Help fish are starting to die now! Algae problem?

Question

I have had a 10 gallon aquarium for 3 months. inside one betta and 2 small mollies. All was going good until last weekend. I had been doing regular 25% water changes each week but when it came time to change the filter last weekend i decided to clean out the aquarium and clean the rocks and artifical decorations inside. I siphoned half the water out and then filled up a large bucket, that i only use for these fish with aquarium water and placed the 3 fish inside. i scrubed the tank, cleaned the decorations, and then placed the water and fish in the bucket back in the tank. so this amounted to maybe a 75% water change. I used the water conditioner I always use. almost immediately my fish acted strange, swimming in strange patterns and laying on the bottom of the aquarium. I thought they were just stressed. Within 2 days noticable algae formed on the tank and rocks, far worse then ever was before, and tonight one of the Mollies died. What happend and what can I do?

ok i can start the daily water changes, can i at least wipe off the algae on the glass or should i just leave well enough alone, looks really horrible though

ok all thanks for the help, I didn't know such an extreme water change would hurt them. At least 2 survived and I am doing the small amount water changes which will hopefully help.

Answer 1

I think you may have killed off a lot of your beneficial bacteria with all the scrubbing. Check the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels in your tank. If you don't have a test kit you can tank a sample of your water to your fish store and have them test it. If any of the levels come back high then the bacteria is gone.

If this is the case you'll want to do daily 20% water changes until the levels go back down to 0pp on the ammonia and nitrites. You'll essentially be cycling your tank again with fish. It can be done, just be diligent with the water changes and hopefully you don't lose anymore fish.

Once the levels are back to normal the algae bloom should also level off. As long as the algae stays green you're okay. If it changes to brown or purple - or Heaven forbid blue-green - you might have a problem.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Your tank had established a healthy bacteria balance that was taking care of ammonia, nitrites, and possibly the algae. You completely upset that by doing such a drastic cleaning. Now you have to cycle it all over again and you have too many fish for that to go easily. Your mollies were probably already stressed because they need a larger tank, but you really stressed them all with such a large water change. You should never do more than 25%. It would help to get some real plants and keep the decorations to a minimum as they take up space that could be occupied by water. You may also have poisoned them with whatever you used to wash the tank. You should never use cleaning products in a tank. Vinegar can be used to get water deposits off things, but then you need to rinse them very well before returning them to the tank. The algae isn't anything to worry about until everything else settles down, which may take a while. If you know someone who has an established tank, you can get stuff from that tank (water won't help) such as old filter media, rocks, decorations, etc. and put it in your tank to help with the cycle, but if you've got toxic water from cleaning products you'll have to start all over.(Don't use any chemicals that claim to "jump start" your cycle because they actually only mess it up.) A vinegar rinse and then lots of fresh water rinsing would probably clean everything out. Here's a good site for understanding the cycle:
http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php

Answer 3

Sound like it was too large of a water change, which cause too much of a swing in the water chemistry for your fish to deal with.

Some thoughts on what may have cause the problem:

You don't mention how you clean the tank, but a gravel vacuum is recommended to clean any debris out of the gravel (especially if you use an undergravel filter). A lot of debris can build up if you only "dip" water out of the tank. Some of this debris can keep oxygenated water from moving freely though all areas of the gravel, and hydrogen sulfide gas (toxic) can build up in areas with adequate oxygen.

Accumulations of debris can also increase the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in the tank. It's always a good idea to check these whenever a fish dies. These compounds, especially nitrate act as plant fertilizers, hence the algae growth.

Have you checked with your water company to see what chemicals they use to treat their water? Everyone assumes chlorine, but companies are changing to chloramine, which doesn't get removed with all conditioners. You need something which specifically removes or neutralized chloramine (some products treat both, but the dosage is different). If you use a product only meant for chlorine, or that "breaks the chloramine bond", these release ammonia and chlorine into your tank. In a small water change, your fish may be able to cope, but maybe not in a large one. A call to your water company can determine this.

What was used to scrub the tank? If not a product meant for aqauria, it may have contained cleansers/soap. Cheap dollar store sponges say (in fine print) "Not for aquarium use" because they contain chemicals. Some of these may also "fertilize" algae growth.

If you know you're using the proper conditoner, do a 50% water change to lessen any chemicals that might be causing the dish deaths, and another tomorrow. Make sure the temperature is similar to what is already in the tank. If you're not sure if your water contains chloine or chloramine, and you have a conditioner that treats both, do the change using the dose for chloramine (just in case). Add some non-iodized salt at 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of water - this will help if the problem is nitrite.

Answer 4

Usually you don't want to do large water changes like that. I would say they most likely died from ph shock-which can happen when you do large water changes, or even temperature shock if it was off from what they were used to. With ph shock though, they'll hang at the bottom and look very stressed like that.

Another possibility, what did you use to clean out the tank and the decorations? Any soaps, detergents, cleaners, bleach, vinegar? But, usually if it's a poisoning the fish are suffering from, it generally kills them quicker. Not sure how much you cleaned, or how good of a cleaning you did, sounds like you pretty much broke the tank down and thoroughly cleaned....another no no. You're killing off all the beneficial bacteria that's grown in the tank. It's ok to scrub your decorations off-using a bucket of the used tank water, and using an algae scrapper or such for cleaning the insides of the tank glass, but that's it. Also with the filter pad, only change that out about every 3 months or so. About once a month, rinse/scrub it off with your hand in a bucket of used tank water. With the few fish you have in there, it'd most likely last even longer then 3 months.

Answer 5

once you sparkling your tank, do you thoroughly take the tank down, empty the water, rinse each and every thing, and set each and every thing up returned? in case you do, that is incredibly not needed. Get a gravel vacuum cleanser on the fish save. Use that to siphon out debris and water right into a bucket. while the bucket is complete, pour that away or use it to water plant life. fill up the bucket with sparkling water, making advantageous the temperature is the comparable with the aid of fact the tank. Slowly fill the tank with the recent water. removing fish waste is amazingly important. It retains the ambience secure for fish. yet cleansing the total tank makes the fish rigidity out. possibly as quickly as a week, take the sponge difficulty out and rinse it under working water, squeezing out grimy stuff until airborne dirt and dirt is all lengthy previous. Then placed the sponge returned into clear out. by way of ways, do you leave the mild on lots? that often is the reason for the brown algae. i might use the mild much less hours or some hours at evening. desire this helps. solid success.

Answer 6

did you allow the temperature of the water to build back up to its usual temperature as i not long ago done a complete water change and my fish are thriving
when youre fish where in the bucket the temperature in it may have dropped and when you put youre fish in the tank they may have got a shock from the rapid change in temperature whenever i take my fish out the tank when i replace them i carry out the same procedure as if adding new stock floating the bag etc