karenz Posted October 11, 2013 Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 Something is infecting my tank, I have had 2 loaches and 2 glass tetras die, when I was cleaning it out I noticed a dark reddish/brown colour to the waste in the filter, it has always been a dark brown up until now. Nothing has changed as far as feeding or decorations, but I noticed a kind of "froth" on the top of the water over the last few days. I don't use aerosols anywhere near the tank. Any idea what I can put in to treat this, as most of my fish are loaches I know a lot of treatments can burn and even kill them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted October 11, 2013 Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 Hi, what are the water change and tank maintenance regimes you have in place? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karenz Posted October 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 I change around 1/3 of the water about every 10 days, clean out the filter and replace the filter wool, I also vacuum most of the bottom of the tank, the tank has been fine for 3 years now these are the first fish to die and I have never seen this reddish brown colour in the filter before, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted October 11, 2013 Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 What is your pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate reading? What colour is the froth? Has anything changed, i.e. new plants, food etc If you go up to the user control panel and enter your location then you may get some local knowledge that will help you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted October 11, 2013 Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 ... and how big is your tank, how is it filtered? What species of loach, what other fish are in there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted October 11, 2013 Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 The fröth ön the surface and brown slime can an indicatiön of a break down in the cycle in the tank sometimes caused by öxygen levels being down in the tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#!CrunchBang Posted October 11, 2013 Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 ...clean out the filter and replace the filter wool Clean the filter how? I give the media and sponges a bit of a shake in tank water and replace the filter wool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabid Posted October 11, 2013 Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 Sounds like you may be overcleaning... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karenz Posted October 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2013 The tank is 48cm high 38cm deep and 80cm wide, the filter is an Aqua One, it is mounted on the back of the tank and expels water through a spout into the tank, which creates quite a few bubbles which are clear and dissipate, the bubbles I noticed earlier this week were more solid, almost soapy. I have charcoal balls (like a ping pong ball with holes filled with charcoal), a charcoal bag and filter wood as the filtering media. The tank does not have any live plants and I haven't introduced new food, new fish or new decorations. I have 2 clown loaches, 1 YoYo loach, 2 skunk loaches, 2 striata (they were called tiger loaches at the pet shop) and 2 which I am not sure of the name, they could be young Pakistanis, they are very lively and outgoing and hang with the Clowns. I also have a Pleco, a large goldfish (the original inhabitant) four black widow tetras, 2 glowlight tetras and 2 danios. I do boil the water and mix the hot in with the cold when I do water changes, is it OK to use from the hot water tap as I believe boiling the water takes the oxygen out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueether Posted October 12, 2013 Report Share Posted October 12, 2013 What I would say is to replace the carbon with real bio media like ceramic noodles or the like. Just vigorously wash the carbon balls in tank water and poor that back into the tank, this should save some of the bacteria that is on then. I would then only wash the bio media each their or so water change unless they were clogged with gunk. It does sound like it could be anaerobic bacteria or cyanobacteria. I would just use tap water. In my two tropical tanks I just use the hose and no hot water unless it is winter then I'll use warm tap water. I normally do 20 - 30% water changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexyay Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 The tank is 48cm high 38cm deep and 80cm wide, the filter is an Aqua One, it is mounted on the back of the tank and expels water through a spout into the tank, which creates quite a few bubbles which are clear and dissipate, the bubbles I noticed earlier this week were more solid, almost soapy. I have charcoal balls (like a ping pong ball with holes filled with charcoal), a charcoal bag and filter wood as the filtering media. The tank does not have any live plants and I haven't introduced new food, new fish or new decorations. I have 2 clown loaches, 1 YoYo loach, 2 skunk loaches, 2 striata (they were called tiger loaches at the pet shop) and 2 which I am not sure of the name, they could be young Pakistanis, they are very lively and outgoing and hang with the Clowns. I also have a Pleco, a large goldfish (the original inhabitant) four black widow tetras, 2 glowlight tetras and 2 danios. I do boil the water and mix the hot in with the cold when I do water changes, is it OK to use from the hot water tap as I believe boiling the water takes the oxygen out. A goldfish, in the tropical tank? Your tank is pretty overstocked anyway - I'd recommend getting rid IOC some of the fish (eg the clown loaches need a way bigger tank). Do you dechlorinate the water? Like someone mentioned above - imo scrap the carbon and get something with a lather surface area (ceramics for example). Perhaps add some extra filtration -- the aqua one HOBs (imo) don't work that great and are only good on low stocking levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karenz Posted October 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2013 The goldfish is the original occupant and is huge, we call it Goldzilla and it has a fine time taunting the pleco which is the second occupant (hence the heated tank), though the tank has been upgraded three times since the original one. This the first time in years that I have lost any fish. I use Prime at every water change. Is it safe to use water straight from the hot water tap rather than boiling the water if this is a contributing factor (depleting the oxygen levels). The clowns seem really happy and outgoing, they have a variety of logs and rock formations to explore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted October 14, 2013 Report Share Posted October 14, 2013 It is safe to use the warm water straight from the tap with prime. Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexyay Posted October 14, 2013 Report Share Posted October 14, 2013 The goldfish is the original occupant and is huge, we call it Goldzilla and it has a fine time taunting the pleco which is the second occupant (hence the heated tank), though the tank has been upgraded three times since the original one. This the first time in years that I have lost any fish. I use Prime at every water change. Is it safe to use water straight from the hot water tap rather than boiling the water if this is a contributing factor (depleting the oxygen levels). The clowns seem really happy and outgoing, they have a variety of logs and rock formations to explore. So the goldfish isn't in the tank with all your loaches and dying fish? Sorry if I read your post wrong. The clown loaches also hey up to 1ft long, so they'll need to be moved eventually Yep, the water is safe to use straight out if the tap provided its dechlorinated if you have chlorine in your water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted October 14, 2013 Report Share Posted October 14, 2013 The tank is just too small for anything that grows big and consumes lots of food in my opinion, I believe you may have this problem repeatedly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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