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Post by Carl on Dec 11, 2009 10:31:04 GMT -5
It's been more than a couple of weeks and everything seems fine. I did lose the smallest oto, but the largest one is alive and well. All 5 corys are healthy and seem happy. My male mollies do daily saber dances now.  Nice to read good news! Carl |
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Post by goldenpuon on Dec 11, 2009 11:10:28 GMT -5
I'm happy that your fish are doing well now. Seems like the cleaning did the trick!  |
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Post by parker002 on Dec 13, 2009 9:25:16 GMT -5
Of course, I jinxed it.
I noticed a female molly acting strangely last night. No outward signs of disease other than she was "lodged" in one of the floating plants and breathing somewhat heavy. We've had female mollies do that before and it was followed shortly by fry, so we left her alone thinking she was just having babies.
That turns out to not be the case as I found her dead this morning.
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Post by parker002 on Dec 13, 2009 10:05:44 GMT -5
I'm not able to get pictures of this (if anybody has any recommendations, please let me know) but I have a white, stringy/cottony growth on my substrate. I had assumed it was algae but I need to make sure.
It's not green, it's grey or white. It also has small, VERY white granules on it in places. I have treated my tank with copper, so I'm not sure how that figures in.
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Post by murdock6701 on Dec 13, 2009 10:37:19 GMT -5
scrub and vacuum - are they in spots hard to reach along rocks?
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Post by Carl on Dec 13, 2009 11:19:48 GMT -5
scrub and vacuum - are they in spots hard to reach along rocks? I agree. This may be Saprolegnia, and cleaning up any decaying mulm is important. Saprolegnia/ColumnarisCarl |
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Post by parker002 on Dec 13, 2009 11:29:02 GMT -5
I have spot algae growing on the glass at the edge of the rocks. This stuff appeared to be growing ON the rocks. Upon closer inspection, I've found it growing on the glass and ornaments too, and it has green/brown streaks in it.
Is it possible it's dead algae, possibly killed by the copper? Does algae absorb copper?
Because the mollies pick at the algae on the plants and glass, and the dead one moreso than the others. Is it possible she consumed enough algae to aquire copper poisoning?
Saprolegnia would be discouraging considering I just got done removing the anti-fungal from my water...
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Post by Carl on Dec 13, 2009 11:39:01 GMT -5
I have spot algae growing on the glass at the edge of the rocks. This stuff appeared to be growing ON the rocks. Upon closer inspection, I've found it growing on the glass and ornaments too, and it has green/brown streaks in it. Is it possible it's dead algae, possibly killed by the copper? Does algae absorb copper? Because the mollies pick at the algae on the plants and glass, and the dead one moreso than the others. Is it possible she consumed enough algae to aquire copper poisoning? Yes algae can remove copper, and this is a good observation. I have not observed fish dying from this sort of copper consumption, but that does not make it so. This would be easy to test if you have a copper test kit; Isolate the algae in a vial of water and then test the copper level of the water, if over .30 ppm, it would be easy to assume a dangerous amount of copper is present. What other medications have you used? As well John's advice is probably key here. Carl |
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Post by corycatwoman on Dec 13, 2009 12:08:05 GMT -5
sorry i came into this thread late. but if you have a picture of your algae growth its quite easy to gather from the information you gave us plus a picture to prove that your tank may infact just be starting to build its algae up.
i have brown colored algae in my tank aswell but it is just diatoms which eventually after its food source deplinishes will turn to healthy bright green algae.
diatoms are harmless i thnk theres very few fish that feed off of it. bristle nose plecos are one of the few.
but if your worried about it just keep continuing your regular maintence scrub it off of whatever it is on or just simply ignore it. shouldnt take more then a few months for it to disapate into regular green algae.
like i said earlier post a few pictures im sure myself or someone else here can identify it as diatoms or something else that may be bad.
but if infact it is diatoms you have nothing to worry about.
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Post by corycatwoman on Dec 13, 2009 12:10:26 GMT -5
alright i scrolled up and re read the original post about the algae.
the white stuff i can not help you with it doesnt sound like anything ive dealt with.
but the brown stuff is most likely diatoms.
your definately gonna wanna get the white stuff out in anyway you can.
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Post by parker002 on Dec 13, 2009 21:05:23 GMT -5
I have spot algae growing on the glass at the edge of the rocks. This stuff appeared to be growing ON the rocks. Upon closer inspection, I've found it growing on the glass and ornaments too, and it has green/brown streaks in it. Is it possible it's dead algae, possibly killed by the copper? Does algae absorb copper? Because the mollies pick at the algae on the plants and glass, and the dead one moreso than the others. Is it possible she consumed enough algae to aquire copper poisoning? Yes algae can remove copper, and this is a good observation. I have not observed fish dying from this sort of copper consumption, but that does not make it so. This would be easy to test if you have a copper test kit; Isolate the algae in a vial of water and then test the copper level of the water, if over .30 ppm, it would be easy to assume a dangerous amount of copper is present. What other medications have you used? As well John's advice is probably key here. Carl I used the Jungle anti-fungal tank buddies, Pimafix, and Melafix at the beginning to get rid of the fungus. I've done two 20% water changes since then, inlcuding the thorough cleaning mentioned here. I did add Coppersafe back each time, but tonight I did another 20% water change and did not add Coppersafe, so I have diluted it now by 20%. In addition, I should be rid of the Ich now so I'm going to get a new polyfilter and remove the rest of it tomorrow. Other than those things, aquarium salt, and Seachem Prime, I haven't added anything to my tank. Tonight, we did something more drastic, but it deserves it's own post. Read on... |
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Post by parker002 on Dec 13, 2009 21:22:41 GMT -5
So tonight we decided to finally go "all in". We removed every last pebble of substrate from the tank, as well as all of the plants and ornaments. My daughter scrubbed EVERYTHING with warm tap water and a toothbrush (no bleach, soap, or anything else) in the bathtub. Even though we did the thorough cleaning just a couple of weeks ago, there was a significant amount of material in the rocks - and it was pale green. The white stuff was just the stuff on the surface. Under the rocks, as well as inside some of the ornaments, it was definitely green. We took out a bunch of it, it was algae. In the end, we had nothing left in the tank but our fish and some cloudy water. So why did this deserve it's own post? Because I finally had something GOOD happen for a change. As I was finishing up vacuuming the last of the algae from the glass bottom, I saw something appear to move in way that wasn't consistent with the current created by my gravel vac. So I set the vac down and got closer... It's a livebearer fry, most likely a molly! Not only did it survive us forcefully scooping out all 5 gallons of rock but it also managed to avoid the gravel vac even after there was no gravel left in the tank and I was just sucking up algae. Of course, with a bare, glass bottom, the gravel vac wasn't the worst of it. The little fry somehow managed to NOT GET EATEN while there was nothing at all in the tank but him and a dozen hungry fish! We decided to name it Lucky. |
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Post by murdock6701 on Dec 13, 2009 22:49:08 GMT -5
Hurray for you! and Lucky too! the white crap is in more opportunistic places like where the algae eater can't get to readily, like where sloping rocks or ornaments touch the glass - personally I boil everything, have had mixed luck w/ just hot water - increasing the temp on your tanks when treating for ich helps as well during the treatment......hope this helps! keep up the good work
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Post by Carl on Dec 14, 2009 10:07:03 GMT -5
I agree with John you are both lucky! As stated organic mulm/sludge can be quite invasive and can be a much more pronounced problem than often noticed. This can lead to many disease problems by harboring Saprolegnia or Aermonas bacteriaWatch your ammonia/nitrites over the next couple weeks. Hopefully this should address many issues, as I have found in many controlled tests that removal/control of mulm can accomplish. This is one of the more important aspects of aquarium cleaning, maintenance (#4 in the Aquarium Cleaning Article) Carl |
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Post by parker002 on Dec 14, 2009 12:33:05 GMT -5
I removed my Seachem Ammoni Alert sensor (along with everything else) and tested it, according to Seachem instructions, by holding it over the mouth of a bottle of pure Ammonia. It turned blue immediately, so it definitely works. I returned it to the tank and as of this morning, it's yellow again, so I don't have any ammonia - YET. I'm checking water parameters every day and plan to do a 10% water change on Wednesday. Lucky is enjoying the breeder net - he was eating flakes this morning that were easily 10x his size! |
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Post by parker002 on Dec 22, 2009 23:04:17 GMT -5
It's been just over a week and no ammonia or nitrates. The only surprise so far is that Lucky has not one but TWO siblings!
As I was feeding a few nights ago I noticed a fry the same size as lucky just outside the breeder net, looking right at me and begging for food. I quickly caught it and put it in the net with Lucky.
2 nights later, my daughter said she found another in one of the plants we have hanging at the surface. Of course I ignored her - she's got a vivid imagination and she's always "seeing" cool stuff in the tank, like fish eggs. But she was right, there was another fry in the plant.
Lucky is most definitely turning orange now, so could be either a Mickey Mouse platy (all of ours are orange) or could be a molly (we have one golden male and one copper female). The 2nd one is still fairly clear, but the third one is black, black, black. I'm hoping at least one of them is a sailfin like my male.
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Post by Carl on Dec 23, 2009 10:59:32 GMT -5
All appears to be going well (not to jinx you by commenting) Congrats on your fry (nice to see your daughter enjoying th aquarium hobby with you too). As well you appear to have preserved your bio filter (often the bio filter is more resiliant than often given credit for) Carl |
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Post by parker002 on Dec 23, 2009 18:54:07 GMT -5
All appears to be going well (not to jinx you by commenting) Congrats on your fry (nice to see your daughter enjoying th aquarium hobby with you too). As well you appear to have preserved your bio filter (often the bio filter is more resiliant than often given credit for) Carl There was so much filth that I had no choice but to rinse my filter media in tap water. Even that didn't make a dent in my bio-filtration - didn't see any ammonia at all. |
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Post by parker002 on Dec 26, 2009 23:57:52 GMT -5
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Or please consider a donation, even just $5 helps. If even 25% of users of this information donated just $5, it would be more income than one year of sales (currently less than 1/1000 of a % donate)
