I got new fish! Questions

[cowgirluntamed]

drain and complete gravel clean, then refill.

If there are no live plants in the tank you can add a heap of salt and leave it salty for 24 hours then drain and refill 2 times to get rid of the salt.

It's sand, would just vacuuming over the top be good enough? And I have 2 anubias plants. Would they survive salt? Then again...I also have some malaysian trumpet snails and a nerite snail in there.....so maybe no salt. Lol. Can't forget them!

 

[cowgirluntamed]

So far no fish deaths today. One glowlight is staying in the top corner and didn't want to eat so I will probably lose that one more than likely. Everybody else seemed to go for the food really well. I'm seeing the male on male behavior and even some breeding behavior with some females. Hopefully that's a good sign!

 

[Colin_T]

if you have to scrap the tank and flush it out you want to gravel clean the sand to stir it up (gravel clean it) and get everything out of it.

If you have live plants and snails that you want, then do not salt the tank if they all die, unless the snails die too.

Are you treating with triple sulfar?

 

[cowgirluntamed]

if you have to scrap the tank and flush it out you want to gravel clean the sand to stir it up (gravel clean it) and get everything out of it.

If you have live plants and snails that you want, then do not salt the tank if they all die, unless the snails die too.

Are you treating with triple sulfar?

Ok! And no salt as I want to keep the snails. Lol. And yes I am treating with triple sulfa. Did a dose the last two days and a 25% water change today. I have a dose to do the next two days and then it says 25% change and add carbon but I will just be doing a really large water change then and maybe another on a couple days after that.

 

[Colin_T]

Treat them for a week. If they have a gill fungus or something else it will need 7 days of medication. Just do a big water change every few days before retreating.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Treat them for a week. If they have a gill fungus or something else it will need 7 days of medication. Just do a big water change every few days before retreating.

Ok. I'll do another round of treatment after this one then! Thanks for all the help Colin!

 

[cowgirluntamed]

No fish deaths this morning. Yay! Things are going in the right direction!

 

[cowgirluntamed]

@Colin_T

Still no more fish deaths! Today is water change day (weekly) for all tanks. I only have 2 packets left of the triple sulfa so I will treat the next two days. That will put it for a full weeks worth of meds at least. 2 days a packet per day, next day water change, 2 more days of a packet, water change today, then 2 more days of a packet each and then I will do a large water change a couple days in a row for them.

The harlequins seem to be doing fine now so not sure why they were dying. Cories have always been fine.

At least things are looking up now! I haven't been to that store yet but maybe next week to check it out. Not in a hurry of course until these guys are done with quarantine. I'll keep you posted!

 

[Colin_T]

Good to hear they have stopped dying.
It could have been a gill fungus or bacterial infection in the gills. Hopefully the triple sulpha has dealt with it.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

@Colin_T

So, did my 50% water change on all tanks. About a half hour later I notice a glowlight staying at the surface gasping. Looked over at my 20 gallon that has my gourami and a bunch of Malaysian trumpet snails and the snails are crawling up the side of the tank. So I did a high and low ph test for the glowlight tank. Normal ph is 8.2. I just tested at around 7.4 to 7.5.

So.....does this mean anything? I believe we tried to figure this out a bit ago but couldn't figure it out. Or could it just be bothering the glowlights because they were weak anyway?

I will test again before I go to bed today and again tomorrow when I get off work to see what it says. I know it could be slightly different coming out of the tap and that it has to gas off.

I tested a couple of days ago and everything was fine, including the pH at 8.2.

 

[Colin_T]

are you aerating the well water for 30minutes or so before using it?
if not, make sure you do from now on.

sudden pH changes will screw up fish but if your well water is changing pH over a course of weeks, then something is contaminating it.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

are you aerating the well water for 30minutes or so before using it?
if not, make sure you do from now on.

sudden pH changes will screw up fish but if your well water is changing pH over a course of weeks, then something is contaminating it.

No, I haven't been aerating it before hand. I've never had to. I don't know why it's started being lower until it gets aerated. I'm not even sure I have a way to do that first. I don't have any place to keep that many buckets or trashcans.

It doesn't seem to be gasping at the surface any more at least. And all the rest of the fish aren't affected. The snails went back down already from the glass too.

 

[Colin_T]

go and buy yourself a couple of 20 gallon plastic rubbish bins and wash them out well. Fill them with well water and aerate hell out of them for 30 minutes or more. Then use that water for the water changes.

Well water can have no oxygen in it and you can suffocate the fish if you add water with no oxygen.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

go and buy yourself a couple of 20 gallon plastic rubbish bins and wash them out well. Fill them with well water and aerate hell out of them for 30 minutes or more. Then use that water for the water changes.

Well water can have no oxygen in it and you can suffocate the fish if you add water with no oxygen.

Is this why the pH is lower at first and then goes back to normal? Is there any way to aerate it as it goes into the tank? I have a diy python that comes to a T going into the tank so it doesn't just go straight down. Other than that one glowlight and the snail, nothing else seems to be affected.

 

[Colin_T]

if the water has lots of carbon dioxide in and no oxygen the pH will be acidic and as you aerate the water, the excess CO2 comes out and is replaced with oxygen and the pH can go up a bit.

get a 2 outlet aquarium air pump and some airline and plastic multi coloured airstones and just aerate the water for 30 minutes before you use it. The aeration will drive out the excess CO2 and get the dissolved gasses back to where they should be.