In need of advice

[Fender]

So a few months ago I decided to upgrade my aquarium from 10 gallons to 36. I had 7 tiger barbs for a little over a year in the 10 gallon tank, with no deaths, while knowing nothing about cycling, ammonia, etc.

Now, with the 36 gallon tank, I'm having all kinds of problems (problems I may have had before but just wasn't aware of since nothing had died).

First of all, I know now that I made a huge mistake by putting a total of 13 fish in the tank from the beginning. Now, 4 months later, I'm down to 7 again (3 tiger barbs, 3 silver dollars, 1 gold gourami). After a few deaths, I bought a testing kit and found my pH level to be less than or equal to 6.0, and my ammonia count greater than or equal to 8ppm. It's now obvious to me what killed the fish.

So I guess my question is, what's the best course of action now? I tried an 80% water change, but even that only barely helped. I stopped feeding the fish for a while, and now when I do, it's only a few flakes once per day.

I've been thinking maybe I don't have enough oxygen in the tank. The gourami swims to the surface quite often and gasps for air. The air pump I'm using is from my 10 gallon tank. I ordered a new more powerful one, and it should be here in a day or two.

Another problem I'm having is a sort of growth I've never seen. It's an orangish-brown growth on the glass and turns the rocks and fake plants nearly black. I've read that algae tends to not grow until a tank has cycled.

Here's my current setup:
36 gallon tank
Tetra power filter 40
Proquatics 200 watt heater (kept at 78 degrees)


Thanks in advance,

--Brian

[guppyart]

I have algae like that in 30 gallon tank and there is only 3 guppies in it as to the ammonia it might be that your water has a high ammonia content but another thing that might be causing that is syphon the gravel incase you have excess food or poop that can have quite the effect on the waterin the tank and the gourami don't worry they do that alot cause they can breath air but when the other fish start doing that you might have ammonia at to high a level hope this helps you I have had that problem myself and there is not much that you can do alot of the time other than just sit it out

[joe kool]

if the tank is more than a couple months old and is still not able to maintain lower levels of amonia you need to do partial (+/- 25%) water changes about every other day. the low PH is actually a good thing in this case because ammonia is "less" toxic to fish at lower ph ... meaning amonia @ 8 ppm might be slowly killing the fish but at 7.5 or 8 ph that level of ammonia would probbably wipe out you tank in a day. the algae is a good sign too as this means the ammonia is being converted to nitrite and nitrate which the plants use as food ... sort of ... yes algae is a plant sort of ... just not like your used to.

more air will help the gas exchange at the surface as will leaving the water a little low and letting the water from yout filter "splash" into the tank.


AND untill you get the ammonia thing under control I'd change your tetra cartridge every other week too ... get the cartriges online for like $17 for 25 cartriges here http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx

maybe cheaper elsewhere but that price is hard to beat

they more gunk you have in your water the faster the carbon gets used up AND I saw a report on a study that said something to the effect that the activated carbon did "most" of the absorption in the first couple days then tapers off.

hope this was helpful

[Fender]

I really appreciate the posts. I'll start the water changes and filter changes immediately.

There's something else I've noticed in the past few days. The fins of the tiger barbs are starting to look frayed and are splitting. Is this something I should be worried about? They're over 2 years old if that means anything.

--Brian

[guppyart]

Originally Posted by Fender @ Thu 27 Jan, 2005

I really appreciate the posts. ****I'll start the water changes and filter changes immediately. ****

There's something else I've noticed in the past few days. ****The fins of the tiger barbs are starting to look frayed and are splitting. ****Is this something I should be worried about? ****They're over 2 years old if that means anything.

--Brian

you could have fin rot

[mousey]

you could remove some of the fish and keep them in a bucket for a few days. i just did this when i had to move my fish in a hurry because of a leak. Even tho i used a lot of the old gravel and the old filter it took 13 days to get the new tank completly cycled. Also get your self a few bunches of either water wisteria or hornwort to soak up the ammonia. Back to keeping fish in a bucket. i have electric heat so can raise or lower each room individually. Put the room up to 72 and the swords and black skirt tetras stayed ok for a week. i did partial water changes on the bucket every 2 days and bubbled extra oxygen into the bucket twice in a week and a half.
Once i cut the poop load down and increased the fast growing plants in the tank the ammonia level went way down.
However then the nitrite went up. However water changes, a bit of salt and extra oxygen to the tank kept the fish nice and safe. When there was no more nitrites, i added the fish back into the tank 2 at a time and monitored the water in 2 days. if the ammonia and nitrite levels were 0 i added two more fish.
Mouse

[joe kool]

the "frayed fins" as long as there is no cottony looking stuff is just probably from the stress of all the ammonia and the fish losing slime coat and teating the fins up ... I notice that alot on tanks that are in desperiate ned of a warte change the fish have lots of torn fins ... which can lead to a cottony development on te fins which would be fin rot or a fungus.