Brackish water

[hotwinter]

I have previously been doing a quarter water change in my tank per week and have found it to be perfect, the plants stay nice and healthy and the fish were happy.

Unfortunetly I completely forgot about doing a gravel vack...now my water has become brackish (well at least I think that's the term, can someone clarify that for me?).

I tried to do a gravel vac last night as the tank was due for a water change...but I only managed to get 6cm (square) done before I lost too much water.

How often can I gravel vac the tank so I can get rid of the floaties? Keeping in mind how much water I am going to have to replace...

[Woodsy]

"Turbid", is the word I think you're looking for - lots of particulate matter suspended in the water. "Brackish" generally refers to the conditions in river mouths where there is tidal influence, and hence the water is very alkaline, and quite salty - a mixture of fresh and salt water.

[hotwinter]

Ah ok, I thought a mixture of salt and fresh water was "briney". Never mind, thankyou.

Now how do I fix it?!

[Woodsy]

If your GH is around 100ppm or more, you can try a precipitating agent such as Clarity (Seachem). They say it works at any GH, but in my experience none of the precipitating products on the market will work under a GH of 100ppm. Make sure you put a fine filter media in, such as dacron, to pick up the particles. Alternatively, you could turn off your filter while the agents clumps it all up, then gravel vac' it out.

[hotwinter]

HELP HELP HELP!!!!!!!

I just tested my water; pH 6.0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10-20, amonia 1.0

I saw my fish lady today before it had spiked and she said not to do any water changes for atleast a week....WHAT DO I DO???

[Woodsy]

1/2 water change via gravel vac
Double dose with Stability or Cycle
Bump your pH up to 6.8-7.0 (Assuming you don't have Africans)

Keep an eye on it over the next few days, you may need to repeat every 2-3 days until it's under control. Get yourself an AmoAlert (Seachem) indicator.

[hotwinter]

In the tank there are 2 peacocks, 2 clown loaches, a kribensis and a golden widow.

Thanks for that woodsy, i'll do that now. What's an AmoAlert? Does it cost much? I have at least 5 tanks, should I get one for all of them?

[Woodsy]

It's basically an indicator card that constantly tests for ammonia. Costs you about $7.50, and it just suction cups onto the inside of your tank. I've found them reliable and worth the couple of bucks, and they also do a pH one as well :)

[hotwinter]

Awsome I'll definatly have to pick one up, I assume I can get one from my LPS?

Last night the pH spiked to 7.4 but is back down to 6 this morning. Amonia is still at 1.0 and Nitrates are up to a solid 20. Cloudyness hasn't changed...and we also discovered last night our yellow peacock has been lip-locking with the marble OB and now doesn't have any lips :(

[hotwinter]

My poor little yellow man :( He is not well at all. We had to remove him from the community tank and put him in a medicated tank on his own. The redness on his mouth has gotten alot worse, he constantly has his mouth open and isn't eating. And then this evening I noticed what looks like fungi growing around the corners of his mouth. My poor little man. I'm really don't know what to do to, he'll starve to death if he doesn't start eating soon wouldn't he?

[wombat1100]

What have you put in the medicated tank? other than the fish of course!Just water? Salt? chemicals?
I wouldn't worry too much about the eating thats not what will kill him immediately, infection and stress is what u need to concentrate on i think IMHO

[Woodsy]

Wombat is right. Keep an eye on him, and if he starts getting emaciated (skinny with a concave abdomen), that's when you should start getting worried about him not eating. This rarely happens in hobbyist tanks though, as they tend to be fed quite well :p

[hotwinter]

We put him in a smaller tank with some Easy Life we got from our LFS. He's doing heaps better. The furry has gone from around his mouth and his lips are slowly growing back. AND he's stopped spitting out bits of the inside of his mouth. He still isn't eating but he seems happy enough.

[aquariumleasing]

Hi Hotwinter. To help your yellow fellow you might try MelaFix and PimaFix and triple sulfa tablets together. MelaFix and PimaFix are natural anti-biotics.

As far as your gravel vac is concerned, you might consider doing your gravel vac as part of your regular water change. If you are worried about losing too much bacteria from your gravel then alternate vaccuming the LHS and RHS of the tank each week/fortnight - leaving the opposite side undisturbed. Lift up rocks and vac underneath from time to time.

As far as your ammonia is concerned, keep in mind ammonia is more toxic at higer pH levels - so do not be too hasty to increase pH while you still have ammonia readings (should be zero). If you do not overfeed your fish and do regular gravel clearing (vac) your ammonia and nitrate should come back to acceptable levels. If you have lots of loose debri something is amiss. Could be overfeeding (would account for the cloudy water too) or something is rotting in the tank. Check any timber you have as decor - if it leaves black slime on your hands it is breaking down - get rid of it. I hope some of that helps.

[hotwinter]

That helped a great deal thankyou. There was a piece of rotting plant that the male cichlid had burried under a rock.

The yellow guy is doing extreamly well, eating and almost has all his lips back. I ended up having to recycle my tank with the fish in their, but the water has only got a couple of days left to stabalise and I'll be set.

But thanks though, I'm heading down my LFS tomorrow so I'll pick up those Fix's