Severe finrot advice needed!

[Chicohombre39]

Have you tested your water?

Yes

If yes, what is your ammonia?

0

If yes, what is your nitrite?

0

If yes, what is your nitrate?

20ppm

If I did not test my water...

1. ...I recognize that I will likely be asked to do a test, and that water tests are critical for solving freshwater health problems.

Do you do water changes?

Yes

What percentage of water do you change?

31-40%

How frequently do you change your water?

Every two weeks

If I do not change my water...

1. ...I recognize that I will likely be recommended to do a water change, and water changes are critical for preventing future freshwater health problems.

Thanks for reading and i appreciate any advice given. Youll be helping save fishes lives with this one. I ha e a 20 gal tall with guppies ghost shrimps and a few snails 1 pleco. Now ive gotten finrot somewhere. Im treating with melafix and pima fix. Im on day four and havent seen any improvement. I took my last few healthy specimens and put them in my well kept 5gal. Im tired of watching them drop like flies. I took some of the ornaments and cut back my plants a bunch. Im to the point of wondering do i drain the tank run everything under really hot water and start from scratch? This is fungus or bacteria has been in this tank for 6 weeks or better and seems to have a good hold. Any advice so i can get back to a healthy tank? I have other cycled tanks in my house. So i have the water to replace 20gal. My question is does this stuff live in my filter? On my plants? In my sand? Whats my best method of approach? My plants are bulbs so i should be able to cut them to nothing if i have to and they will regrow. I hope?

 

[twentyleagues]

Pimafix and melafix are junk. It's snake oil. Usually the cause of fin rot is dirty tank condition/poor water quality or stress.
Maracyn and maracyn 2 are antibiotics that will fight bacterial infection. Fungus cure or ich-x will fight fungal infection.
Salt can also be used 1tsp per gallon.
If your plants are live keep them in there they help water quality. If using salt plants may die. Best to move fish to a hospital tank for treatment if using salt.

 

[Chicohombre39]

Pimafix and melafix are junk. It's snake oil. Usually the cause of fin rot is dirty tank condition/poor water quality or stress.
Maracyn and maracyn 2 are antibiotics that will fight bacterial infection. Fungus cure or ich-x will fight fungal infection.
Salt can also be used 1tsp per gallon.
If your plants are live keep them in there they help water quality. If using salt plants may die. Best to move fish to a hospital tank for treatment if using salt.

Thanks much for a reply. I ended up scrubbing the entire tank. Completely cleaned the sand with boiling water. Washed out my filter. Cleaned it all. I took out my plants for now until the water circulates for a while. Should i worry about putting the plants back in? Will they carry the disease? I washed all decorations with hot hot water. Basically started over new. Since all i have is melafix. I added a dose to the new water just in case. I have a handful of healthy fish in my med tank. The others that are sick i just put in a bucket with an airstone and some clean tank water. Added a touch of melafix to it too. When should i introduce my healthy fish back to the aquarium? And i guess ill keep the sick in a bucket until they either die or start to mend. Thanks a lot for your help. Hate seeing the fish die. But also hate losing money.

 

[twentyleagues]

Thanks much for a reply. I ended up scrubbing the entire tank. Completely cleaned the sand with boiling water. Washed out my filter. Cleaned it all. I took out my plants for now until the water circulates for a while. Should i worry about putting the plants back in? Will they carry the disease? I washed all decorations with hot hot water. Basically started over new. Since all i have is melafix. I added a dose to the new water just in case. I have a handful of healthy fish in my med tank. The others that are sick i just put in a bucket with an airstone and some clean tank water. Added a touch of melafix to it too. When should i introduce my healthy fish back to the aquarium? And i guess ill keep the sick in a bucket until they either die or start to mend. Thanks a lot for your help. Hate seeing the fish die. But also hate losing money.

Ok. So like I said above you can use salt. It needs to be noniodize, table salt will work, rock salt, kosher salt it's all pretty cheap. 1 tsp per gallon.

Melafix is garbage stop using it.

Do you know and understand how the beneficial bacteria work in aquariums? Doing what you've done has killed all of the beneficial bacteria in your tank and you will now need to recycle your tank. The plants help with the nitrogen cycle removing them isn't helping. Was the tank cycled in the first place? You answered the questions above of 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 20ppm nitrate, so I assumed you understand that but now I'm a little worried.

Im not trying to be mean or call you out but I don't know your background in fish keeping. I just want to help. Also why do you have 3 different user names? I'm sure it's a simple answer it just strikes me as weird. We have had some "jokers" doing stuff like this recently trying to cause issues.
Look in these forums for more in-depth information to help you.

Salt and Its Uses

The Use of salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) in the freshwater aquarium or pond. What is salt? In the broadest sense a salt is the chemical compound formed when an acid reacts with a base. There are many salts in our everyday lives: baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3, and washing soda...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

Freshwater Disease Guide

The following diseases and health problems have been covered. Click the links to proceed quickly to specifics. Parasitic Infections Anchorworm (Lernaea elegans) Black Spot Disease (Uvulifer ambloplitis) Body Fungus (Saprolegnia spp.) Camallanus cotti and Camallanus lacustris Capillaria...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

Cycling and You

Fishless tank cycling and associated information... http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207575 http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=203911 http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28654...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

Aquarium Filtration 101

Aquarium Filtration Aquarium filtration is one of the most hotly debated subjects in our hobby. Everyone seems to have his or her own favorite brand, type or model that’s worked well for them in the past as well as those they have learned to avoid due to bad experiences. The...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

Really hope we can help you, we don't like to see fish die either.

 

[kno4te]

I’d suggest water changes and adding some tetracycline or maracyn1. An infection seen in stressed fish is the usual cause. I’d keep all the fish in the same tank and treat all as a whole. Shouldn’t be carried by plants, decor etc but there are exceptions. Would hold off on salt as it’ll kill ur plants. Salt can be any type doesn’t have to be non-iodized. Most salts are safe but toxic to plants. Just IMO. Think twentyleagues has asked some good questions that’ll help most hobbyists to check themselves and it’ll help you as well.

 

[twentyleagues]

I’d suggest water changes and adding some tetracycline or maracyn1. An infection seen in stressed fish is the usual cause. I’d keep all the fish in the same tank and treat all as a whole. Shouldn’t be carried by plants, decor etc but there are exceptions. Would hold off on salt as it’ll kill ur plants. Salt can be any type doesn’t have to be non-iodized. Most salts are safe but toxic to plants. Just IMO. Think twentyleagues has asked some good questions that’ll help most hobbyists to check themselves and it’ll help you as well.

I don't know if you caught this or not.

Thanks much for a reply. I ended up scrubbing the entire tank. Completely cleaned the sand with boiling water. Washed out my filter. Cleaned it all. I took out my plants for now until the water circulates for a while. Should i worry about putting the plants back in? Will they carry the disease? I washed all decorations with hot hot water. Basically started over new. Since all i have is melafix. I added a dose to the new water just in case. I have a handful of healthy fish in my med tank. The others that are sick i just put in a bucket with an airstone and some clean tank water. Added a touch of melafix to it too. When should i introduce my healthy fish back to the aquarium? And i guess ill keep the sick in a bucket until they either die or start to mend. Thanks a lot for your help. Hate seeing the fish die. But also hate losing money.

 

[Chicohombre39]

Ok. So like I said above you can use salt. It needs to be noniodize, table salt will work, rock salt, kosher salt it's all pretty cheap. 1 tsp per gallon.

Melafix is garbage stop using it.

Do you know and understand how the beneficial bacteria work in aquariums? Doing what you've done has killed all of the beneficial bacteria in your tank and you will now need to recycle your tank. The plants help with the nitrogen cycle removing them isn't helping. Was the tank cycled in the first place? You answered the questions above of 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 20ppm nitrate, so I assumed you understand that but now I'm a little worried.

Im not trying to be mean or call you out but I don't know your background in fish keeping. I just want to help. Also why do you have 3 different user names? I'm sure it's a simple answer it just strikes me as weird. We have had some "jokers" doing stuff like this recently trying to cause issues.
Look in these forums for more in-depth information to help you.

Salt and Its Uses

The Use of salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) in the freshwater aquarium or pond. What is salt? In the broadest sense a salt is the chemical compound formed when an acid reacts with a base. There are many salts in our everyday lives: baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3, and washing soda...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

Freshwater Disease Guide

The following diseases and health problems have been covered. Click the links to proceed quickly to specifics. Parasitic Infections Anchorworm (Lernaea elegans) Black Spot Disease (Uvulifer ambloplitis) Body Fungus (Saprolegnia spp.) Camallanus cotti and Camallanus lacustris Capillaria...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

Cycling and You

Fishless tank cycling and associated information... http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207575 http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=203911 http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28654...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

Aquarium Filtration 101

Aquarium Filtration Aquarium filtration is one of the most hotly debated subjects in our hobby. Everyone seems to have his or her own favorite brand, type or model that’s worked well for them in the past as well as those they have learned to avoid due to bad experiences. The...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

Really hope we can help you, we don't like to see fish die either.

Oh i used good tank water from my 125gal. I am fairly new at aquariums but. Ive got the basics down.

 

[twentyleagues]

Oh i used good tank water from my 125gal. I am fairly new at aquariums but. Ive got the basics down.

Ok but biological bacteria isn't carried in the water. So all the beneficial bacteria in the guppy tank is now dead. You will need to recycle the tank to be able to put fish back in.

 

[Chicohombre39]

Oh i used good tank water from my 125gal. I am fairly new at aquariums but. Ive got the basics down.

Also i dont know why it shows i have 3 usernames. I only see the one. I really appreciate the time taken for answering my questions.

Ok but biological bacteria isn't carried in the water. So all the beneficial bacteria in the guppy tank is now dead. You will need to recycle the tank to be able to put fish back in.
[/QUOTE. Ok i knew that. Thats why i put my bio balls in there also from my healthy aquarium. I know i killed everything beneficial in there. I also used a decent amount of bottled bacteria to give it an extra boost. I used about 60% healthy tank water. And the rest clean. Added a bag with about 20 bio balls in it to the filter. My water test come back great. Once i started really noticed how disgusting the tank was. My kids obviously been feeding without my knowledge. It had to be redone. I had an aquarium as a teenager. Only battled ich once and i had most of the same fish for 2yrs. So i set up again thinking and remembering it being easy. Not so! My 36gal community tank with a pair of angels and some platys has done great for 6 months why not get a 125gal so they can grow? I got a 125gal for my cichlids. They doing great for 3 months. Lets get some guppies and ghost shrimp to raise for feeders and fun. Well this 20 gal has been a nightmare. I put in probably 20 gups. And got 8 left due to this finrot crap. Basically im a newbie thats been lucky and thought expanding would be cool. I got lots to learn i see! Anyway thanks again. Appreciate the help and i will use your advice. Besides the water quality wich is obviously what went wrong in this tank what should i do for preventing this in the future? I used a lil less than half dose of salt in here. I actually done that to my other aquariums also. I have live plants so cant go all the way with it. But they tolerate about half dose well. I want to prevent all these parasites and bacteria from happening again. Anything you use to prevent these problems id love to know about!

 

[twentyleagues]

Also i dont know why it shows i have 3 usernames. I only see the one. I really appreciate the time taken for answering my questions.

I think I was mistaken on that. Like I said not trying to be mean or anything just hoping you weren't having issues with your account also.