Fresh Water Help!

[Aroura]

I used pliers to get the heater to 86, that was really stuck. So hopefully that will work better than bleaching everything..

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Glad you got it to work! Good luck with this. Hopefully a week with the heat turned up and no fish in the tank will get rid of it. If you are unsure you can always do it longer. I would definitely do some water changes and vacuum the gravel good as well during this time. It will help get rid of some of the stuff too.

 

[Aroura]

Thanks for all your help! And I shall definitely do that

How long will the heater take to heat up a 37 gallons tank to 86?

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Depends on what the temperature was at before and the temperature of the room. Just keep an eye on your thermometer. Sometimes what you set the heater to isn't the actual temperature of the water. You may have to turn it up a bit more. Just keep an eye on it. It will get there.

 

[Aroura]

Okay I turned it all the way to its highest which is 89, but it may get to 86. At the start it was about 75F

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Ok. If it doesn't quite get to 86 then you may just gave to wait a bit longer. 86 will actually help kill it but even if it's not up there it will still die since it won't have a host to attach to. Just might take a bit longer is all.

 

[Aroura]

Okay, since it didn't reach 86F we took out about 80% of the water, ran all the fake plants, and drift wood in 90F+ water plus scrubbed what may have been on them. Now we are boiling the rocks in hopes to kill what is on them, then putting them back in the tank tomorrow.

Will this work? Or are we just making it worse? Should we leave the decor out and just treat the tank?
How much we took out:
https/s5.postimg.org/uc3oiyp5j/20160729_201256.jpg

 

[cowgirluntamed]

You aren't making it worse no....not exactly...but scrubbing everything is going to kill any good bacteria you had. The substrate holds a lot of this so you will probably have to cycle your tank again before getting new fish. Taking in a water sample to test is useless at this point. It won't have sufficient bacteria to handle fish. Just letting things run for a few days is also a myth. That won't jump start your bacteria colony that is needed to break down the waste.

I would still keep the heat up after putting things back in the tank. Ich, for the most part, isn't hard to kill, but it can be attached to different things and also free swimming in the water. Mostly...ich takes PATIENCE to treat. And yes, it can also be in the filter. And there is also only one stage where it really can be killed and that is the free swimming stage. I don't know if heat will kill it while it's encapsulated. but it will die, even without as much heat for you, since you don't have fish. but you have to give it a chance to get to the free swimming stage. Like I said though don't worry!! I know you guys want fish but you need to do things right if you want healthy fish.

I reread your first post on here and you may have caused some stress to the fish by putting them in an uncycled tank(you said your mom cleaned it completely out.) so...if your fish were starting to deal with ammonia and nitrite...that can cause illness of itself but it can also cause stress which causes the fish to be more susceptible to illnesses and parasites and such. Have you read up on fishless cycling? This is a great way to make sure your tank is ready for fish. Here is the link in case you haven't read it.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first/


I hope this helps. And again, patience is key. I know this is an exciting hobby and you want to put a ton of fish in as soon as possible, but it really isn't good for the fish.

 

[Aroura]

Yeah we had taken water out when her last mean fish had died. We were down to just the two algea eaters. We had waited a week and a half before adding the new fish. As for good bacteria we do have a place in the filter where it grows, so I'm not sure if that helps any. I know it's patience to get rid of ick, but once my mom has something in her head she does it lol. So I'll put the rocks and everything back into the tank. We are getting a new heater as well since the one we have does not make it 86F. But we will continue to cycle the tank for a good two weeks before we get it tested again.

Thanks again for your help
And shall read up on the link as well!

 

[cowgirluntamed]

The link is about how to cycle so definitely read it! Its great information. Cycling does not happen if you just let stuff run. Anyway, good luck! Hope everything turns out well for you!

 

[Aroura]

So it's been a week today since the ick/fungus. Now there is fuzzy white areas on one of the drift wood. The other has green/white fuzz. Is this cause we don't have an algea eater or no fish in the tank?

I had a pic but it won't upload for some odd reason. But shall keep trying.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

I had driftwood before I got an algae eater(bristlenose pleco) and mine had a ton of white fungus growing on it. The pleco quickly took care of that. Lol. Shouldn't hurt anything but you could always take the pieces out and give them a quick rinse and stick them back in. It will probably come back though.

 

[Aroura]

Okay just wanted to make sure it wasn't mold or something lol. Thanks

 

[Aroura]

So after the seven days we have waited longer on fish. Our pH is low so we added coral, but it still looks pretty low, should we add our new drift wood or not?
https/s5.postimg.org/vn10cfsnr/20160815_182146.jpg

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Hm....i can't really tell the color well. Test strips are known to be in accurate as well. I would suggest investing in the api freshwater master test kit that is liquid. It has ph(and high pH if needed), ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Unfortunately it doesn't have kh and gh. You would have to buy that separately if you wanted those. But the last for a long time so its worth looking into getting!