PLS HELP ME FIX MY DEATH TANK :(

[GuppyLady1986]

I don’t even know where to start. It’s bad. I neglected my tank for sometime but the fish were cool, they had their homeostasis going on. I decided that I wanted to add a few more fish to my tank, so I cleaned the tank and the gravel lightly and let it run about a week to run it’s cycle. The original fish are great at this point no problems so I figure we’re good to go. My original fish are two angels and two black tetras 5 female guppies. (I decided to add males) Its a 29 gallon tank so theres room anyway everything was fine until I added the males. My female guppies and the males began to develop big white fuzzy sores on their bodies and fins, they stop eating become emaciated, look pale like their anemic, swim at top/bottom of tank and die within a day of these symptoms. Now my angel fish has a sore on his fin. Ive tried to take the best pictures I can, I was told to dose them with melafix daily for 7 days and then do a major water change. My angel fish are very sentimental to me please help me save them.

 

[mikey11]

I cleaned the tank and the gravel lightly

describe this process in great detail

 

[Byron]

I am not much help with disease issues, but others are, though they will need more information so I'm posting for that. Results of any tests (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate). What is the pH? Temperature?

How often are water changes, and what volume of the tank?

 

[GuppyLady1986]

describe this process in great detail

When I cleaned the gravel I used a gravel vacuum until the top of the gravel wasn’t fuzzy anymore. (The too much food fuzz) it pulled about 10%of the water out doing that and then I vacuumed again after letting the debris settle back on the gravel and pulled about another 20% of the water because it was pretty mucky. I pulled out and changed my carbon filter too because it was super slimy.

I am not much help with disease issues, but others are, though they will need more information so I'm posting for that. Results of any tests (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate). What is the pH? Temperature?

How often are water changes, and what volume of the tank?

I try to change 20-25% of the water every 10-14 days, it’s a 29gal, my temp is around 72f, I took a water sample to petsmart today and all they told me was that my ammonia was high and sent me home with melafix, stress coat, ammonia remover, and bacteria supplement.

 

[mikey11]

I pulled out and changed my carbon filter too because it was super slimy.
.

what type of filter are you using?

what else is in there besides your carbon?

 

[Byron]

It is unfortunate the store sold you products rather than a test kit which would have been more useful now and going forward. Dumping more chemicals into the water is never the answer. "Ammonia remover" is not going to fix the cause of the ammonia, and that is what we/you need to achieve.

My first suggestion would be to do a thorough water change, 60-70% of the tank. I'd like to have numbers for the ammonia (what does "high" mean, not criticizing you but the store, as "high" tells us nothing except there is ammonia which should be zero). If the ph is below 7, this is not as dangerous as it is if the pH is above 7, but we don't know the pH. Vacuum well into the substrate; remove as much of the mulm as possible. Rinse the filter in a bucket of tank water to do the same.

Most often fin issues are caused by the water conditions, so getting those clean and stable is a big step forward.

Once this is resolved, water changes should be once a week, on the same day (find a suitable time to set aside weekly for this important task so it becomes regular), and change at least half the tank. Use a conditioner in the amount for the replacement water but no more.

 

[GuppyLady1986]

what type of filter are you using?

what else is in there besides your carbon?

Just the regular activated carbon filter and nothing else.

 

[GuppyLady1986]

It is unfortunate the store sold you products rather than a test kit which would have been more useful now and going forward. Dumping more chemicals into the water is never the answer. "Ammonia remover" is not going to fix the cause of the ammonia, and that is what we/you need to achieve.

My first suggestion would be to do a thorough water change, 60-70% of the tank. I'd like to have numbers for the ammonia (what does "high" mean, not criticizing you but the store, as "high" tells us nothing except there is ammonia which should be zero). If the ph is below 7, this is not as dangerous as it is if the pH is above 7, but we don't know the pH. Vacuum well into the substrate; remove as much of the mulm as possible. Rinse the filter in a bucket of tank water to do the same.

Most often fin issues are caused by the water conditions, so getting those clean and stable is a big step forward.

Once this is resolved, water changes should be once a week, on the same day (find a suitable time to set aside weekly for this important task so it becomes regular), and change at least half the tank. Use a conditioner in the amount for the replacement water but no more.

I am not sure on the ph but the lady showed me the strip and it was the next to last shade of green on the top scale in the photo. I will be returning the chemicals tomorrow as well as another fish that has unfortunately passed away since I posted this. I will take note of your water change advice moving forward.

 

[squidneh]

Unfortunately a lot of good bacteria is in your filter, which you threw away. You should only ever rinse the filter cartridge in warm, conditioned water so as not to kill off all of the bacteria. Essentially, my guess if that you undid your cycle and you are now in the middle of a 'fish in' cycle.

Which means you should order an API master test kit and be doing large water changes daily if you want to save the fish you have left.

 

[Byron]

Squidneh is correct and has a point, but in this situation here I would think there may be more to this. The neglect mentioned in post 1 has done something. And two or three platy/guppies in a 29g tank will not have this much difficulty from a simple mini cycle.

To the OP...if you can, get a API Master Combo test kit that uses liquid regents, not test strips. The Mast Combo has pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. And you should test all of these until this is solved, and after that the pH and nitrate regularly. Ammonia and nitrite should always be tested if anything occurs.

The bacterial supplement you got might be OK, it certainly cannot hurt, depending what it is. A good water conditioner is necessary too.

 

[Colin_T]

They have a protozoan infection brought in by the new guppies.

In addition to that you destroyed the filter by changing the carbon. Carbon is useless anyway and you should have sponges in the filter rather than carbon. Carbon will absorb Melafix and other chemicals in the water.

You should have a gravel cleaner like the one in the following link. It will allow you to remove the gunk in the substrate while draining some water out of the tank. A gravel cleaner should be used any time you do a water change.
http://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html

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At this stage the best thing you can do is a 75% water change and complete gravel clean. Small 20% water changes are useless and don't dilute anything. Bigger water changes and complete gravel cleans will make a huge difference.
*NB* Make sure any new water going into the tank is free of chlorine/ chloramine.

Remove the carbon from the filter. If you don't have a sponge in the filter then put one in it instead of using carbon. Don't bother with carbon at all.

Add a medication that contains Malachite Green (Waterlife Protozin or something similar) and that should kill off the disease.

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 of the tank, measure from the top of the gravel to the top of the water level.

Do not feed the fish much over the next 2 weeks. Only give them a tiny bit of food every couple of days to minimise ammonia build up while the filter re-establishes.

Monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels and do big water changes to dilute it.

 

[mikey11]

Just the regular activated carbon filter and nothing else.

a filter with only carbon in it is not doing anything....

you need a surface for bacteria to accumulate like foam

 

[GuppyLady1986]

UPDATE:

I have ordered a master test kit.

If I did the math correctly {(76.5x31.5x40)/1000} the volume is 96.39 cm³

By some stroke of luck I found the sponge that was in with the old carbon filter in it’s gross old glory so I lightly rinsed the large debris off it and put it where the carbon filter was. So far so good.

No more fish have died

I’m still worried about my angel, I can’t tell if the sore is getting better or worse.

 

[Colin_T]

If I did the math correctly {(76.5x31.5x40)/1000} the volume is 96.39 cm³

The tank has about 96 litres of water in it. For treating just round it down to 95 litres.

The angel is still getting worse. As long as there is red in the fin it is a problem.
Are you treating with anything besides the Melafix?

I would look for a medication with malachite green and methylene blue. The methylene blue will wipe out filter bacteria but saving the fish is more important and you can do water changes until the filters recover.
If you can get "Waterlife Protozin" or something similar it should fix the angel.

 

[GuppyLady1986]

It seems to be swimming around more and actually using its dorsal fin so I’m hoping that’s a good sign. Thanks for the advice, I’ll be making another trip to petsmart.