How can I be better?

[Lee Pedersen1]

5 months ago I casually mentioned to my Fiancée I wouldn’t mind keeping an aquarium, now she bombards me with stuff for my new hobby. I love her to death. Now I’m at a point with my tanks that I have engorged information and it has somewhat paralyzed me. What is next and how can I be better?

My plants are not looking good in my 10 gallon, I’m fighting ICK now as well, White Algae/Mold is cropping up and I keep vacuuming it away. I added more bottom feeders (trouble w/ snails only shrimp) and stopped feeding as much but nada. Perfect time for my Molly to birth. 3 Molly, 2 balloon Molly, 2 guppy, and 2 loach. I was gifted loaches from a moving friend and I couldn’t find space for a 20+ tank for them.

My 5 gallon has slight ICK, the plants have tons of new growth, so does algae. 2 Molly, 1 balloon Molly.

My Molly fry I moved into a 2 1/2 before my ICK issues but that tank is in need help with white algae/mold, so more shrimp it is, nada. 37 Molly fry

I don’t have a picture of when the 10 gallon was bad but I had to take the thing almost apart to clean everything. 8/9 hour lighting all tanks.

I will except any advice, thoughts, good intentions, or scrutiny at this point to become learned. Thank You for support.

[quikv6]

1)Ick-X is effective. Use it based on directions. Treat 3-5 days more AFTER the last visible white spot disappears. You can also raise the temp to around 80-81 to speed up the ick lifecycle. (In your pics, the temp looked to be 74....possibly a bit low, especially when treating Ick.

2) Livebearers thrive with higher mineral content. GH and KH. (Not sure of your parameters)

3) Aim for stability. Just my .02

[PineSong]

I am sorry this is happening--it is so frustrating when something that is supposed to be a peaceful pleasant hobby becomes a wrestle with illness and algae. Deep breath... 

1) I would prioritize ich treatment, as stated above. 

2) I would get to the bottom of the "white mold" problem--what it is? Is it food that is molding over, or what? What kind of food are you feeding, how often and how much? Could post your water parameters and close up photos of the 'mold' for more help with that?

3) After ich is gone, I would move fish around so male and female livebearers are not in the same tank if you do not want additional breeding to happen.

4) After ich is gone, you could work on rehoming fish who you don't have room for and then start working to improve your plant health by adjusting your lighting period, fertilizer, and water change schedule to improve their growth. I would not worry about plants when you have ich and mold to solve.

It feels overwhelming and we've all been there. Ich is a big pain and a real threat, but responds well to treatment most of the time. 

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

This can be pretty overwhelming at times can't it. Sorry for that, it can certainly suck. 

I've been through Ich 3x- it's a pain but if you're diligent in your treatment and follow the medication directions YOU CAN get through this. 

It sounds as if you're a bit overwhelmed with the tanks you have? How many? Maybe you need to consider consolidating? Rehoming the babies when they are grown. If you consolidate to your best or biggest tank you can move the plants there (more plants the better), add filtration if you need to (depending on amount of fish). Focusing on fewer tanks really does help. 

Separating males/females is a good idea- especially when you're overwhelmed with other issues in tanks. 

I keep easy plants in my low tech tanks. I run my tanks for 8 hours on lights however I've got dimmers on some (I don't use ferts) which has helped. A wise man on one of Cory's videos said that Rhizone plants only need 4 hours of light, 6 for stem plants. Maybe cut back for two hours or do a siesta if you have timers that can do it, put the lights on for 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon or evening- and you can even aim for the times when you're home- this should help your plants grow! A lot of people here have had success with this method. 

Edited February 18, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[lefty o]

dont know if you are or are not, but dont use the same net etc between tanks. gives an opportunity to transfer problems from one tank to another.

[Lee Pedersen1]

Too run down info for everyone, I have fluval stratum in all my tanks (2.5-3 inch.) I was worried about the time it would take to get ICK-X so I got big box store brand.Pictures of before and after 1 day on my loach with this brand. COVID had me change jobs and downsize homes so yes I feel I have to many tanks, I have a friend who wants a planted 20 tall and one friend with a 75 planted for rehousing. I use a Aqueon Quietflow 10 and two 3’s for respective tanks. As for parameters, I know they are deteriorating as of this last week, picture for reference (I’m colorblind) Picture with bedding is 5 1/2 G other is 10 G. I feed Aqueon flakes 2x per day. I was doing shrimp pellets but stopped in the hopes it may help them to focus on any spare fish food. Heaters on every tank 74-78 o all tanks.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Which med did you get for Ich?

[Lee Pedersen1]

This cleared the tales/bodies up on almost all my fish but my loach is still really bad. If had this loach for 2 months.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Well, part of that might be because the imagitarium product is basically a form of melafix or pimafix, neither of which are very effective. Do you have Ich-x coming? Otherwise the big box stores sell API, maybe get Super Ick Cure- I see it's available at walmart. Herbal products sadly don't work great. If you get Ich-x or Super Ick that should help you see the end of it (Super Ick will dye your silicone, airline/suction cups, decorations but I never cared too much)

[Lee Pedersen1]

My main priority is to treat my fish correctly. Coloration from medicine won’t stop me. I can hit a Walmart tomorrow afternoon.

[Patrick_G]

I would do some water changes for sure. It looks like I’m the first pic you have 1ppm Nitrite and your Nitrate in both pics is at the High end of the 80-160 spectrum. Since they’re lightly planted tanks weekly water changes are a good idea. 
 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Ah cool. That will help. I agree with @Patrick_G do a good sized water change before you dose this med. Since I've used it before I can tell you that you can extend treatment as long as you see spots just monitor your ammonia levels and water change if you have to, as it is you will do at least a 25% water change after 48 hours. I had contacted API about water changes and continuing treatment- they confirmed it was ok to do water changes on the 2nd day and then on the 4th- but also continue beyond that if I was still seeing symptoms. Attached is my questions (I cut out my parameters/preamble) and their answer: 

Edited February 18, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Lee Pedersen1]

90% water with vacuum on the 1st, 30% every monday for every tank. 
 

Am I just to light on plants? Also, unless I order online (unlucky for me) I can’t get ahold of snails. Lastly, I want to consolidate tanks, will my 5 gallon tank plants transfer over easily and/or safely for my 10 gallon? Can I use the substrate from the 5 in the 10?

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

The more plants the healthier the tank seems to be, they also help soak up your Nitrates. If you want snails for algae, get yourself a Nerite snail they're the best IMO and they can't reproduce- they need algae and don't eat commercial foods so there is a very fine balance as to how many you can actually have. You can get those at petco typically but don't start adding life to your tanks until you cure the illnesses and you decide where everyone is going. As long as everyone is healthy, the water parameters are similar and everyone will get along I would definitely not have a problem down sizing. I actually have a plan for that myself (I have 6 tanks) if things get overwhelming or something takes my time away from my tanks. Adding substrate and plants from one tank to another shouldn't be an issue (again as long as it's coming from a healthy tank) and it may even help establish/keep your cycles going. 

[lefty o]

On 2/17/2022 at 9:27 PM, Lee Pedersen1 said:

90% water with vacuum on the 1st, 30% every monday for every tank. 
 

Am I just to light on plants? Also, unless I order online (unlucky for me) I can’t get ahold of snails. Lastly, I want to consolidate tanks, will my 5 gallon tank plants transfer over easily and/or safely for my 10 gallon? Can I use the substrate from the 5 in the 10?

i myself would not do a 90% water change. better to do an extra 30% change once in a while than a huge water change.

[Hobbit]

Ich-X will also dye your silicone but it dyes it blue, so it kind of goes with the fish aesthetic. 😉 

I’ve used Ich-X to get rid of ich in the past. It’s extremely effective and I think it will work well for you, since it’s meant to be dosed right after a 30% water change every day. Those consistent water changes will make sure your nitrite and nitrate stay low. Be sure to pick up something to add GH and KH to your water though (assuming your tap water is pretty soft) since with that many water changes you’ll be taking out all the minerals, too. If your tap water is hard, simple baking soda can help you raise the KH and pH a tad.

In my tank which is at 80 degrees F, I dosed Ich-X for a full 2 weeks. At a lower temperature, you should probably dose for longer to be safe.

Don’t worry—this sort of learning curve is unfortunately normal. You’re doing fine. This is a tough hobby until you get a well-established tank with healthy fish.

[Minanora]

Ich X will dye your stuff for a bit, but it does go away after a while.

 

I would not do huge water changes with high nitrates, I learned that the hard way. 30% a day, for as long as it takes to get things below 40ppm.

You're on the right track with all of the other advise, keep it up. Aquariums are living things in themselves. It takes time to get things to stabilize.

My husband thinks I spend way too much time on my fish, when in reality... I spend 3 hours on a single day doing water changes on all of my tanks, about every 3 weeks, and about 5 million hours just looking at all the fish for my own happiness. ^_^

[Flumpweesel]

I'd just like to mention that things get easier 5months is a very short period of time in fish tanks. 

Take a deep breath you'll get through this. Plants will grow they are probably just settling leave them for now.

Is it two tanks you have?

 The water tests are not easy for the colour blind but you can post on here if you need a reading confirming.

Focus on Ick once that's out of the way everything will get easier. 

Unless readings are off the chart 30% water changes are generally enough 

[quikv6]

You can do this!

Add the Nitrite to the top of the priority list. This needs to get to zero. The good news, as mentioned, is that ick-x requires daily 30 percent changes before a redose, so that will help. But for that tank with the 1.0+ppm nitrite, I'd do at least a 50 percent immediately, just to get that nitrite down.

[Lee Pedersen1]

This is all I can find at Walmart. I’ve ordered ICK-X on Amazon but it won’t be here for four days. Any ideas?

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Hmm, well we use another of their products to help with other illnesses. Does the box list the ingredents by chance?

I'm not able to locate any info on that online as far as ingredients. 

It does, however, have decent reviews on Amazon so that's a good sign.

[Lee Pedersen1]

No ingredients, sadly. After my afternoon job I’ll be doing a 30% in the 10G and a 50% on the 5G, then starting with the tabs. Switched to 6hrs on plants.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I would try it. Amazon and other sites are saying use a half tab in a 10 gallon so it seems a quarter tab would be appropriate in your 5

Hopefully it has an ingredients list on the inside with an instructions packet. It would help to know what the active ingredients are in it. 

[Flumpweesel]

Cool you get to review a new product for us.

I was going to add to remember Ick is a pain and the earlier it's treated the better but fish won't die overnight from it they won't be the happiest fish but if they are healthy then they can cope a good while . When I was first battled ick someone told me to think of it like fleas on a dog it helped me wrap my head around what I was dealing with.

[Colu]

On 2/18/2022 at 8:24 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Hmm, well we use another of their products to help with other illnesses. Does the box list the ingredents by chance?

I'm not able to locate any info on that online as far as ingredients. 

It does, however, have decent reviews on Amazon so that's a good sign.

Active ingredient in jungal ick clear is Victoria green and acriflavin