Oh Help!

[rachelbatchelor]

Right. Ive just done a water test in my tank, as my plec has gone really pale, and is looking miserable. It turns out that the nitrites have gone from 0 and shot up to 1.5 mg/l, which apparently is lethal.

Ive checked all the fish, and they are all still alive, there isnt any dead plant matter in the tank, and the fish havent been over fed. What could have caused it? The last fish were added a week ago.


Also one of my platys has got a bit of fungus on his head.

HELP!!



Oh, also.... what should i do about it? Give it a water change and cross my fingers? Ive never had anything like this before, so am completly confused.

 

[rachelbatchelor]

Right. Ive given it an 80% water change, and added a bag of mucky water (which apparently is full of good bacteria)from the aquatics centre to my fish tank.

What should i do now?


Ive been told not to treat the fungus, as it will kill off some good bacteria which i need to fight the nitrite levels.....

Help!

 

[big mick]

Ive certainly never heard of adding "mucky water", the water doesnt contain much bacteria I though (might be wrong though...)

Fungus is usually a sign of poor water quality, although changing 80% is maybe a little extreme I dont think adding a treatment for fungus will be a problem.

Usually if spotted early fungus can be stopped before it takes hold by just doing a few extra water changes in my experience but it it gets bad I use the interpet fungus and finrot treatment which works well.

Not sure what has caused you nitrites to shoot up, have you got all the water stats, pH. ammonia etc.

 

[benzonar]

If by mucky water you mean a squeezing from a mature filter than that should help with the bacteria colony.

 

[big mick]

if the tank is cycled you shouldnt need to, how long have you had it set up....I assumed a while since you said nothing like this has happened before?

 

[rachelbatchelor]

I dont know what the 'mucky water' was. It was given to be from the shop. I changed 80% as thats what they told me to do.

The tank has been set up for a couple of months now, but the nitrite levels have stayed at 0 all the way through until now.

 

[big mick]

A good water change is needed but I cant understand why they have given you water from one of their tanks, Ive certainly never heard that before.

I think after that water change a fungus treatment could be added but be sure and remove the carbon from your filter first or it wont work.

 

[cyprinut]

The last fish were added a week ago.

Your tank is re-cycling because the increased load was more than your bacteria colonies could handle. Keep doing daily 25% water changes (or more-as necessary) to keep nitrites as low as possible. Make sure the plec has some "real" leafy food to eat like spinach or romaine, not just algea tabs. I think that they will all perk up if you keep up with the smaller water changes until things re-stabalize. I wouldn't throw meds at the problem just yet.

 

[rachelbatchelor]

Thankyou. I will let you know how it goes.

 

[Bloo]

I know from your other thread that your tank is approx two months old, 70 US gallons and currently contains the following fish : 1 Plec, 3 Rams, 16 neon tetras, 2 small angel fish, 6 peppered corys, 8 platys, and 6 swordtails.

How did you cycle your tank ?
Are you taking regular Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia and pH readings. Do you also know what your kH & gH is ?
Though your tank is 70 Gallons, it's a fair amount of fish to have in there so soon. Unless of course you cloned a tank, but you said you only had a smaller guppy tank before - did you use any of that filter material to help seed your new filter ? Or did you do a fishless cycle (which I almost doubt as it's almost too soon for that) ?

All that information will help you to understand your fish's health and to maintain a healthy environment for them to live in.

It sounds like your tank is still going through the original cycle and also experiencing a mini cycle.
For now so small water changes will help you to bring your ammonia / nitrite levels down and make them more tolerable for your fish.

And unless your fish are showing visible and definite signs of illness, do not treat them "just in case". Medicating can cause unnecessary stress and even death.

Good luck

 

[rachelbatchelor]

Hi.

I started the tank using something (cant remember what its called at the moment) from my local petshop. Apparently it quick starts your tank for you.

The ammonia is 0, and i dont know about the nitrate as they said i didnt need to worry about that reading!!??

What is kH & gH?

Im beginning to think that ive just put slighty to many fish in there too early. I was given them all by my friend who works for an aquatic dealer who told me that it would be ok to put them all in at once...... grrrrrrr.

So..... lots of water changes from now on? How long am i looking at for it all to settle back down? Days or weeks?

The stress of it all!

Thanks from Rach xx

 

[Bloo]

The best I can do at the moment, is point you to this article about water chemistry. This will give you the basic information you really need in order to understand the water. Which in my opinion is very important, after all without water your fish can't live ! And without the right or optimum water conditions your fish won't do well and eventually thrive either.

The other very useful (and also important thing) to understand, is the Nitrogen Cycle.

Take daily ammonia and nitrite readings and do small water changes every other day. It could take weeks until your tank is finally "settled" I'm afraid, but if your tank is just going through a mini cycle, it could just be a matter of days. Keep in mind that liquid tests kits are more accurate than the paper strips kind.
API (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals) has a very good range and provides very good value for money.

If you are unsure about anything, please ask I certainly don't know everything, but there are many other helpful people here B)