Tank emergency, very cloudy water

Our fish tank is the cloudiest it has ever been. Yesterday our Molly had a 25% water change, and a round of Maracyn and Maracyn 2 to treat a case of fin and tail rot that killed our other Molly. The temperature at current is 82F though it was slightly higher during the day. We have been adding small amounts of salt with water changes. The water was clear today up until about an hour ago. We have noticed that our molly surfaces often and looks like she is trying to eat or maybe pull in O2 from the surface water. Please give us some suggestions as to what this may be. Could it be an Algae bloom? Would a picture of the tank help? Please help us as this seems critical.

Thanks!

 

You are right, your situation is very critical. Your molly is gasping for air. You need more aeration in your tank. Do you have a good airstone you can pop in the tank? Is your tank cycled? You may want to scrub the treatment right now and do a massive water change. Extremely clean water can do wonders for fin and tail rot. You might be able to just bump up the water changes and you won't have to medicate the tank. The maracyn I and II I believe reduce the oxygen level in the tank, so more agitation by an airstone or your filter is a must right now.

 

Thanks, we paniced and did a 30% water change. We have an air stone in storage but cannot get to it until tomorrow night. We have a water filter on our 5 Gallon that is good for up to a 20 and we have it on full right now. Do you suggest that we just stop treatment until this all clears up. We are really stressed and we seem to be at our wits end with this. Everytime we feel that things are going our way something like this happens. We have done everything that the stores, and the helpful people on this site have suggested.

Thanks.

 

The water change is very good.  Get the airstone set up as soon as you can.  If you are having ammonia or nitrates in your readings, I'd put the treatment off for now, and get your tank back in balance.  A 5 gallon tank is very small, and not really big enough for mollies.  You will probably need to do twice weekly water changes to keep the tank clean enough for your molly to heal, and to keep the water quality up.  Can you get a larger tank of at least 10 gallons?  WalMart has just the 10 gallon tank for $8.99 (at least in our area).  You could transfer everything including your filter over, and your molly would be much happier. The larger the tank, the easier it is to keep in balance and maintain. The smaller it is, the easier it is to go downhill faster because you don't have as much water to dilute the toxins.   

 

-Update-
Switched Molly into a 10G tank and she seems much happier (so far).  We decided not to add any decorative gravel to the bottom.  Is this OK or should we put back the gravel?  Thanks!

Molly and Family

 

It's not necessary to transfer the gravel, but the gravel does contain beneficial bacteria, and could help your 10 gallon cycle faster. However, with the problems you've been having, transferring the gravel can also transfer over some of the problems you had in your 5 gallon tank. Transferring the filter over is probably fine. Many folks who have discus prefer glass bottom tanks. There's nothing wrong with it. I'm so glad your fishie is doing better. Keep an eye on him/her and keep your water changes up.