Odd Red Colored Water

[Smash102]

Just had a really wear problem with my tank. Have been loosing fish for about 1 month now. Discovered that they had a type of “Bacterial Gill Disease”. I treated it with “ Tetracycline” as suggested by “West Hills Pet Center” where I usually purchase all my products for my hobby. I lost 2 fish through the treatment which were barely hanging on to begin with. After the treatment ended the water color went from a pale green due to the lack of filtration during the medication cycle to a dark red after I placed fresh activated filters in it. I repeated 25% water changes ever other day for 1 week and the color just came back stronger and darker. I thought it could have been brown or red algae, but to no avail.

Have any of you ever seen this?

Today I moved the fish, cleaned the tank from top to bottom, replaced the gravel, 100% new water, put the “Cycle” bacteria growth and water treatment in to bring the tank up to speed, and allowed the water temperature to come up to 70*F, New bubble wand (been wanting to replace it), New “Aqua Clear” filter (old Tetra just wasn’t cutting it), cleaned my USB under water web cam (Home made, I will share with you later how to make one for under $30 once school lets out), and cleaned the power head used for circulation.

My goal stock for a 30 Gallon tank Is 6 Tiber Barbs, 6 Albino Barbs, 3 Angle Barbs, 1 Fresh water Leopard Puffer, 1 sucker.

So far, the fish are more active than ever as if to say thanks. I am open to any suggestions if you have any for me.


(Attached are some snaps from my cam)

 

[RadleyMiller]

I have no idea what happened to your tank but hopefully it is cleared up. Sadly, you are going to have to cycle the tank again and if you have the puffer now, you could run into problems. Next time that happens, try running a diatom filter to get things cleaned up. Good Luck! Please post about the underwater cam too.

 

[hillbilly]

Tetracycline will turn your water a reddish orange. It says so on the package. If you changed your bio media, then you have lost your cycle. The tank will have to cycle again as if it was new. You could dump some Bio Spira or other live bacteria culture like Pro Line that's made for professional aquaculture use to speed up the process and prevent further fish deaths. Cycle won't seed a new filter at all. If you have another tank, you could borrow some of the media from it to jump start it. Good luck!

 

[Smash102]

Thank You!! for the suggestion.
Picked up a thing "Bio Spira" and followed the directions.

Sorry about the fuzzy ness on the pictures, I forgot to focus it after cleaning.

-Smash

 

[guppy]

Just FYI, I prefer to run 2 filters (at least) so that I can alternate cleaning them an never lose all my biofiltration, I also usually just rinse out the media in water I have removed from the tank during a water change (not replace it as the people trying to sell you more media suggest).

 

[Smash102]

Thanks for the suggestion.

Update: Cleaned the tank on the 11th of Jan, and no loss yet. Everyone who survived the transfer is still surviving.