New Fish Are Dead

[chrisb1357]

Well looking at the fish today i cannot see any spots on them. I think it might have just been after i gave them food. I tend to watch the fish more at the minute so will keep my eye open.

The guy who offered to help me told me to leave the carbon filter in when treating with Ammo Lock.

Just did another Ammonia test tonight and the level has gone down a bit. When i tested this morning the water in the test tube was so green i could not see through it but tonight its a bit clear

Chris

thats really nice of the people offering to come and help you if you cant sort the problem! Did you find out if you have ich? You really need to treat it if you do.

 

[zoekin8yg]

I think its probably a good idea to get the guy round, as its really hard for us to help over a forum, as you have an offer of in person advice I think thats the best thing to do.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Glad you've found a more helpful store, that's always a good start!

I really do think you should remove the carbon from your filter. It's not doing any good, what your trying to do now is build up as good a bacteria colony in the filter as quickly as you can. The room being taken up by the carbon could be used for something to build up the colony on if nothing else.

If your ammonia is starting to come down that's good. But you'll start to see a nitrite reading and this will spike too. This is also toxic and could kill your fish, but you've just got to ride it out. It's a good idea to log your readings, weather you do it in excel or on a bit of paper or whatever it's up to you. But do keep a record and with the dates. We have a fishy diary and if a problem crops up with one of the tanks we'll log the readings in that.

You should be doing 20% water changes every day this will help keep the levels of ammonia and nitrite down. When ammonia reaches 0 stop using the ammo lock. Just keep doing your changes, keep your fingers crossed and soon enough the nitrite spike will pass and things will settle.

As for the white spots, this could be ich which is a nasty disease and should be treated asap. It's quite often caused by poor water quality so I wouldn't be at all surprised if they did develop it. Keep a close eye out for the spots, and also look if the fish are flicking or rubbing against tank decor. If they are you should treat this asap. We use King British WS3, IMO it's the best ich med although there are plenty on the market. With this you'd definately need to remove the carbon if you haven't already. Do be careful though, scaless fish like catfish are sensitive to ich meds and this can kill them too. So if you do think it's ich then please post a full list of what fish you've got left and what med you plan on using so we can check it out for any potential problems.

 

[chrisb1357]

Eveyone on here has been a great help and one of the best forums around on the net

With regards to the carbon filter i am still getting a bit confused which is the carbon filter in my tank. I have 2 types of filter media but not sure which one to remove. They are located at the top of the tank. When i remove this do i need to wash under the tap or keep in water from the tank.

OK when i do a water change each day do i need to add any conditionor to the water that i add and is it ok to add direct from the tap. Also am i best to add the Ammo Lock every day or every 2 days.

Sorry about flooding this forum with this thread

Chris

Glad you've found a more helpful store, that's always a good start!

I really do think you should remove the carbon from your filter. It's not doing any good, what your trying to do now is build up as good a bacteria colony in the filter as quickly as you can. The room being taken up by the carbon could be used for something to build up the colony on if nothing else.

If your ammonia is starting to come down that's good. But you'll start to see a nitrite reading and this will spike too. This is also toxic and could kill your fish, but you've just got to ride it out. It's a good idea to log your readings, weather you do it in excel or on a bit of paper or whatever it's up to you. But do keep a record and with the dates. We have a fishy diary and if a problem crops up with one of the tanks we'll log the readings in that.

You should be doing 20% water changes every day this will help keep the levels of ammonia and nitrite down. When ammonia reaches 0 stop using the ammo lock. Just keep doing your changes, keep your fingers crossed and soon enough the nitrite spike will pass and things will settle.

As for the white spots, this could be ich which is a nasty disease and should be treated asap. It's quite often caused by poor water quality so I wouldn't be at all surprised if they did develop it. Keep a close eye out for the spots, and also look if the fish are flicking or rubbing against tank decor. If they are you should treat this asap. We use King British WS3, IMO it's the best ich med although there are plenty on the market. With this you'd definately need to remove the carbon if you haven't already. Do be careful though, scaless fish like catfish are sensitive to ich meds and this can kill them too. So if you do think it's ich then please post a full list of what fish you've got left and what med you plan on using so we can check it out for any potential problems.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Eveyone on here has been a great help and one of the best forums around on the net

With regards to the carbon filter i am still getting a bit confused which is the carbon filter in my tank. I have 2 types of filter media but not sure which one to remove. They are located at the top of the tank. When i remove this do i need to wash under the tap or keep in water from the tank.

OK when i do a water change each day do i need to add any conditionor to the water that i add and is it ok to add direct from the tap. Also am i best to add the Ammo Lock every day or every 2 days.

Sorry about flooding this forum with this thread

Chris

don't apologise, that's what we're here for!

what do the 2 look like, get a pic if you can. carbon will be like lots of little black pellet type things, maybe in a mesh bag.

if your gonna take them out just sling them, you'd have to buy new to replace them, they don't last very long. most people don't use them becuase of this, they'll just have a spare in the cupboard for removing meds/toxins from the water.

yes you need to add conditioner every time you do a water change.

personally i'd just do the ammo lock every other day, your ammonia's falling now anyway so that's not the main threat. it'll be the nitrite that rises in the next few days.

 

[PaPeRo]

Carbon is also good for removing organics which cause the water to be yellow.

 

[chrisb1357]

I will get a pic tonight of them both but i cannot remmeber seeing any black pellet type things.

I have one of these http/www.maidenheadaquatics.co.uk/spares...264&invis=0 and also the other filter media feels like a sponge. Then there are 4 type plastic balls as well just before the water re enters the tank.

So would you not do a water change then each day and just keep adding the ammo lock

Chris



[/quote]
don't apologise, that's what we're here for!

what do the 2 look like, get a pic if you can. carbon will be like lots of little black pellet type things, maybe in a mesh bag.

if your gonna take them out just sling them, you'd have to buy new to replace them, they don't last very long. most people don't use them becuase of this, they'll just have a spare in the cupboard for removing meds/toxins from the water.

yes you need to add conditioner every time you do a water change.

personally i'd just do the ammo lock every other day, your ammonia's falling now anyway so that's not the main threat. it'll be the nitrite that rises in the next few days.
[/quote]

 

[chrisb1357]

Here are 2 photos of the filter media i have in the tank and a picture like the bio balls i have.

Filter Media One:

Filter Media Two (Which is located under media one):

Bio Balls (Which are located in the filter media tray just before the water enters the tank again)

Chris

 

[zoekin8yg]

http/www.aa-aquarium.com/products/image447ab52271cb6.pdf

I think thats the tank you have? I could be wrong, took ages to find it! In which case I think the middle bit is the carbon. But someone else might have a better idea

 

[chrisb1357]

hi, thats like the tank we have. The media box looks diffrent in the pdf file than the one i have but i guest thats an updated version

Chris

 

[chrisb1357]

Hi people, another update

Well only 2 Tetras now in the tank with the small cat fish.

I had a closer look inside the filter that is made out of plastic above. Inside there is foam with lots of small balls so i guest this is the carbon filter. I have removed the carbon filter from the tank today and also carried out a water change and added the following, 3ml Ammo Lock, 6ml Stress Zyme and 1ml of Water Conditioner.

Will removing the Carbon filter do anything to the tank or the cycle. Should i leave it out for good and just replace the carbon filter with another normal sponge.

How long after adding the above treatments should i test the water again with the test kit

Chris

 

[xoedusk]

The more you feed the fish the more waste they'll produce, and therefor more ammonia. Cut the feeding to once per day.

 

[chrisb1357]

Will cut down the food

Just thought i would test the tank and here are my results

Ammonia Test 0.4 MG/L

Nitrate (No3) 20

Nitrate (No2) 0.5

Total Hardness (GH) 300 (17.0)

Total Alkalinty (KH) 120 (7.0)

PH 7.8


My Ammonia Test about 5 days ago was well over 4.0

 

[zoekin8yg]

Its definately getting better then! I 'think' you have taken out the carbon, it is worth asking at the lfs you said would help you as you can show them in person. Taking out the carbon wont affect the cycle, most people dont keep the carbon anyway, the best use for carbon is to remove meds once the course of treating is finished. You may find that you loose the rest of the neons, they are very hardy. It looks like it shouldnt take too much longer for the nitrite and ammonia to get to zero, your nitrate level is fine. Keep doing water changes and feed just once a day, I only feed mine once a day most of the time anyway, it wont hurt them.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's good that your ammonia reading is going down, when it gets to 0 stop using the ammo lock, test every single day.

your nitrite reading will now start to rise, there's nothing i know of like ammo-lock for nitrite, you just need to keep doing daily water changes to keep it down.

be patient your half way there