Kristina

Thanks! I'll research that as well. That's what I'm finding online! Yikes!

I will look into the duckweed.

Will that withstand the 86 to to 88 degree water temp? I struggle to find plants that will take the high heat.

Yes! We are saving for a larger tank so we can do that! I would love a tank that has carpeting plants and lots more plants just in general!

Okay, will do - with the discus, I find if I do less than 50% every other day, my nitrates hit 40ppm daily instead of every two days. What would you suggest for my water changes? And thank you! I want bigger so I can have more plants! I'd also like to do CO2, but struggle already with my pH for the discus so I'm a bit nervous to jump into that.

Thank you for your response - here are a few pictures so you can see the cloudiness as well as the rotting roots... I've also included a picture from day before yesterday when my aquarium was crystal clear like it normally is. Thank you for this! I just watched it and I did do my 50% water change evening before last and then the cloudiness was here less than 24 hours later. We took the driftwood out for about 15 to 20 minutes as it was time to vacuum the side of the tank where it normally sits. It may have killed off the bacteria from the driftwood. We will add prime and we have seachem's pristine and stability as well which is what we have on hand. I can add those.

We purchased some Pothos from Home Depot, rinsed the roots really well and they have been in the little plastic holders (roots only) in our aquarium for about 2 months. The plants are growing great; however, the roots appear to be rotting? They used to be white and now they are black and pie6 ces keep falling off. Yesterday, out of no where, our water turned cloudy. Ammonia and Nitrites are 0 ppm, nitrates = 20 ppm. 50% WC every two days. We have 2 Fluval 407's running and and airstone. Our tank is 55g and we have 6 discus, 6 Harlequin Rasbora's. 5 cardinal tetras, two columbian zebra plecos, 5 black neon tetras, 3 juli cory's and 1 panda cory. I'm wondering if these pothos roots are rotting and that is why we have this bacterial bloom. Any suggestions on how to get my clear water back would be welcome! Should we break off the rotting roots, get rid of the pothos all together and propagate for new roots? We have a UV filter but I have't added that to our aquarium as I'm not sure of the effectiveness. It's the Eliminator by Aquatop. It says it is an internal filter with UV and helps with algae blooms, but I don't think this is algae. Will it hurt if I put this filter in my aquarium just to see what it does, if anything? Thanks in advance for any help on how to get rid of this cloudy water!

Thanks! I did see this reverse respiration mentioned in other posts and thought about that as well. Sounds like it would be the safer option!

Does a simple rinse of the plants after the alum bath get rid of the alum enough that it doesn't hurt the fish in the tank? I ordered plants from here and they arrive today. I was just going to put them in my tank, but I don't want to hurt the fish or other plants that are already in my tank!

Okay, thank you!

Okay, thank you!

The ParaCleanse that I discontinued when starting the ICH-X as suggested above. I have Focus and Kanaplex. I lost another fish last night so I have just my dragon blood remaining. I don't see any spots on him and he ate this morning. He is still shying away from me, which he didn't do before this epidemic began, but he is swimming around the tank when I view from a distance instead of staying in the back corner. When I do my water change today, should I also clean my canister filter, replace the sponge filter and clean my decor somehow?

Today (Sunday) is the fourth treatment with the ICH-X and the Maracyn in the food. I have lost 13 of my 15 cichlids. How many days in a row should I continue treating the tank with the ICH-X? Until I no longer see spots? One of the two has no interest on eating at all.

Thank you all for your responses. I’ve been slowly losing my mind. I did email my parameters however, attaching here for others that have not seen them. My pH is 8.2, ammonia is 0 ppm, nitrites 0 ppm, nitrates 20 ppm, GH = 14 & KH = 12. My tank is 55g and my temp is 80.

I also seem to have a lot of little white stuff floating in my tank today... the directions on the ParaCleanse say that I don't do a water change (25%) until day five. Is it okay to leave my water like this until day 5? It was good until I added the ParaCleanse yesterday.