Tank Woes

[Nospherith]

This is my 20g tank a week ago, when I actually had fish in it.

I got 10 cardinals last week and within 3 days all were showing signs of ick. Since I believed that I could cure it, I went and got some "Quick Cure" (malachite green) and immediatly started treating. Well, a week later (now) all but one of the fish are dead (found 3 yesterday and 2 this morning) and the survivor is now riddled with little ick spots and gasping at the surface. The fish will be dead by nightfall leaving me with only a guppy, who is unaffected by the ick.

I wanted to keep building up the stock so it would be this:

9 Cardinal Tetras
Pair of German Blue Rams
1 Guppy
2 True Siamese Algea Eaters
1 Bristlenose Pleco
10 Amano Shrimp


Problems:
1: Cardinal Tetras are all dead, $20 wasted

2: I special ordered a pair of German Blue Rams from LFS, went day after stock day and they had sold one of them! There was only one sickly looking GB ram with very tattered fins. I was going to pick it up a few days after I added my cardinals, but didn't want to waste another $5 just to bring the fish home to a medicated tank w/ sick fish in it and have it get sick too and die.

3: My two guppy fry, who are now a month old are big enough to go into the main tank but I can't add them becuase, yet again, there's ick in there.

4: Algea team addition delayed, same reason.

5: The medication stained my rocks! The ones on the right side of the tank now look like they have a blue glow to them instead of the dark grey that matches my substrate, which really ****s up my aquascape design, big time because I can't get new ones. I designed my aquascape around these rocks.

6: Need to somehow get a "glass top" under my 55w pc light. I don't know where to start.

8: The algea in my tank is getting worse and worse with the delay of the algea eating team.

9: Did I mention the medication completely ruined my aquascape design, less than a month after I completely re-substrated/designed it, and now my fish are all dead, I can't add any new ones, I can't use the new light that I just got, my tank now has parasites in it, the new semester just started, all my fish are dead, and my aquascape is totally ruined, and algea is going to start taking over my tank?

I think that's it for now.

 

[WILDER]

Did it mention if you had to half dose for tetra's.

 

[lovebuzz]

Was the tank cycled?

 

[canarsie11]

I was gonna ask same thing, you told us everything but that. Also what were water test results?

 

[Nospherith]

Yes I dosed half for the tetras, and yes the tank has been cycling for 3 months. Before the cardinals, I had a guppy and 4 zebras danios that I took back after they started harrasing the cardinals (fin nipping, chasing, ect.) and and I never overfed. My water parameters were and still are ideal, except that now I have the temp at 82'F for the ick treatment.

-edit-
my water was and still is at Nitrates 20ppm, Nitrite 0, Ammonia 0, pH 6.8.

sorry, i'm a bit frustrated at the moment.

 

[canarsie11]

What does ideal mean? What are your exact water test results?

 

[Nospherith]

So, now that all the fish that have ick are dead, I take it the parasites are still lingering. When do I stop adding the Quick Cure? When will it be safe to add more fish? I figure I'll quit with the meds in 2 days, do a 75% water change, wait a few days and maybe get that ram (if there still is one). But then again, the rocks are blue. So I really, just... I don't know what to do, my tank is ruined.

 

[canarsie11]

If fish are dead no need for quick cure IMO.

I would not add ram to the tank first, they are sensitive and cant Handle tanks that are not stable.

What temp do you run tank at? Did you have any fluctuations in temp lately?

Try to figure out what happened in your tank b4 you waste more money on fish.

 

[Polardbear]

You could try soaking the rocks in hot water. I've used malachite green before and though it does stain it usually will eventually fade away.

 

[Fishy411]

usually the Ich medicine works. I have ich removing tablets and they have worked once before and are working on My gourami at the moment

 

[Nospherith]

If fish are dead no need for quick cure IMO.

I would not add ram to the tank first, they are sensitive and cant Handle tanks that are not stable.

What temp do you run tank at? Did you have any fluctuations in temp lately?

Try to figure out what happened in your tank b4 you waste more money on fish.

I see that you have blue rams... I keep the temp at about 74'F night - 79'F day. I don't really use a heater becuase the room is kept heated at the same temp and night/day determines the temp.

What do you mean by "fluctuations in the temperature"? Are you talking about a 20'F fluctuation?

I still have a guppy that doesn't have ick in there and my water seems fine, nothing unusual on the tests.

And polardbear, i'm boiling one of the rocks right now. I hope it works.

 

[NickT]

if theres not a heater that might be the problem.... have you been monitoring the temp in the tank to make sure its not fluctuating .. a fluctuation of 5F multiple times a day cold do it....

 

[Yenko]

Get a heater. It's very hard to control temperature otherwise, and any sort of temperature fluctuation is really bad for fish. Most tropical streams have less than 2 degrees F of temperature fluctuation.

Also, the thermostats used to heat rooms are usually inaccurate and overcorrect for drops in temperature, so your room is always fluctuating in temperature.

 

[lightningjoe]

Hi, I am no expert but i can not see your water temp being the same as the room temperature. I have always found that bodies of water usually run ten degrees cooler than the surrounding air temperature. the smaller the tank the faster the temp will rise and fall. A five degree sway back and forth is bound to kill everything except goldfish.

 

[Nospherith]

The temperature really doesn't fluctuate that much. If it does it's no more than 1 or 2 degrees. Although, I guess I'll get a heater to keep more sensitive fish.

I know why the cardinals got ick. I brought 5 of them home one night, acclimated them to the tank and immediately the 4 zebra danios started aggresively chasing them and nipping their fins. I was going to return them anyway, so I spent a long time frantically trying to get them out and into the breeding net for the night, all the while trying to spare my plants and substrate from being disturbed. It was a difficult task to say the least. I know that this freaked out the tetras, having been just introduced to the tank, not to mention one of the tetras had what looked like an ich spot on its chin already. That one died over-night, and thus the plauge began.