Aaron

I have a 40 gallon tank that I have set-up. It contains about 20 Neon Tetras and thats all. The water is quite established, as is the filter. The ph is 7.0, temp is at 74, no nitrate/nitride or anything else I can detect. I bought 5 shrimp the other day, what I believe to be cherry shrimp, but riverfront was calling them zebra shrimp. Anyways, they are bright red, seemed to be doing well, and I came home today to find 3 of the 5 I bought dead. They were all active and looking healthy for the last 2 - 3 days since I bought them, and now they are dead! I AM USING AQUARIUM SALT (Does this matter?) I've heard it helps them molt .... Maybe I didn't let them acclimate long enough? What could be the cause, all other fish seem healthy, the remaining 2 are eating algae and active. Help to save the last 2 !

They are not those, but I will post some pictures so that everyone can see. Thanks for your fast reply though I am just trying to get the right balance of light/nutrients in the tank, so it may be a few more weeks until it is up and running properly

Hello everyone, i have just set up a 40 gallon planted tank (my plants rapidly outgrew the 10 gallon) and everything was going good, but I am noticing a parasite of some kind in the tank now. On certain plants, there are little worm type things, ranging from 1 cm - 1 inch long, they are little hollow tubes, with little tiny worms sticking out of them. I cannot find any information on the internet about these, as I don't really know what they are. There are no fish in the tank, and it's only been set-up for about 1 - 2 weeks now. The light is about 3.2 wpg, and I have not tested any of the other conditions, as there are no fish and im not really that concerned for the plants as they seem to be doing fine. The temp is about 76*F. What can I do to rid the tank of these? I originally though they were algae, as after about 4 - 5 days they seem to die off and are easily removed from leaves by the flow of water itself. PS - They are only on certain plants, and I can post pics if clarification of the parasite I'm talking about is needed. Any help on eleminating these is helpful! Cheers.

Thanks for the info guys. The tank has been running with a really well established filter, in addition to a bit of substrate and some driftwood & rocks from a different (established) tank, so I would assume that there is no shortage of beneficial bacteria. Cheers!

Thank you for your quick input. I will likely get gloves to use soon, but I am more concerned with the safety/comfort of the fish that this tank will contain within the next few weeks. I have the luxury of washing itchiness away with soap and warm water, and I am concerned that these fish are going to be driven crazy by the water, or is that just me being paranoid? Does anyone else have clean water (with proper levels of everything) that still feels itchy after dunking a human arm in? Is this something I need to be concerned with? Should it be itchy? :well:

Hello everyone, I have just (re) set-up my 65 gallon aquarium. I am using an established filter that I had running on a different tank with fish in it, and quite a bit of that water from a seperate tank. I have filled the remainder with tap water, treated with Aqua Plus Tap Water Conditioner, and have added all of the rocks, and driftwood and things like that. The tank has now been running fishless for about one week, and I plan to let it sit for a week or 2 more without adding any fish. I was in there poking around, re-arranging some decorations, and things like that, and noticed my arm was mildy to moderately itchy when I was finished. This is a bit of a concern for me, as I do not know if this is normal. The levels all seem to be alright. I have added aquarium salt. Should I be worried about this? Is this going to be harmful to the potential future occupants? I just want to know because I want really outstanding conditions for when I first add a fish or two to the tank. Cheers!

There is some filtration, with a small filter, and the ph is at 7.

Hey everyone, I have set-up a small (somewhere between 10 - 20 gallons, not quite sure) tank, specifically to grow plants in. The substrate is plain, washed play-sand. I used this in a pond in the summer, and it worked great for growing plants. It is about 1.5 inches of sand. The tank is using a small filter that I had laying around, mainly just to move the water around a bit. It has MORE than enough light, a total of 4 bulbs on the tank, which is for sure at least 4 - 5 watts per gallon on such a small tank. The problem is, the plants will NOT grow. They have been in there for a week and a half, with NO visible growth at all. The lights are on a 12 hour timer, the water was taken from a different tank (which has plants growing successfully), What could be the problem? The plants are all covered in bubbles, looking like they are going through photosynthesis, but no growth at all, not a single bit. Help!

Hmm, good point, but - they are definetly dying. I have seen some of the outershell thing left after a molt, but this is different, they are definelty fully dead, its bizarre, because the water seems fine, I think it must be some kind of calcium related issue, because, before I even read up on anything about this, or long before I knew anything about calcium, I said to myself "Hmm, looks like a crazy calcium buildup" They turn from a see-through ghost shrimp, to a solid colored, white/yellow shrimp, they die over a few days, ... bizzare

Hey everyone, I have about 30-ish ghost shrimp, and they seem to be slowly dying. They seem to be getting less transparent, turning kind of 'hard' looking and yellowish/whitish and then just slowly die. All levels seem to be acceptable, except for the hardness, which of course, is rocketing into outer space because of Calgary's water. Would a water softening pillow do the trick? I do use aquarium salt (just a bit) and the other fish (just tetras and danios!) seem to be happy. Too little light? What are some common problems ...

Anyone else see that ad for a 300 gallon tank in the bargain finder, going for $6600? Yikes! Must be quite the tank.

Wow, thanks for the additional information! Yes, I went berserk cleaning out the filter, so no doubt I have washed away all of the good bacteria. I will leave it be to try and recover on its own.

I use prime, so I'll do a big water change. Lighting is on a timer, 12 hours a day, and unfortunately, I dont think it's bright enough, which sucks cause I just spent $80 on these new bulbs! 2 X 6700 K each, 320 LUX a piece, on a 65 gallon tank, which by popular consensus on this forum is too little. May have to upgrade to brighter bulbs asap, but not sure where to get anything any brighrter (and the size i use is 42" not 48" I've been adding a little C02 with the homemade system, right into the power filter, which i cannot see is making a difference, adds about 2 - 4 bubbles a second, for a 65 gallon tank, too much, too little?

Alright, thanks very much for the information & help!

So if I do a 20% water change every day for the next few days, will this help to quell the problem

There do not appear to be any dead or dying leaves, I feed once - twice a day, and there isn't anything left over on the bottom, I actully think sometimes I may be underfeeding,.

Added a liquid fertilizer ... thats what - raised the nitrite, or started the brown algae or both? PS - With this filter, it tends to keep crystal clear, of course, this says nothing about the nitrite level, but it smells and looks clear all the time.

It runs on an aqua clear filter, designed for 70 gallons (mines 65) and its been running for quite a while, 3 months ish

Nitrite is through the roof! 65 Gallon tank, about 74-76*F, just added some plants about 2 weeks ago, not overstocked (not even close) Crazy amounts of brown algae as well .... I use aquarium salt, how do I fix this quickly!?

I do not live feed. Nothing that I keep requires it, and anything that might, well - is far above my current grasp of aquarium knowledge. I would avoid live feeding where possible.

I have a Blue Crayfish, and he seems to be loosing a bit of his deep blue color, never comes out at all during the day, and last night, when he came out (when the lights went out) I noticed he was at the edges, looking depserate to get out. There are a few tetras and danios in his tank, which are all doing just fine, so I dont think its a water quality issue. I use aquarium salt, kind of just started using it, and also changed their habitat around, added some more rocks, driftwood, ect, so he has some good spots to hide, and it has been changed now for a few weeks so any stress associated with that would have passed. But, is using aquarium salt with a crayfish a bad idea? Maybe underfeeding him? Why does he look like he wants out, hides now all day, and appears (maybe its just me) to be losing some color?? Help!

Will do! I cant wait to see some myself!

Looking to order a 65 gallon tank divider, but I dont want to make one, because I want something that looks relatively low key and 'clean (as nice as a tank divider looks) I can't find any in the right size My tank is 65 gallons measuring: 48" Long, 20" High, 16" Wide Any on-line places I would be able to find a good (preferably black) one? Thanks in advance!

Alright I will expirement and see what happens, thanks for the advice!

You know, I'm not entirely sure what kinds they are. I can post a pic here in a minute!