# All of a sudden I have all these issues, where to start?



## *Angie* (Sep 29, 2010)

Ugh. I have a 33gal tank, live plants, small layer of playsand with aquarium gravel on top. Currently have a cherry barb, half a dozen neons and four mollies. The tank's been running 6 months, and have only lost two fish in that time (both gouramis). Other than that, we can't seem to keep algae eaters for more than a couple of weeks. The fish store guy says our high-ish ph is probably the culprit there. 

Lighting is two CFLs (not sure of the #'s) that get turned on in the evenings from around 6-11pm every day. 

Anyhow, Since first putting fish in the tank almost 5 months ago, we've had this perfect, beautiful tank. I've done partial water changes/cleaning once a week. Now, all of a sudden, within the last week or so, I have this major algae problem, one of my cherry barbs died all of a sudden, and one of my mollies has what I'm pretty sure is ich. The other mollies are picking on the sick one really badly. The tank's due for a water change, too. 

My husband just went out to get some ich treatment. I'm just feeling kind of overwhelmed with all this fish dying, ich and a really bad algae infestation all at once. Where do I start and how do I get my tank back to looking great again? Help!


----------



## chris oe (Feb 27, 2009)

You've got high ph, an algae bloom, and sudden health problems with the fish. What are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings? and how high is the PH? Are you doing any plant supplementation? (Don't worry if you're not, not is good in this case, but if you are, what are they, you might want to stop for awhile.) What kind of filtration are you using? These are all pieces of the picture, the more info you can give us the more complete a picture we will have, so the more recent the test results, the better.


----------



## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

if the algae problem is a slime (vrs "hair") algae you probably have cyanobacteria.

What can happen (especially with plants) is that after a few months nitrates drop down and the tank becomes nitrate starved. Cyano bacteria can get its nitrogen from nitrogen gas vrs ammonia/nitrates. So the cyano blooms and takes more and more nutrients from the plants. So the tank can rapidily become cyano dominated and conditions suffer.

One simple way to prevent that is to just kill the lights so the cyano dies off. That also returns nitrates to the system so the plants again have the upper hand. then adjust lighting so the plants grow (more duration) but cyano dies off (less lighting).

then hopefully as conditions improve the fishs' immune system will strengthen and ich goes away.


my .02


----------



## *Angie* (Sep 29, 2010)

ok, let's see. 

We were using an aquaclear filter up until two weeks ago when it started making this horrendous noise and we couldn't fix it (tried replacing the impeller, etc). So we bought a Marina cartridge filter, and ran both together for two weeks, at which point the aquaclear kicked the bucket completely (otherwise we had planned to run the two together for another week or two).

We've never used any plant supplements.

Hopefully that helps you help me  Thank you!

I just tested the water after reading your post. PH is dark on 7.5, but not as dark as 8.0 on the chart. Ammonia is 0. Nitrites are 0. Nitrate is less than 10mg/L.


----------



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Ph of 7.5 is not too high. Personally I think you need to address the ich problem first. You don't have to use meds, but instead can kick the temp up to 89-90. You can do this while doing a blackout to kill the BGA.


----------



## *Angie* (Sep 29, 2010)

beaslbob, it's definitely slimy algae. Blech. It's coating my decorative rock and driftwood, most of my gravel and parts of the tank glass. When you say to kill the lights, do you mean just leave the tank lights off completely for a period of time? And the algae will just disappear on its own? Should I clean off the tank decorations, glass and/or gravel, also? How long would you anticipate it should take to clear up... like days, or weeks, or longer? The plants will be ok without light for that amount of time? Sorry for all the questions! We had a tank years ago, but only had fake plants and never had algae issues.


----------



## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

*Angie* said:


> beaslbob, it's definitely slimy algae.


dern You mean I guessed right?


> Blech. It's coating my decorative rock and driftwood, most of my gravel and parts of the tank glass. When you say to kill the lights, do you mean just leave the tank lights off completely for a period of time?


Yes!!!


> And the algae will just disappear on its own?


yep


> Should I clean off the tank decorations, glass and/or gravel, also?


nope


> How long would you anticipate it should take to clear up... like days, or weeks, or longer?


days *


> The plants will be ok without light for that amount of time?


yep


> Sorry for all the questions!


no problem keep asking


> We had a tank years ago, but only had fake plants and never had algae issues.


Don't you just hate short answers? *old dude

You were extremely lucky or did constant cleanups on that tank years ago.

Give this a try and watch in amazement at how it works. *old dude

some time ago I hosted a local reef club meeting and showed them my little 10g guppy tank. Which amazed them because of the lack of any mechanicals. I then explained how I maintained it and begged their forgiveness on how "dirty the tank was" (n't)

I then stated "you see I haven't touched to glass inside or out for over a year and a half".

You should have heard to (in unison) 20 people gasp as jaws dropped to the floor. *r2

Once you get the tank balanced out it will just basically take care of itself.

my .02

* in extreme conditions a week or more.


----------



## jerichodrum (Mar 23, 2011)

beaslbob said:


> Once you get the tank balanced out it will just basically take care of itself.
> 
> my .02


A friend of mine has a planted tank. dont think she has done more than top it off in 4 years. 
somehow it just keeps going and thriving. (no substrate)


----------



## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

High ph is good for Livebeaers, Loaches, Snails and Rift Valley Cichlids. Not so good for Corys, Tetras, South American Cichlids, and Rasboras. If you want to slowly lower your ph, make water changes with RO or Distilled Water. Change only about 10-15% at a time to avoid shocking your fish.


----------



## roacan (Dec 25, 2010)

beaslbob said:


> some time ago I hosted a local reef club meeting and showed them my little 10g guppy tank. Which amazed them because of the lack of any mechancals. I then explained how I maintained it and begged their forgiveness on how "dirty the tank was" (n't)
> 
> I then stated "you see I haven't touched to glass inside or out for over a year and a half".
> 
> ...


Hi Beaslbob,

Could you post pics of your setup. I would really love to see how you do it.


----------



## *Angie* (Sep 29, 2010)

I just wanted to thank you all for your help with this. We've had the tank lights off for several days now, and the algae is amazingly clearing up quite nicely. Can anyone advise how long/often we should be running the lights in the tank, so that the plants thrive but we avoid having this algae problem again?

As for the ich, we upped the tank temp and added some ich medication, and our ichy fish cleared right up. I'm wondering, though, how long should we keep the carbon inserts out of the filter? The medication package was clear that we should remove it during treatment, but didn't say how long to keep them out. Thanks!


----------



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I never use carbon and remove any meds I may use with a water change. You need to keep the ich treatment up at least a minimum of 3 days beyond the last visible sign. Some places even recommend a week beyond last sign. If you don't do this you risk the ich coming back more resistant to treatment.


----------



## chris oe (Feb 27, 2009)

I'm with JR - do the ich treatment for as long as the package says at minimum - ich has a form that lies dormant on the bottom and you need to continue the high temp and the treatment for the full time to get those dormant types and the resistant bugs. Charcoal is kind of an iffy proposition to begin with because it is useless once its pores are full, so it loses its effectiveness quickly. Filter companies use it because it is cheap, and it does some things well, but there are other, more high tech materials that are more useful over the long haul. You can begin to use your charcoal again after the end of the treatment period if you wish, but it isn't crucial to the well being of your fish, so you don't need to worry about it not being there.


----------



## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

roacan said:


> Hi Beaslbob,
> 
> Could you post pics of your setup. I would really love to see how you do it.


Unfortunately not from work.

Plus my tanks are now taken down because we moved into a new house.

I do have pictures on photo bucket under beaslbob but can get to that from work either.

Will try sometime from home if i get a change.

Meanwhile there are some nice pictures of beaslbob builds in the planted forum here.


my .02


----------



## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

*Angie* said:


> I just wanted to thank you all for your help with this. We've had the tank lights off for several days now, and the algae is amazingly clearing up quite nicely. Can anyone advise how long/often we should be running the lights in the tank, so that the plants thrive but we avoid having this algae problem again?


sure. after the initial lights off you start with say 1/2 duration lighting. If algae comes back try 1/4. If not increase. And keep doing that until the plants thrive and the algae does not come back.


> As for the ich, we upped the tank temp and added some ich medication, and our ichy fish cleared right up. I'm wondering, though, how long should we keep the carbon inserts out of the filter? The medication package was clear that we should remove it during treatment, but didn't say how long to keep them out. Thanks!


hopefully you get the plants in comtrol and ich will not be a problem


mr.02


----------

