starbuck

Hi. I have a 37 gal tank with Eclipse filter system and biowheel. The tank is 8 weeks old. Everything was going great, ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels were at 0, fish were thriving. We introduced some Tiger Barbs to the tank (I know, we should have had a quarantine tank but we didn't), and a few days later almost all of the fish started showing symptoms of Ich. I treated the Ich with Quick Cure and removed the filter, and replaced with a new filter after the treatment was done. Almost all of the fish responded quickly to the treatment, except for the Tiger Barbs and our Bala Sharks, and we did lose a couple of guppies.

The barbs and sharks are now in a hospital tank, I really don't think they are going to make it as they just don't look good. Which is sad, but that's ok, things happen. All of the fish in our main tank are Ich free and seem to be ok.

My main concern now is that the ammonia and nitrite levels have gotten quite high, I assume because I had to take out the filter during the Ich treatment?

The ammonia levels are at .25 ppm as of this morning, although they had been at .50 for the past 4 days.

The nitrite levels are extremely high though, and look to be at least 5.0, if not slightly higher.

Nitrates are only slightly elevated, between 0 and 20, according to the chart.

I did a 40% water change 5 days ago, and have been doing 25% changes every day since. The ammonia level has dropped but there has been no change in the nitrite levels. I have also only been feeding them every other day.

The fish seem to be doing ok, but some of them are fairly lethargic.

Is there anything else I should do? I've read conflicting opinions as to whether I should add aquarium salt to the tank, to help protect the fish from the nitrite levels. Should I keep doing water changes, or does this interfere with the natural cycling of the tank? Should I do an even larger water change?

Any advice would be appreciated!

And not sure if it matters, but here is a list of the fish we have in the tank:

1 Angel fish
2 Gourami
2 Guppies
4 platys
5 Turquoise Rainbows

Thanks!!

...KEP...

Hey Starbuck!
I'll offer a few suggestions to start things off...I'm sure others will chime in and offer their input as well.....
Nitrite levels that high will kill your fish. I have not done the research on the types of fish you are keeping in your tank and I am fairly new to all of this as well, but if I were you, I'd be looking into the aquarium salt option to help your fish breathe. I personally would be upping the size and frequency of the water changes and further reducing the frequency and amount of feedings. I'm not sure what you mean by 'replacing the filter'...does that mean you got rid of all of your old filter media? If so, that means you are almost starting from scratch again with cycling ( I say 'almost' because you will have some beneficial bacteria in your gravel/decor etc assuming your tank was cycled before all this started with the Ich/nitrite spike?) Also, regardless of whether or not water changes will slow down the cycling process, you need to do them...I don't see that you have any other option at this point if the nitrites are at 5. (Just checking, I AM reading 5.0ppm, not 0.5ppm right?)
Forgive me if I am telling you stuff you already know....
I'm very sorry your bala sharks aren't doing well. Not to sound heartless, but if they don't make it, please consider not replacing them. They grow to be enormous and are not suitable for home aquariums (ask Fern/TommyGun or any number of others who have made the same point on this forum) I don't think they should be allowed to sell them at pet stores! I don't know how many times I've heard of people being told by pet store employees that 'they'll be fine...they only grow to the size of your aquarium' (misinformation)
It's too bad the Articles section is under construction...there's a lot of good reading in there when it gets back up and running at full tilt. Maybe search back through the old threads in this forum to see if there is any other info you could glean from there?
I sincerely wish you all the best and hope this resolves quickly.
Karen

starbuck

Thank you Karen, for your help.

In answer to your question, I replaced the carbon filter but not the biowheel. Everything I read said that the Quick Cure would not affect the biowheel. And yes, the nitrites are at 5! I'm quite surprised that the fish are doing as well as they are.

I will keep doing water changes and add some aquarium salt too, hopefully the levels will come down soon.

And thank you for the insight about the sharks, ours were quite small, only a couple of inches long and I had no idea they could grow so large!

fernival brainard

This is just my opinion, but I think that maybe you put too many fish in your tank too soon....8 weeks is a relatively short time for the fish listed above plus the balas (how many did you say there were?)...typically you would want to add 2-3 fish at a time and wait 1-2 weeks or so between adding additional fish and only after the initial cycle is completed.

I just finished running the nitrIte gauntlet (for different reasons) in one of my oldest tanks. My nitrites tested at 5 ppm for over a month besides adding aquarium salt and doing 30-40% water changes everyday there is not much else you can do but ride it out. Oh yeah, almost forgot!! Increase the air going into the tank, you want your water to be as oxygenated as possible while battling the nitrites ect.

I would recommend checking the parameters of the tap water before you add it to the tank as this could be a source of additional nitrIte and ammonia. I have to treat my tap water with stuff to get rid of trites, trates, and ammonia, I use a product called amquel plus, been using it for a bit and it doesn't seem to damage the biological filteration (bacteria colonies)

Good luck with the bala sharks, but unfortunately they do not do so good in newer aquariums and they don't tolerate ich meds to well, you may want to try alternative medicines with them, there are some great alternatives posted about the forum. and not only do they get large as K. stated but they do so at an alarming rate. My three balas were less that 3 inches long when I bought them and plopped 'em into a 55 gal. last year (september)....almost a year to the day later, I moved them into a 120 gal. tank as they have reached 9-12 inches apiece and they are still growing!!!

Somewhere in the forum, TommyGun posted a pic of one of his balas, next to his wifes hand for comparison. I don't know how old the shark is but I would guess that it is only a year or so.

On the bright side, it is the perfect reason to run out and get a bigger tank!!!

Hope this helps some!! Goodluck!!
fern

How long has the hospital tank been running? I know you said you didn't have one when you introduced the barbs...just curious....

starbuck

Hi Fern - thanks for the input! Yes, we put too many fish in too soon, because we are impatient like that, lol. I had considered that the high nitrite levels might be due to too many fish too soon, but the levels were at zero until I had to take the filter out for 3 days while doing the ich treatment. So I'm guessing that it was the lack of filter that caused it, although it could be a coincidence.

The water changes seem to be helping, the levels were down a little today, hopefully they will keep return to normal soon. And I had read that increasing the air would help too, so we turned the bubbles way up a couple of days ago. I also checked the tap water and it was showing 0 levels and I've been adding water conditioner too.

The poor sharks died yesterday - the ich returned over the weekend and I think it was too much for them. I have definitely passed on the information about how large they get to my husband, they are actually "his" fish. Hopefully I can convince him not to buy any more.

The hospital tank was only up and running for a few days. It's just one of those small 2.5 gallon "cheapy" tanks, since we really don't have room for an additional aquarium. It's going back into the closet until we need it again.

fernival brainard

Star,
Keep the hospital tank up and running...you want it to be cycled in case you ever have to use it again, putting sick fish into an uncycled tank will most likely add to any problems they are having. When you removed the filter, did you take out only the charcoal or did you shut the whole filter down for the duration of treatment?

Sorry to hear about the sharkies...they are really cool fish when in the right conditions but they are prone to ich and I think the meds are fairly hard on them as well. I lost 2 of my first 3 balas to ich\ich medicine, think they had it when I bought them...Stumpy (the sole surviver, called stumpy cause one of his fins got ripped off, at the same time he had the ich) is the only one that pulled through, he has managed to survive through 3 seperate outbreaks, poor honey!

Just keep on keeping an eye on the water and everything should be okay...someplace in the forum is a thread that talks about treating ich with salt and increased water temperature so you may want to check it out for future reference though i hope it isn't needed.

take care!
fern

starbuck

We kept the filter running, but just took out the charcoal part. I think the tank is going to be ok, the levels were even lower again today so hopefully the worst of it is over.

Our poor sharks fins/tails were also badly damaged during the ich. I wasn't sure if it was due to the ich itself or the medication. Poor little guys looked awful. If we ever get ich again, I will probably go with the salt/higher temp treatment.

Thanks again for your help!