Sick Aquarium

J

jennywren

AC Members
Feb 24, 2009
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I am new here and have not yet taken time to introduce myself because I am so worried about my sick fish tank.

I have only a ten gallon tank that I interned to put guppies and neon’s in but now I am worried.



The aquarium is not new but I know it was only used for fish over two years ago because it was my mothers, I bought some freshwater plants, gravel, a heater, and a aeration/filtration system put water in it and it was fine the first day or two now it is very cloudy and I have read that this can be normal but now it has this slimy white fur looking stuff around the base of most of the plants. I kinda inserted them into the gravel but some have floated to the top. The ones that have floated to the top do not have the fuzz.

I have no fish in the tank.

I have put no additives in the water.

The ones with the fuzz are kina ferny looking plats. I got them at pet smart and now do not remember their name  I set up the tank Saturday night it is now Monday well the wee hours of Tuesday.

Please help! Thank you in advance!
 
there is a strong possibility that your plants are semi aquatic. the plants do need some nourishment (assuming they are aquatic), so dosing ferts of some kind wouldn't be bad. any chance of seeing pics of the plants? By the way, Welcome to AC.
 
I may go get one of those cheapy cameras at wal-mart because i cannot find my digital one. Thank you so much for you interest in helping me.

It is just so gross. I will try to fin out what kind the gross ones are. I have a friend coming friday so perhaps he can snap a pic.
 
Jenny,

You can just go to Petsmart or PetCo's website and look up the names of the plants that you bought. Even if they are not true aqatic plants, they won't rot that fast.

You should pay close attention to what you are buying. Let's start with what you want to achieve.

It would seem that you are looking to have a tank for Guppies and Neons. You are also looking to have live plants with the fish. You haven't mentioned the size of the tank yet, or what kind of lighting you intend to use for the plants. Do you have a filter, and what kind? Are you aware that Guppies are livebearers, and could over-populate your tank rather quickly? Are you familiar with the Nitrification process that takes place in your aquarium?

All these things needs to be considered, before getting any fish. You're doing the right thing by finding out more information, just hang in there, and you'll find more help that you signed up for.

Welcome to AC! :welcome:
 
ahoy there, welcome to AC :)

(shawn, she said she has a 10g tank :))

before you worry about lighting for your plants or getting any fish (which was a smart move not to get them right off the bat, kudos to you on that), I would highly suggest you get a basic liquid testing kit. I recommend the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Freshwater Master Test kit which should cost around $30. Really any kit that will allow you to test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH will do, it doesn't necessarily have to be from aquarium pharmaceuticals. $30 might seem a tad expensive, but trust me, it is a sound investment.

Also, are you getting your water from the city or from a well? The reason I ask is because if you use municipal water, it will most likely have chlorine and chloramines, which will burn the eyes and gills of any fish if the water is untreated. For this I suggest Seachem Prime. It's a dechlorinator that will neutralize chlorine, chloramine, and ammonia to a certain extent. Your dechlorinator doesn't have to be from Seachem, any dechlorinator that will neutralize chlorine and chloramines will do.

There's more to come and you're on the right track and, as the others have said, in the right place!

edit: you know, I rashly assumed that you are new to fishkeeping, which may not be the case at all. If so, welcome all the same. but sorry for getting ahead of myself!
 
pik01 said:
ahoy there, welcome to AC :)

(shawn, she said she has a 10g tank :))

before you worry about lighting for your plants or getting any fish (which was a smart move not to get them right off the bat, kudos to you on that), I would highly suggest you get a basic liquid testing kit. I recommend the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Freshwater Master Test kit which should cost around $30. Really any kit that will allow you to test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH will do, it doesn't necessarily have to be from aquarium pharmaceuticals. $30 might seem a tad expensive, but trust me, it is a sound investment.

Also, are you getting your water from the city or from a well? The reason I ask is because if you use municipal water, it will most likely have chlorine and chloramines, which will burn the eyes and gills of any fish if the water is untreated. For this I suggest Seachem Prime. It's a dechlorinator that will neutralize chlorine, chloramine, and ammonia to a certain extent. Your dechlorinator doesn't have to be from Seachem, any dechlorinator that will neutralize chlorine and chloramines will do.

There's more to come and you're on the right track and, as the others have said, in the right place!

edit: you know, I rashly assumed that you are new to fishkeeping, which may not be the case at all. If so, welcome all the same. but sorry for getting ahead of myself!
Click to expand...
I kind of replied to you in my introduction. I have had fish tanks before but consider myself new to the game so I do not know how much I have to offer back right now but thank you so much for your help.

Here is the update. I took a water sample to petsmart today and they said my ammonia is high but no one really knew what the white stuff was on the plants roots. It looks and feels like poly fill, the stuff you use to fill stuffed animals. It looks like little “clouds” of that at the root. The man at pet smart said it was mold and the plants with it were probably dying (when I got them) and it is mold. The wired part is the plants look just fine. The plants I got were in a tube and not kept in water though they assured me they are all underwater plants it is just the new way petsmart will be selling live plants instead of from an aquarium.

I went to the petsmart website and could find no images of live plants. The one that is healthy looks like “mother in laws tongue” but is very small right now about three inches. The one with the “mold” is more ferny. I will keep looking for images.

This is mother in laws tongue:

http://images.teamsugar.com/files/users/6/61259/45_2007/114131493_a37062c33a_o.preview.jpg

Anyway he told me to remove and throw away all the plants with the “mold”.

I so wish I could find my digi cam. It would probably make life much easier.

Someone else asked more about my tank. I described it some in my introduction but here is more it has two 25 watt clear lights. I wanted to get green but the lady said the clear would be better for my plants. It is not in sunlight. I bought a 50watt heater and a glue on thermometer but ordered a submersible(they did not have any at petsmart and Amazon is soooo much cheaper) one from Amazon. I have blue and teal gravel and a really cool stained glass backing(I cannot wait to share it) the tank temp was at about 80 and I dropped it and am waiting to see where it ends up at U think I would like it to be a steady 78 fr fear of frying my fish or boiling as the case may be.

The filter/aeration system is the kind that sucks out water and pours it back in? It is aquatech for 10 gal aquariums but the people at petsmart had me get a marineland filter for it. There are no brackets so it is more wedged where it should go. She said the blue part should face the back of the aquarium.

I have added nothing to the water and it has never been home to anything but fish(maybe dust bunnies for a few years)

I have not even yet bothered to address guppies’ breeding yet since I do not have any fish however I do know they eat most of their babies right, is it ugly of me to think that is okay? I would like my kids to see a few make it though so I imagine I will need to get another tank soon.

I would love to have a large tank filled with nothing but neons with a blue light. How cool is that with their nifty colors? My mother had them with a black light at night it was like alight show when I was little.

Someday I would love to have salt water fish but I think I should be able to handle a 10 gal guppy tank before I dare to dream

Does any of this help?

Jen
 
hi jenny

like captaincaveman9 suspected, that plant (and likely the majority of any other plants you bought from petsmart) is not aquatic and will slowly rot in your tank :( Was it in one of those tubes when you bought it? It beats me why petsmart and petco sell non-aquatic plants in their aquarium section. I don't know what this white fuzzy stuff of yours is, but it could very well be related to the fact that you have, at best, a bog plant. The rotting leaves could be what's producing the ammonia in your tank. And while planted tanks are good for cycling a tank, releasing ammonia isn't what they're supposed to be for. For good cycling information, please read this article - Basic Cycling Info. Are you getting your water from the city or a well? If it's from the city, you'll want to treat your water for chlorine/chloramine. It will be a few weeks before you can safely add any fish to your tank (and this is after the fuzzy plants issue), but it should give you time to learn all you need to know about your prospective your guppies and getting back into this great hobby. :)
 
Welcome to AC!! You have come to the right place Jenny.:welcome:
I'm a relative newbie, and the members here have helped me so much. They really hold your hand and walk you through things.

Be sure to get Prime as a water conditioner. As mentioned above, it dechlorinates the water, removes chloramines, and detoxifies ammonia and nitrites, which, once you have fish in the tank, can be a life saver.

There's a lot more to say on that subject, though right now you don't have fish in there so you don't have to worry as much while you are going through the cycle process.

Read the info in this "sticky" that discusses cycling your tank.
It is at this link:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84598

Good going, not having fish in there yet. The tank has to go through the nitrogen cycle and develope all the beneficial bacteria that will keep the ammonia and nitrites removed to keep your tank occupants safe and healthy, once your fish are in there.

Again, welcome to AC.:thm:
 
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