Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Health => Topic started by: CarenLevo123 on June 24, 2016, 02:49:14 PM
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I have a 55 litre aquanano tank with 7 male guppies, 6 neon tetras, 1 baby Molly, 2 shrimp & 2 snails.
It has taken me about 9 months to get to grips with caring for these fish & I have really enjoyed it. For months now all levels have been tested & are normal & I haven't had any diseases (that I know of) or losses.
My toddler found the fish food out of the cupboard (very large tub) & poured it into the tank yesterday. I managed to salvage about half of the water but the rest was too murky. The fish are not happy. The guppies are constantly at the top of the tank & the shrimps are next to the opening of the filter all of the time which isn't like them, they are always tucked away in the day.
Levels aren't great.
PH is 7.6
Ammonia is 0.25
Nitrite is 5.0
Nitrate is 160
Is this tank doomed or is there anything I can do to salvage it?
Thank you in advance
Caren
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Do water changes. Pull out the sponge and clean it in dechlorinated water to get rid of the food that's got trapped in there. You could change ¼-½ the water as soon as possible to get those values down as they're toxic. Wait a while and change another ¼-½ Keep doing this.
There is no hard-and-fast rule. You don't want to make big changes too suddenly, but you must get those values down.
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Thank you so much for your advice. I will try this.
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Definitely water changes, trying to hoover the gravel if you have a syphon. Leave around 2 hours minimum between water changes, please don't forget to dechlorinate the water you add. The bacteria will be your fishes saviours here so take good care of those sponges... Gentle squeezing and swishing around.
Good luck and keep us posted
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You'd be surprised how often this happens, most people report saving their tanks by all those water changes. Not to mention people measuring out the food over the tank and dropping the tub in.
And put the food, and everything else, somewhere the toddler can't reach it :)
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I did manage to get a majority out of the tank with a syphon. I was concerned that with the water changes if have replaced most of the water in the tank. Is this ok? I have just done another change with tap safe so will text again.
I have learnt my lesson.. The fish supplies will now be in the very top cupboard.. 😳
Thanks everyone
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It is safe to change all the water provided that you use dechlorinator and if you change a lot in one go that the water is heated to near the same as the water left in the tank.
You won't harm the bacteria as they live in the biofilm which is bound onto surfaces. You'll only harm the bacteria if you forget the dechlorinator or scrub the surfaces so hard you dislodge the biofilm. And by surfaces I mean the filter media, the filter casing, the decor, the glass etc.
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That is great news Sue thank you so much. I haven't touched any of the stuff just changed the water😃
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Your readings of ammonia and nitrite should come down as you remove them with water changes, and remove the cause ie the fish food. Fish food decays to make ammonia which the first set of filter bacteria turn into nitrite. They multiply faster than the second bacteria which turn nitrite into nitrate. And 1 ppm ammonia is turned into 2.7 ppm nitrite. Both of these are why the nitrite reading was a lot higher than the ammonia reading.
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Good luck Caren, let us know how you get on.
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Thank you for the advice & I will keep you updated.
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You are not the first, and wont be the last, to go through this sort of situation.
Best of luck and I hope that all of your fish are doing well.
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After a few water changes the levels have all gone back to normal & the fish & shrimps seem back to their happy selves.
Thank you all for your help & advice. I appreciate it.
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That is good news :)
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Awesome :cheers:
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Congratulations on your healthy tank.
Well done.
:cheers:
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Excellent news...... now, how about some piccies of your happy tank?! It's the rule, you know. ;D
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I've been having problems uploading photos due to the size. I'll try to change it & post one of before & after.
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This is when disaster struck!
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Good grief, that looks like a food blizzard :yikes:
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You can imagine my horror when I saw it. My little boy said "fed the fish mummy" :yikes:
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Actually, this thread is a very good example of what I mean when I say that people who use RO water should always have some available in case an emergency water change is need. I must make a note of it to show what I mean. Imagine if you hadn't been able to do a water change until you'd been able to go to a shop to get more RO water :o
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Good grief! To avoid us all having nightmares, may we see a pic of the tank now? :) Hope the food tub is well-and-truly stowed away under a padlock or hidden somewhere high and unreachable.
:fishy1:
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Actually, this thread is a very good example of what I mean when I say that people who use RO water should always have some available in case an emergency water change is need. I must make a note of it to show what I mean. Imagine if you hadn't been able to do a water change until you'd been able to go to a shop to get more RO water :o
Exactly. Between this and an unforeseen tank leak, always best to be prepared with extra water on standby.
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This is the tank now..
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Sorry to sound stupid but what do you mean by RO water?
I have learnt from my lesson, the food is locked away & out of sight.
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RO water is Reverse Osmosis water. It's usually used by people who have hard water to soften their water, to make it more suitable for the fish they're keeping eg if someone lived in an area with hard water but was keen to keep cardinal tetras (for example), then they'd be best to use reverse osmosis water, perhaps mixed with their own water. This is a very, very simple explanation, and others have expertise on this (I have neither any expertise nor experience), so hopefully others can explain further; however, hopefully that helps in the interim.
:fishy1:
Edited to add: http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/article/testing-for-ph-and-hardness-in-an-aquarium should explain it far better than I can.
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Reverse osmosis is a process which removes everything dissolved in the water. As fcmf says, it is used by people who have hard water and want to keep soft water fish as mixing it with their hard tap water dilutes the minerals and makes the water softer. It is also used by people who have a lot of nitrate in their tapwater (legislation allows up to 50 ppm in the UK) and want nitrate sensitive fish. The problem can arise if something happens in the tank which needs lots of water changes to sort out, eg a toddler feeding a whole tub of food. The water changes have to be done with exactly the same RO/tap mixture as usual, which can't be done if there is no RO water on hand.
I would also take issue with a section in the article that fcmf linked to.
It says that pH reducing chemicals remove dissolved minerals - they don't, they add even more. pH reducing chemicals do not soften water.
It says that household water softeners of the type that are recharged by salt can be used. These add salt to the water and should never be used. Water softeners of the type that require a bypass tap for human consumption should never be used in a tank, the bypass tap should be used for tanks as well.
The RO section is fine, but it should be borne in mind that the article was written some years ago so the cost will be higher.
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It's hard to believe that's the same tank!
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Wow - I missed that second pic; what a difference!
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The tank looks lovely in the second picture. So glad everything is fine now. :)
In the first picture it looks less like a tank and more like a snow globe.
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@CarenLevo123 what fish do you currently have. Unclear from the photos :-\
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I have a 55 litre aquanano tank with 7 male guppies, 6 neon tetras, 1 baby Molly, 2 shrimp & 2 snails.
From Caren's first post ;)
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Wow.. I am truly overwhelmed by everyone's advice & kindness (& not judging). Thank you so much. I have printed this all out so that I can look back when I need to know certain things.
Thank you
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That's the nice thing about this forum. We've (almost) all of us done things we wish we hadn''t so we don't judge others :) Everyone has to learn by mistakes, and if those mistakes don't result in loss of fishy life so much the better.
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@CarenLevo123 - I have split the topic at this point to move your query re the guppy's lost tail into a new thread of its own. I've given it that self-explanatory title. Hope that's helpful. fcmf (moderator).
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That's great thank you
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Oh my days! I've just seen your first photo!!! I bet your face was a picture too when you saw it.
I've just stretched my moddy muscles for the first time and added solved to the thread title. Hope thats ok Caren?
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Just an update.
Very sadly I have lost all of my guppies apart from 1 & my baby Mollie which I adored has just died.
I think my fish keeping days are over sadly 😢
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Oh, @CarenLevo123, how sad - it is indeed truly horrible to lose pet fish and particularly en masse after an "incident" which presumably this is the belated result of. Very sorry to read about this. This is completely normal to feel like this under such circumstances. Why not take a "breather" for a bit and see how you feel in a few weeks'/months' time? You may feel differently then or at some point in the future when you weren't planning to but something (such as seeing someone else's fishtank) might reignite the interest.
If you feel you can't bear to continue with fishkeeping for now, then it should be relatively easy to rehome the remaining fish, either to a LFS or via aquarist-classifieds.co.uk.
Another option, now or in the future, is to try something completely different eg a betta on its own, just to break the resemblance between the very unfortunate situation you had and a newstart in fishkeeping.
If you do change your mind or want to run any ideas past us about fishkeeping but a different aspect of it, then we're always here to help. Best of luck. :)
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@CarenLevo123 so sorry to hear your sad news.
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Just an update.
Very sadly I have lost all of my guppies apart from 1 & my baby Mollie which I adored has just died.
I think my fish keeping days are over sadly 😢
I'm sorry sorry to hear the sad news @CarenLevo123. When something like this happens it can be devastating. I hope you don't let it put you off what is otherwise a rewarding hobby.
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So sad to hear this. Just as we were all feeling so pleased to have helped you recover the tank. I suspect the excess rotting food has caused one or more of the water parameters to "spike" and it's been too much of a shock for the poor fishes.
All the best, please keep us posted on what you decide to do. It'd be a shame if you left the hobby and the forum. :(
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Knowing guppies they probably stuffed themselves stupid and got dropsy, I've never had a molly so I'm unsure of their appetites. It's actually the reason I stopped keeping guppies as I seem to be a bit heavy handed when dishing out food.
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Caren, how are the neons?
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She'd had the tank running for 9 months @Sue
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It occurred to me that Caren mentioned losing guppies and mollies but not neons. And in the first post she did mention neons. I wondered if they were still alive.
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I hope they are but from the despairing tone of her last post I suspect not :(