Sick Guppy, need help!

[Colin_T]

You can drain the other tank and refill it but don't wash the gravel or filter because you will get rid of any beneficial filter bacteria and start the cycling process over.

You can add a liquid bacterial supplement (available from most pet shops or online) and add a double dose every day for a week, then pour the remaining contents into the tank. try to add the supplement near the filter intake so it gets drawn into the filter where it belongs.

If you spread the fish out between the two tanks, reduce feeding and do big water changes, you should be able to keep the ammonia levels down until the filter cycles.

Out of curiosity, why don't you use tap water in the tanks?

 

[GuppyMama1234]

You can drain the other tank and refill it but don't wash the gravel or filter because you will get rid of any beneficial filter bacteria and start the cycling process over.

You can add a liquid bacterial supplement (available from most pet shops or online) and add a double dose every day for a week, then pour the remaining contents into the tank. try to add the supplement near the filter intake so it gets drawn into the filter where it belongs.

If you spread the fish out between the two tanks, reduce feeding and do big water changes, you should be able to keep the ammonia levels down until the filter cycles.

Out of curiosity, why don't you use tap water in the tanks?

Okay I will do exactly that! And we are hooked up to a spring here so the water that comes out of my tap is spring water

 

[Essjay]

Ah, so your tap water is spring water. When some members say they use spring water, they mean water in a bottle that they bought from the supermarket

 

[Tez_20]

He advised us that when ammonia is high it causes a normally good PH to be super toxic.

I would say that the toxins as caused this being absorbed although your working hard to lower it.

 

[Essjay]

He advised us that when ammonia is high it causes a normally good PH to be super toxic.

It's actually the other way round. The correct form of the statement should be "when pH is high it causes normally safe ammonia to be super toxic"

Ammonia in water exists in two forms - toxic ammonia and less toxic ammonium. Our test kits measure both together as just "ammonia".
The amount in each form varies with temperature and pH. We can ignore temperature as most of our tanks run at more or less the same temperature. But pH varies from place to place.
At pH under 7, most of the ammonia reading is in the less toxic ammonium form, but at pH over 7 there is more in the toxic ammonia form.

 

[Naughts]

LSF and was advised to get...... This advice is contrary to the advice I have been given on the forum.

LFSs can advise you to buy unnecessary products every time you go in and then happily sell you more fish when yours have died - the forum members give you advise with no vested interests or material gain.

.... what should I do?

Listen to us

 

[GuppyMama1234]

Ah, so your tap water is spring water. When some members say they use spring water, they mean water in a bottle that they bought from the supermarket

Funny story: I actually filled one of our smaller tanks up using bottled water one time. It took almost 2 cases of water and an hour to do it I felt like I HAD to because it had been raining a lot and our water was cloudy. So it’s funny that you mentioned other forum friends having gone that same thing because I thought I was just crazy ha ha

 

[GuppyMama1234]

LFSs can advise you to buy unnecessary products every time you go in and then happily sell you more fish when yours have died - the forum members give you advise with no vested interests or material gain.

Listen to us

My gut tells me I am in much better hands here!

 

[GuppyMama1234]

It's actually the other way round. The correct form of the statement should be "when pH is high it causes normally safe ammonia to be super toxic"

Ammonia in water exists in two forms - toxic ammonia and less toxic ammonium. Our test kits measure both together as just "ammonia".
The amount in each form varies with temperature and pH. We can ignore temperature as most of our tanks run at more or less the same temperature. But pH varies from place to place.
At pH under 7, most of the ammonia reading is in the less toxic ammonium form, but at pH over 7 there is more in the toxic ammonia form.

Oh okay! That makes more sense! We have (almost) gotten the ammonia situation resolved but now the fish have “fin rot” and goodness knows what else. They are all bleached out and pale looking and several of them have the tell-tale signs of fin rot. White and tattered fin edges. I will try to share some pictures. I’ve watched a bunch of YT videos that suggested many different products ya to treat the fin rot... what would you recommend?

 

[Pcknights]

Since you got multiple tanks maybe you can make one of then quarantine tank and have all the healthy fishes on the other. Regarding ammonia there is usually a reason for this, overfeeding, overpopulation dead plants or dead fishes or dead snails can boost this very quickly if not removed.
If your aquariums are heavily planted the plants will deal with the ammonia without any extra ' juices' I used to buy a lot of these stuff myself but after a while I discovered that I am better without using these.
So just to conclude and not bore you any longer I suggest heavily planted tank and quarantine tanks for the fish that does not look OK.

 

[GuppyMama1234]

Since you got multiple tanks maybe you can make one of then quarantine tank and have all the healthy fishes on the other. Regarding ammonia there is usually a reason for this, overfeeding, overpopulation dead plants or dead fishes or dead snails can boost this very quickly if not removed.
If your aquariums are heavily planted the plants will deal with the ammonia without any extra ' juices' I used to buy a lot of these stuff myself but after a while I discovered that I am better without using these.
So just to conclude and not bore you any longer I suggest heavily planted tank and quarantine tanks for the fish that does not look OK.

Unfortunately, most of my fish died due to the toxic ammonia situation. Not all of them, but 7 neon tetras, 5 guppies, an albino pleco and a yo-yo loach all succumbed to it and died I only have about 15 fish left. My guppy fry survived though, that’s something in the bright side. I have 4 tanks set up right now and one of them is a Fluval 2.6 gallon, it’s the sick tank or fry tank, if you will. That’s where the babies are right now. One of my tanks has a beautiful adult angel, 3 spotted zebra danios and a snail. They were unaffected during this situation because they are in a tank by themselves. I have a 37 gallon and it has 3 mollies, 2 guppies, 2 yo yo loaches and a spotted pleco and then another tank that’s all plants and no fish.

 

[GuppyMama1234]

Since you got multiple tanks maybe you can make one of then quarantine tank and have all the healthy fishes on the other. Regarding ammonia there is usually a reason for this, overfeeding, overpopulation dead plants or dead fishes or dead snails can boost this very quickly if not removed.
If your aquariums are heavily planted the plants will deal with the ammonia without any extra ' juices' I used to buy a lot of these stuff myself but after a while I discovered that I am better without using these.
So just to conclude and not bore you any longer I suggest heavily planted tank and quarantine tanks for the fish that does not look OK.

Oh yeah I forgot about the 6 neon tetras, they are in the 37 gallon as well. They are the survivors.

 

[Pcknights]

Oh yeah I forgot about the 6 neon tetras, they are in the 37 gallon as well. They are the survivors.

Too bad to hear mate.....
Is the nitrates still high in the bad tank?
Since you have so many tanks I would suggest to move the fish for the nitrate ones to the planted one temporarily and then empty the one with the ammonia and set this again.

 

[GuppyMama1234]

Too bad to hear mate.....
Is the nitrates still high in the bad tank?
Since you have so many tanks I would suggest to move the fish for the nitrate ones to the planted one temporarily and then empty the one with the ammonia and set this again.

That’s what we did to start. When the ammonia got so high in the 37g we moved everyone to the 10g planted and then the same thing happened over there and that’s when the fish died. Now everyone is back into the 37g (what’s left of them anyways) and we (almost) have the situation under control. We didn’t know that the filter should be left alone and we were changing that sucker every 2 weeks

 

[Pcknights]

Yea.... the good bacterial that breaks down ammonia develop inside your filter.
I just clear the sponges on mine when it does not drain any more and that's it. I use to have in the past and now on my new tank apart from the sponge, some filtering material which acts like bacteria colony to make sure that these are still working even if I clean my sponges.