hey iam new newb plz bare with me

[silas313]

Okay sorry but this may be long and it may not make alot of sense but suggestions and help and names of medicines and etc would help. Ive been doing research on many diseases and stuff on my fish or what may be in the tank. But a few things have same symptoms as another thing and yet its different medicine for that treatment. So instead of going out and buying 100 bucks of all medcine i can find in the fish world ill ask for help and advice. I ll be honest and tell ya about my tanks not being cycled properly. It messed up when i added fish. But i got a 29 gal tank from walmart stardard stuff that comes with it for filter and stuff. Also I put this tank together and added fish (which i think they are.. red zebra cichlid, and 2 yellow labs, and a jeweled cichlid i think. I dunno names for them i think its african. Well then later i put in 3 more fish (i dunno the names of them but few pics ive seen and names people called em are a blue Mbuna strips down side head towards tail with it on top fin, also got black something some wat same but very dark, and i think i got another small red zebra. well i added those after waiting some time. Then recently i added 1 more fish i thought it was a kyni or something its yellow black strip kinda fish like a bee . Its small too and two frogs. Well i added them all in some weeks. Also i dont have test strips and i had to pay big fine so i havnt had money to buy test strips. So i dunno the water numbers. Anyways Heres my problem. i did research on why there acting weird. I never seen this, so i dunno. But anyways i ve been watching my fish and after i added the last fish which is the yellow bee fish think its kanyi or something is when the symptoms i seen kicked in but i dunno. I dont truly watch the tank all day and night. But anyways i thought i might have ich... because the it said that they rub on stuff like decos, fake plants, and walls, and also has white spots! Well my fish does everything except the white spots.. And i turned up heat to 78 to try to get the spots to pop up quicker if it was ich like ive read but i still see nothing for spots. So therefor i dunno if its itch but also the fish do seem to go towards the filter and stay under it latly which is unusual for them. So then i also looked around for this "flashing" i seen in the tank as well and it said that it could be parasites of some sort.. now i dunno wat it is nor do i know where to look for. Because ich didnt say that they hit the wall and jump to top of the tank like there crazy and also there breathing heavy. So i didnt wanna get ich medicine and also some sort of medicine for flashing and do it at once.. because i dunno wat it is and i dont wanna try alot of meds in which everything could just be 1 thing.. but also i seen where it could be normal of the flashing and the rubbing and hitting the walls and staying under the filter was said that it was normal from some other people saying it was aggresion towards other fish showing there territories. But anyways heres diff i see in fish. They use to sit at bottom and be normal and bright. And they did chase once in while. Now there alot of times at top like oxygen is out and there at top chillin alot. And some fish go and hide under filter all day and nite which is totally diff. And also the flashing like a spaz and rubbing on decos and hitting wall with head and jumpin to top.. SO all those things are symptoms but no white spots... so any help would be great ty and sorry for the big paragraph iam new



Watch your language please. I edited this post. This is your first warning. Don't let it happen again.


Drumachine09
~MODERATOR

[sailor]

First off I sent you a pm in regards to edit and clean up the post. It sounds like they are reacting to ammonia. It irritates their gills and thats why they are rubbing and scratching up against things in your tank. Your tank is too small for the group of africans you have in there. It is a disater wating to happen. Down load the free ebook from this site it will answer any questions you have about cycling and a lot of other valuable info. You must pic up a good test kit, I suggest the API fresh water maste kit. There are basicly three meds you will require. Melafix for tattered fins open wounds itc. Primafix for fungus. And a good ich medication. Another items to have on hand is aquarium salt.

Any more questions feel free to ask.

[todaie12]

A 20% water change will help get the ammonia under control. If you don't a ammonia kit. You should do water change daily for at least two weeks or until you get a kit.
Anyone on this form will be happy to help you. Just keep the language clean. We do have some kids on this site. Thank you and good luck. :thumb:

[silas313]

Now this is long but its all my info I am posting then reading your guyest replys afterwards. But for help here is my info on everything. Sorry for it being SO big.

Tank- 29 gal standard walmart tank, heater(100watt cheap that keeps shutting off cause probably old)and a HOB aquatech filter. temp is 72-74 F it lowered over nite cause heater stop workin for while.

Deco's 4 fake plants, 2 tall trees, and log with few plants on it , and small building. Rocks are normal gravel rocks from store.

Here are few items i got today for **** of it. Any suggestions and weather or not there good as API kind is good help too i know its diff brand so is it same quality as in working? And suggestons help on filters heaters airstone(even tho i cant find 1 at store) , or lighting will help. But items i got are - Tetra whisper heater - 30-60 gal why is it able to go underwater? cant the top function twist thingy get wet inside and stop working?
- Air pump with hoses to go under water(is this good to make oxygen in water? i was just planning on setting em on side of tank to make bubbles. (30-60 gal)

Next are meds or chemicals are these all good and do they work as good as API kind? and when should i added em and how.
- Jungle brand test kit for PH, nitrates, nitrites, hardness, and alkality (quick drips on these in tube)
- Jungle brand test kit for amonia same thing quick drip.

I bought these just to have and are they good and work? And i use em as fish are in tank or before i put em in while iam cycling my new tank.
- Tetra algae control
- Tetra aqua - aqua safe does this take chlorene out of tap water? or no
-Tetra easy balance
- API stress coat - does this take chlorene out of tap water?
- Melafix drip-
- AP crystal clear
- Spyon hose i read how to use it. But adding water back into tank it says it helps take out chloren is that true or should i just keep using 5 gal bucket and use some sort of chemical to take chloren out with .

Now iam using jungle brand test drip strips.

These strips are gay and says go by color and get as close as you can but i dont get how to use em so can you explain.

For my amonia kit it says ... 0 ideal .5 stress .25 safe 3.0 harmful 6.0 pretty bad
well harmful is color light green and 6.0 was dark green but it was sorta in middle so how i get to figure number out? I thought there be numbers lol but anyways how i use em ) my color was in middle of bad and harmful.

Now for my jungle kit of everything else it same way just colors but it dont say darker the color worst or better or the lighter the color is the higher or lower it is... is just says compare and my colors are diff from the ones on answer sheet. anyways here lil description and u help tell me results number wise or watever .

Answer color on tube to compare too Says this pmm thing Color i got on that square
Pink Nitrite below 40pmm Big Red
Light tan Nitrates .5pmm or below Little Tan diff tan tho...
Darker brown Hardness 50 - 15pmm More stand out bright B but still dark brown
Light orange- Alkalinity 120pmm-300pmm dark green/bluish
dark bright orange - PH 6.8 7.2 Bright red big red

How the **** i compare colors? To the chart and the pmm it only gives me those options. iam confused;(

Luckly i get some responses from you guys on info on this and compare it to wat is happening

Also for my fish i have 2 red zebra 1 1'' and one 2'' 2 yellow labs 2'' each 1.5 '' jewled
2 small 1'' fish undefined i 1 is black with stripes from head to tail and other is bluish with stripes like a bee (vertical) and redish fins and i also got yellow bee lookin black strip guy think its keyni of some sort or something and i also seen mmbuna someone told me on those two others. i need help reading my kits they suck

[silas313]

thank you for help so far.. i got the stuff and iam doing water changes i am asking for help with medcines or anything to help my tank filter or lights better... i got a air pump with hoses to hang hoses into water to produce oxygen is that good. Also can i use stress coat for declorizing my tap water?

[NickFish]

As regard to your dechlorinator question,

No, stress coat does not get rid of chlorine in tap water.
I use Seachem's Prime as a water conditioner. It acts as a stress coat, and a chlorine remover, and it removes amounts of ammonia and neutrilizes heavy metals.

[silas313]

well i did a 1/3 water change with stress coat cause i was told by others that it did help take out chlorine. Also does aqua safe take out chlorine it says it does too .. anyways i did water change cleaned filter and added air pump hose to water and now the fish are most active then ever swimming like there crazy is that good or no? I was worried but people said there just happier. also i added some melafix to tank for torn fin dont i gotta take out filter to do this? cause carbon takes out melafix and if so then wat do i do just add it then wait hour then add ur filter back to the water?

[cichlid22c]

the aqua safe will take chlorine out of your water try not to do any more cleaning cuz your tank is not cycled the bacteria you need to take the ammonia down grow in your filter. you do need to take the carbon out and replace it with some fiter floss. you have an aqua-teck filter right it should have a white sponge fiter in there too leave that in. the python will work just add your aqua safe before you add the fresh water.

[kitten3326]

The aqua safe and the stresscoat will both take cholrine out of the water, however you only need to use one, I use personally use seachem prime. The tetra easybalance is useless and will accomplish nothing but to cloud your water( I used it with my first tank years ago and screwed everything up it was horrible.) Your biggest trouble right now is your water quality, trying to treat diseases is very difficult when your water parameters are such a mess. One is a bi-product of the other, your fish are suffering badly from ammonia posioning, it is very important to do regular water changes, this means daily. If you are treating them for ich or some other disease, then remove your carbon, use filter floss to remove small particles and do your water changes, I would not worry about using crystal clear or any of those products until you regain control of your water quality. When treating for ich and finrot, you must be very careful to read the directions on the bottle and not over medicate. Just remember the most important thing right now is your water changes. I personally use a python, this makes water changes very easy and stress free, just remember to add the decholinator to the water before add fresh water. I know the colors on the charts can get confusing but just remember the lower the number with the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate the better for your fish. I hope this helps somewhat and good luck.