Hi, I posted in the Welcome Members forum, and I would guess it's probably a forum sin to repost in a second forum, but since my welcome message is basically the same message as my emergency message, I am going to repost, since I do want to save my last fish.
Okay, so for Christmas of 2021, my wife and I got my 13 year old son a Fluval SPEC 5 gallon. We knew nothing of taking care of fish and ignorantly thought, take tank out of box, add water, put in fish. Done. Wow. How wrong we were. But here we are 8 months later and we've learned so much. We now have 2 tanks (long story), and have killed many fish, but for a period of time, had a stable fish tank with a guppy and a cory. No plants. Then we added a plant. Still all seemed relatively good. Then we added more two more small fish (can't recall the name of the fish, but it was recommended by a very reputable fish shop who knew our story), and things took a turn for the worse. I'm not sure what variable it was. Was it the new fish? Was it the plant? Was it because my son (without me knowing) started feeding the fish too much. Something else? Anyways... his guppy died, but his cory is still alive. In an effort to do a control experiment with the second tank. I cycled it up, got my plant, tested, and all the other stuff I learned I needed to do. Finally added a molly fish. It's been super alive and swimming like a winner. Water is clear and all chemistry is spot on. Doing proper maintenance. I now know I can properly keep a fish alive.
But my son's tank is murky, cloudy. All the ph, nitrate, nitrates, hardness and ammonia are spot on. There is a bright green algae growing that does not die with any sort of algae killer. I've done more water changes, and added Prime, Stability, as recommended by fish store owners, but no amount of water changes seem to help. I did a test (that's why I set up my tank) by getting another molly from the same store, and as soon as I added it to the tank I noticed that the fish's behavior changed. It went to the bottom and really wasn't swimming at all. Much like the cory. (which is still alive). The very next morning the molly was dead. It was bloated, and it had covered in white. Again, all of the chemistry is spot on.
I am working now to set up a "hospital" tank to move the cory to, but need time to get bacteria going, since he's been in that bad tank for months now and been surviving. He will often go to the top of the tank like a jet, take a breathe and jet back down to the bottom to not move. Once I get him out of there in the hospital tank, I'm going to dump all the contents of the tank, wipe it down (no chemical cleaners), let it air dry, and put all new filters pumps, filter sponges, biomax and charcoal in there, along with a plant, and let it cycle. I know really this is the best (and seemingly) only way.
But what I cannot figure out, and I want help with, is figuring out what the problem is. Lack of oxygen? A bacteria? Some form of really bad algae? I did make the mistake of taking a garden planter piece of plastic to add the plant to with marble rocks (to keep it weighted down) - and yes, I realize that was a mistake, and maybe the cause??? - when I added the plant. I'm not going to do that again, but 1) can anybody pinpoint the problem and 2) why is the cory still alive?
And also, my emergency hospital is basically a 5 gallon bucket with biomax in a net, a fake plant (for fish to hide), and a pump. It's been "cycling" for not even a day. If I move my cory out of the bad tank now into this bucket, is that certain death? I do not want to introduce him into the good tank, because I do not know what I'm dealing with yet in the bad tank.
Okay, so for Christmas of 2021, my wife and I got my 13 year old son a Fluval SPEC 5 gallon. We knew nothing of taking care of fish and ignorantly thought, take tank out of box, add water, put in fish. Done. Wow. How wrong we were. But here we are 8 months later and we've learned so much. We now have 2 tanks (long story), and have killed many fish, but for a period of time, had a stable fish tank with a guppy and a cory. No plants. Then we added a plant. Still all seemed relatively good. Then we added more two more small fish (can't recall the name of the fish, but it was recommended by a very reputable fish shop who knew our story), and things took a turn for the worse. I'm not sure what variable it was. Was it the new fish? Was it the plant? Was it because my son (without me knowing) started feeding the fish too much. Something else? Anyways... his guppy died, but his cory is still alive. In an effort to do a control experiment with the second tank. I cycled it up, got my plant, tested, and all the other stuff I learned I needed to do. Finally added a molly fish. It's been super alive and swimming like a winner. Water is clear and all chemistry is spot on. Doing proper maintenance. I now know I can properly keep a fish alive.
But my son's tank is murky, cloudy. All the ph, nitrate, nitrates, hardness and ammonia are spot on. There is a bright green algae growing that does not die with any sort of algae killer. I've done more water changes, and added Prime, Stability, as recommended by fish store owners, but no amount of water changes seem to help. I did a test (that's why I set up my tank) by getting another molly from the same store, and as soon as I added it to the tank I noticed that the fish's behavior changed. It went to the bottom and really wasn't swimming at all. Much like the cory. (which is still alive). The very next morning the molly was dead. It was bloated, and it had covered in white. Again, all of the chemistry is spot on.
I am working now to set up a "hospital" tank to move the cory to, but need time to get bacteria going, since he's been in that bad tank for months now and been surviving. He will often go to the top of the tank like a jet, take a breathe and jet back down to the bottom to not move. Once I get him out of there in the hospital tank, I'm going to dump all the contents of the tank, wipe it down (no chemical cleaners), let it air dry, and put all new filters pumps, filter sponges, biomax and charcoal in there, along with a plant, and let it cycle. I know really this is the best (and seemingly) only way.
But what I cannot figure out, and I want help with, is figuring out what the problem is. Lack of oxygen? A bacteria? Some form of really bad algae? I did make the mistake of taking a garden planter piece of plastic to add the plant to with marble rocks (to keep it weighted down) - and yes, I realize that was a mistake, and maybe the cause??? - when I added the plant. I'm not going to do that again, but 1) can anybody pinpoint the problem and 2) why is the cory still alive?
And also, my emergency hospital is basically a 5 gallon bucket with biomax in a net, a fake plant (for fish to hide), and a pump. It's been "cycling" for not even a day. If I move my cory out of the bad tank now into this bucket, is that certain death? I do not want to introduce him into the good tank, because I do not know what I'm dealing with yet in the bad tank.
