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

[Steve Connor <sconnor317@gmail.com>]

Oh, I forgot to mention in the first post that two days after I get the
aquarium, I noticed a female platy that had looked happy and healthy
hiding behind the filter.  I thought her demeanor looked sort of familiar
and sure enough out plops a baby.  I netted the mother where she gave birth
to 10 babies now residing in a breeding net I bought after she gave
birth.  They are probably adding to my ammonia problems but have been a big
boost to the interest of my very reluctant to get an aquarium wife !

On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 7:47 PM, Steve Connor <sconnor317@gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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