yikes.. (20 gallon update)

[SC Fish]

so my 2 month old 20 gallon as i mentioned in the last post, is not doing so well. 

finrot is now becoming more blatant in the tank and more visible in other fish, even after i have begun treating the tank

fungus is now also becoming visible on multiple plants and even on the glass . white spots appearing on glass and white fungus growing around the thin plants like a coat. 

the treatment treats both fin rot and fungus so I'm hoping this goes well.. but i wont know till Saturday once medication is finished.

i knew something would go wrong when i added the guppies but i did not expect this.

 

i have also came to realise just how many people underestimate the troubles of keeping fish, especially because fish share a controlled space, in water. which means if one fish has a disease they all do. (hypothetically. obviously some diseases cant be spread and it will take a bit for all the fish to get it ) 

 

luckily the tank was treated just a day and a bit after i first noticed a problem , hopefully everything goes fine. so far no deaths, hopefully i can keep it this way 

[Gannon]

Fin rot is usually a sign of a much larger problem. I've definitely seen instances of older and weakened fish being more susceptible to it despite clean and good water parameters, but usually speaking it comes from a pollutant or stressor that weakens the immune system of the fish. Be sure to address the root cause here or itll just come back later. 

[SC Fish]

On 11/1/2022 at 4:16 PM, Gannon said:

Fin rot is usually a sign of a much larger problem. I've definitely seen instances of older and weakened fish being more susceptible to it despite clean and good water parameters, but usually speaking it comes from a pollutant or stressor that weakens the immune system of the fish. Be sure to address the root cause here or itll just come back later. 

im trying to find out as much as i can about this. but im not entirely sure what to do.

I know i need to address this but , being young, i have other things i need to do , like studying etc so im trying to balance these issues. 

if you know how i can address the issues faster that would be great

[Gannon]

On 11/1/2022 at 11:19 AM, SC Fish said:

im trying to find out as much as i can about this. but im not entirely sure what to do.

I know i need to address this but , being young, i have other things i need to do , like studying etc so im trying to balance these issues. 

if you know how i can address the issues faster that would be great

I get that. I'm a double major college student with both majors being unrelated and I have to use a slow RODI machine to make water for my big aquariums. There is always time if you make it! Though it certainly can be exhausting to do so, the important thing is to make sure you're enjoying your hobby and all. But you also can't enjoy your hobby is everything is getting sick. If you can give me a detailed breakdown of all your water paramaters, any cleaning practices, whats in the tank etc, ill see if I can find something that might be concerning, but ultimately there is only so much I can do being not in front of the tank! 

[SC Fish]

On 11/1/2022 at 4:23 PM, Gannon said:

I get that. I'm a double major college student with both majors being unrelated and I have to use a slow RODI machine to make water for my big aquariums. There is always time if you make it! Though it certainly can be exhausting to do so, the important thing is to make sure you're enjoying your hobby and all. But you also can't enjoy your hobby is everything is getting sick. If you can give me a detailed breakdown of all your water paramaters, any cleaning practices, whats in the tank etc, ill see if I can find something that might be concerning, but ultimately there is only so much I can do being not in front of the tank! 

ill tell you one thing, this hobby is the best thing i have ever decided to do. 

this is basically a therapy to me, when its going smoothly obviously lol, but even when its not its cool to start understanding and experiencing things that ill have to work out in the future anyways. 

 

plus when im older i want to do this on a much larger scale. being a conservationist with not just fish!

 

its proebrably harder for you as you are in college though, good luck in that by the way!

 

i can get a test done if you want me to, but i have none on my right now... the parameters where perfect though when i first added fish. the tank is dirted (literally with soil) and it also has aqua soil , live plants , rocks etc. there are shrimp , fish (platy , guppy , endler guppy and neon tetras). and its a 20 gallon heated to 23 degrees. has a good filter with great flow for the tank. i waterchange once a week and clean the sponge every 2 weeks. the same thing i do on my 10 gallon which ive had up for 1 year and 8 months (which btw has never had any issues, whatsover.)

 

[Gannon]

Its very likely that after you added fish they were too much for the biological filteration of your tank. Did you ever test after adding them? The first weeks are very important to test during. 

[SC Fish]

On 11/1/2022 at 4:31 PM, Gannon said:

Its very likely that after you added fish they were too much for the biological filteration of your tank. Did you ever test after adding them? The first weeks are very important to test during. 

i did test once, 1 week after adding the first fish (4 platys and 7 neon tetras) and it was fine. still havent tested now after the guppys being added (i only added them last week)

[Gannon]

On 11/1/2022 at 11:35 AM, SC Fish said:

i did test once, 1 week after adding the first fish (4 platys and 7 neon tetras) and it was fine. still havent tested now after the guppys being added (i only added them last week)

Well other than that its hard to say. Did you ever clean your media with non tank water? Maybe with water with chlorine, or water thats too hot or cold that would shock and kill beneficial bacteria? 

[TheSwissAquarist]

@Colu have you got any recommendations for @SC Fish s treatment? 

[SC Fish]

On 11/1/2022 at 4:37 PM, Gannon said:

Well other than that its hard to say. Did you ever clean your media with non tank water? Maybe with water with chlorine, or water thats too hot or cold that would shock and kill beneficial bacteria? 

ok, so i do clean the sponges (on both tanks) with tap water up until around 3 weeks ago, so the last 2 cleans where with tank water, however after cleaning the sponges with tap on the 10 gallon for 1 year and 7 months nothing like this has happened

On 11/1/2022 at 4:38 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

@Colu have you got any recommendations for @SC Fish s treatment? 

currently im treating with "Anti fungus & finrot+" by interpret

[Gannon]

On 11/1/2022 at 11:39 AM, SC Fish said:

ok, so i do clean the sponges (on both tanks) with tap water up until around 3 weeks ago, so the last 2 cleans where with tank water, however after cleaning the sponges with tap on the 10 gallon for 1 year and 7 months nothing like this has happened

currently im treating with "Anti fungus & finrot+" by interpret

Idk whats in your tap water but thats generally a very bad practice, ESPECIALLY with chlorine. I would suspect that could be part of the culprit. 

[SC Fish]

On 11/1/2022 at 4:42 PM, Gannon said:

Idk whats in your tap water but thats generally a very bad practice, ESPECIALLY with chlorine. I would suspect that could be part of the culprit. 

something that may be worth mentioning tho is that i have double media on my filters and only cleaned 1 pet week

[Gannon]

On 11/1/2022 at 11:43 AM, SC Fish said:

something that may be worth mentioning tho is that i have double media on my filters and only cleaned 1 pet week

Still can destabilize things enough. 

[SC Fish]

On 11/1/2022 at 4:44 PM, Gannon said:

Still can destabilize things enough. 

yes , however i dont get how this could have caused such a bad issue in the 20 gallon so fast and never in my 10 gallon?

 

also surely doing water changes as i clean the sponges (adding the tapwater conditioner) should kill chlorine that had been placed in the filters?

[Gannon]

On 11/1/2022 at 11:45 AM, SC Fish said:

yes , however i dont get how this could have caused such a bad issue in the 20 gallon so fast and never in my 10 gallon?

 

also surely doing water changes as i clean the sponges (adding the tapwater conditioner) should kill chlorine that had been placed in the filters?

crazier stuff has happened! Its possible

[SC Fish]

On 11/1/2022 at 4:46 PM, Gannon said:

crazier stuff has happened! Its possible

this hobby is insane lol

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

When I first started keeping fish I just added everybody straight into the tank.  Then I found this video and some similar ones online.  This is the process I follow now.  Takes longer to get the enjoyment of the new fish purchase, but it's worth it in the long run.

 

[Colu]

do you use a dechlorinator like prime when doing water changes and without noing your water parameters ammonia nitrite nitrate etc it difficult to no for sure what the causes is @SC Fish first I would test your water parameters and report back 

[SC Fish]

On 11/1/2022 at 7:18 PM, Colu said:

do you use a dechlorinator like prime when doing water changes and without noing your water parameters ammonia nitrite nitrate etc it difficult to no for sure what the causes is @SC Fish first I would test your water parameters and report back 

yes, i use the correct dosage on both tanks of dechlorinator ,  i use "tap water conditioner" made by aquacare for coldwater , tropical and marine aquariums. have been for over a year now