New from DC

[Denorios]

Hello All,

I just came across this forum today in my search on going search for information on fish keeping.

I set up a 29g freashwater community tank last March, and was having a great time until a couple months ago. I moved to DC with 17 fish of various types and sizes all living happy and healthy lives. But after a few months in DC there started to be problems, some danios died, then other fish started getting sick. After losing five fish in two days I discovered that my ammonia was extremely high. Apparently DC water is extremely high in ammonia, and my weekly water changes slowly built up the ammonia levels. I did water changes, used AmQuel, and tried my best to get the problem under control.

The bigger problem came next, a white cotton like fungus started growing on my fish, then waste stopped breaking down, the white stuff started growing on the waste, and eventually on the gravel, fake plants, and rocks. I recently bought a 10g tank that I moved my two surviving fish into (a African Butterfly Fish named Vader, and a Paradise Gourami). Now I'm restarting my 29g from scratch.

I picked up a tap water filter today that supposedly pulls out everything from amonia to chlorine, so well see how it goes. Does anyone know if this will really work?

ALSO, IF ANYONE CAN GIVE ME A LEAD ON WHAT THE WHITE STUFF THAT WAS GROWING ALL OVER MY TANK WAS, I WOULD REALLY APRECIATE IT. My research has turned up nothing and none of the fish stores I went to could help me either. It wasn't Ick.

I'm really excited to learn more about keeping fish.

[Lady Hobbs]

I wonder if this is due to the hard water there and is lime and calicum in the water? You may have to invest in an RO system if your water is that bad.

I was wondering when you moved, did you add new gravel to the tank? If you did, and added a bunch of fish, you probably had another cycle to go thru. Test your water right from the tap and see what kind of readings you get and also test it for water hardness.

And welcome to AC.

[jeffs99dime]

did you test your source water (tap water) before introducing it into the tank--very important
the only thing that is bad about the tap water filter you are referring to is that you have to replace the filter inside the unit after every regeneration. basically, you have to replace the filter after every water filtering you conduct. i think the filters for those units are like 15 dollars a pop!

[Sin]

denorios welcome to AC. . i also check water straight from the tap before i add it into my tank

[Abbeys_Mom]

Welcome to the forum :)

[Severus]

Welcome to AC

[Incredulous_Ed]

welcome to ac.
The white cottony stuf could be a fungus

[minabird]

Denorios-

Aloha! And welcome to AC.

I live near you... in southern MD.

I recently got the same "white stuff" growing on a piece of driftwood. I thoght is was just algae until I took it out and looked at it more closely. About the same time, I also noticed what looked like a white fungus growing on one of my new emerald green corys. I scrubbed the driftwood and placed it back in the tank and am also using pimafix to help cure my cory. I'm hoping it will also take care of any fungus remaining on the driftwood.

[AquaQueen]

Hello and welcome to AC...I have had that "White Fungus"(not sure on the name it's been so long) it took My Huge Blk Molly's and a Gold Gourami that I got free because he was old and too big for my friends tank. Anyways to get rid of the fungus I had to mix the rocks arround then vaccum them out and did that twice in a week I also did a 25% water change both times and used a water treatment(from my LPS) to clear the fungus and I aslo had to treat my water for high amonia. I also didn't feed the fish for a few days then when things cleared up I fed them(I think 2 days). All has been well as far as fungus goes ever since but I now do regular vaccuming to my gravel and a 25% weekly water change to all of my tanks. I don't know if this is the same fungus but mine was due to one; the fish were not eating the food I bought and it was building up under the rocks, and two; I was not aware that the gravel HAD to be vaccumed...lol...then again it was my first tank and I had ALOT to learn and still do! Good luck cycling your tank again.

[Drumachine09]

Welcome to A.C.

[Denorios]

Hobbs,

Thanks for the input, I didn’t change the gravel or add gravel and I didn’t add any fish after the move. However, it didn’t occur to me to test the tap water directly until after the ammonia kept spiking, I learned my lesson and now I know that I have high ammonia (about 2 on the scale) in this tap water. The filter I bought supposedly scrubs the tap water for ammonia. We’ll see. I don’t have a test for water hardness I’ll get that next.

Jeffs99dime,

The one I bought claims that the filter is good for between 50 and 150 gallons of water before it needs to be replaced, once I get the tank up and running again I usually only change about 10 percent a week, so the filters should last for a while. But yes, the filters are about $15 a pop.

Minabird,

I’m excited to meet someone else who is dealing with this, and in the area no less. I was using coppersafe to treat it but with limited success. Maybe I’ll try pimafix if it comes back. Let me know how it goes, in my case it just kept coming back over and over again, worse every time.

PauliesAquaQueen,

I think that was part of my problem too, when in the beginning when I did water changes I didn’t vacuum the gravel. I also did a lot of large water changes, reduced feeding, ect… but yeah, it just kept coming back, I may have let it get too bad to begin with.


Thanks everyone for the input, I’ll let you know how recycling the tank goes. I’m expecting it to take a month, does that sound about right?