Holy Gee Wiz! Help!

[ThisGuy]

OK! i've had my tanks for about 2 months now with very little losses. I know these fish down to the scale so I can tell when somethings up. In my 20 gal about 1/3 of the fish have started swimming up and down the walls... allot! and acting very hyper, which is a complete change from their usual chill vibe. My ammonia level is good my ph is good too but they are acting like they want out any ideas? thanks!

In my 15 gallon tank I have, well, had 3 silver mollys. one day one of them stopped using its right fin i noticed, and also appeared to be... shedding? i guess? it looked like it had just gotten over some sunburn kinda peeling look. Well i treated the tank for ICH which did nothing (I really didnt think it was Ich) so the poor guy died well I just had to let another one go because of the same thing (Also this has only affected the mollys and none of the other fish are showing odd signs) now i'm down to my last one, he is acting odd but i cant see any physical manifestation of the illness (so i assume hes just lonely) but if he does start to show symptom what should i do?!!! any help is much appreciated!

 

[lilfishie]

what fish are swimming up and down the tank?

what you describe as 'shedding' sounds more like fin rot to me

 

[waterdrop]

Hi there ThisGuy and Welcome to TFF!

I'd start by telling the members what temperature you're running and how you measure that. Then we'd like to know what water chemistry test kit(s) you have and what the exact numbers are for ammonia, nitrite(NO2), nitrate(NO3) and pH (and other things like GH and KH if you happen to have them.) A general statement about whether you think your local water is hard or soft and/or acid might be good too.

What method did you use to "cycle" your biofilter (if that makes any sense to you?)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[ThisGuy]

yeah fin rot sounds about right via google thanks. any suggestions for that?

in my other tank i have three longfin zebra danios acting odd.

 

[ThisGuy]

Hey thanks for hit, PH is 7.2 Ammonia is at 0.03 an for the nitatrates and such i have no idea i keep my temp around 78-79 ...Celsius... just kidding of course!

 

[Aqua Tom]

Hey thanks for hit, PH is 7.2 Ammonia is at 0.03 an for the nitatrates and such i have no idea i keep my temp around 78-79 ...Celsius... just kidding of course!

 

[ThisGuy]

well thats reassuring

 

[Aqua Tom]

Sorry, your last post wasnt very helpful.

We need to know your water chemistry to be any help.


Amonnia ppm? (0.03 could mean anything)
Nitrite ppm?
pH 7.2
Nitrate ppm?

These are the four factors we need to establish what is going on with your water chemistry.

Tom

 

[ThisGuy]

Sorry, your last post wasnt very helpful.

We need to know your water chemistry to be any help.


Amonnia ppm? (0.03 could mean anything)
Nitrite ppm?
pH 7.2
Nitrate ppm?

These are the four factors we need to establish what is going on with your water chemistry.

Tom

well all I know about the ammonia is that the meter i have says its in between .02 ppm and .05 ppm. the nites i cant tell right now. if you could tel me what they should be at roughly i'll look into getting them fixed.

 

[waterdrop]

What do you mean by "meter?" Is this some sort of paper/plastic based color thing or an electronic thing?

The baseline approach we usually teach here in our beginners section is to obtain and learn to use a liquid-reagent type of test kit (these use little test tubes and bottles of reagent chemicals that are mixed with a small amount of test water from the tank.) These are about the only types of water testing that make a start at being accurate enough to trust and know that you are within safe ranges on common toxins.

If someone were to ask me "What's the most important piece of aquarium equipment?" I would probably say a test kit (even prior to a tank, lol, I would probably say go out and get a good test kit and begin practicing using it on your tap water even prior to obtaining a tank, heater, lid etc.) But it's not just about the actual measuring, it's about the learning as a beginner, so that from then on you've gained this knowledge and lore that many of the members here have about ammonia, nitrite and other important aspects of the tank (sounds worse than it is, the lore ends up being pretty simple.)

A tank that has a full cycled, good working biofilter should test out with zero ppm ammonia, zero ppm nitrite(NO2) and the nitrate(NO3) level will hopefully be not more than about 15 or 20ppm over whatever the tap water nitrate(NO3) level is.

Let me also say that you may just have happy fish that have grown more comfortable with their tank and like to swim up and down against the glass (you may have no problem but have just triggered our normal concerns for knowing the baseline water chems.. so be aware we don't mean to jump on ya! )

~~waterdrop~~

 

[ThisGuy]

What do you mean by "meter?" Is this some sort of paper/plastic based color thing or an electronic thing?

The baseline approach we usually teach here in our beginners section is to obtain and learn to use a liquid-reagent type of test kit (these use little test tubes and bottles of reagent chemicals that are mixed with a small amount of test water from the tank.) These are about the only types of water testing that make a start at being accurate enough to trust and know that you are within safe ranges on common toxins.

If someone were to ask me "What's the most important piece of aquarium equipment?" I would probably say a test kit (even prior to a tank, lol, I would probably say go out and get a good test kit and begin practicing using it on your tap water even prior to obtaining a tank, heater, lid etc.) But it's not just about the actual measuring, it's about the learning as a beginner, so that from then on you've gained this knowledge and lore that many of the members here have about ammonia, nitrite and other important aspects of the tank (sounds worse than it is, the lore ends up being pretty simple.)

A tank that has a full cycled, good working biofilter should test out with zero ppm ammonia, zero ppm nitrite(NO2) and the nitrate(NO3) level will hopefully be not more than about 15 or 20ppm over whatever the tap water nitrate(NO3) level is.

Let me also say that you may just have happy fish that have grown more comfortable with their tank and like to swim up and down against the glass (you may have no problem but have just triggered our normal concerns for knowing the baseline water chems.. so be aware we don't mean to jump on ya! )

~~waterdrop~~

thanks for the help amigos! I'll take all into consideration, I really do appreciate it! wish me luck ive only lost the 2 fish out of the 2 months ive had my tank, hopefully that willstay that way!