Need Advice for Newbie

[Kenneth]

My current 10-Gallon Setup have Bio Wheel PENGUIN 100 by MARINELAND and TOPFIN H100 Heater.

I have

• 5 Tetras
• 3 Cherry Barbs
• 3 Siamese Algae Eater.

I used to have 3 Kuhli Loaches but they died 1 by 1. The recent and last one was today, I had them from a store and I didn't quarantine them before putting it in. I had the first death on the next day, I checked one of the loach ad found out it had an Ich so I immediately check the rest of the loaches and they all have the same disease. The next day I went to PetSmart to get a medicine and give the entire tank a Super Ick Cure by API because I'm afraid the Ich may spread but the loach didn't survive. I have cycled the tank for 2 days using Nutrafin Cycle and Nutrafin Aqua Plus before stocking the fish in. 

Right now, I'm nervous and confused of what should I do because there's Bacteria Bloom at the moment, I removed my Cabon in my Filter because of the medication. Should I continue my medication? Should I change the water tomorrow/now? Do you any recommendation for a test kit?

1st Photo is when I identify the Ich

2nd Photo is the first day of aquarium

3rd Photo is the current condition of the Aquarium

4th Photo, I went to Pet Smart to check my water condition.

Any advice or input is appreciated! 

Edited August 13, 2020 by Kenneth

[RovingGinger]

Most people get the API master kit with the vials I think. You already have test strips for most of it, you could also look at just grabbing ammonia test strips for now to add to the mix. 
 

My guess is the bacteria bloom is happening to produce bacteria fast for your newly cycling tank. Water changes will only prolong the cloudiness (if it is the white cloudiness from a bacteria bloom) so I would avoid unless your other parameters tell you otherwise. I’ve had it pop up occasionally when I moved out a filter or something and it’s always subsided in a few days as the bacteria multiply and hit equilibrium again. 
 

All that said I am brand new myself to the hobby so hopefully someone with years not months of experience chimes in! 

[Kenneth]

5 minutes ago, RovingGinger said:

Most people get the API master kit with the vials I think. You already have test strips for most of it, you could also look at just grabbing ammonia test strips for now to add to the mix. 
 

My guess is the bacteria bloom is happening to produce bacteria fast for your newly cycling tank. Water changes will only prolong the cloudiness (if it is the white cloudiness from a bacteria bloom) so I would avoid unless your other parameters tell you otherwise. I’ve had it pop up occasionally when I moved out a filter or something and it’s always subsided in a few days as the bacteria multiply and hit equilibrium again. 
 

All that said I am brand new myself to the hobby so hopefully someone with years not months of experience chimes in! 

Okay, I'll grab them as soon as they are available in a store.

Should I put in the Carbon into my Filter? I removed it because of instruction from the back of the medicine told me to do it 😅 I'm using sponge inside my filter right now.

I hope so! Thanks for sharing!

Edited August 13, 2020 by Kenneth

[Spitzzard]

Hi Kenneth, 

Sounds like you are new to the hobby so i'll do what i can.

Your plants look fake so i'm assuming you are cycling with fish. In that case you really only want a couple really hardy fish in a 10 gallon, otherwise you are gonna have heavy losses due to ammonia build up, which is likely what happened to your kuhli loaches since they are scaleless fish, and scaleless fish are more sensitive to bad water and susceptible to ich.  

From your 3rd photo it looks like you have 0.5ppm of chlorine in your water. Maybe it's just the photo throwing the color off, but just in case i would read the instruction of the water conditioner again and make sure you are following it correctly. 

The 3 SAEs are gonna grow to 6-7 inches and your 10 gallon is no where near enough. I would just return them to the fish store. Actually, i would return the tetras too if you are doing live fish cycling, just keep the 3 cherry barbs in there for 3-4 weeks before adding anything else. 

[Kat_Rigel]

It is tough to fully cycle a tank within 2 days. I recommend reading up on the nitorgen cycle. My understanding is that Seachen Prime is very helpful at keeping your fish alive during a fish-in cycle, since it binds ammonia. Ammonia is the most concerning factor- I strongly recommend that you get an ammonia test kit (Master test kit from API, as mentioned above. )

[Kenneth]

56 minutes ago, Spitzzard said:

Hi Kenneth, 

Sounds like you are new to the hobby so i'll do what i can.

Your plants look fake so i'm assuming you are cycling with fish. In that case you really only want a couple really hardy fish in a 10 gallon, otherwise you are gonna have heavy losses due to ammonia build up, which is likely what happened to your kuhli loaches since they are scaleless fish, and scaleless fish are more sensitive to bad water and susceptible to ich.  

From your 3rd photo it looks like you have 0.5ppm of chlorine in your water. Maybe it's just the photo throwing the color off, but just in case i would read the instruction of the water conditioner again and make sure you are following it correctly. 

The 3 SAEs are gonna grow to 6-7 inches and your 10 gallon is no where near enough. I would just return them to the fish store. Actually, i would return the tetras too if you are doing live fish cycling, just keep the 3 cherry barbs in there for 3-4 weeks before adding anything else. 

Yes! I am new to the hobby.  it is a fake plant. Does that means that the fake plants should be included in the cycle before adding the fish?
It is actually 0.5, I was wondering too because I did it exactly what the instruction told me. I'll check it out again.
I think I'll return them because when I asked one of the employee the SAE should be okay with my 10 gallon, I was actually in doubt at first but now someone's confirming it. I'll return them.
Thanks for the advices!

 

30 minutes ago, Kat_Rigel said:

It is tough to fully cycle a tank within 2 days. I recommend reading up on the nitorgen cycle. My understanding is that Seachen Prime is very helpful at keeping your fish alive during a fish-in cycle, since it binds ammonia. Ammonia is the most concerning factor- I strongly recommend that you get an ammonia test kit (Master test kit from API, as mentioned above. )

Sure! I'll make sure to look it up.
Thanks for the advices!

[RovingGinger]

A fake plant won’t really impact your cycle at all beyond providing a little more real estate for beneficial bacteria. A live plant-in cycle is advocated by Aquarium Co-Op I believe but it’s far from the only method. 

Edited August 14, 2020 by RovingGinger
Clarification

[Spitzzard]

3 minutes ago, Kenneth said:

Does that means that the fake plants should be included in the cycle before adding the fish?

No, sorry for the confusion, fake plants have no bearing on this whatsoever. I was hoping the plants were real since they would help with cycling your tank by consuming nitrate. Feel free to look up the pros and cons of different methods of cycling. If you are unfamiliar with the nitrogen cycle, might be worth it to take a look at this video 

 

[Kenneth]

5 minutes ago, RovingGinger said:

A fake plant won’t really impact your cycle at all beyond providing a little more real estate for beneficial bacteria. A live plant-in cycle is advocated by Aquarium Co-Op I believe but it’s far from the only method. 

I see, I'm afraid using live plant because I might ruin my aquarium more especially because I am new to the hobby. But, I'll keep that in mind. Do you use Live plants inside your tank too?

 

Just now, Spitzzard said:

No, sorry for the confusion, fake plants have no bearing on this whatsoever. I was hoping the plants were real since they would help with cycling your tank by consuming nitrate. Feel free to look up the pros and cons of different methods of cycling. If you are unfamiliar with the nitrogen cycle, might be worth it to take a look at this video 

 

I see, I'll definitely add it on my watch list. 

Thank you everyone for the help! I'll return the tetras and SAE first and then I'll do a live cycle with my barbs.
Do I need to continue with the ich medication? I'm afraid maybe there are some ich left in the aquarium.
or I can just put my carbon filter back? and stop the medication. I'm using sponge at the moment.

[Kat_Rigel]

I would continue the ich medication. You saw it on one fisb in the tank, chances are very good that it will spread. I had it take out an entire tank once when I was newer. Just complete the recommended medication cycle. As for carbon I'm not sure, since I never use it. (Although maybe I should- Im having an unrelated issue in a different tank and maybe that would help...)

[Spitzzard]

15 minutes ago, Kenneth said:

Do I need to continue with the ich medication? I'm afraid maybe there are some ich left in the aquarium.
or I can just put my carbon filter back? and stop the medication. I'm using sponge at the moment.

I believe Super Ick Cure tells you to redose after 48 hours? In that case i would follow that, the medication only kills the adult parasite but not the eggs, which means you need to wait for the eggs to hatch and dose again, hence the 48 hours interval. 

[Kenneth]

Just now, Spitzzard said:

I believe Super Ick Cure tells you to redose after 48 hours? In that case i would follow that, the medication only kills the adult parasite but not the eggs, which means you need to wait for the eggs to hatch and dose again, hence the 48 hours interval. 

That’s correct. So that means I’ll keep using the sponge filter until I finish the medication. Thanks a lot for your help Spitzzard! I’ve been nervous all this time what to do since nobody have the same hobby in my circle. 

 

8 minutes ago, Kat_Rigel said:

I would continue the ich medication. You saw it on one fisb in the tank, chances are very good that it will spread. I had it take out an entire tank once when I was newer. Just complete the recommended medication cycle. As for carbon I'm not sure, since I never use it. (Although maybe I should- Im having an unrelated issue in a different tank and maybe that would help...)

From what I heard, Carbon filters out all chemicals so that’s why when I’m not using Carbon atm. But yeah, I’ll continue the medication. Thank you!

[Spitzzard]

5 minutes ago, Kenneth said:

That’s correct. So that means I’ll keep using the sponge filter until I finish the medication. Thanks a lot for your help Spitzzard! I’ve been nervous all this time what to do since nobody have the same hobby in my circle. 

happy to help! if you have any other questions feel free to ask here either in this topic or post a new one. 

[Brandy]

I am glad you are getting help here. You got thrown into the deep end and I am sorry that happened to you. Fish are wonderful pets, but the tank cycle is a necessary part of the process and it trips up new people a lot. Your fish store should have helped you with this, there was no way for you to have guessed this by yourself. I know it seems very complicated right now, but it is actually something that is harder to explain than to show or do. 

When you set up a new tank you need bacteria to grow in the tank that will help keep the water clean. That is this "cycle" everyone is talking about. That cloudy bloom in the water that you see is a good sign that the bacteria are getting started, and will be helping you in the long run. The store just sold you way too many fish at the start--it is a gradual process and setting up a tank takes a little time and patience while the bacteria grow in.

There are ways to hurry that process along, but they can be complicated and confusing. Given that you are new, I think your safest bet is exactly what you have planned, return most of the fish. Then get some Seachem Prime OR a similar water conditioner that will both dechlorinate water and bind ammonia, and a test kit or test strips that measure ammonia and nitrite (which is different than nitrate). You will dose the tank with Prime every day for a while, until the bacteria are able to handle all the fish waste. Your test kit will tell you when the ammonia/nitrite is gone and then you can stop using the Prime every day.

Then add new fish just a few at a time, and keep learning about how to keep an aquarium healthy. This forum and the aquarium co-op videos are a great place to start. You can go to the youtube channel and search through the videos for almost any question you have, or ask them on the forum. 

Good luck and welcome to the forum!

[Kenneth]

7 minutes ago, Brandy said:

I am glad you are getting help here. You got thrown into the deep end and I am sorry that happened to you. Fish are wonderful pets, but the tank cycle is a necessary part of the process and it trips up new people a lot. Your fish store should have helped you with this, there was no way for you to have guessed this by yourself. I know it seems very complicated right now, but it is actually something that is harder to explain than to show or do. 

When you set up a new tank you need bacteria to grow in the tank that will help keep the water clean. That is this "cycle" everyone is talking about. That cloudy bloom in the water that you see is a good sign that the bacteria are getting started, and will be helping you in the long run. The store just sold you way too many fish at the start--it is a gradual process and setting up a tank takes a little time and patience while the bacteria grow in.

There are ways to hurry that process along, but they can be complicated and confusing. Given that you are new, I think your safest bet is exactly what you have planned, return most of the fish. Then get some Seachem Prime OR a similar water conditioner that will both dechlorinate water and bind ammonia, and a test kit or test strips that measure ammonia and nitrite (which is different than nitrate). You will dose the tank with Prime every day for a while, until the bacteria are able to handle all the fish waste. Your test kit will tell you when the ammonia/nitrite is gone and then you can stop using the Prime every day.

Then add new fish just a few at a time, and keep learning about how to keep an aquarium healthy. This forum and the aquarium co-op videos are a great place to start. You can go to the youtube channel and search through the videos for almost any question you have, or ask them on the forum. 

Good luck and welcome to the forum!

Hi! Thanks for the detailed and constructive advice! I love it! I stumbled Aquarium Co-Op 2 days ago and I kept watching their videos. As I keep watching, I start panicking that maybe I am doing everything wrong and I don’t know what do so I decided to join the forum! I’m glad that I joined it! 
 

by the way, is it okay to pour the Prime while my cherry barbs inside the tank? And thanks again!

Edited August 14, 2020 by Kenneth

[Spitzzard]

1 minute ago, Kenneth said:

by the way, is it okay to pour the Prime while my cherry barbs inside the tank? And thanks again!

should be fine, just stir the water a bit after using it. 

[Brandy]

It is ok to put the prime right into the tank. Measure carefully. Try not to panic. 🙂 It will be ok. It is a lot of information to try to absorb all at once! 

[Kenneth]

Sweet, Thanks everyone! 🥰