# Fungus/Bacteria attack on friend's tank! Please Help!



## lookralphsbak (Jun 16, 2009)

My friend's tank got attacked by a mystery fungus/bacteria and she isn't sure what it is! She works at a school and sent it to the lab but they couldn't figure it out! If anyone know what this could be or the cause of the problem please throw out ideas! She thinks it might be the water, she's been sick for a while and she thinks it's because she was drinking the tap water. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota so if anyone has had any issues like this from the water there please let me know!
***I'm only allowed to upload 20 photos, I think I had 28, click the links to view the photos with removed image codes!

Any way here are photos with descriptions:

This grew in her tank overnight and she's VERY allergic to it:
























http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...69285598_100001112075191_367484_4564790_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...92618929_100001112075191_367485_4807115_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...22618926_100001112075191_367486_7011001_n.jpg
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Fungus/mold day #2 - Water changed color from dark green to this cherry color when put in the sun:

















Healthy Molly tank so far, until March 38th.... then it went green:









She got new tanks and new equipment to save the survivors:
March 28th - The new tank (20 gallon with the light on below - disease strikes again. The Platy's get clamped tails:









Same thing as what started in the ground zero tank - bubbles that won't go away and gain in presence. If you treat the tank with anything - the bubbles get worse, and the color of the water gets green or purple:









Tank that is getting the sickness - after a 50% water change (which is dangerous I know - but that yellow scum was starting to form on the surface again:









Another platy with clamped tail and the foamy water:

















Bubbles that cover the surface and won't go away:









The happy Molly tank that was great a few weeks ago - got cloudy. This is cloudy again after a 75% water change - and it's just as cloudy as before with 2 filters on it. Very cloudy - anti algae, water clarifier etc don't work:
























http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...02422508_100001112075191_377778_4705979_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...25755839_100001112075191_377779_5932088_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...75755834_100001112075191_377780_6651862_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...25755829_100001112075191_377781_6002554_n.jpg

Some of the contaminated water from the brand new 20 gallon tank with the sick platys and guppies:









The water from the ground zero tank from a few weeks ago. Still purple:









Bubbles that never stop:









Top view of what the infection looks like before it gets biblical!
and after a 50% water change!!!
March 28th:

















If anyone ever encountered this problem or can help find a solution please let me know! She's stumped!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Check the water heater and water softener. If you have a mold in either one, you will keep reintroducing it to the tank even if you bleach it.


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## Mr. fish (Mar 8, 2011)

That is the weirdest thing I've ever seen... something strange going on over there thats forsure...

Anybody else in the area with the same problem?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

A friend of mine had a killer black algae. Seems that it grows in the dark. It turned out to be in the water line. It came back even in a new tank. He gave up and gave me his fish. 

Never seen anything like those pics. I would definitely try water from another source and some salt (livebearers like it and it kills many fungus). Also test the tap for nitrates and phophates that could be feeding whatever it is. Phosphates can foam.


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

Wow, that's amazing. I've seen bubbles pile up on top but they've never stacked up like that in the first couple pictures.


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## lookralphsbak (Jun 16, 2009)

Yea, it's crazy. I really hope this never happens to my tank. It looks brutal!

Thanks to everyone for the replies! I told her to check the topic and see if she can work from there.


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## chronoboy (Jan 17, 2011)

ive seen foam like that before, but that was only at the beach in coves, we always called it sea foam, but i know that is not what your friends tank has, its just the only thing it looks like to me.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

The purple color is the big clue here... but I can't think of what it means. My suggestion is a complete teardown/restart. Something is breaking down in that tank, not only exuding that purpleness, but raising the surface tension of the water so high that the foam is forming. This is generally caused, without the purple, by simple filth. Whatever the cause, the effect just won't do, and it needs to be fixed. Imagine what must be going on in the bloodstreams of those fish.


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

Oh my god, those poor fish! And your poor friend! She's been sick, too? I agree with checking the water heater, pipes, ec t. Especially if she's starting over with a whole new setup. It's gotta be something getting into the tap water. I think it's more serious than a fish tank problem.


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## e048 (Dec 23, 2010)

bleach the tank and move on


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## AbbiAA (Mar 28, 2011)

Thank you Raphael!!! 

so it took several calls, but it was this super intense fish guy in Hopkins who solved the issue. Something for everyone to look out for, but my tap water (*city water) - which I was originally using to study it's deformity affects on the live bearer offspring.. anyway - turns out the city water is almost perfect, EXCEPT the ammonia in the water is like it is when 1/2 your fish gave birth to 100's of little peeing fish, while not cleaning your water for a month.. and leaving lots of food in it. (Yummy) - so we've been drinking that. Which is because the city is heavily treating the water for bacteria (and antibiotics - I'm very allergic to them) - seeing why I've been sick for months on end. 

The guy said to stop drinking our water, and start using distilled water. I did 1/4th tank water change - badda bing - the fish are ALREADY looking better.... except a few that are doing that wasting thing (what is that? is there ever saving a fish when they get all gaunt?)

the foam = mixing medications specifically with the super ammonia high water, and often our water has had the pH of lemon juice and then some... because my fish we suffering from the high ammonia in the water..... which the levels change hourly in the city (fun fun) - I never noticed. just thought my fish were extra poopy - so I'd add ammonia fix, which then gives you a false reading on ammonia (high anyway) - and the fish were getting sick from every little disease under the sun.... because they had no immune system left because of the ammonia - and because I started to go to cheep places for fish........ because of the serious die-offs I'd been having for the past few months...... same time I got sick... etc.

also explains why this crap kept coming back after bleaching the super ground zero tank over and over again.... and then in a BRAND NEW TANK, New gravel, new tools, filters, termometer.... all new everything to avoid contamination. So i shut down 4 tanks for a reason that could have been fixed with a water change



The green tank is algae hell storm. That tank needs to be collapsed entirely. Blackened (sheet over it so NO light gets in) for a week, cleaned like a mad woman, and then started fresh. 


that's the skinny


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Great that you got some answers. I had heard that some places were eschewing chlorine for 'natural' ammonia. I didn't even think to ask since that it one thing most people test for themselves. Problem with 'natural' anything is there are lot of organisms that can eat it.

Sucks that you are going to have to buy, filter or capture (rain)water to avoid getting sick. For the fish, you could conceivable pre-treat the water with a cycled filter to convert high ammonia to high nitrate, but thats not all that desirable, either. 

Freshwater is usually easier because we can use tap-water. But when all tanks get problems suddenly at once, its worthwhile to try a different water source.

Thanks for posting. I will certainly remember those pics.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Yikes.

Okay, go to the news media. This is something that most folks in the city wouldn't know, and that the city most likely didn't bother telling anyone. Stir up trouble. Get people angry that Minneapolis water is pumping people full of antibiotics and straining their livers with ammonia poisoning. Give the petshops an opportunity to sue the city for what must have been causing them a lot of trouble and financial loss. Give the restaurants an opening to sue the city for exposing them to possible liability over serving this junk to their patrons.
Chlorine is our friend.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

I'm in WI, but part of the Twin Cities metro area. The twin cities is home to the Minnesota Aquarium Society, which is where most of my fish come from. Occasionally water quality concerns come up on the local fish forum. I have never seen or hear of anything like this. The different suburbs have their different general parameters. A PH of "lemon juice" is very odd... its more common to have liquid rock. Minneapolis uses chloramines to treat drinking water, sometimes you can read a false positive since chloramine contains bound ammonia. Some test kits still detect it, even if a dechlor is used. Also there is no set or regulated levels of ammonia in drinking water anywhere in the US. So it will be kinda hard to prove any kind of ammonia poisoning to humans. Ammonia in tap water is fairly common though. During spring is when water quality is likely to change the most. We have been buried under snow for over 4 months and it still refuses to leave. Anyway tis the wonderful time of run off/flooding this usually leads to city to more thoroughly sanitize the water. The filter the water from the rivers/lakes/and wells. I know if I drive down town the St. Croix River will be occupying at least one parking lot, if not a road. 

FYI there are a lot of super intense fish people around here. How else can a fish auction last 8 hours..... O also annual fish show in one week


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