Hello Everyone, PLEASE HELP:( When i got home from a week away my tank seemed normal and healthy, till a see a small dead clown. looked like it had been fighting. checked the water, nitrates a bit high and ph was 6.4, amonia an nitrites were 0. then a dead yoyo, now the loaches are sick, red fins and around the mouth. large clowns and other fish don't have any simptoms yet. it has knocked the yoyo's for 6.
I have removed the chemipure from my filter done a 30% water change and have treated the tank at a half dose rate with API PIMAFIX.
Is there anything else i can do?
Fatalities, clown and yoyos
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Take some pictures of the tank and the fish and post them here. That would help.
Right now, all we can really do is guess what's wrong. We can probably figure out most potential problems if we have a complete history of the tank and the fish.
What are the symptoms affecting the fish?
What fish do you have in this tank, past and present?
(Be specific, scientific names please)
How many fish do you have?
What other inhabitants are in the tank, past and present?
(shrimp, snails, ect)
Need to know your acclimation and quarantine procedures for all the fish.
Dates when the fish were added?
What medications were used and when?
We need all the water parameters tested accurately.
KH, GH, Nitrates, Nitrites, Ammonia, and TDS.
Where are you located?
(Maybe we can get a water report from the water company.)
What is the water temperature?
How big is the tank? (Length, Width, Height)
What is the volume of the tank?
How much water is actually in the entire system?
What filters are used? What is their flow rating?
What kind of lighting is used?
How long are the lights kept on?
What is the pH at night when the lights are turned off?
What is the pH in the morning when the lights are turned on?
(This will help us figure out if CO2 levels are getting toxic)
How much surface agitation is there?
Is an air pump or air stone used?
Are fish ever gasping for oxygen in the morning when the lights are turned on?
Is there any water flowing in the loach caves?
Are the heaters working properly?
Is any equipment damaged?
(Need to examine all the equipment, this means pulling it out of the tank and inspecting it carefully)
Have you ever felt an electrical shock when putting hands in the water?
What substrate is used?
What decorations, caves, driftwood, rocks are in the tank?
What plants/algae do you have?
How many plants/algae you have?
What fertilizers are used ?
What kind of hood is on the tank?
How much water evaporates each week?
Right now, all we can really do is guess what's wrong. We can probably figure out most potential problems if we have a complete history of the tank and the fish.
What are the symptoms affecting the fish?
What fish do you have in this tank, past and present?
(Be specific, scientific names please)
How many fish do you have?
What other inhabitants are in the tank, past and present?
(shrimp, snails, ect)
Need to know your acclimation and quarantine procedures for all the fish.
Dates when the fish were added?
What medications were used and when?
We need all the water parameters tested accurately.
KH, GH, Nitrates, Nitrites, Ammonia, and TDS.
Where are you located?
(Maybe we can get a water report from the water company.)
What is the water temperature?
How big is the tank? (Length, Width, Height)
What is the volume of the tank?
How much water is actually in the entire system?
What filters are used? What is their flow rating?
What kind of lighting is used?
How long are the lights kept on?
What is the pH at night when the lights are turned off?
What is the pH in the morning when the lights are turned on?
(This will help us figure out if CO2 levels are getting toxic)
How much surface agitation is there?
Is an air pump or air stone used?
Are fish ever gasping for oxygen in the morning when the lights are turned on?
Is there any water flowing in the loach caves?
Are the heaters working properly?
Is any equipment damaged?
(Need to examine all the equipment, this means pulling it out of the tank and inspecting it carefully)
Have you ever felt an electrical shock when putting hands in the water?
What substrate is used?
What decorations, caves, driftwood, rocks are in the tank?
What plants/algae do you have?
How many plants/algae you have?
What fertilizers are used ?
What kind of hood is on the tank?
How much water evaporates each week?
Well, FULL loach fatality, all clowns, Pakistanis and Khuli's as well as a black ghost knife fish and bala shark. Wardly fungus aid seems to be working on the remaining fish after they were transfered to a seperate tank set up from compleatly external water(healthy aquariums and rain water), no water from original tank and no water from mains (town) water.
At work again so i'll have to see how they are in a week, fingers crossed.
At work again so i'll have to see how they are in a week, fingers crossed.
Do you think they were actually in a live electrical current? Usually most aquariums are more of an insulator rather than carrying current it tends not to be a problem. The fish are not touching a ground, so no current goes through them.
However, as soon as you touch the water the current willingly goes through you, unless you have insulating shoes on. You are the 'ground wire' that completes the circuit.
This is why having the aquariums plugged into a GFI outlet is a good idea.
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.
Happy fish keeping!
Happy fish keeping!
thanks diana, yes its just like a bird sitting on a power line, the bird is actualy live at the line voltage, its only when contact is made to ground that the current starts flowing and does damage. i got a shock of the tank because i was touching the water and the light housing whitch is grounded. thoreticaly this shouldn't effect the fish, once i disconected the power head the angles spread accross the tank again instead of huddling up in the far corner away from the electrical leak, they seemed happier. this may be why all the skin fish were the first to go be more sencitive.
On the other hand it could have been something added to the town water, the remaining fish seem happier in the other tank. both tanks have been treated. i will be installing rain water tanks this week at home, then slowly start moving fish back accross to my large tank
On the other hand it could have been something added to the town water, the remaining fish seem happier in the other tank. both tanks have been treated. i will be installing rain water tanks this week at home, then slowly start moving fish back accross to my large tank
Rain water is not good for most tropical fish because it has no hardness (GH) or buffering (KH). With no hardness the fish will have osmolority problems. From zero buffering the pH is likely to bounce up and down wildly which could make the water toxic. Also beneficial bacteria in the filters might starve if there is not a source of carbon in the water.
Water chemistry and water quality are 2 things that you might want to learn more about. If you really need to use rain water, you should add the necessary minerals to it, which is mostly calcium.
Water chemistry and water quality are 2 things that you might want to learn more about. If you really need to use rain water, you should add the necessary minerals to it, which is mostly calcium.
Can i treat rain water with water conditioner?
Isn't water conditioner a mixture of minerals and trace elements needed for your new aquarium water to create a buffer?
Generaly my town water is pH 8-8.4, no Nitrates, no Ammonia or Nitrites. Hardness is 20-40ppm. i am unsure how to test for fluride and chlorine, an they add a lot of lime to the water?
This way at least i could treat my clean rain water while in the tank before adding to the aquarium.
Isn't water conditioner a mixture of minerals and trace elements needed for your new aquarium water to create a buffer?
Generaly my town water is pH 8-8.4, no Nitrates, no Ammonia or Nitrites. Hardness is 20-40ppm. i am unsure how to test for fluride and chlorine, an they add a lot of lime to the water?
This way at least i could treat my clean rain water while in the tank before adding to the aquarium.
Check the GH, KH and pH in the tank and in the rain water.
GH is the most important.
KH is important, too.
pH is the least important. Get the other two close and let the pH do whatever it wants.
I use Seachem Equilibrium to raise the GH. It is a mix of minerals including calcium and magnesium. Fish, plants and microorganisms use many different minerals.
Step 1 in preparing rain water is to make the GH match the tank.
I use baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate) to raise the KH. Carbonates are a buffer that stabilizes the pH. Second step to preparing rain water is to make the KH match the tank.
If you want to do anything about pH then I would add peat moss in a nylon stocking and circulate the water overnight. Best if the water can actually flow through the peat moss. I use a small fountain pump to keep the water moving in the garbage can I use to prepare water, and I wrap the nylon stocking of peat moss around the intake of the filter. It draws the water through the peat moss, and the pH can drop from around 8 to about 6.5 overnight.
If the GH and KH in your aquarium is higher than you want it, and you want to SLOWLY alter it to make the water softer then make your new water with slightly less minerals so that the net change in the tank is just about 1 degree GH and 1 degree KH downward. Fish need time to adjust to less minerals in the water. You could do that much change about twice a week, not any faster.
Example:
Lets say the tank showed 12 degrees GH.
You wanted to do a 25% water change.
You could make up the new water to be 8 degrees GH.
Then:
(75% x 12 degrees) + (25% x 8 degrees) = 11 degrees
If you needed to do a larger water change, perhaps 50%
Make up the new water at 10 degrees:
(50% x 12 degrees) + (50% x 10 degrees) = 11 degrees.
A few days later another water change with slightly less minerals added.
If you need to do a 100% water change then I would not try to drop the KH and GH at that time. The water is already quite different in ways that we do not measure for, so get the things you do measure as close as possible to the same values.
GH is the most important.
KH is important, too.
pH is the least important. Get the other two close and let the pH do whatever it wants.
I use Seachem Equilibrium to raise the GH. It is a mix of minerals including calcium and magnesium. Fish, plants and microorganisms use many different minerals.
Step 1 in preparing rain water is to make the GH match the tank.
I use baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate) to raise the KH. Carbonates are a buffer that stabilizes the pH. Second step to preparing rain water is to make the KH match the tank.
If you want to do anything about pH then I would add peat moss in a nylon stocking and circulate the water overnight. Best if the water can actually flow through the peat moss. I use a small fountain pump to keep the water moving in the garbage can I use to prepare water, and I wrap the nylon stocking of peat moss around the intake of the filter. It draws the water through the peat moss, and the pH can drop from around 8 to about 6.5 overnight.
If the GH and KH in your aquarium is higher than you want it, and you want to SLOWLY alter it to make the water softer then make your new water with slightly less minerals so that the net change in the tank is just about 1 degree GH and 1 degree KH downward. Fish need time to adjust to less minerals in the water. You could do that much change about twice a week, not any faster.
Example:
Lets say the tank showed 12 degrees GH.
You wanted to do a 25% water change.
You could make up the new water to be 8 degrees GH.
Then:
(75% x 12 degrees) + (25% x 8 degrees) = 11 degrees
If you needed to do a larger water change, perhaps 50%
Make up the new water at 10 degrees:
(50% x 12 degrees) + (50% x 10 degrees) = 11 degrees.
A few days later another water change with slightly less minerals added.
If you need to do a 100% water change then I would not try to drop the KH and GH at that time. The water is already quite different in ways that we do not measure for, so get the things you do measure as close as possible to the same values.
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.
Happy fish keeping!
Happy fish keeping!
Yes, but most water conditioners on the market are misleading and are just snake oil. The brands that claim to fix pH, reduce water changes, or heal fish are usually the most useless ones. Avoid phosphate buffers.James14 wrote:Can i treat rain water with water conditioner?
Some might do that or claim to do that, most do not though.James14 wrote:Isn't water conditioner a mixture of minerals and trace elements needed for your new aquarium water to create a buffer?
You probably just need something to remove the chlorine or chloramine from the tap water. Amquel+ and Prime are the two of the better dechlorinators. What city are you in? Most cities have their water reports online. They usually tell you how much chlorine is added.James14 wrote:Generaly my town water is pH 8-8.4, no Nitrates, no Ammonia or Nitrites. Hardness is 20-40ppm. i am unsure how to test for fluride and chlorine, an they add a lot of lime to the water?
Kent RO Right or Seachem Equilibrium are products for adding GH to pure water, like rain water. Baking soda can be used to increase the KH.James14 wrote:This way at least i could treat my clean rain water while in the tank before adding to the aquarium.
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