Diggly

Right I am having a few problems with my 125g tank.

I noticed my male and female bn are showing what I believe is early stages of fin rot but they were fine before I did a water change yesterday, I tested the water before waterchanging and ammonia and nitrites were 0. When I noticed the small white parts on the very tips of their tail fins I did another test straight away and ammonia is up to 0.50 and nitrites 0.50 so will be doing another water change and limiting the food I fed over the next few days.

The only thing I did different was rinse one of the filters in tank water, I left the other filter alone. I put the water in through a siphon but I put more than enough dechlorinator in the tank.

As for the fin rot I have read that keeping the water pristine will help the finrot sort itself out.

Any ideas or did I do anything wrong?

Shawnie

is this the new tank you got in sept? if so, when tanks are newly cycled you need to do minimal water changes and never rinse the filter until its a few months cycled.....the bacteria is so very easy to disturb and thats probably whats happened....do you have any nitrates at this point? if so, you are probably in a mini cycle if not, you have to start over

Diggly

The only reason I rinsed the filter was it wasnt working properly due to sludge build up, and as I have 2 running I didnt think it would make a difference I was so wrong!!

yes its the tank I got in september. I cant test nitrates as I havent got a kit but getting one later, I am hoping its just a mini cycle.

Shawnie

how do you know it was cycled without a nitrate kit? it did cycle pretty fast last time so hopefully it fully cycled when you thought it did and held.....sludge isnt good for a tank so new...could you be overfeeding? or maybe its the waste from the plecos?....i hope its just a mini also and wont take too long to fix!!! ...good luck!

Diggly

I borrowed a friends kit last time and as it has plants I figured nitrates wouldnt be too much of a problem so I didnt get a test kit. I will post nitrate results later.

I was overfeeding at first I couldnt help it! The gouramis eat out of my hands and its so cute I dont feed them as much now though.

peacemaker92

Hi Diggly. So sorry to hear you're going through this problem. Hope everything gets solved soon. Best of luck.

Shawnie

lets hope its a mini and a fast one!!!!!!!

Diggly

Will the finrot just resolve itself?

Nick Goody

I've found that finrot will usually clear up fine as long as the water is kept pristine. There are meds for finrot, but I'm not familiar with them.

jdhef

Using Stress Coat and Vitachem will should help speed up the healing.

Diggly

Ill grab some stresscoat when I am next out.

I tested the water this morning and ammonia is 0 and nitrite is 0, I cut back on feeding which I am guessing is what caused the spike.

The fin rot hasnt gotten worse and the plecs are still eating so I am keeping a positive attitude!