Jennifer

Increase trace nutrients (daily dosing if possible) and improve lighting if needed (replace old tubes and run a 10 hour photoperiod).

If the fire eel is trying to get out of the water, I would do a quick rescue water change. Set aside some water to test it to see why he is trying to escape. Might be good to increase aeration too until you figure out what the problem is (or if there is a problem at all). Sorry about your fighter, internal problems are hard to diagnose much less treat.

The anticaking agents are perfectly safe but they do produce an unattractive sludge. However, in the amounts that you would use in a freshwater hospital tank, you would be unlikely to notice anything.

tears

Hard to say, my first thoughts are toxins and/or lack of O2 but the acute onset and locomotor difficulties more likely suggest toxic fungi or bacterial sepsis. If it is something like columnaris bacteria, the treatment is SMZ-TMP (sulfa trimeth antibiotics). It is common, cheap and effective but you will need a prescription for it. In the mean time, I would rescue these fish by putting them in some clean, well oxygenated, warm water with an added antiseptic like acriflavine, Melafix or just salt if you have nothing else. Quick action and good supportive care can make all the difference sometimes.

I am soooo jealous!

Well, brown algae is almost a certainty in a newish tank but surface agitation will help that. You will want to keep in mind that once you get the plants growing well you will be adding CO2 and at that point too much surface agitation will drive off the CO2 that you are trying to keep in the water so really it is a temporary measure while you get established. It is not essential, but it will help. I know it isn't attractive but you can lower the water level so that the filter outlet creates more surface movement. If you can, wait to add fish until the plants are established. I have set up several tanks that way and not had any algae problems at all.

Yep. In a planted tank like yours, white or pink algae is dead algae. I think you have the right idea with carefully monitoring your nutrients before adding anything else. I don't think adding Excel will hurt at this point, it certainly is a powerful algaecide, but it isn't necessarily going to help plant growth if they are not established enough yet. The key is to keep your CO2 levels from fluctuating too much as that can cause a serious algae outbreak. Adding injected CO2 will certainly cause a big swing. Also, water changes will help keep gross nutrients down but it will also add a lot of CO2. It is best to add a bunch of fast growing plants to help use up the nutrients you have. This will allow the other plants time to establish. If you add Excel, add it every day at a rate of about 1ml per 30 litres of tank water. It is also important to keep trace minerals up so that the plants can utilise the nutrients (daily doing with Flourish comprehensive is easy and effective for this). A moderate photoperiod of 10 hours would be a good place to start. When you start seeing brown algae, increase surface agitation, temporarily decrease the photoperiod by a couple of hours and slightly increase the Excel (keep up daily dosing with trace nutrients). In no time your plants will be growing strong and lush and you will be able to inject CO2 and up the photoperiod (you will also have to increase nutrients at that point). Of course you can go low tech and forgo all of that but your plants will not grow fast and you risk an algae outbreak if you overfeed or carry out frequent water changes. Also, before you add any plants to your tank, 'sterilise' them so you don't introduce algae spores. HTH

lollies

Hmm, that is really weird. So none of the algae turned pink when you treated with excel? Is the algae still growing at this point? I would remove as much visible algae as you can (including affected leaves), do a big water change, keep going with the high dose excel and trace, and add a couple of SAE. Give it a week before doing another water change and see if you can tell that the algae is not growing anymore.

stress

Looking good Sam. I like your inspiration and vision. That tank would be great for my CPDs. Have you thought about adding some smaller rocks to place at the base of the rocks that you have? It might make them appear more natural.

Did you remove all chemical filtration before treating? The excel really will work but not if you are removing it with carbon. Also, what sort of other fertilisers were you using? Maybe you have an excess of gross nutrients. Peroxide is pretty extreme in that it oxidises all cells, alive or dead. You don't need to kill all your plants. If you are going that extreme you might as well uproot them and put them in a dilute bleach solution for 5 minutes then rinse them and replant them. I guarantee it will kill all algae and it will not hurt any of the plants (unless you totally fry them with a super concentrated solution). I always do this to all plants I buy and sell. BTW, it will not rescue any leaves that have been internally damaged from algal spores though (but it will kill the algal spores). EDIT: typo

Did you add enough? Also, you can add the flourish with a syringe so you can direct it at badly affected areas. You need the trace nutrients to get the plants using all the excess nutrients as well.

I had a bad algae outbreak 18 months ago when I added injected CO2 to a heavily stocked 200L tank (including 3 species of catfish, loaches and blue rams). I completely got rid of all algae in two weeks by doing the following: 1ml Flourish excel per 15L tank water each day. In addition, add 1ml of flourish comprehensive per 40L tank water each day. It was a heavily stocked tank with no losses and the plants got a real foothold which helped. All the algae turned red within a week and then I removed the badly affected leaves. This tank has not had any algae since then. This treatment will make your tank cloudy and you will need to remove carbon as it will absorb some of the aldehydes but if you try it you will be a convert.

Don't the blues need to be released exactly where they were found...? I can't remember where I heard that.... :roll:

Glad to hear it Bilbo.

There are some very nice danios out there at the moment. Giant danios might be nice as they would be a bit larger to prevent them becoming a meal too soon.

Rainbows

Gill problems usually fall into the following categories: chemical toxins, parasites (worms, flukes, protozoa), bacteria or fungi. You say that you see the gills are red, are the fish breathing very rapidly compared to non affected individuals? Are the fish rubbing up on anything? Did you have a close look at the gills of the dead ones? If so, what did they look like? Any white spots, white threads or swellings? Sometimes it is easiest to treat for some of the more common causes of respiratory distress. Gill flukes can be eliminated by treating with praziquantel. Columnaris bacteria can be controlled by treating with an antibiotic prescribed by a vet.

well said The conversion of ammonia and nitrates is dependant on aerobic conditions which support the nitrifying bacteria nitrobacter and nitrosomonas - the more air you have, the better these populations can function. Anaerobic filtration is also useful - aerobic bacteria convert nitrates into free nitrogen gas. I found a good schematic diagram which helps to illustrate the point.

Why yes, it is. btw, +1 to Organism for great personalised service and a surprisingly good range. However, I like Redwoods too.

Halswell quarry has some great free stones as does Birdlings flat. You can also find some great inexpensive Milford stones at Dyers Road Landscaping.

Yes, V. spiralis will melt away at almost any dose of excel. (EDIT: in my experience) V. americanis is much more resistant. Take care, a lot of species of straight Val are prohibited plants in NZ so buy from a reputable source so you know what you have. Incidentally, coboma also will melt with excel. (EDIT: in my experience) This is often speculated but I have found that proper dosing is rarely a problem. Best thing to do is dose slowly and watch very carefully for signs of distress - if you see any distress, do a partial water change. Cryptocoryne crispatula 'Balansae' I haven't heard this before and I haven't had any problems with excel when I have used it in the past. Dieback is fairly normal for Java fern. Dose well with Flourish comprehensive and you will see a big improvement. Just remove all the old leave and the new leaves will take off. It is a slow growing plant though. Java moss and xmas moss are very similar. Both are slow growing and mostly will not grow much without nutrients. Again, add flourish comp and you will see a lot of new growth.

You have some good lighting with that tank. If you keep a 12 hour photoperiod and add Flourish comprehensive 1ml/40L water every day or every other day you will see a huge improvement with your plants without the need to add additional substrate. DIY Co2 is very affordable and will also show improved growth. Algae is generally caused by an imbalance of nutrients, CO2/O2 and light. The Flourish excel will melt the vallisneria but in large doses it will get rid of algae. Discus are one of the types of fish that are very sensitive to Flourish excel so use it with caution. Most other fish will tolerate a daily dose of 1ml excel per 15L of water (over a couple of weeks) and this will halt the growth of just about all types of algae but you will need to remove badly affected leaves as they will never recover. Again though, take care with dosing when discus are involved.