aquariumbeginner32

Up until today, I had never cleaned my filter. I clean the filter sponge about once a month. But not the actual filter. Today I emptied the water from the filter and put the carbon cartridges back in and cleaned the filter sponge. I didn't clean the cartridges or the inside of the filter though.

Well at least I can get it to the temp I want it.

Yeah I know Caryl... I mentioned in an earlier post/topic that it was only supposed to be in there temporarily and it's only 6-7cm long. When the guppies got ich I didn't want to move the fantail until I had finished treating the tank.

Thanks Jennifer The water is definitely clean in regards to how often I do water changes and clean the tank. It's so pristine clear! But the water quality eg ammonia levels are not good. So I'm doing exactly what you said.. .waiting it out. I'm definitely not getting any more fish until I get the water quality perfect and we are past the illnesses. I really don't think the fantail and other guppy are going to survive though... if they die I'll be left with just two guppies and 5 minnows.

Thanks Caryl. I did a huge water change today. The guy from the LFS told me to use the Ammo-Lock :facepalm: because I took a water sample into them and the ammonia reading was between .5-1ppm. And I've been doing water changes every day for about the last 2-3 weeks.

Nah I did the water change and since then ALL the white stuff has come off. It looked like skin peeling off. I think it must be the slime coat. Not sure why it's come off... maybe because of the Wunder Tonic or the fact that my PH is only 6.0. But the goldfish still has blood streaked fins and it's tail seems to be rotting away and it has blood coloring by its mouth and on it's body in a few places..... I put Ammo-Lock and Stress Coat and Stress Zyme in the water I added. All that has literally happened overnight The one sick guppy and the goldfish seem to be having swimming issues as they keep floating onto their sides or momentarily straight up or down or upside down. The goldfish has spent most of the day sitting on the bottom of the tank.

Last time I took photos of my guppies I turned the bedroom light off at night and used the forced flash on our camera. It was hard because I had no idea where the fish were because I couldn't see them lol but the photos came out pretty good I think.

Nope.... I have to set it on a lower temp as it is actually going higher than what it's set on. So right now it's on 23 yet the water is 26. :facepalm:

I forgot to add that I have done an 80% water change.

So as you know I treated my tank with Wunder Tonic on Saturday. Just read online that you shouldn't use Malachite Green if your PH is low as it will be more toxic. Just went to check on my fish this morning and found 3 dead guppies, one guppy that is dying and my fantail goldfish is also dying. It's covered in white stuff like fungus.... yesterday there was NOTHING at all on the goldfish. My tank is 64 litres and I only added 3 drops/3ml to the water. And I removed the carbon cartridges first. So I have 2 guppies left that are ok, although one looks like it's tail is rotting away. And the white cloud mountain minnows are all fine.

Not sure... I guess. I had no idea what I was doing when I started. I had no idea what cycling meant. And I didn't have a test kit for Ammonia and Nitrate and Nitrite. But I think it was because of turning my filter off, which I didn't know was bad. I had to leave it off when I did a water change one time because I realized I had run out of Water Ager and so I couldn't add more water back into the tank, and so I couldn't turn the filter back on. That was when this all started... I lost one White cloud minnow and the rest showed signs of ammonia poisoning ... red gills, pale color etc... but I didn't lose any more.

Yep wordhappy I am not giving up. I love my fish. I just spent another $170 yesterday on some fake plants, a test kit for everything, wunder tonic and ammo-lock. :lol:

Bikbok do you have a cat/dog? I think you can get it from the vets ... I've never asked but if you went in and said your dog has tapeworms, they may let you get it. I don't know what their rules are... I managed to get worming tablets when one of our cats had tapeworms without having to bring my cat in or anything. But that's just worming tablets...

Sorry I meant to say it's acrylic, not polycarb lol Yes I could! lol :thup:

No I can't really confirm it however I can't see any spots now. I was using tonic salt and heat. I went to Animates yesterday with some tank water and they tested it. The ammonia is between .5-1ppm so I got some Ammo-lock which apparently converts ammonia into a non toxic form however it says that if you test the ammonia levels after using it it will still pick up the ammonia, so I'm not sure how to test my ammonia levels now :dunno: I got a test kit for everything... PH, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, etc... it was $85. Also my PH level was 6.0. So it needs raising.... but he was saying that the water hardness is not right either and he said using the thing he showed me to raise the PH may work and then the next day the PH will drop again. So I'm going to see how we go with the ammonia and PH. Apparently the nitrate is 0 and nitrite is 0 too so that's really good. I was surprised. I got wunder tonic because it says it treats ich and fin/tail rot. Will let you know how I go.

Well my hubby got the clear polycarb from work today... 1.5 x .7m and 12mm thick and they let him just have it. He said on the phone it was going to be about $85 plus GST and then he came home and said he paid nothing :thup: And it looks awesome on the bath. And another bonus is it's way too heavy for a child to lift up. So no risk of anyones kids drowning in it IF they managed to get through the gate/over the fence :thup:

:sml1: maybe that's it... because since she's come home we haven't seen her do it again since and it's been 6 days!

Oh ok lol well I don't like them HAHA

My daughter had her first day of kindy today and they have a fish tank there which is about 27L and it has 5 fantail goldfish in it :facepalm:

Thanks AquaLife... I just checked the fish this afternoon and there are more spots again UGH I thought we were nearly done... I could only see one spot on one fish the other day and now there are more again.

these black things that look like giant fleas under the rocks that I put around my smaller pond when I was moving the rocks... they were jumping around. Scuds maybe? Or water fleas? Whatever they were they were like 5x the size of a normal adult flea ... about 7mm long some of them Yuck :lol:

Ugh I'm feeling the same way right now. It just seems to be one thing after another.... what I thought wouldn't be an expensive hobby is turning out to be very expensive. I think I've already spent about $600 I don't want to give up. I really love the fish.

I would also like to treat for Velvet. I don't really want to use anything that's going to color the water or sealant.

I just noticed last night one of my guppies has what looks like a cut on it's side.... It's dark green/blue looking but I can't see anything like a tag or anything sticking out of it. Also, I've noticed a lot of the fish look like they have fin/tail rot where the edges of their fins/tails are dark greyish but the fins/tails don't seem to be rotting away or anything. My minnows still have red gills and at least one of the guppies too. One of the minnows is very pale almost white and they've been like this for weeks yet none of them have died. I have been treating the whole tank for Ich with salt. Now I have tonic salt and have been using that for the last few days. I can't see any spots on the guppies now so I'm treating for 7 more days and unless they get more spots that will be it. The fish are not fin clamping or laying on the bottom of the tank or near the waters surface gasping for air... they are still eating although I don't think the minnows are eating as well as they were before. And they are still swimming around. One minnow died about 3-4 weeks ago from I'm guessing ammonia poisoning.... yet all the others have survived. They just haven't regained their normal color and they still have red gills. I am thinking of treating the whole tank for a few different things. Intestinal parasites, anchor worm, fin/tail rot. I'm taking in a sample of water to Animates on Saturday and they're going to test it for me. I've been doing daily 25% water changes ... last night I did a 50% water change. I also replaced two of the cartridges in my filter last night. I always add Stress Coat and Stress Zyme which is supposed to deal with ammonia and nitrite. So I am guessing I'm going to need a few different medications.... Can I treat all these things at the same time, or one after the other? Would it be safe to treat them for say anchor worms, even if they don't have them? Can someone tell me what I need. I have a filter that has 2 bioclear and 2 carbon cartridges in it. And a couple of live plants. I have 5 WCM Minnows, 6 wild guppies and one small blue fantail goldfish in the tank.