i was told to do a 30% water change and put the treatment in. Leave it for 5 days or what it says on the treatment instructions, then i had to do another 20% and add the second dose of the treatment. The tank went a bluey colour for a couple of hours which i believe is some sort of dye in there. The next day the tank went cloudy and eventually settled. I would continue with the treatment, i used interpet anti white spot, I only needed to use it for one cycle of treatment (so added to the tank twice). I had snails and shrimps so i had to separate them.

I am not sure if you should gravel clean as the parasite which is white spot drops off ( I never did but i am not an expert i caught mine pretty early. If there is a build up, I personally would remove it, via a gravel vac), so disturbing it could make it worse. However I hope the little information is helpful. Its also worth putting the temperature up to 77 (some specialist say up and over 82-86 This speeds up the metabolic rates of both the fish and the parasite or higher, but please check if your fish can tolerate the temperature increase.

Did your fish die over night, as they release poisonous nitrites gases, however you would have to do a water change for the beginning of the treatment. This should get rid of the traces of the gas.

Good luck

 

[waterdrop]

Hi there, you need to go to two of our subforums: first to the "emergencies" section so that Wilder and the others can help you with your immediate disease problems and then later back to the beginners section (called Your New Freshwater Tank or something, I keep forgetting!) In the beginners section I and the other members will try to help you with all the basics you need to learn about freshwater fishkeeping and tank startup.

In addition to the emergencies section (and if nobody is quite at the help counter when you go there) you can search for member "oldman47" and use the link in his signature that takes you to a great writeup about what to do about white spot (or ICH as its called.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Assaye]

Oh, first of all be calm. Throwing chemicals into the tank without proper research will not help.

How high was your pH? Mollies are high pH, hard water fish so unless your pH was changing rapidly or super high (like, over 9), you don't need to worry. High or low pH is rarely a problem - most tap water is a safe level (between 6 and 8, usually) and many fish will adapt to a wide range of pHs. In fact, some fish like pHs as high as 9 and as a low as 5.

Adding pH balancers is tricky - if the pH suddenly changes (as it sounds like yours did when you added the pH balancer), it will give the fish pH shock and can kill them. You also need to add those chemicals all the time, for the entire life of the tank, to stop the pH swinging back to where it was (causing more pH shock), which is expensive for you. Plus, less chemicals to the tank is usually better for the fish. You are usually better off to stick with your normal pH.

Have you heard of "cycling" a tank? This is a process that uses waste in the tank (fish wee and poo mostly) to build up beneficial bacteria that "eat" the waste and make the tank safe. This an invisible process that can take over a month and unless someone went through it in fine detail with you you would never have known about it. What happens is actually fairly simple:

Fish pee => ammonia => eaten by bacteria => nitrite => eaten by bacteria => nitrate.

So you see, there are three chemicals and two kinds of bacteria. Now, two of these chemicals are very toxic! Ammonia and nitrite make fish stressed, sick and can even kill them. Any testable level is harmful - even tiny, tiny amounts. Fish getting sick from these chemicals is called new tank syndrome. What you need to do now is get your water tested for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. If you have ammonia and/or nitrites, you need to do some big water changes! This will help the fish in loads of ways - clean water, removed toxins, removed bad bacteria, removed parasites (which is what white spot is). You really need to buy your own liquid (not strip) test kits because if fish are sick and water is cloudy, it is usually bad water that is the blame and this means you need to test your water and do water changes (between 20% and 80%) to bring in fresh, good water! You might need to do this every day.

Remember to match the temperature of the water with your hand and add water conditioner before you add it to the tank, and always turn off pumps, filters and heaters.

Once your fish are well again and you have good water levels (i.e. zero ammonia and nitrites), then you need to be doing weekly water changes of around 25%.

Cloudy water is caused by a sudden change in water conditions which leads to a HUGE number of bacteria living in the tank. The bacteria in the water are different from the beneficial ones living in your filter. Cloudy water is bad news because these water-living bacteria make waste themselves which also adds to bad water conditions. You can't cure a bloom with water changes (as they reproduce too fast) but you can remove the things they are eating from the water with water changes, so that's another reason to start doing water changes.

Fish always at the surface tends to mean they don't have enough oxygen. In a Biorb this isn't usually a problem is the tank is lightly stocked because of the bubbler BUT you are keeping mollys in there (which get too big for the tank) and you could well be in the middle of your "cycle" - nitrite causes fish to be able to get less oxygen from the water.

The fish can die if they keep gasping, because it means they are suffocating.

So, get a liquid test kit for ammonia and nitrite (online or at a local shop) and test your water. If you added some of that pH stuff make sure you add the right amount on every water change for a little while to keep the pH stable. Once the fish are OK again and the water is good, we can tell you how to safely stop using that pH balancer and how to safely keep your pH at a good level.

Read this in the meantime - Beginners' Resource Centre