i dont know to do. for the first timei have a algae problem. i have been doing my water changes when needed. when my nitrates get too high. which seems to be almost weekly. i have to clean my decorations cause they get overrun in that algae now. but it seems like dispite that every week it comes right back. one thing that has happend is three of my four snails have died. that may or may not account for all this algae. i also wonder why all of sudden they died. also today my gourami was dead. it had a bulge on its side and a big white place on its back. so far other fish are fine. anybody got any ideas what is happening with my tank???
help! what is happening with my tank
- Thread starter wildgator25
- Start date
first off, nitrates and algae are unrelated. second, algae is harmless to fish so just give your tank a little less light and chill out about it. the nitrate is what is killing your fish and if it goes up every week your tank is either overstocked with fish, not fully cycled, or needs to be cleaned more regularly.
Nitrates and algea are related, although most algea cannot process nitrate, mitrate comes from ammonia, and ammonia is the principle source of food for algea. If your nitrate levels in you tank are rising rapidly, then there must be a good constant source of ammonia that the bacteria is processing. Ammonia may well be below detectable range, but it is there if you are getting rapid nitrate climbs. Most importantly what are your nitrate levels climbung too?, and what do they drop to after water changes?. It is unlikely that Nitrate is killing your fish as well. High nitrate levels will eventually lead to stress and disease, but aren't immediatly detrimental to fish or snails especially. Snails can live in some pretty nasty water for long periods of time. What type of algea do you have?, this may help us help you as well. There are ways to get things under control, but there is an underlying cause to all of this that will have to be addressed. We need some more information to be helpfull such as:
tank parrameters
Age of tank
stocking level
supplements if any
maintenance routine
Feeding routine and amounts.
As far as an immediate start, start with big daily water changes for two or three days, then do a 4-5 day blackout (no light at all, cover the tank glass) Do not feed during the blackout, but you may want to do a large water change in the middle of the blackout to remove dead algea. Then follow the blackout with 2 or 3 more big water changes, and see where you are at. This should put your tank back in excellent shape, and give you a fresh start. then you need to figure out a better feeding lighting and maintenance schedule.
Dave
tank parrameters
Age of tank
stocking level
supplements if any
maintenance routine
Feeding routine and amounts.
As far as an immediate start, start with big daily water changes for two or three days, then do a 4-5 day blackout (no light at all, cover the tank glass) Do not feed during the blackout, but you may want to do a large water change in the middle of the blackout to remove dead algea. Then follow the blackout with 2 or 3 more big water changes, and see where you are at. This should put your tank back in excellent shape, and give you a fresh start. then you need to figure out a better feeding lighting and maintenance schedule.
Dave
ok here is a little more info. it is a 37 gallon tank which i have had for about 4 months now. it has in it, 5 platy, 5 tetra's, 4 corys, 5 danios, and now one snail. i think i maybe overstocked. i also only feed once a day, sometimes every other day. light is left on about 6-8 hours a day. the algae is like a brownish green that grows on the sides of the tank, gravel, dec's, and just makes the tank look dirty. another thing i want to mention is i have some cory eggs in a breeder's net in there for a week now. im gonna throw them out because nothing is happening with them. but i have been dosing the eggs with mardel maroxy a few times during the week. hoping it would keep fungus off them. maybe that was a problem? usually do a water change about once a week 20% or more. anyway im going to test the water and post what that's reading after i do. thanks for the help
Tank Readings:
pH-7.8
Ammonia-.25ppm
Nitrite-.25ppm
kH-7 degrees
Nitrate-Approximately 40ppm, maybe a little more
Temperature-77 degrees F
Have one badly eaten Java fern, and lingering amounts of Java moss, both eaten to shreds by the snails (maybe that's what killed them??, lol)
Tank Readings:
pH-7.8
Ammonia-.25ppm
Nitrite-.25ppm
kH-7 degrees
Nitrate-Approximately 40ppm, maybe a little more
Temperature-77 degrees F
Have one badly eaten Java fern, and lingering amounts of Java moss, both eaten to shreds by the snails (maybe that's what killed them??, lol)
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The tank doesn't sound overstocked unless I missed something. I have never used Maroxy, but it does state that it is effective against some bacteria, so it may be hard on you bio-filter. ammonia and nitrite test should show that if its the case. At 4 months, you are still going through new tank changes. They really don't completely stabilize for about a year IMO. The brown algea may just be showing up and nothing has really changed in your tank. when we get your actual numbers it may reveal more. As said earlier, blackout water changes and reduced feeding are a good place to start. Depending on your bulb, the light may be too much. With a Fish only tank, algea is almost an automatic with any real light at all. When I did fish only tanks, I always had to do periodic blackouts to stop algea invasions. even with the cleanest tanks, there will always be some.
Dave
Dave
Depends on what type of snails, but even the ones that eat plants don't seem to think much of live J-moss or fern. My guess is the plants are dying for one reason or another and the snails are taking advantage of the decaying plant matter. With your stocking levels and the age of the tank you should not have any ammonia or nitrite at all. the fact that you do indicates one of two things. 1. something you added (maybe the maroxy) killed off some or all of your bio-filter. 2. you feeding levels are too heavy. in a four month old tank, the bio-filter should easily be large enough to handle your fish load. The prescence of ammonia in an estabilished tank would explain the algea pretty easily. Go with the water changes and blackouts, do as much deep vaccuming as you can and try to go all week without feeding (it really won't hurt your fish.) let us know what the numbers are at the end of the week. Nitrates at 40 indicate too much mulm in the tank, or extremely high ammonia production (one in the same really). Make sure you rinse the filter media in tank water at every water change, in order to remove as much stuff as possible from the system. after a week of dilligence and a good blackout you should see much better numbers and a much better looking tank both.
BTW are you adding anything? like cycle or water conditioner. if so cease that as well. the only thing you should need is a good dechlorinator.
Dave
BTW are you adding anything? like cycle or water conditioner. if so cease that as well. the only thing you should need is a good dechlorinator.
Dave