Re: [GSAS-Member] Problems with my new tank (and the potential revocation of my new GSAS membership)

[Steve Connor <sconnor317@gmail.com>]

Cory and Roy,

Thanks for your responses.  I did add Nutrafin Cycle, supposedly a
bio-enhancer. Whether that is all gone as a consequence of the water changes
is an interesting question I have been pondering. From my by-gone days of
aquarium keeping I have negative memories of the ick treatments with dyes in
them staining the silicone in the tanks (and everything else).  Does the
malachite green or the Ick X do that?  I guess I should also worry about the
tetra issue as I have both neons and red eye (or lamp) tetras in the tank.
As an observation, the tetras I lost were the cardinals (and only the
cardinals) that had been included with the group of neons.  It certainly
seemed as if they were more sensitive than the neons.

On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 7:31 PM, Cory McElroy <corywmcelroy@hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> Keep up on the water changes to get you through the ammonia. Like 50%
> daily. Also I recommend buying Seachem Stability. As this will speed up the
> beneficial bacteria colony.
>
> As for the Ick. At Conway Tropical Fish and at home I use Hikari's Ich X.
> Have had very good results with it.
>
> As for the grape vine. I have tried it in the past, but after like 6 weeks
> of straight fungus, after scrubbing it off I gave up. I've read that is
> doesnt stop growing fungus eventually, but takes like a year. Your best bet
> is to just find more aquariums suitable wood. Such as Bog log.
>
> See you at the meeting,
> Cory
>
> > Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 18:30:16 -0800
> > From: sconnor317@gmail.com
> > To: gsas-member@thekrib.com
> > Subject: [GSAS-Member] Problems with my new tank (and the potential
> revocation of my new GSAS membership)
>  >
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I just joined the GSAS this week and really look forward to
> > participating. It seems like a great group.
> >
> > I am terribly embarrassed that my first post is about all of the mistakes
> I
> > have made with the aquarium I got for Christmas. I will not disclose all
> of
> > them, but suffice it to say, I have done just about every dumb thing you
> > could do starting an aquarium up and am suffering the consequences.  (I
> kept
> > aquariums starting as as a kid, had multiple tanks, bred angels, had
> > saltwater tanks  etc so I must have been a bit too smug getting going
> again
> > here after a fifteen year- plus haitus).
> >
> > My beginning problem -as you probably already canguess- is that I put too
> > many fish in my 29 gallon before letting it cycle.  The  present issues
> > arising from my dumbness that I could use some help on are:
> >
> > 1.  My ammonia skyrocketed and, after losing some cardinal tetras, I
> > panicked and got  Ammo-Lock.  It seemed to help the fish immediately but
> I
> > continue to have very high ammonia readings.  I understand that one of
> the
> > problems of using Ammo-Lock is that it messes up your readings but I
> don't
> > understand whether that is a permanent thing or not.  I also don't
> > understand whether by using that I have prevented the creation of
> nitrites
> > and thus blocked the cycle from happening.  A secondary consequence of
> this
> > is I don't know where I am in the cycle and am not clear whether all of
> my
> > fish are about to die from some nitrite spike
> >
> > 2.  A couple of fish now have a some spots of ich.  ( I got most of the
> fish
> > from chain stores).  I didn't want to add anything that would further
> mess
> > up my tank chemistry or stain the tank and the chain stores I went to did
> > not seem to have any product with just formalin in it.  Instead, I added
> > salt and increased the temperature to 82 but am worried about the
> corydoras
> > I have in there.  I cant tell if it has solved the problem as a few fish
> > still seem to have a couple of spots ( I started the salt three days ago
> but
> > hadn't reall gotten the temperature up to 82 until today). Any
> suggestions
> > on this front?
> >
> > I have been doing 25% water changes every other day to try to ameliorate
> the
> > problems I have caused.
> >
> > The third problem/question I have  unrelated to my overstocking is I
> > boughtsome driftwood from one of the chain stores which said it was
> suitable
> > for terrarium or aquarium use.  I think it said it was grapevine or grape
> > wood or something with grape in the name. After soaking it and  getting
> it
> > to sink I put it in the tank and after a few days started to notice a
> > fuzz on it.  At first I thought that  it was just fiber from the wood but
> it
> > continued to grow (it was white) and i started to think that it was some
> > kind of fungus.  I have taken it out of the tank but am wondering if
> anybody
> > has any idea what that was and any comments about "grape" driftwood.
> >
> > In view of the foregoing I may attend the first few meetings incognito
> > butwould appreciate any feedback.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Steve Connor
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
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