# Ready to give up on this.....



## anniem584 (Feb 19, 2013)

These past 3 weeks have been horrible and it keeps getting worse. I have treated for ich twice and also added an anti bacterial med for bacterial infection. The ph went way up so did a 25% water change Friday and stuck in a filter. PH was 7.2 yesterday but went back up to 7.9 today. Did another 25% waterchange today. Lost my last neon and my platties and gouramis look fat and bloated. My cherry barbs just stay in one place and they look like they are struggling. I am in tears. I usedto have fish long ago and didn't have troubles like this. It has been one struggle after another. I don't want to just sit here and watch them die but I just don't know what to do with these fish. The water is cloudy still from the ich meds. I believe my two guppies will go next and maybe th cherry barbs and I don't know how to fix this. I thought this would be something fun to do with my husband but it has been nothing but heartache. Please if you have any advice share it with me. I cannot get any other meds until tomorrow afternoon when get out of work. Is there anythingI can do with whtI have?


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## Andrewj (Jan 10, 2013)

Are u using tap water when you do your water changes? And did you remove your filter cartridge when u treated them for ick?


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## anniem584 (Feb 19, 2013)

Yes I use my own water but it is from an artesian well so no chemicals. I did remove the filter when I treated but was told to replace it Friday because the PH was so high. I just did a gravel vac and all this white stuff came up. It looked like veils if you know what I mean. I netted as much of it as I could. I found out the amonia was at .8 this afternoon when my husband tested but I was away for the day so didn't find out until I got home. I called and talked to the fish person at petco and she told me to do the gravel vac and water change. When I finished I added some stress zyme to make sure the bacteria would be ok. I think I will just leave the tank alone for a couple of days and see how it goes. I hope I don't lose anymroe fish but if I do I think I will just clean the tank out and either put it through a fishless cycle and get goldfish or sell it all. And I thought this would be relaxing!!!!!


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## NoobyZ (Apr 22, 2012)

Don't give up, Ive been fighting columnaris for the past 3 weeks too, its worth the fight and struggle!  i hope you get rid of it, maybe if they all die just clean it and bleach everything. And Try again, let your tank cycle and do it all with patience. Trust me, you'll love it when you see your fishes happy.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

ok...a lot of folks are not going to agree with what i am going to tell you ; and you certainly don't have to do it if it bothers you...whatever fish are in the tank will need to be moved for a short time while you redo the main tank..
make sure you have the following...
heater....at least 5 watts per gallon.....
a good filter...GPH pump capacity rated at 7-10 times the volume of the tank..20 gallon tank = 160-200 GPH.

tear down the tank..wash out the tank , gravel and anything else that will be in it with a mix of 1/2 gallon of water and 1 cup of bleach....put the gravel in a bucket...pour 2 cups of bleach over it and then fill with water until the gravel is covered...let stand...
after washing everything real good , rinse it several times...make sure you rinse ever little nook and granny 2-3 times....same with the substrate.....
when everything is cleaned and rinsed thoroughly set the tank back up....add a dechlorinating agent about 10 times normal dosage...let set for 24 hours and do a 50% water change....
make sure your tank temp is set at 78 degrees.....
add your fish back to the tank....
do not use any other chemicals from here on...
once the tank is set back up with the fish added do 30% water changes once every week...
feed sparingly twice daily...

REMEMBER.............................

THE MORE YOU MESS WITH YOUR TANK ; THE MORE PROBLEMS YOU CREATE FOR YOURSELF !!!!


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## BittyGuppie (Feb 26, 2013)

i know how u feel, right now im trying to figure out what is happening to my fish, its probably to do with polluting from dead fish that i couldnt get rid of in time. because they just have to die when im not there. aka weekends (boarding school, which means i get to go home every weekend and leave my fish there... to die :/ ) anyway, i have lost two fish (three but one was from a pond that nobody owned) they were both guppies and my grown females are pregnant anyway so im not too worried, but on one of my litle females one of her fins has turned into a little needle and she cant swim properly. idk how that happened. ive seen some flicking across rocks but not sure if its just that they r itchy or if they have white spot. no spots visible yet. i just hope that i can get rid of this soon. i dont want my little fishies dying! the one with the fin problem has died but other than that all the other fish are heathy.


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## BittyGuppie (Feb 26, 2013)

oh and how do you post a blog? cause i saw on my page that you can post bloggs but i cant find anything to be able to do that :/


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## Trout (Mar 16, 2011)

:/ Wish I knew how to help. I've got virtually no experience dealing with life-threatening disease in fish, other than the occasional ich treatment for my goldfishes over 10 years ago. If you can't figure out the problem, well, Lohachata's advice seems sound. Though when you said the ammonia was a whopping .8ppm, My first thought was "has this tank been properly cycled?"

I hope everything turns out okay.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

bitty....could you please watch your language...swearing is not appreciated here...


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## BittyGuppie (Feb 26, 2013)

oh sorry... im not used to it being a swear word :-? shall remove it


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## yannis2307 (Apr 23, 2012)

yeah i mean the "H" word isnt that tragic loha...


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## anniem584 (Feb 19, 2013)

Well I found out today that my tap water read 7.7 PH so now I have to go get some ph down. This is crazy. I guess I will have to constantly be fighting this problem.


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## Guest (Mar 4, 2013)

Do not get those things that say that they will get your pH down. Best thing to do is get some driftwood, it will brring your pH down naturally. Like lohachata said the more you mess with the tank the more problems you will have. pH down will just mess up your tank and you will have problems with it.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

yannis ; my whole point is to not using it in any form..it is not needed..i know that it isn't a big deal ; but there is no reason to use it....it is about respecting others and controlling our behavior....

annie ; if your tapwater is at 7.7 don't worry about it...it will come down on it's own to a more reasonable level....it shouldn't take long for it to get down to 7.0....


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## BittyGuppie (Feb 26, 2013)

hey angelclown... if you use driftwood wouldnt it put salt into the system? its just that my mum said that if you put driftwood from the beach into your tank its not that good for your fish. is this the case? just interested cause she might be wrong... (and she has had a like huge tank for awhile... and kept neons but after they all died she gave up:/ )


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## anniem584 (Feb 19, 2013)

After posting last night I went to the pet shop and they gave me ph down and told me to do gravel vack and add new water with the ph down in it. They said I needed to gravel vac again because my amonia was .7 and it has to be 0. How can it be 0 when it comes out of the tap at .3? I am fighting a losing battle. I added stress zyme because I was worried about the bacteria all being taken out. I am not going to add another thing to this tank. I am pretty sure my male cherry barb is going to die as he is on the bottom hardly moving and my female guppy is just sitting at the top so I will probably lose her too. If they all go I will clean the tank and start over only with ciclids this tme because I was told they don't mind the high ph. I am still hoping the fish I have left will live. I will get some driftwood at the pet shop and try that. Thank you for all your help.


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## weedkiller (Nov 18, 2012)

there are ways to reduce levels that does not resort to chems.... with chems you will be in a constant battle with your levels.. and you will probably lose heart and commitment after time as a large majority do.
if your filters are cycled it should take care of ammonia/nitrites that your fish produce, if you have ammonia/nitrites/nitrates in your source try a mix of reverse osmosis/tap water, get the r.o water from your fish retailer or purchase a r.o filter.
if you have high nitrates use seachem de-nitrate if you have a slow flow filter or seachem matrix or pond matrix if you have a fast flow filter, you will never need to change it and it acts as a biological filter too. I use it as I have 50ppm nitrates in my source and now it is probably closer to 0 thanks to matrix 
there are probably other methods never tried by myself that others may be able to point you too, after a little research you will find what is best for you.


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## Guest (Mar 5, 2013)

bitty....... if you put the driftwood directly into the tank without cleaning it first, it will put toxins in the tank. You have to clean the driftwood first then put it in the tank.

Driftwood lowers pH naturally. anniem......I would not use the pH down as it will screw up the tank and you will be fighting a battle forever. Get the driftwood, clean it really good and place in your tank and wait patiently for the pH to go down. A huge drop in pH is not at all good for fish, they will die from a huge pH drop. That is what will happen if you use the pH down. Like loha said the more you mess with the tank, the more problems you will have. Also don't add any chemicals to the tank.


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## weedkiller (Nov 18, 2012)

exactly that... sorry did mean to put in about driftwood for ph.. my bad,


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## anniem584 (Feb 19, 2013)

Update: I was told since I have done so many water changes in the past few days I should add a bit of aquarium salt so I did. Today I noticed that my two cherry barbs are worse and now have red steaks on them. The pet shop told me to add the mealfix but that probably won't help. I need something else and can't get to the pet shop until tomorrow after work. As I watched the fish tonight I was very unhappy to see that one of my female platties is flashing again. Have I mentioned that this is not fun.


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## anniem584 (Feb 19, 2013)

Streaks not steaks!


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## Kirrie (Jan 18, 2013)

I'm so sorry that you're having problems with your fishes  I can't really offer advice as far as how to fix the problem, but I can say that I was also having a lot of problems starting my tank. It was very stressful and I almost gave up a few times, but I'm really glad I didn't because everything worked out in the end. Just keep trying and eventually you will get to a point where it is fun. It took me about a month or more to get there. Don't give up.


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## weedkiller (Nov 18, 2012)

the flashing could be indication of high ammo/nitrites not necessarily ich, sit back and clam down 1st of all, 
melafix may help but if you don't sort the cause it wont do anything.
check all of your water parameters and post here, 
when you changed your water did you dechclorinate it before you added the water to the tank?


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## BittyGuppie (Feb 26, 2013)

ok thanks  sorry i just got confused. so you could use driftwood from the beach? or does it have to be bought from the pet store??? thanks


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

you can use the beach driftwood ; but it would be best if you soaked it a couple of times with fresh water to get some of the salt out of it..


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## Trout (Mar 16, 2011)

The nice thing about Melafix is that it is *not* chemical. It is derived naturally, so it won't really hurt yo fish, though I won't use it with inverts. My snail went wonky after I put some in, so I moved it to a different tank till the treatment was done. It should help; I'm pretty sure it couldn't possibly hurt to try it.


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## weedkiller (Nov 18, 2012)

And remove any carbon media


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

You need another source of advice.  pH down is a straight acid. Adding to a tank with live fish is a bad idea. If you have ammonia in your tap water, you need a water conditioner that "detoxifies ammonia". Use Prime or Amquel+ at a double dose and add aeration. 

Clean high pH well water is better for most fish than water with untreated ammonia.


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## Trout (Mar 16, 2011)

emc7 said:


> You need another source of advice. pH down is a straight acid. Adding to a tank with live fish is a bad idea. If you have ammonia in your tap water, you need a water conditioner that "detoxifies ammonia". Use Prime or Amquel+ at a double dose and add aeration.
> 
> Clean high pH well water is better for most fish than water with untreated ammonia.



This person speaks truly. It will do the fish a world of good to detoxify the ammonia in your tapwater until the bacteria in your tank can gobble it up. Fish can adapt to whatever pH your home water is more often than not. If it's a particularly sensitive fish, perhaps not, but I don't think you'll have to worry about Cherry Barbs in that category. Anyway, I definitely trust the company API, and I would recommend their product Ammo Lock. I haven't tested Prime or Amquel+, though. So I don't know if they work any better or worse. Good Luck!:mrgreen:


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## anniem584 (Feb 19, 2013)

The cherry barbs died. I have a female platty and a male guppie flashng. Today's readings were: Amonia .1, PH 7.7, nitrites 0, nitrates 0. So I will continue to use the melafix and hope it takes care of whatever the flashing is about. If I lose al of my fish I will clean out the tank and start over but with fish who wouldn't mind the PH. Probably ciclids. I am pretty worn out with all this. Very sad. But the 2 baby guppies in the 10 gallon tank are doing well and growing. I will keep you posted. Thanks


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## Guest (Mar 6, 2013)

Main thing is don't add any chemicals. If you are unsure about if something is a chemical ask us and we will tell you. You will get through this.


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## anniem584 (Feb 19, 2013)

I won't. The Melafix is not a chemical, it is melaleuca. I may try to pick up some pimafix if I can get to the pet shop tomorrow. That will depend on the weather. I really want my fish to be ok. Thank you for all your help.


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