Sick Fish

[ckeck]

I just began my aquarium about 2 months ago. I have a 10 gallon aquarium, a Whisper 2-5 Filter, 3 tetras, 2 sword fish, 1 male guppie and 5 neons. I have a couple live plants and a heater which I keep set to 80 degrees.

Three problems:

First: I cannot get my plants to thrive. They turn brown and die.

Second and worst problem. My fish keep dying. About 2 weeks ago I had a problem with high nitrates and was doing water changes every day for a while, added some waste remover and added the plants, but now my fish sit in one spot in the back of the tank, stop eating and then have balance problems. They die usually a couple days after the balance problem starts.

Also my make guppie is losing his color? What causes that?

Can someone help me? I would appreciate any help you can give me.

 

[LongTime]

I would like to hear more about your water conditions. I think your nitrates are probably still high because your tank sounds a little crowded. Plus, I would lower the temperature to about 76 - 78. What kind of tetras?

I don't know much about plants but I'm sure others will want to know what kind they are.

I hope those ore knowledgeable than I can help you work through this.

 

[ckeck]

I have 4 neon tetras and my other three tetras I cannot find the name. they are silver and their belly looks like a pelican's mouth. Also I have an upside down catfish. None of my fish are any bigger than an 1-1/2" long.

I have a jungal val, an anubias barteri round leaf and an Amazon sword plant. Mind you they are all very little and not doing well.

Conditions: Nitrate = 20; Hardness: 75; Alkalinity = 120; PH = 7.5
I have a hard time keeping my ph level.

I do a 20 water change every week.

 

[Fishsmurf]

How did you cycle the tank? Fishy or fishless?
Is the cycle definately complete (are you still testing for Ammonia & Nitrite)?
And you mentioned you are having problems keeping a stable Ph. Are you using anything chemical to try and stabalise it?
Sorry for so many question but the more info we can get the more people may be able to help you.....
Good luck and I'm sure some of the folks here will help get you sorted...

Edit: Spelling & Grammer - Stupid hotel infared keyboard. Grrrrr...

 

[ckeck]

I cycled it with a couple of guppies. The females won't live for some reason though, only the males. Probably some of the problem.

I test for Nitrate, ammonia and the like weekly, and if I see a problem, I test more often. When my nitrate levels were off the charts, I was checking and doing water changes daily. At this point though, the water is quite stable, so I test before my water change.

I use PH down to reduce the PH, but it doesn't do much good. It must be something in the tank causing it since I tested my tap water and it is normal. What causes the PH to fluctuate?

I am wondering if it isn't a fungus disease. My female swordfish just sits at the top fo the water panting. Her eyes look whitish. One of the tetra neons has also a whitish appearance on his skin and my male swordfish picks at the coral piece with his mouth.

I also have 2 aerators in my tank - one through the coral and the other a stick kind on the side of my tank. the fish love to run through the bubbles.

I also have put a glass in the tank with some sea salt in it, to help with any parasites. I heard that was a good thing to do. I have turned down my temperature a bit now just in case that is causing some problems.

 

[Fishsmurf]

These messages are fairly short as I am not at my PC but am using a useless hotel system that seems to have a mind of it's own......
But anyway onwards....

How much salt do you have in the tank?
If I remember rightly (some-one else will need to confirm this) the general rule if one tea spoon for every ten gallons, to be diluted then added to the tank. The benefits of salt in a freshwater tank is a fairly well debated issue but the general consesus seems to be that most people only use for specific treatments and not as a regular additive. Short term you might want to remove the salt, do a large water change and see if this has any beneficial impact for your fish.

Also can you describe the white patch in a little more detail. Is it the skin itself or is it on the skin? What exactly does it look like?

As for the Ph question, that will take more lines to answer than I have the patience to type on this crappy system at the moment. Some-one should be along shortly who can explain about buffering and why the chemical additives like the ones you are using only offer short term solutions and often result in Ph fluctuations (and they will probably be a lot more articulate than I would be able to be on the subject).

HTH a bit...

 

[Fishsmurf]

PH question

On the PH question...
If you go to the top right of the screen there is a search, function, if you search by "water hardness" in the Freshwater Forums the search will show you a list of threads that cover this exact topic. There is a good thread there called ""Water Hardness" from the 06-08-2004 that explains it (sorry I cant even get an address bar on this thing to provide the link).

Again hope that helps a bit and sorry I can't help more at the moment...

 

[ckeck]

Thanks for your input - and sorry for the lousy system you are using.

On one neon tetra the skin looks, I don't know, powdery somewhat. There is one patch at the top toward his dorsal fin that looks like a pice of cotton. Some of the fish look like their color is fading.

The guppy's color is fading out on the end of this tail and you can see veins around his head.

The female swordfish is just panting, not moving much and staying toward the top of the tank. She hasn't been eating much in the past day or so. Her eyes look really white around the outside and somewhat swollen. She stays towards the back of the tank either around the filter or the heater.

The silver tetras are fine. They are the newest additions.

I took that salt out and will do a change of water and see what will happen.