Big help needed !!!

[Gee]

Hi again, i have a problem with my 10 gal freshwater tank and need help :

One of my fish died today:sad , i am not sure with the id so i will post picture.

My heater was unplug because of the **** christmas three !

Here is the water parameter :

amonia : 0
nitrite : 0-1
nitrate : 5-10
ph : 7.0
temp : 75

this tank has been going fine for about a year now.

I learned here that angel need more space , thanks to my lsf ..... can it be the cause of is death ?

I think the temp was probaly too low, am i right ? it should be at least 78 ?

all i have in this tank is :

one big snail
one little fish , i dont know the name
one of those glass cleaner (still dont know the name... ):rolleyes:
and use to have one angel.

So what is wrong with it ?

Here is the angel before he died, i think its an angel ?

[Gee]

here is the little fish, please help me ID them,

[Gee]

and here is the snail

[Hans]

white tetra and apple snail

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

I have that angel, i just call it a gold angel. Mine is at that temp so it shouldn't be the temp. Is 75 the temp it went to after it was unplugged, or did it go below that? If it dropped really low really fast then that could have been the problem. I don't know what else it could be. What do you feed it? Maybe it was stressed in the 10 gal. ?

[Gee]

Thank you for your help, the temp is now 78, and i did a 20 % water change because the remaining white tetra is not doing good, he is heavy breathing and he gets stuck in the plastic plants, i hope he survive !!

I really dont know what else i can do, for the water change i just did i use ro/di water.

The snail is pretty new to the tank i bought it because i had a green alga problem, now the alga is completly gone.

I dont know what else to look for :(


p.s the temp was 75 at the lowest point.

and i feed them nutrafin max , complete flake food for all tropical fish.

[ewok]

75 shouldn't be critical.......

was the filter unplugged too?

do you use air? was that unplugged?

[Gee]

Originally posted by ewok
75 shouldn't be critical.......

was the filter unplugged too?

do you use air? was that unplugged?

i dont use air, i have a aquaclear mini HOB and it never stop working.

[sumoschro]

how big was the angel? because size might be the cause. angels can get pretty big....and pretty tall.

You say you have a suckerfish? is it a pleco/CAE/other?
It might have been sucking on your angels side.

[Gee]

Originally posted by sumoschro
how big was the angel? because size might be the cause. angels can get pretty big....and pretty tall.

You say you have a suckerfish? is it a pleco/CAE/other?
It might have been sucking on your angels side.

Yes the sucker is a pleco and the angel was about 2 inch long.

UPDATE !! The white tetra is dead too, my wife told me today that the food we use to give them ran out 2 days ago, it was NUTRAFIN max Color enhancing flake food for all tropical fish, and the new one the LSF sold her was suppose to have more vitamines...... it is NUTRAFIN max complete flake food for all tropical fish.

The only "new" thing in months was the food, could it be the cause ? both fish were about 2 years old, is that old for these kind of fish ?

Thanks again for your help.

[Gee]

Oh also , this night before the tetra died, i saw him sinking to the bottom and the big snail sucked his tail he ran away but that freaked me !!! is that normal for a snail ? and the pleco never touch the fish.

[Uncle Bete]

how long has this tank been running?

if over 2 months, something isn't right with the biological filtration because you showing nitrite in the test.

also something needs to be added to RO/DI water.
RO water =
KH 0
GH 0
pH 5

i dont think dropping 3 degrees in temp had much to do with it, or the change of food. Unless of course they just didn't eat for a week or so.

[PumaWard]

Okay, first off, did you use pure dionized/distilled water, or did you only use RO. You should really mix any of those with tap water. Deionized water/distilled water doesn't have anything between the water molecules (tap water has minerals and dissolved gases between its water molecules) so it actually takes cells from organisms and places them between the molecules, yikes!

Anywho, unless you always use distilled water, I doubt that is the issue. If you have nitrites, this could be the cause.

Also, you said your angelfish was 2 inches and 2 years old, which would mean he is very stunted. I am sure that at least some stunted fish cannot handle poor water/stress/disease very well. I don't think they live their full life-span either.
Another thing is, was the white tetra dyed any color when you bought it (was it pink, blue, green, purple or any other color when you first purchased it?), if so, this could have signifigantly shortend his life span as well. There's a chance that, coupled with nitrite, your fish couldn't handle this and died.

There's a slimmer chance that your first just lived out their shortened lifespans and its a coincedence that they died so closely together, although I doubt this theory.

[Gee]

Originally posted by Uncle Bete
how long has this tank been running?

if over 2 months, something isn't right with the biological filtration because you showing nitrite in the test.

also something needs to be added to RO/DI water.
RO water =
KH 0
GH 0
pH 5

i dont think dropping 3 degrees in temp had much to do with it, or the change of food. Unless of course they just didn't eat for a week or so.

Its been about 2 years, maybe something is wrong with my aquaclear mini, do you guys keep the "charbon" thats french word not sure in english, in the filter, and the other filtration, how often do they need to be replaced ?

[Gee]

For Pumaward,

The water was conditioned tap water, then last day i did a 25 % water change with ro/di water.

And what to you mean by stunted fish, i dont understand that, i am french sorry.

The white tetra was a little yellow, just like the angel when i bought it 2 years ago, just a little yellow.

[Uncle Bete]

just saw... it was doing fine for a year in your first post, sry
all the jumping around between post trying to see everything I was bound to miss something.

Charbon = Carbon, here (no I don't know french);)

The AquaClear mini
Optimal would be to clean the sponge filter with aquarium water a half hour after every feeding.[kind of dought anyone comes close to that except a (Discus) breeder] and change the carbon(charbon) once a week.

OK back to reality!

Cleaning the sponge in tank water that you just removed to a bucket because you doing your weekly 20% water change would be above average. And changing the carbon once a month would be sufficent.

The sponge doesn't need replaced until it falls apart or something.

Do you have an undergravel filter?

If not, definately use the water from the tank to rinse the sponge. Thats a very good place for the biological bacteria your low on, to grow. Chlroine isn't good for it.

I try to set my tanks up to not use the mechanical filter as a primary source for growing bacteria. So I can clean it real good everytime and let it do its job as good as possible at being a mechanical filter.

Stunted: as in stunted growth, or, should be alot bigger than it is in this amount of time.

[Dangerdoll]

By "Stunted", Puma means that the Angel isn't at it's optimum size due to the limited space of a 10 gallon. Being stunted, the Angel hasn't grown to it's ultimte size of 4" - 6+" and since this being the case, other things such as physical appearance as well as internal systems may be compromised on the Angel. The death of the Angel isn't due to old age as Angels have been know to live for 6+ years.

[Uncle Bete]

yea, I think he meant because of the tank size.
But yea, it could have been born with problems.

[Dangerdoll]

yup, I think you're right, was just trying to clarify exactly what stunted was..... sorry, didn't mean to make it look like I was correcting you....I wasn't ;)

[Aquarius0015]

I just finished a semester of Intensive Intermediate French, but for some reason we did not learn any aquarium vocabulary. I wonder why.

J'ai détesté la classe, mais je peut parler un peu maintenant! Je suis heureux!

[Gee]

Hey i really like evryone that try to help me, really !

SO the big question !! WHAT should i do now ?

Here is other water test :

i did some test with the tds meter from work

House tap : 700 ppm
work RO unit : 500 ppm
freshwater aquarium : 1200 ppm
Water from the grocery RO/DI : 0 ppm

THe grocery water is ptobably the best choice from now on.

Is it possible to do a 100 % water change with two living creature in the tank ? or is that too much stress.

[Uncle Bete]

I've read very little about tds tests. I think that was because the little I did read meant it wasn't going to give the kind of info I need for an aquarium or something?

How about some new TEST for today, hummm, anything you have test kits for.

I'm especially interested in seeing if the NITRITE has went up/down/same. Because thats the only thing I could see wrong from here so far.

Test for pH / KH / GH for your TAP WATER would be good too.

Changing 100% of tank water...
Its possible, but highly recommended to NOT DO THAT!

RO WATER NEEDS stuff added to it.
I used it for a while because a house I was in had it. There's some stuff out there called RO Right, I think Aquarium Pharmicuticals makes it. At least put that in there.

IT'S QUITE POSSIBLE THAT YOUR TAP WATER WILL BE JUST FINE FOR YOUR AQUARIUM. Most likely the only reason I'd use it again would be for a saltwater aquarium, or discus.

RECAP:

Things to do, to help us help you...

1. water test from aquarium and tap water, today.

2. do you have an undergravel filter?

3. How are the fish doing today?

[Gee]

[i]

RECAP:

Things to do, to help us help you...

1. water test from aquarium and tap water, today.

2. do you have an undergravel filter?

3. How are the fish doing today? [/B]

Ok my water test :

aquarium ,

amonia : 0
nitrite : 0-1
nitrate : 5-10
ph : 7.0
temp : 75

tap :

amonia : 0
nitrite : 0
nitrate : 0
ph : 7.0

i dont have a UGV

This morning the pleco was dead :shake: .

I dont understand where the nitrates and nitririte are coming from, this tank has been going fine for over a year, what can cause this ?could it be the apple snail ?

I think ill need to dry the tank and clean it , then start again from 0 :(

[Uncle Bete]

I just went through this whole thread kind of fast... Sorry to hear about the pleco. Is the snail the only thing left now? :(

One more question I don't think we've covered yet.

What kind of maintenance have you done with the filter?

How often?

How do you clean the sponge? (Tap water, Rinse with tank water?)
---------------------------------------------
About the, were the Nitrite, Nitrate are comming from...

I think your asking in a general way, as in confused in a more of, WHY, way. But just in case...
Bacteria turn Ammonia into Nitrite, more bacteria turn nitrite into Nitrate. There are some ways to get rid of the Nitrate, but for most of us, its by water changes, to delute it.
-----------------------------------------------

P.S. Don't do the dry out the tank thing. I think you can get it running properly again in a week or so. Compared to drying it out and waiting another 6 - 8 weeks for it to cycle again.

[Gee]

Ok , thank you evryone that help me,

Here is the latest news,

Since the start of this thread i have been doing 25 % water change daily, i took apart my aquaclear filter and remove the carbon and amonia remover bag .

I think i must blame me for it, the tank was going fine for over 2 years, so i got lazy, waited to do maintnence when i HAD to, never really checked anything but PH and temp, so its my fault.

But thanks to all of you, the water seems to be better, the snail is moving like crazy now.

I tested the water 5 min ago

amonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 10-20
PH = 7.2
temp 76

Now in the filter i only have 2 sponges.

Thanks to the info i found here i now know what i am doing, i guess i was just lucky to have 1 angel and 1 white tetra live so long in a 10 gallon, without real maintenance !

The water is like crystal clear.

And i knew about nitrite and nitrate, i just didnt understand where it was coming from in my tank at the moment.

Well thanks to my new SW tank i am now well infromed about the aquarium world, so my FW tank is doing really better.

And thanks alot to all the LSF who wanted to sell me fish and didnt worry about why my fish were dead :rolleyes: