lovethosefish

Last night I came home from work and noticed avery strong odor coming from my tank , it is not a fishy odor I cant really explain it . I have smelled it before but dont no where . But I quickly did a 25% water change ,but it didnt help . I am very worried about my babies . Tested my levels and for some reason my amonia levels have gone back up. Poor babies I feel sorry for them that they got a very inexperinced mommy .
PLEASE HELP ! Are they in danger ? What could that odor be ?

lovethosefish

I want to say almost a metalic smell . I opened the filter to discover alot of debris , I have obviously been over feeding . I changed the micro-filter and rinsed the other things off . Could that have been the problem ? I do have a sickly looking pleco , but he hasnt been feeling to good for about a week . All the other babies seem to be ok . I had a female swordtail who had somethimg white on her face and I put her in a seperate tank , but she seems to be doing well also, white spot almost gone ( I think she just had a scrape on her face ). I hope their ok !

Narcicius

If your ammonia levels are up then the smell might very well be ammonia, having higher levels of it does create an oder with evaporating water. if the levels get to high your fish will be in danger, do another water change. Also do you treat your water with Prime?, it claims to reduce toxin levels even in emergencies, I have used it and haven't lost a fish to ammonia yet. Hope it all works out post tank progress.

Narcicius

We posted at almost the same time, sorry if I made some confusing statements, also you could probably go without feeding your fish for a little while, they'll be fine without food for a few days and it will most likely help out your ammonia problem, and you probably shouldn't replace your filter media just rinse it off if it has debris on it(with tank water), and keep an eye on that ammonia.

lovethosefish

I took my water to LPS tonight and they said my ammonia levels are ok ,but my nitrate levels are high. He said nitrate isnt toxic , but I read somewhere that nitrate can be harmful if to high and I know mine are really high . I didnt feed them today ( I hate it when I cant feed them ) and tomarrow I am not going to feed them until I get home from work . I think thats along time for them to go without food , but I sure hope they are O.K. I really worry about them , my friends tell me I am trying to hard . But it is me screwing up their water, the poor babies.
The guy at the store said I should do another water chng. Should I ?
Tomorrow I am going to get them some feeder fish , ghost shrimp , and live blood worms. They will be some HAPPY fishies and eels when I come home tomorrow. LOL

MissMTS

Don't worry about not feeding them. Fish can go up to 2 weeks without food and be okay (not that anyone should try it). They will be fine with no food for 2 days. I would do another water change, and keep doing them until the nitrates go down. Make sure that you do a good vacuum on your gravel too. Don't feed them to much when you feed them tomorrow to try to compensate for the two days without food. Just feed them the normal ammount.

susitna-flower

Your Nitrates ARE high....you need to do several 25% water changes. Wait 24 hours, then test the water again. You should try to get the Nitrates down under 20, which will take several changes....

What has your water change schedule been? I am surprised that it is up so high....

Narcicius

If you change water regularly then you might have nitrates in your tap water, not sure but maybe you should check.

lovethosefish

I bought something called BioSpira tonight. It is bacteria , I put it right in the intake on my filter while it was running . It is supposed to make a differance over night. I did a 25% chng this morning. The baby pleco didnt make it . he was dead when I got home from work (THE POOR BABY ) . But everyone else looks good .
They were some happy babies when I came home tonight. They got live blood worms , feeder fish , and ghost shrimp . They loved it , Oliver ( ropefish) even came out to eat with all the lights on . I love these guys.
We have 2 Siemese spiney eels or peacock eels their names are
Ed & Trixie
can anyone guess who their named after ?
I am going to take all the little things out of my tank tomarrow night and vaccum the sand really good and find the clams and see if they are alive. I have had them for 4 wks and havent seen them in 2wks . So if they are under the sand dead that could be why my levels are so high . I hope they are alive . I have seven of then .
I will let you know in the morning if the Bio-Spira really works . I figure at least its living bacteria and not another chemical . I am sure I wont even get down a whole cup of coffee before I feel the need to do a water chk .
I am really trying hard to be a good fishy mommy , but I am doing a terrible job .

Tavel

perhaps your tank isn't properly aerated. That would make it smell like a swamp (not "fishy"). I've had a lot of trouble with aeration since getting my canister filter.

Try putting the spray bar above the water line so that it sprays into the water and agitates the surface. If that's the problem, it will go away in a day with improved aeration.

lovethosefish

I have four aerators , I pulled all decor from my tank on saturday and did a good vaccum on the sand and found the seven clams all alive . They buried themselves within 15 minutes of being back in the tank. I didnt clean the decor cause I didnt want to take all there algea away . I put everything back in and be dog-gone if one of them didnt have about 30 babies an hour later . Dont no who had babies cause they dont look like any of my fish , they might be babies from the feeder fish in the tank . All my levels are near normal except the nitrate . Tested my tap water and there is 0 nitrate in tap . Woke up this morning and my black female molly was dead . She showed NO indication of being sick before I went to bed , so dont no what that is all about .