Tori_W_22

Hello Stocking I have gotten fish a little from here and a little from there so I don’t think that’s it. I do “cross contaminate”… I have tested my water going into my tank. I live in a county about 30 minutes from Salt Lake and our water here SUCKS. Its so hard and has so many minerals in its crazy. I do use RODI for all of my tanks and use tap water as needed to get to where I want to be. I always treat tap water. And it reads no nitrite or chlorine when tested.

I will be watching that tidal video and getting back to you! During feeding the white clouds used to be voracious and attacked it. Since they’ve been losing weight they are dull and barely seem interested in the food. The foods are flakes and I “crumble” then a little before I put them in the tank. I will definitely increase feedings to twice a day and see if that makes a difference. And yes, before I was barely gravel vacuuming. I now see the errors of my ways. It wasn’t out of laziness, it was because I thought I was gong to over do it… now I know. I did 50% water changes and gravel vacuumed all of my tanks. The water is testing 10ppm nitrates in my 55g tank. The white cloud tank and the platy tank are still reading 20ppm nitrates. I will do aquarium salt in with the white clouds tomorrow after their next water change. Moving forward I will definitely be changing my maintenance schedule. Thank you!

Thanks so much. This video was exactly what I needed! My hillstream loaches seem to be doing ok in the 78 degree 55g tank. They love the bubbles the airstone create and they always seem to be zooming around the tank.

Along with more frequent water changes, would you suggest doing more gravel vacuuming in the mean time? Should I be doing like 30% water changes every other week and gravel vacuuming at that time? Just trying to figure out a new schedule. Thanks!

Thanks again so much. I thought i was doing too much maintenance and that could be my problem, so I will definitely be doing more.

Thank you so much for all of your input! The only reason I let the Nitrate get that high is because I was always under the assumption that the plants needed the nitrate. However, I am now not so sure 😅. I will ABSOLUTELY be doing lots of research into old tank syndrome. Thanks again for all of your information. Also, you say you never gravel vaccum in 5/6 tanks, would I be better off just not gravel vacuuming?

nabokovfan87 Thank you for all your input. I have replied with all my tank information. I have thought about doing rams, and honestly I think I am going to after these bettas live out their days. I got my first betta (the one that died) from a local pet store that I get most of my animals from (I also have almost 100 reptiles). I got my other 2 from petco 😕 I know.. The white clouds get fed every morning. I alternate between betta bug bites and spiraling flakes bug bites.

xXInkedPhoenixX Thank you for all your input. 55g Tank This tank was set up in December 2021. 2 tidal 55 filters. Also, air stone for aeration. Substrate is a layer of pebbles, then plant substrate, then sand. I had a driftwood mishap (added driftwood and it released too many tannins too quickly) and about 3 months ago took all wood out and did a 100% water change. This tank has overall been my least problematic tank, but this is the tank where my otocinclus are dying. I’ve also had a hard time keep Julii Corydora alive in this tank, but my other fish are fine. The parameters are 30ppm nitrate, 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia, 75ppm GH, 0 chlorine, 40ppm KH, and 6.5 PH. All the plants in this tank are live. There are 2 200w heaters on this tank set to 78 degrees. This tank gets a 25% water change when the Nitrate hits 60ppm. I do fertilize with Flourish, Flourish Excel, and Flourish Advanced 1-2 times weekly. The filters are cleaned out once monthly (in old tank water). This tank almost never gets “gravel” vacuumed anymore. EDIT: The entire tidal filers are taken out of the tank and cleaned once monthly. I have SO many issues with these filters clogging and doing a very good job removing debris from the water. I have filter floss inside the filters to help with that, but I do NOT like these filters. -5 rummynose (14 died from driftwood error) -9 cardinal tetra -6 ember tetra -7 julii Corydora -3 reticulated hillstream loaches -Amano shrimp -3 otocinclus (there where 8 last week) -2 bristlenose pleco -ghost shrimp -1 mystery snail 10g White Cloud Tank This tank was set up in March 2021. This tank had 10 white cloud minnows, 1 betta fish, 6 otocinclus, and some ramshorn snails in it. The betta and the otocinclus have been moved out. The tank stays around 70 degrees and has all live plants in it. There is some plastic decor in here, but it’s been in since day one and it’s all “aquarium” safe. I had 1 white cloud die about 4 months ago so I replaced it. Nothing significant after that. 2 months ago I had 2 white clouds die seemingly randomly. Back to back. They had all of their fins “flared” out and had their bodies curved like a “C”. Now, 1/2 of my white clouds are very, very thin (think muscle wasting disease) but I’ve treated them with med trio, then maracyn 2 and no resolution. I have an aqueon 10g filter (tank was a kit) but I use filter floss instead of the replacement filters and I use a piece of filter mat for the “pre filter”. The parameters on this tank are 40ppm nitrate, 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia, 75ppm GH, 0 chlorine, 40ppm KH, and 6.8 PH. This tank gets a 25% water change when nitrate hits 60ppm. The filter is cleaned at that time (in old tank water). This tank gets gravel vacuumed once quarterly 20g long Betta Tank This tank was set up in May of 2021. This is a divided tank. I had my betta that died from dropsy in this tank. When he was sick I treated this tank with aquarium salt and elevated temps. Them maracyn. After he died I did another round of maracyn and then maracyn 2 after. The growth on the female betta started about 4 days ago. She does have eggs and a very prominent egg spot at the moment, so I am hoping she is just full of eggs but I’m not convinced. There are 3 sponge filters running on this tank with air stones inside. There are a mix of live and fake plants in this tank. This tank gets a 25% water change when Nitrate hits 40PPM. This tank gets gravel vacuumed every water change. The sponge filters are cleaned every water change/gravel vacuum (it only need to be done about every 2 months). There are 3 50w heaters set to 80 degrees. The parameters are 0ppm nitrate (just finished treating with Maracyn 2), 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia, 0 chlorine, 75ppm GH, 40ppm KH, 6.5 PH. 10g Teacup Platy Tank This tank has been set up since May 2021. This tank has a sponge filter with air stone. There are mostly fake plants. The live plants hate this tank. There were originally 12 platy and now there are 3. There is one nerite snail. There is a 50w heater preset to 78 degrees. This tank gets 25% water change and gravel vacuumed when nitrate hits 60ppm. Parameters are 20ppm nitrate, 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia, 0 chlorine, 300ppm GH, 140ppm KH, and PH 8. I haven’t had any fish die in this tank in several months, but they aren’t breeding either.

Hey all. I’m at the point in my fish keeping journey where I am ready to just give up. I’ve been keeping fish tanks my whole life but I’ve been keeping them correctly for the last year. I have been pretty successful and happy with all of my tanks until the last 4 months or so. I feel like even though I am keeping my fish at the parameters they like and doing routine water changes and tank maintenance I’ve been loosing fish and I don’t know what to do!! I lost a betta to dropsy last month despite doing everything I could. Now another betta I have has developed a tumor on her side. No meds are helping. I’ve been finding a dead otocinclus in my 55g tank every day for the last week and I CANNOT figure out why. The rest of the fish in my tank are seemingly fine. My otocinclus were BREEDING 6 months ago and flourishing so I don’t understand why now they are randomly dying. They are only a little over a year old so it’s not due to old age. I cannot get my teacup platy’s to breed. Period. No matter what I do. I started with 12 and now I have 3 because they too keep randomly dying and despite having 2 females and one male left they will not breed. They are the only fish I have that prefer hard water and I keep the water parameters where they should be, yet I’m unsuccessful. My white cloud minnows have been slowly wasting away and dying off despite feeding them regularly and treating them with meds. They are kept without a heater due to liking colder temps and I’ve treated them with the med trio and other parasite meds and nothing is helping. All of my water parameters are correct for each fish tank according to online forums and I always treat my tap water (when I use it) and I use RODI for the fish that like soft water. I don’t understand why everything is constantly going wrong lately. I am at a point where I’ve put so much time and MONEY into this hobby and it’s not rewarding anymore, it’s just stressful and downright upsetting.