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DocHippo

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  1. Hi Fish Friends! I have been battling string algae for a while and I am thoroughly convinced that it is due to a lack of nutrients in my water. My aquarium is 10 gallons, with amano shrimp, bloody mary shrimp, nerite snails, 3 ottos, 2 grown platys and I believe 5 two week old fry. The aquarium is planted with various types of crypts and windelov java fern, the algae issue has really beaten up my plants. Unfortunately my aquarium is in my office and since covid started I have not been going to my office 2-3 days per week, usually at the start of the week so regular fertilizing has not been happening. I have ordered a Jebao Programmable Auto Dosing Pump from that place with the smiles on their boxes and I already have Easy Green, Easy Iron, Easy Carbon and Seachem potassium. I ordered a set of glass bottles off Etsy to hold my solutions for the system. I just need some advice for how to set it up, especially for a nano aquarium. Things I have questions about are Do I need to dilute the fertilizers so I can pump larger volumes into the aquarium? If I do dilute them how do I do that? I work in a lab so have access to DI water. Do I need some sort of check valve to make sure water from my aquarium doesn't flow back into the solution bottles? Any other advice that anyone has would be very much appreciated. I haven't ever set anything like this up but I think it is a necessary step to keep my aquarium thriving. Thank you in advance for your advice!
  2. The sync worked and I received my discount on my order today! Thank you for this perk Cory and Aquarium Coop, membership has it's privileges. 🙂
  3. Monday Report - Oh no Ich Saga I am thrilled to report that all the fish looked better when I got back into my office this morning. The fish that had it the worst (the dark black and orange platy) was significantly improved as were the other fish. I am sad to report that my oto colony is down to 4, I lost one that appeared to get stuck eating some hair algae last week, and lost another over the weekend, he was stuck to the lid of the aquarium, a freak accident. I'm sad to have lost them. Over the weekend I treated with ich-x, maracyn and general cure and it seems to have really helped everything. This morning I did a 30% water change and redosed ich-x and maracyn. I plan to continue to dose for a few more days because I can't tell if the white flecks on one otos fins. I also want to give the dark platy a chance to recover from the fin rot which took most of her tailfin. I am hopeful that I'm on the right track. Thank you everyone who commented and gave advice. I really appreciate it. PS: I'm sorry for the quality of the photos, I had just done my water change and put in the meds, so the water has a tint from the ich-x and the white stuff is maracyn dissolving in the water.
  4. @Ben P.Thank you for the great information about temperature on the fish I have. I'm cranking the heat slowly cause the aquarium was unheated until yesterday. When I get back to the office on Monday the heat is going up! @GatorI thought it looked like fungus too. I went ahead and did the CoOp trio because a different fish has worse ich and appears to have some significant damage to it's tail fin so going all in on the meds. I hope you both have a great weekend!
  5. @NanoNano, Thank you for sharing the life cycle diagram for ich. That is very helpful for understanding what I'm up against. Unfortunately, I am not able to dose exactly as the bottle says because my aquarium is in my office and I do not have access to my office over the weekends right now. So I have no real choice other than to dose on Friday as directed and then again on Monday when I come back to the office. I imagine this will mean my battle will be longer but I will get ahead of it. Because my fish are all pretty new to the aquarium I am thinking I am going to implement the CoOp quarantine trio. They eye of one of my platys looks weird so I think he may need a bit of extra help (see photo). Hopefully everyone will recover, in spite of the gaps in treatment.
  6. @Gator, Thanks for the compliment on the picture, I took it in a city in Texas and really like it. I am pleased to report that after 2 days of treatment with ich-X that my otos are looking much better, only a few ich spots on them. My platys are also looking better, one is still as a lot but the other two seem to be doing better. I'm still nervous about having to skip a couple of days for the weekend but will stay the course. Thank you for your advice and kind words. I will report back how everything looks on Monday.
  7. @Gator, Thank you for taking the time to read through my post again and for the thorough answer to it. I was just about to do the water change for the ich-X and was going to add some aquarium salt. I am really nervous to add salt because I read that scale-less fish like otos have a problem with it. While I don't mind losing my plants if I can avoid it I'd just as soon because my plants are just really getting established again. I think I'm going to hold off on the salt and see how things look tomorrow. Thank you also for the boost of confidence about my skill as a fish keeping question asker 👩‍⚕️. I hate it when my fish get sick and this case is worse because I was gone so didn't catch it quickly. Hopefully everyone will heal up now that they're getting the right care. I added a heater but it is preset to 78, which I thought was better than nothing, a better heater that is adjustable will arrive tomorrow so I can raise the temperature to 80ish over the weekend. Plus I will have an emergency backup heater now. I examined my fish drawer and I have API General Cure and Fritz Maracyn which is Erythromycin. I will try to get some fungus cure or something similar in the morning, unfortunately while I live in a pretty good sized city it's kind of out by itself so sometimes it's hard to get things. We will see if I can find any. I have a message in to my LFS to see if maybe they have something, the big box pet store with the ball logo doesn't. I will add what meds I can after doing the water change and adding more ich-X tomorrow. I hope you're right that things will improve over the weekend. My fish are already starting to look better but the platys especially look rough. I hope they recover. Thanks again for your help!
  8. @Gator That's good to know about the temperature. I have been nervous about setting mine too high because my office is not air conditioned outside of business hours and I worry about the water getting too hot, my office has been 90F on weekends in the summer. But it sounds like you've had really good luck keeping your aquariums warm so I will give that a try. Thank you for sharing your experience with me, I really appreciate it!
  9. @Colu Thank you for the response. I like your plan and will give it a try. I will report back the results, fingers crossed my fish come through it. @Guppysnail Thank you for the response, bummer that hair algae is a saltwater issue too. 🙂
  10. Mistakes were made...I might be a terrible fish keeper. I keep my aquarium in my office, it is 10 Gallons. Planted with various small crypts, a couple of red flam swords and wendlov java fern. Water parameters by CoOp test strips are pictured below but the readings are Nitrate 25, Nitrate 0, GH 300, KH 120, pH 8.0, Chlorine 0, Ammonia 0. I have 5 or 6 otocinclus (they're my favorite fish), 3 platys, a few amano and bloody mary shrimp, a nerite snail, 3 fresh water limpets, and pond snails. Right now the aquarium is unheated because my old heater shorted and killed most of my bloody mary shrimp, I hadn't replaced it because my office isn't cooled at night or on weekends and summer in Texas is warm even when it's a cool summer like we are having. I have been restocking my aquarium after most of my fish were given away just before covid hit. I added 5 otos from my fish store 2 weeks ago today. Then a friend gave me the 3 platys from his tank early last week. I'm horrible because I didn't quarantine either groups because there weren't really any fish in the aquarium other than 2 otos that I had kept pre-covid. I've never had ich before so I'm sure came from either the fish store or my friend's aquarium. Shame on me for not doing quarantine meds, lesson learned. When I left my office on Thursday of last week everything was fine, I was out of town and returned to my office today. When I got to my office one of my otos had died leaving 5 or 6 (a couple of them hide so never sure how many there are) and all my other fish had white spots on them. I have looked on the forum and online and I think it's ich. I know that the best treatments for ich are heat, salt and ich-X. I treated my aquarium with ich-X today. I am getting a temporary heater that is preset to 78F in the morning, that is the best I could do locally, but one that is adjustable will arrive on Friday from those people with the smile on their logo (emergency had to get it here really quick, otherwise I would have ordered it from the CoOp). As soon as the adjustable heater arrives I will up the temp to 80F. I already run 2 small sponge filters but I went ahead and added another air stone to make sure there's plenty of oxygen in the water. But I still have some questions: 1. I read that the treatment is to dose ich-X everyday after a 1/3 water change. What should I do over the weekend? I won't have access to my office for 2 days so I won't be able to do water changes and dose the ich-X? 2. I know that aquarium salt is helpful, I have some that I bought a long time ago from the CoOp, but I read that otos might be sensitive to it. Does anyone have experience in using salt with otos? How much can I use with otos? If salt is the best thing I am not afraid to sacrifice my plants. 3. I think my fish are pretty eaten up with the ich parasites, should I treat them with antibiotics too to prevent secondary infections or should I wait it out and see how they do? 4. Is 80F going to be safe for my fish? Should I go warmer than that? I know that 86F will kill the ich parasite but I don't want to hurt any of my inhabitants other than the ich. 5. Bonus question: I know aquarium salt is bad for plants, will it kill hair algae? Thank you for reading my long winded tail of woe. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I failed my fish and I'm afraid I'm going to fail them again because I can't do the treatment as recommended.
  11. I am pleased to report that an Anker 20,000 mA Hr battery pack ran the nano air pump from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon with no problems at all. Everyone survived the power outage with flying colors. Thanks everyone for the great advice.
  12. @DShelton I have never claimed to be good at math but I think you're right. Thank you so much! @Fish Folk NERMS rule! We love all the data! @satisfiedghost Thanks for the recommendation I will look for an Anker. I thought it would be handy to have a bigger backup for traveling so I don't mind investing a little bit.
  13. Oh Thanks @DShelton, I missed the watts on the website. I appreciate you sharing that, it will help me plan.
  14. Thanks @Fish Folk! I will watch the video. I was thinking a pack like that might do the trick. I'm hoping someone with some experience using them will chime in. I don't mind spending a little money for insurance, and it is something that is useful to me outside of fish keeping.
  15. There is a planned power outage so that my city power company can join ERCOT. Yes...that ERCOT that caused all the power outages in Texas in February, the wisdom of this choice is another discussion. My aquarium is at my office and I will be out of town the weekend of the outage for a graduation, but my colleague will be in and out to make sure the equipment all comes back online (I work in a clinical laboratory) so he will be able to plug my pumps and heater back in if all goes according to plan. I'd like to have an emergency plan that he can implement should things go south. I have a USB nano air pump, my aquarium is 10 gallon and has 2 small sponge filters. Stocking is light, 1 cardinal tetra (more are coming), 3 ottos, a small number of bloody mary shrimp, 3 fresh water limpets, and pond snails My questions are: Can anyone recommend a power source that can run the nano air pump form say Friday afternoon until Monday morning? Should I set it up so that the nano air pump only runs 1 small sponge filter or should I just unplug the pump I have and replace it with the nano on the battery? My airline has a splitter so I could divert the air all one way or the other. Anything else that I'm not considering? Thank you for any advice! -Lindsay
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