No idea what is happening in my tank

[NRMEDIC]

So I will preface this by apologizing as this will be quite long, but I need to provide all the details so I can hopefully get an idea as to what is happening in my tank.

Setup:

36 gallon bowfront
Aqua clear 50 HOB filter ( bio media and two sponges for bacterial growth )
150 watt heater w/ tank temp of 78-79 degrees

When I started this aquarium, I did a fish less cycle for 1 month, checking water parameters on a weekly basis.

After the cycle was complete, I introduced 3 swordtails, 3 platies and 6 rummynose tetra to the tank. ( Not all at once ). I was doing weekly, 25% water changes and testing parameters regularly with no issues. My hardness was 30 , pH 6.5-7 and everything else was 0. Ammonia was zero as well. These parameters have not changed in the slightest. Fast forward to 1 month after the last group of fish were introduced to the tank ( tetras ). I went away for a weekend and came back to all 6 of my tetras covered with white spots, presumably ich. I immediately began temp increases over time to bring the temp of the tank to 82 degrees. I turned off the light and began treating with an ich medication. I did every other day water changes and kept treating the tank with the ich medication. The end result was a loss of all my fish except for two swordtails and a platy. At this point the remaining fish were no longer covered with ich. I continued to treat the tank for ich for an additional week and began a general cure and erythromycin treatment course in addition to water changes based on the next dose of required medication. I let the tank settle and it had appeared that I had fixed the ich issue.

1 month later, I decided to begin adding fish to the aquarium again. This time, I added some Von Rio Orange Flame tetras and everything was going well. 1 week later, the tetras were covered in white spots. This time though, the 2 swordtails and 1 platy seemed to be immune from the ich. They never had a spot on them. Ultimately, my tetras have died. I treated the tank the same way as before with ich medication and water changes as well. I should mention that the water changes included gravel vaccing the substrate to help remove the ich spores. While all this was happening, my tank parameters have not changed.

Any ideas as to what I could be doing/not doing to settle this other than starting over?

Regards,

A new hobbyist

 

[TO KYO]

Don’t add any new fish to your main tank right away. Put them in a separate tank for like. Week or so, fish from the stores are always sick (at least in my experience)

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Use a quarantine tank to quarantine all new fish for a month before adding them to your display tank.

Whitespot is a protozoan parasite that is spread by contaminated water, plants or fish. Your pet shop has whitespot in their tanks and you are adding the diseased fish to your tank where the whitespot pops up and makes everyone sick.

If you put the new fish in a separate quarantine tank for a month, you can monitor them for diseases and treat them in the quarantine tank if they develop a disease.

A quarantine tank is just a spare aquarium or plastic container that new fish can live in for a month. You can set them up with water from the main display tank and add a heater and filter. If you have a small power filter or air operated sponge filter in the main tank with the normal filter, you can use the spare filter in the quarantine tank when you get new fish. Then you will have an established filter for the quarantine tank.

The other option is to get another Aquaclear HOB filter and use one of the sponges from your Aqualear 50 and put it in the spare filter on the quarantine tank. Instant cycled filter for quarantine tank.

Quarantine tanks should be washed and dried out after use to make them nice and clean for next time.

--------------------------
The following link has information about whitespot. The first post on page 1 and second post on page 2 are worth reading.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-is-ich.7092/

The safest way to treat whitespot is to increase the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks. Then lower the temperature back down to 24C (75F). The temperature kills the whitespot and you don't need medications.

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The first time you treated for whitespot and killed most of the fish, you probably overdosed them with medication. If you ever have to treat the tank again, use the following formula to work out the water volume.

To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

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You mention the hardness is 30 and pH is 6.5-7.
Is that general hardness?
Is 30 in ppm or dGH or something else?

If the general hardness is 30ppm then it is too low for livebearers (mollies, guppies, swordtails, platies). These fish naturally occur in water with a GH above 200ppm for guppies, swordtails & platies, and a GH above 250ppm for mollies.

They also need a pH above 7.0. If the pH is around 6.5 they won't do that well.

If your water is soft (GH 30ppm) then do not get any more livebearers and just keep fishes like tetras, barbs, Corydoras, etc, that naturally occur in soft water.

If your water is soft and you want to get more livebearers then you will need to increase the GH. This can be done by adding Rift Lake water conditioner (available from pet shops) at about half strength. However, if you increase the GH then the tetras won't do that well. If you want livebearers and tetras then set up a tank for livebearers with hard water, and a tank for tetras with soft water.

--------------------------
When you do a water change each week, change 50-75% of the water and gravel clean the substrate. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms and when you do small water changes you leave most of them behind where they can affect the fish. A bigger water change will dilute chemicals, harmful organisms and nutrients much more effectively than a small water change.
eg:
If you change 25% of the water, you leave 75% of the harmful stuff behind.
If you change 50% of the water, you leave 50% of the harmful stuff behind.
If you change 75% of the water, you leave 25% of the harmful stuff behind.

Bigger water changes are better.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Sorry to hear about your fish loss.

From my experience, majority of the fish at the fish shops(probably 60-70% or more) carry some parasites and bacteria due to the high turn over rate at the fish shops and crowded tanks.
So, whenever you buy new fish, there is always a risk of bringing parasites and bacteria into your tank.

It's important to use quarantine tank for new fish as what Colin and To Kyo mentioned.
Also, select the fish carefully before buying.
Observe the tanks at the fish shop carefully to see any symptoms of parasites infection such as scratching, white spot(ich), and other health issues such as clamp fins, fish hiding at the bottom of the tanks, fish breathing very fast, etc.
You can search the internet on how to choose your fish carefully before buying.

Ich(white spots) are very contagious and the fish will die quickly if you don't discover fast or treat them fast enough.
By the way, what medication did you use?
If you change your aquarium water everyday, you will have difficulty to gauge the concentration of medication in your aquarium.
And if you overdose the medication, you will kill your fish.
You have to follow the medication instructions very closely and not to overdose them.
You might have to change your aquarium water as per the medication's instruction instead of daily.
You have to treat your aquarium for 14 days(minimum - my opinion).
I'm not sure the effectiveness in using(raising) temperature to kill the parasites as some strains of ich parasites might be resistant to higher temperature.
It's better that you use some medication instead of just depending on the temperature alone.(just my opinion)

I think you have two options:
1)Treat the tanks with medication for 14 days(or longer) to eradicate the ich parasites completely.

Some people may suggest that you leave your tank without any fish for a few weeks for the parasites to die off without a host. But I'm not sure how effective is this method.

2)Restart your tank again. But you have to do more work as you have to ensure that you sterilize everything - your tank, the filter, the filter media, gravel(might have to throw away if you want to be 100% sure), etc before restarting your tank again. The whole filter including the intake tube, impeller, etc need to be sterilized.
I think the best method to sterilize is to use hot water.
Some people may suggest using bleach to sterilize the tank but you have to ensure that you have rinsed them well before using it again.

Lastly, if you don't have a quarantine tank, you have to treat your main tank each time you bring in new fish which can be stressful for you existing fish.


Some of the medications to treat ich are:
1)Anti White Spot Plus by Interpret - I like this due to the combination of a few ingredients which makes it more effective than Coppersafe.
https://www.interpet.co.uk/Products/Test-Treat/Fish-Treatments/Anti-White-Spot-Plus-100ml

2)Coppersafe by Mardel
https://fritzaquatics.com/products/mardel-coppersafe

https://www.thesprucepets.com/copper-sulfate-1379923


Here are some useful information from internets:

http://www.tfhmagazine.com/details/articles/preventing-ich-full-article.htm

https://www.thesprucepets.com/treat-ichthyophthirius-multifiliis-1378482

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumMedication3.html#copper_sulfate