Rust Colored Icky Stuff

[srstickler]

Hello All,
Let's see, I got my first aquarium about 2 months ago, l'd read up a little and tried a fishless cycle and then got some fish about a week afterwards. All was golden, I change 25% of my water and vacuum every week...etc.

I'd gone 2 months without losing a fish (not bad for a beginner) and suddenly I lost a Gourami. About 2 days before I lost the fish, I noticed some brown spots, for a lack of a better term, on some of my faux plants and other hiding places. There is also a little on my gravel. The spots look almost like rust spots and I have the feeling that the death of my first fish was related, considering the death occured a couple of days after I noticed the spots. Can anyone give me an idea of what this is and how I can quickly eliminate it, before I lose any more fish??
Many thanks,
SS

[ChilDawg]

Can you tell me about the water which you are using? Your city could have just flushed the main and released a lot of rust into the water, though I would expect that you might see that as you added it.

[ChilDawg]

Ignore that. I think that this thread may hold most of your answers: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7100

I think that you have brown algae in your tank. One solution would be more light. I'm not sure if diatoms (brown algae) cause death, but someone else should be able to answer that.

[Faramir]

I hope they don't - every tank has some brown algae, even if you can't see it, they're there somewhere.

As the tank matures, you should lose the brown algae. Don't worry about it for now.

As regards your fish deaths - the usual suspects apply. Let us have your pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings, and we can take it from there.

[beviking]

How about peculiar behavior the fish may have exhibited? Not eating, sitting at the bottom, clamped fins, bloating, etc....

[tracyj027]

hi
I'm having the same problem. It,s only on my ornaments . I tried algae gone by jungle(they're fizzing tablets) they didn't work. I still have to change my lighting thats soon.I have quite a bit of it, and its frustrating!!!!
my setup is fairly new too,abt 2 months.Hopefully something works soon(for both of us)

[srstickler]

Thanks to everyone so far.

Here's what I've got going on....Since I first left my first message, I lost my other Gourami. Everyone else seems to be doing fine.

My ph is 7.2, we have particularly high ph water here. 7.6-7.8 out of the tap. I use Ph down to bring it down lower.

Ammonia - .05 ppm

My Nitrite's are high, approaching 2 ppm.... Perhaps this is the problem......

What's the most effective way to bring it down quickly??

Thanks again,

SS

[Aderynglas]

Hi srstickler,

From your readings it looks as though your tank is still cycling,
Ammonia should be 0, NitrIte should be 0 and nitrAtes should be present when the tank is completely cycled. Water changes will help to dilute the Ammo and Nitrite (and Nitrate) but the only thing you can do is wait for the tank to finish cycling, those filter bacteria can only multiply at their own speed.


As far as nitrates are concerned I keep my tanks at 10mg/l or less with water changes.

HTH

Regards
Paule

[wetmanNY]

srstickler, though you noticed the diatoms (brown "algae") and shortly afterwards a fish died, the two events weren't connected. The diatoms are harmless (try a www.google.com search "diatom").

Antique aquarium books used to refer to a "parasitic alga" in the days when any critter that could do a little photosynthesizing was considered one of the algae.

[Faramir]

And drop the pH down - you don't need it. Your tap water pH is fine. You might be fertilising your algae with it.