I Need Your Experience And Opinion

[FunkSolid]

Long story short: Family friends are having trouble with their aquarium. They contacted me to come over and help them. I came over with my chemistry tickle trunk and I was dumbfounded by what I found.

Tank: 140G, RenaXP4 (lots of foams, 1 tray of bio, 3 exhausted carbon packs), 9W UV sterilizer (bulb dead), 12” airstone (good bubbles).

Inhabitants: ~10 Melanotaenia Rainbows, 4 SA Cichlids, few BN plecos, (all fish are sick, some have external fungal infections, many have cysts that look like blisters on fins. Fins and margins are intact, no other observations)

Chemistry: Nitrate >200ppm, pH 6.0, everything else was typical Calgary tap water specs.

So here is my dilemma. Owners tap water is typical South Calgary (pH >8) normally if it was my tanks I would do an aggressive water change, but the pH in my tanks does not move from my tap water. And I know that most eukaryotic/(even prokaryotic for that matter) organisms do not tolerate massive jumps in pH. So going from 6 to >8 does not seem like a wise idea for diseased and vulnerable fish. But I know that the chemistry needs to be resolved, and quickly.

I did a ~50% water change, and packed that XP4 with as much carbon as I could stuff into it.

Question 1: What would you do to rehab this situation?

Question 2: How the fudge does the pH go from >8 to 6 in that tank? Nitrate in solution (NO₃^-) is the conjugate base of nitric acid (HNO₃), so it’s a proton acceptor and should act as a base. But at a pH of 6 it could have that proton and be acting as an acid???

Lastly -> I’m talking with them about giving up whole system up to me because they are negligent and will just kill everything eventually, and I’m trying to avoid a mass casualty situation in that tank. They have no interest in doing the required work in a aquarium.

Thanks

Edited July 20, 2016 by FunkSolid

[geleen]

Lovely mess. Fish are sick due to neglect of course.

I have read about the ph drop but can't remember the chemistry. It is a separate issue at this point ....trying to save the fish is not easy as the owners don't care.

You are very aware of the necessary steps but here is my take on it.

The fish will adjust to the ph change over a week or so......

I would do 30% water change every day for 10 days, and clean the filter.... clean the foam very well under the tap, throw the OLD carbon out in 3 stages as it contains nitrifying bacteria now. Rinse the bio in tap water.

Vacuum substrate in stages as you need the bacteria therein.

Start treating daily, I would try a tea tree oil and Pima fix together as it is quit gentle to start.

Good luck ....kindly now you are likely in a no win situation

Take care

J

[Eugene]

Yeah good luck with that any live plants in there?

[FunkSolid]

No live plants, just some plastic and mineral decor.

[ckmullin]

try to educate, if there is no hope tell them to sell or give it away. live critters in there they need to understand that

[FunkSolid]

Went back today and did a 80% water change (the only time I could do it in a while). Fish are doing well even though the pH went from 6 to 8.3 in 48 hours, and so far no losses. I learned something today as well:

Carbon does not absorb any Ammonia/Ammonium/Nitrite/Nitrate. SOURCE. So packing the filter full of carbon was a total waste so I had to do the massive water change to get the Nitrates down to <20ppm. I got it to <5ppm so hopefully when I come back in two weeks it will be less than or equal to 40.

I worked out a deal to take the whole thing home in early August, so hopefully I can rehabilitate these fish, and give them a good existence soon. Look for some updates and pictures in two weeks.

Thanks for the opinion John and the well wishes eugene+ckmullin, might be a happy ending after all.

[elf_poop]

Yikes - how about treating the fungal? It's sad. I'm sure plenty of the empty fish tank kijiji ads suffer the same thing.