Fish dying in cloudy tank

[R_ACE1]

Hello everyone, first timer here.

Sorry for the long post but I hope being thorough will help answer my dilemma.

I had a rash of fish dying and at first I thought it was due to stress, but now I'm not sure what is going on.

- My water has been cloudy and stinks for almost a month.
- I have been changing my water about once a week (between 30% to 50%) but it doesn't help. I would use Publix drinking water for the changes.
- I had plastic plants but they started collecting some brownish slime/string "something" (maybe alge?). So I swapped them out for real plants.
- I purchased a U/V sterilizer, and it cleared up the water....for about 4 days. I noticed a dead guppy stuck on the intake of the U/V. When I tried to clean the U/V assembly, there was LOTS of that brownish slime inside of the assembly. I finally cleared out the slime and put the U/V back in the tank, but the tank is not clearing up. I'm thinking its busted.
- Water temperature is at 80/82 degrees.
- For bedding, I use white sand instead of rocks.
- I got the water tested last week at Pet Supermarket, they said everything is normal, but my Alkaline is low (I don't know how low).
- I use a Penguin (Model 150) filter pump with 2 filters inside the pump. Odd thing is I SUPPOSED to swap out the filter every 2-4 weeks, the filters clog up to the point that the bio wheel stops spinning and water comes out the overflow part. And the intake is always covered with stuff.
- I have 1 electric blue crayfish, 2 flag fish, 1 molly, 1 pleco, 1 cory, 1 ghost shrimp, 2 snails, 2 neon tetras, 2 tiger fish, and 2 other tetras.
- I feed them flakes, granules, blood worms, brine shrimp.
- Tank is 20G.

Any help will be appreciated.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I am not familiar with that water - are you using a dechlorinator?

I'd start with a large water change, like 80%. Fish tank water shouldn't stink, so you want to get whatever is foul out of the water column. Cloudy can be a bacteria bloom. UV will help in that case, but it isn't necessary. Carbon in the filter will also help, as well as removing any smell left in the water after the large change takes most of it out. Carbon is only fresh and useful for a few weeks, so swap it for fresh if it has been a bit.

What is clogging the filter? Keep the intake clear, even if that means scraping gunk off it every day. Sounds like you might be overfeeding, that tends to be a major cause of cloudy water as well. Plus it gums up the filter.

Long term, you will likely have to rehome the pleco - if he is a common pleco, they get well over a foot long and are messy eaters who will make it impossible to keep good water quality in a small tank. It might be worthwhile to go ahead and rehome him sooner than later.

 

[R_ACE1]

CAPSLOCK, thank you for the info.

We used to have a common pleco in the tank, and yeah, he got about 7 inches and pooped a lot. We did get rid of it, but I guess the damage was done.

I bought test strips today... the water conditions were so off that the 80% change would be a good idea. I will upload the pictures of the test strips after this reply.

Another thing is the bedding. Is it ok to use sand or are rocks better. I'm asking because if I need to swap the sand I will do it during the change.

 

[R_ACE1]

Here are results of the test strips that I bought today (for freshwater). The last test was Ammonia.

Any ideas how to balance this out???

Thank you

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Really the only thing off is the ammonia. A big water change will remove most of it.

It looks like the tank is not actually cycled yet, so ammonia is building up and not being converted into nitrite then nitrate. You'll want to do a water change whenever the ammonia gets up to 1ppm or above, to keep it from harming the fish. You can also use ammonia detoxifier such as Prime to render the ammonia non-toxic to the fish, however that makes monitoring the level more difficult as detoxified ammonia can still show up on the tests.

You want to have ammonia and nitrite very low (0 in a cycled tank) and nitrate "reasonable" - around 40ppm or lower ideally, unless you have sensitive species which need it even lower. Once the tank is cycled, ammonia and nitrite will stay at zero and regular water changes will keep the nitrates in check.

The other levels, pH and hardness and such, are better not to fuss with. The fish will adjust to them (and if the fish were bought locally, the store probably has similar water conditions).

The substrate can be sand or rock, whichever you prefer. Uneaten food, poo, and other junk will stay on top of sand, where your bottom swimmers will help kick it up into the filter. Sand shouldn't be more than 1-2" deep as no water circulates through deep sand. In gravel, the junk sinks down through and needs to be regularly vacuumed out. Sand can look dirtier though if there is junk accumulated on top.

 

[Nano-joe]

Keep up the consistent water changes after your initial big one.
Your water should have a smell too it that's more "earthy" smell. That's normal and a good sign your tank is healthy.
A bio supplement like stress zyme by API brand wouldn't be a bad idea for a weekly maintenance. Really any well known reputable bio supplement would be great for your tank. Try some live plants! Marmio balls being the easiest to keep!

 

[Trignis]

Keep up the consistent water changes after your initial big one.
Your water should have a smell too it that's more "earthy" smell. That's normal and a good sign your tank is healthy.
A bio supplement like stress zyme by API brand wouldn't be a bad idea for a weekly maintenance. Really any well known reputable bio supplement would be great for your tank. Try some live plants! Marmio balls being the easiest to keep!

Agree, it's truth

 

[Fishguy0911]

Hello everyone, first timer here.

Sorry for the long post but I hope being thorough will help answer my dilemma.

I had a rash of fish dying and at first I thought it was due to stress, but now I'm not sure what is going on.

- My water has been cloudy and stinks for almost a month.
- I have been changing my water about once a week (between 30% to 50%) but it doesn't help. I would use Publix drinking water for the changes.
- I had plastic plants but they started collecting some brownish slime/string "something" (maybe alge?). So I swapped them out for real plants.
- I purchased a U/V sterilizer, and it cleared up the water....for about 4 days. I noticed a dead guppy stuck on the intake of the U/V. When I tried to clean the U/V assembly, there was LOTS of that brownish slime inside of the assembly. I finally cleared out the slime and put the U/V back in the tank, but the tank is not clearing up. I'm thinking its busted.
- Water temperature is at 80/82 degrees.
- For bedding, I use white sand instead of rocks.
- I got the water tested last week at Pet Supermarket, they said everything is normal, but my Alkaline is low (I don't know how low).
- I use a Penguin (Model 150) filter pump with 2 filters inside the pump. Odd thing is I SUPPOSED to swap out the filter every 2-4 weeks, the filters clog up to the point that the bio wheel stops spinning and water comes out the overflow part. And the intake is always covered with stuff.
- I have 1 electric blue crayfish, 2 flag fish, 1 molly, 1 pleco, 1 cory, 1 ghost shrimp, 2 snails, 2 neon tetras, 2 tiger fish, and 2 other tetras.
- I feed them flakes, granules, blood worms, brine shrimp.
- Tank is 20G.

Any help will be appreciated.

Have u tested tank

 

[Fishguy0911]

Have u tested tank

I would do a water change asap like 50 to 70 percent and buy some right start