Tetra issues
- Thread starter SimFish
- Start date
It seems there may be several issues going on many subtle, but taken together, these can add up.
It may be the picture, but the water does not appear to be all that clear.
Here are a few thoughts:
*pH, get this stabilized, do not chase it, using pH often results in bounces in pH
*KH, considering your mix of fish, I would make sure it is at least 100 ppm or higher via a good buffer
*Make sure your GH is at least 200 ppm with mollies
When changing water make sure the pH is similar, and make sure the water is mineralized, do not use RO, DI, Drinking Water, etc.
Good bio filtration is a must, sponge filtration is a simple but effective bio filter, with FSB filters a step up
As mentioned to you earlier, changing out filter cartridges can start a mini cycle, adding a sponge pre-filter to your filter intake can help with this, though this will not be overnight
As noted, separating fish would be a something I would do right away
Medicated Baths using 1-2 teaspoons of salt per gallon along with Methylene Blue (1/4 teaspoon per gal of a 2.303% solution) for 30 minutes 1-2 times per day may be helpful, while not dumping meds into your main tank
SeaChem Stability or similar products may be helpful if your ammonia is not staying below .5 ppm.
You should Not have to make water changes for the reasons of keeping ammonia levels down in a healthy aquarium with a well established bio filter
It may be the picture, but the water does not appear to be all that clear.
Here are a few thoughts:
*pH, get this stabilized, do not chase it, using pH often results in bounces in pH
*KH, considering your mix of fish, I would make sure it is at least 100 ppm or higher via a good buffer
*Make sure your GH is at least 200 ppm with mollies
When changing water make sure the pH is similar, and make sure the water is mineralized, do not use RO, DI, Drinking Water, etc.
Good bio filtration is a must, sponge filtration is a simple but effective bio filter, with FSB filters a step up
As mentioned to you earlier, changing out filter cartridges can start a mini cycle, adding a sponge pre-filter to your filter intake can help with this, though this will not be overnight
As noted, separating fish would be a something I would do right away
Medicated Baths using 1-2 teaspoons of salt per gallon along with Methylene Blue (1/4 teaspoon per gal of a 2.303% solution) for 30 minutes 1-2 times per day may be helpful, while not dumping meds into your main tank
SeaChem Stability or similar products may be helpful if your ammonia is not staying below .5 ppm.
You should Not have to make water changes for the reasons of keeping ammonia levels down in a healthy aquarium with a well established bio filter
I will spend the next hour googling definitions for some of that above...LOL. Thank you so much for the solid response though! The tank is cloudy. It was cloudy from the Nitrates and/or PH. Then I got it clear with that API Nitrate bag and a very short time after it had an algae bloom. Got that clear with algae killer drops and then it got really cloudy from gosh knows what. Now it's starting to get a bit more clear but the cloudyness is still there as you can see.
I don't know what KH or GH are. Like I said I'll google around.
I don't know how to raise the PH without using the API PH raising drops.
I don't know what all those water options were. I just use tap with a water softener or whatever the API thing is. I'm open to whatever I can get access to though?
An ice bath sounds good for those mollies about now. So frustrating. But I'll maybe drop them in my 1 gallon medical tank until I figure out what to do with them. Actually right before I left home and when I was taking that video one of the yellow mollies started doing that tumbling summersalt weirdness against the pirate ship? My healthy black molly looks like he has some kind of fungus spots on him too all of a sudden but last time that happened he seemed to respond well to two big table spoons of the aqarium salt being added to the tank. It was gone a couple days later.
I'll read through the medicated baths suggestion a couple times to try and understand it.
The water changes for the ammonia I was doing mainly to get the poop and old food out of the gravel. Not really aiming for the water change itself so much as to get some of that filth out of there and in doing that it seems to take about 10-20% of the water out?
I don't know what KH or GH are. Like I said I'll google around.
I don't know how to raise the PH without using the API PH raising drops.
I don't know what all those water options were. I just use tap with a water softener or whatever the API thing is. I'm open to whatever I can get access to though?
An ice bath sounds good for those mollies about now. So frustrating. But I'll maybe drop them in my 1 gallon medical tank until I figure out what to do with them. Actually right before I left home and when I was taking that video one of the yellow mollies started doing that tumbling summersalt weirdness against the pirate ship? My healthy black molly looks like he has some kind of fungus spots on him too all of a sudden but last time that happened he seemed to respond well to two big table spoons of the aqarium salt being added to the tank. It was gone a couple days later.
I'll read through the medicated baths suggestion a couple times to try and understand it.
The water changes for the ammonia I was doing mainly to get the poop and old food out of the gravel. Not really aiming for the water change itself so much as to get some of that filth out of there and in doing that it seems to take about 10-20% of the water out?
Here are a couple of links that might help.
For KH & GH (this is a very easy to understand, yet accurate article):
http://www.fishbeginner.info/home/aquarium-gh-kh-ph-chemistry-what-to-know/
For Medicated Fish Baths
http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2009/07/fish-baths.html
For KH & GH (this is a very easy to understand, yet accurate article):
http://www.fishbeginner.info/home/aquarium-gh-kh-ph-chemistry-what-to-know/
For Medicated Fish Baths
http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2009/07/fish-baths.html
