New guy, and boy did I screw up!

S

swamprat

AC Members
Nov 27, 2004
11
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Florida
Hi Folks.
Great forum! And at the same time, I never knew that keeping an aquarium was so complicated! LOL
Anyway, I picked up a 17 gallon high about 6 weeks ago at a yard sale for 10 bucks. It had been since my childhood since I had set up any sort of tank so I did a quick search online to see if anything had changed in say oh..... 30 years :-) BOY DID IT! A 150 dollars later I'm set with a cascade 200, new gravel and silk plants and a nice stand from a thrift shop( 20 bucks! great deal!)
Now I'm worried about nitrates and nitrites and ammonia and cycling!( should have seen the look on the grocery store peoples faces when they caught me shaking ammonia bottles! )OK, I've got my tank cycled and everything is looking good according to my new test kit(s)
I start small with 2 ( now this is LFS term.) "black fin tetras" and 2 "twin barbs" I went in to the shop and knew nothing and just wanted to get a few fish that caught my eye and made it clear that I didn't want them to eat each other<G>. Still not sure what I have after looking at the fish ID websites! I'm going to guess and say that they are two serpies and two platy's.
Round two
After letting the original four fish live in peace for a couple of weeks and all the levels are in good shape I decide its time to add a few more fish.Went to another LFS and picked up 2 silver dollars and one dinky angel fish. ( this is where I really screw up!)Got the fish home and floated them for an hour then just dumped them in the tank and went and took a nap.Another case for a Q tank! The silver dollars are ate up with ich and I never saw it in the tank at the LFS!
Probably should have yanked them out of the tank and took them back but by the time I noticed it. there is no doubt that the whole tank is infected.I'll be positive and call it a learning lesson! :-)
NOW,I've already pumped up the heat to about 84-86. Everybody is saying "table salt" Is this iodized salt or non iodized??I've got a whole box of kosher rock salt.Will that do the trick? Can anybody point me to a link with specific instructions on how to treat this?
Thanks in advance, and again. Great forum!
Brad
 
a 17g is way to small for silver dollars and one dinky angel fish, do to you all ready have some in there, pls read the pin up on tank population, size rule.

also an hour floating is way to long, i was told no more than 15 minutes, and not putting in the water that was in the bag into the tank. also in one other forum, it was suggested not to float because of the dirty bag may release junk into your tank.
 
Hi Brad, poor you!
First thing's first, treating the ich. I believe that kosher salt may not be NaCl, and I'm not sure it'll do the same job. I use pickling salt from the grocery store - it's pure NaCl, nothing else. Aquarium salt is just table salt without the anti-caking agents, and table salt just has a few minute additives. All three will accomplish the same thing.
To treat ich with delicate fish like silver dollars, I wouldn't use any meds. You've got the heat up, that's step one. Now dissolve ~15tsp of salt in some water and add it to the tank. This will give you about 1tsp per gallon of water. Many people use more, up to 3tsp per gallon (I'd work up to a higher level over a day or two), but I've had success with just 1tsp/g and prefer to add as little salt as possible, as long as it's enough to do the job.
The next thing that will really help is water changes. 25 - 50% per day, vacuuming the gravel. This will remove many parasites from the tank, as well as keeping the tank super clean which will help the fish to heal. You'll need to add 1tsp/g salt to the replacement water - if you remove 7 gallons, add 7 tsp. This will keep the salinity constant.
The most important thing to know is to keep the treatment up for a week after you see the last spot fall off the last fish - you can only kill the parasite in its free-swimming stage, which occurs several days after it falls off the fish.
Once they're better, it really would be best to return the dollars and the angel to the store - they're going to get much too large for your tank. It sounds like some of the fish you've got are tetras - I'd get a few more of each type, since they need to be kept in groups of at least 5-6 fish to feel secure. Don't feel bad about making mistakes, it happens to all of us - this hobby is one huge learning curve :)
 
Thanks

Just did a quick search and didn't know that the silver dollars and the angel would get that big! Rather than return them, It looks like there will be a bigger tank in my future! Lesson learned again. The owner of the LFS knew what size of tank I had and what I had in it and sold to me for the buck.....Plus the ich problem...To bad for him.( I'll not be back) Would have been nice to have a LFS in the same town. Maybe I'll go have a talk with him.
Still not clear on the salt.Pickling salt is hard to come by in this area. ( I know, I looked for it a while back for something or another)Are we using non iodized salt or iodized salt?But 1 teaspoon per gallon is were I start? Will pick up a python on Monday for sure..
Dumb fish keeper
Brad
 
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I'm not an expert on ICK and salt cleaning so I can't help you out there but as far as adding new fish to the tank goes I suggest when you get the fish home you add them to a small bucket, you then use a standard piece of airline and create a siphon from your tank to the bucket. Tie a knot in the end going into the bucket so it "drips" out. After about an hour...your fish will be used to the temperature and to your water (which may differ slightly from where you purcahsed the fish) so you can dump them in without putting as much stress on them!

Good luck!

Mark
 
Regular old iodized table salt is fine. I prefer the pickling because it's pure NaCl, and I can get it easily. Table salt won't hurt at all, the additives are so minute they present no problems.

I think it's great that you are willing to get your fish a larger tank. I'd suggest a tank that's fairly tall - angels can get 9" or more in height, and silver dollars are also tall fish.

I find it sad that so many LFSs are willing to sell fish that are inappropriate for the size or type of tank of their customer. All you can do is research before you buy, since you often can't trust them to warn you if your potential purchase will be a mistake.

BTW, you're not dumb, you're inexperienced. There's a difference, trust me ;)
 
Thanks for clarifying, Swimfins - I wasn't sure. I looked it up and it's made the same way as table salt but the brine is raked as it evaporates, so it ends up in larger crystals. I was sure I'd heard some cooking show talk about kosher and table salt being different, but I must have been thinking of sea salt; sorry for the confusion swamprat. Kosher, pickling, table or aquarium salt - any of the above will work :)
 
Thanks !

Thanks for all the help! Looks like I've got it beat! 1 teaspoon per gallon wasn't doing anything so I bumped it up to 2 per gallon after about 3 days along with doing 50% water changes daily and in less than 36 hours,all visible signs were gone. That was 2 days ago but I'm calling today "visible ich free- day 1" and will continue with the salt and heat and water changes until next friday just to be safe. Now to find a bigger tank for the angel and the silver dollars sometime in the near future.
Thanks again for all the help!
Brad
 
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