Kleger86

Thank you! I’m not in a rush to add fish to this tank so I’ll just try and wait it out and keep poking at it.

I have a newly set up dirted tank that has been cycling (liquid ammonia, no fish) for almost 2 weeks. There is an inch to 1.5 inches of dirt with equal amounts of gravel on top. The dirt is specifically for aquariums. I also have a HOB filter and a sponge filter running. There are plants, some wood, and rocks as well. I’ve been doing 20-25% water changes every few days to get rid of excessive tannins in the water and I’ve noticed the water smells weird. When I went to do a light gravel vac to get rid of some of the built up diatoms a ton of bubbles were released and it smelled like eggs. I got my planting tweezers and started poking around and the tank erupted with bubbles everywhere I poked. After some research it looks like it’s hydrogen sulfide gas but I still have questions. How is it building up so fast, will it eventually stop building up, should I be doing something differently, is it toxic to fish and plants and the bacteria? If I skip a few days of poking around it’s like I haven’t done it at all there’s so much built up. Is it better to leave it alone? I’d really appreciate any insight!

Thank you. You’re very kind. I’ve definitely been learning a lot, I just wish it wasn’t at the expense of the fish. Hopefully this works out and we will be able to start enjoying the fish soon!

@nabokovfan87 After doing some research I totally agree. I have a 5 gallon that is almost cycled that I planned use as a quarantine tank as needed. My thought is (if he survives) treat 2 weeks of expel in the current tank and then move them to the 5 gallon and super clean their current tank and let it cycle without them in there. Continue treatment in the 5 gallon and move them back when it’s complete. Even if he doesn’t survive I think I should still remove the 1 remaining fish and clean this tank out and basically start over. Thank you both so so much. I really truly appreciate you taking time to help me.

@nabokovfan87 I still test my water everyday and there is no ammonia or nitrite. It’s been a long process to get here though because of the combination of my original cluelessness and all the meds I have had to use to fix the problems I originally caused. My tap water tests 0 chlorine so I always assumed there was chloramine and double dose. I do have salt in a low dose in the tank and an airstone. This fish was always the worst off of the 2 so even if he pulls through again I think it will be an ongoing issue but he’s still eating so I’ll keep doing what I can. I was able to find the api fin and body cure so I can start treating with that but I don’t know how much that’s going to help if the underlaying issue isn’t resolved.

@Colu thank you again! I really appreciate you taking the time to help. I couldn’t find it local so I ordered maracyn 2 and expel p. It won’t be here until the middle of next week. Is there anything I can do until then? I have paracleanse, paraguard, and regular maracyn on hand. I don’t want to overdo it but I don’t want to do nothing and he get worse.

@Colu @nabokovfan87 Im back and hoping you can help me again. 🤞🏼 I followed all of the advice above and my 2 surviving fish made what seemed like a full recovery. Since then I’ve just really tried to focus on keeping the tank stable and getting it truly cycled (which I believe it is) and I have not added anymore fish. My ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all 0. Last week one of the fish started acting lethargic, hiding in a bushy plant and slowly stopped eating. I started noticing whiteish patches on him so I added ich-x because I wasn’t quite sure what it was. By the next day he looked horrible and was covered. The patches are frosted looking and larger than what I believe ich would look like. I started dosing with kanaplex and salt again. I did my last dose of kanaplex yesterday and I don’t see much, if any improvement in the way he looks. He’s not worse though and he is eating and out today. Is there something else I should be trying? I attached a few pictures so you could see it at different angles.

I just wanted to give an update for anyone that comes across this and has a similar situation. My fish originally looked much worse than the pictures, were lethargic and weren’t eating. I did 2 rounds of paracleanse which brought us to the pictures and the fish starting to have a bit of an appetite. I did a 50% water change and started the salt and ich-x while I waited for the kanaplex to be delivered. I treated with ich-x and salt for 2 days with 30% water changes and saw a big improvement just by doing that. The kanaplex came yesterday and I added that to the tank with a dose of ich-x. This morning they were begging for food by the top of the tank and I can see a visible improvement. I’ll dose with kanaplex again tomorrow and go from there but it seems to be going in the right direction. Hopefully this post helps someone else!

Great! Thank you both so so much!!

@nabokovfan87 It is a nerite. So he can stay in with the salt? The ich-x is ok for him too right, but not the kanaplex. I’m just trying to figure out if I need to make him a little temporary home.

@Colu Thank you!!!! I just ordered it. I’ll start the ich-x immediately though.

Actually no. They are from a really reputable local fish store. They have been really helpful in getting my water under control and they recommend the paracleanse and gave me a refund on all the fish. They said they would take these guys back but I feel bad for them. They have been through the wringer plus the tank is my 6 year old daughter’s and she’s quite attached. I don’t have aquarium salt, I can absolutely run and get some tomorrow. I do have a snail though.

I was able to get a better side photo of the one who still has some gill issues

Thank you so much for responding! The last water change was today. The last dose of paracleanse was given Monday. I changed about 40%. I do a 30-40% water change every 5 days. The tank is still pretty new and even though my levels are low I believe I’m still not seeing any nitrates from anything other than fertilizer so I don’t believe it’s fully cycled. I still test daily and never see any ammonia or nitrite but I get paranoid after having such issues in the beginning. I’m feeding very very little but up until the last day or 2 they haven’t really had any interest in food so I do gravel vac every time I do a water change. I also add back Bacteria every change. I have an aqua flow 20 (it’s a 10 gallon tank) modified with a pre filter sponge and a bunch of course sponges in the back. I squeeze out the pre filter sponge when it looks dirty in old aquarium water. I haven’t had to do any maintenance to the inside of the filter. I also run an air stone. I have had some issues with brown algae stuff so every time I change the water I take out one thing and clean it in old aquarium water. I attached a side photo. Where the white is above his eye used to be very dark. In person it does look like it’s healing. His gills used to look like they went through a shredder and were slothing off but that has gone away. From a certain angle they do look red inside but I couldn’t get a picture.

Hello again helpful fish people. I am very new to fish keeping and it has been a journey. Long story short I had major issues with my water at first and lost some fish, I finally got it under control but I believe the initial issues and stress caused disease in my tank. It started with some of them having what looked like white mustaches. I treated with Maracyn with no results and lost more fish. The disease evolved to where the skin around their gills looked shredded and some of them look like they have hole in the head. I’m now down to 2 glow light tetras and I just finished my second round of pracleanse and the last 2 little fighters look so much better. Their gills look better (still slightly red) and I can see their wounds starting to close and heal. Do I do a 3rd round of paracleanse since there’s still some issues, do I give them a break, or is there something else I should be doing? Also I didn’t want to get anymore fish until these guys are healthy but is the stress of there only being 2 of them only going to make it worse? The meds I have are maracyn, paracleanse, ich-x, primafix, Melafix. I did my best with the picture. This little guy was wrecked. The white area above his eyes are what is healing and I still feel like he looks a bit swollen around his gills. my water parameters are ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 10 Ph 7.5 GH 7