My tanks gone downhill...and fast. Please help!

[LukeHawk]

I have a 24 US-gallon tank, it used to look really good, great fish, wood and rocks, etc...but because of my schooling career, I really let it get out of hand. (I know, I am very ashamed)

The tank water is a browny/reddish colour, because of the wood I'm assuming. when I do water changes this becomes less of a problem, but its just so hard to see what's going on. the fish are only visible when the light is on.

I've got this weird weed-like plant that grows on my wood and rocks very rapidly. It doesn't look so bad, but I'm wondering if its disease causing or what.

I currently have a very small amount of fish, 1 medium-large silver dollar, 1 aggressive silver danio, 1 neon tetra, and one other type of tetra, forget what kind.
I used to have a school of tiger barbs, albino rainbow shark, and a few more...but the have all just disappeared. most of them didn't even turn up any corpses.

I recently tried to add more fish, but they just disappeared as well. Why is this happening?

Any new plant i try to add to the tank just dies. Somehow the plants leaves just get ripped out and it just dies...have no idea why.
My snail population is huge however.

Does anybody have any advise?
How can i fix this mess, should i start over? what...please I need help

 

[joy613]

You don't say what kind of light you are using that might have something to do with not being able to grow plants. Some fish love tender leaves of plants as well, that could be your problem my best guess is your silver dollar and some tetras are plant munchers as well.

 

[LadyLail]

I've never been able to keep plants with Silver Dollars. They eat them up overnight. They love vegetation. Infact, when I had Silver Dollars the first go 'round, and would throw Zuchini or Cucumber in for my Plecos, the SD's would devour much of it.

If you're general knowledge (and tolerance) of plant keeping is low (like mine), than you may just be putting plants in there that require more attetion (which you said was a problem) than you care to spend on them. Lighting is a biggie (like joy said) and so is fertilizers and Co2 for quite a few plants.

The brownish/red may be algae overload and possibly because of lack of water changes and general maitenance. Maybe using a gravel vacuum and doing a 10-15% water change every other week (every week??) would cut down if it is infact just overgrowth of red and brown algae. Furthermore, if it is overgrowth, maybe invest in a smaller Pleco or algae eater to make your job a bit easier- after you straighten the tank out .

I'm slowly learning about the driftwood tannins, but from what I'm gathering, it shouldn't decrease water visibility; just "stain" the water. I may be wrong on that last comment, so future posters feel free to correct any or all.

Maybe you could give more details so some experts can lead you more quickly in the right direction?? Keep us posted.

 

[Whiskers]

yes the tannin in the drift wood should just turn the water a tea color and not make it cloudy. the tea color will fade with water changes.
i think a rubber lipped pleco or a bristle nose will eat brown alge. you would be safe to do a 25% water change weekly as far as i know. you might be able to get away with a 50% water change now but i would wait for someone to back me up on that one. it might be a bit much. i do 25% W/C weekly. good luck

 

[89must]

ok do a 50% water change and vac the gravel real good take all plants and decorations out clean them in an EXTREMLY WEAK bleach and water solution like 2 capfulls of bleach to a full sink of warm water rinse very well in clean water put decorations back in fill with water and chemical water treatment i prefer amquel follow with weekly cleaning 10% water change and clean decorations as needed at each water change
i had a fungus in my 75 gal red belly tank once and this is what i did and that cleared it right up i feed them raw meat every once in awhile and i missed a scrap they didnt eat that wont happen again

 

[LukeHawk]

I've never been able to keep plants with Silver Dollars. They eat them up overnight. They love vegetation. Infact, when I had Silver Dollars the first go 'round, and would throw Zuchini or Cucumber in for my Plecos, the SD's would devour much of it.

The brownish/red may be algae overload and possibly because of lack of water changes and general maitenance. Maybe using a gravel vacuum and doing a 10-15% water change every other week (every week??) would cut down if it is infact just overgrowth of red and brown algae. Furthermore, if it is overgrowth, maybe invest in a smaller Pleco or algae eater to make your job a bit easier- after you straighten the tank out .
.

That would make sense, my silver dollar does seem to eat anything new that is added to the tank...including small fish.

I'm not gonna lie, my water change intervals have been increasing over time....haven't done it in awhile, longer then I'm proud off, but even after a water change, within a couple of days the water just looks the same as it did before the change, only with cleaner gravel.

yes the tannin in the drift wood should just turn the water a tea color and not make it cloudy. the tea color will fade with water changes.
i think a rubber lipped pleco or a bristle nose will eat brown alge. you would be safe to do a 25% water change weekly as far as i know. you might be able to get away with a 50% water change now but i would wait for someone to back me up on that one. it might be a bit much. i do 25% W/C weekly. good luck

The water is not cloudy, but its just stained to quite a darkish orangey/brown. The wall behind the tank happens to be orange as well, so its possible that it looks worse then it actually is.
Usually I do about a 25-50% water change every two weeks, but lately I've neglected it a bit. I am ashamed... D:

ok do a 50% water change and vac the gravel real good take all plants and decorations out clean them in an EXTREMLY WEAK bleach and water solution like 2 capfulls of bleach to a full sink of warm water rinse very well in clean water put decorations back in fill with water and chemical water treatment i prefer amquel follow with weekly cleaning 10% water change and clean decorations as needed at each water change
i had a fungus in my 75 gal red belly tank once and this is what i did and that cleared it right up i feed them raw meat every once in awhile and i missed a scrap they didnt eat that wont happen again

Okay thanks I will do exactly that right now! thanks for the help!

I'm gonna get this tank back to awesome shape in no time! *BOUNCINGS

 

[LukeHawk]

Sorry for the double post, but just a bit of an update!

I cleaned my tank out really well, just as you guys told me too. It all looks really good! the waters still a bit stained, but not nearly as much as it was. Surprisingly enough, some of my fish seem much more active as well. When I was doing the clean, I found my khuli loach that I thought I had lost ages ago....still alive and happy! weird huh?

The real test will come soon, when I put in another small plant and maybe another fish or two.

 

[unwritten law]

try adding carbon to your filters to take out the discoloration.

 

[jo3olous]

I currently have a very small amount of fish, 1 medium-large silver dollar, 1 aggressive silver danio, 1 neon tetra, and one other type of tetra, forget what kind.
I used to have a school of tiger barbs, albino rainbow shark, and a few more...but the have all just disappeared. most of them didn't even turn up any corpses.

I recently tried to add more fish, but they just disappeared as well. Why is this happening?

Could be your silver dollar eating them... Or when your fish die, the others will eat them up. I learned that with my albino tinfoil and clown loach. They were the only 2 in the tank, and when the loach died I couldn't find the corpse for about 3 days, finally found it and half of it was bones, no eye, meet falling off. The tinfoil apparently was hungry XD