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Dumb @$$ed New aquarist here.

Acquired the Hoplo and Bronze Cory as 'rescues' and have been playing catch up for the last few months to try to figure out how to properly maintain their habitat. Have been relying on the advice of the fish store people, then playing catch up online when I'm looking for more information and/ or something seems like it's not right.

And something seems like it's not right, so here I am.

About a week ago, I found out that the algae in my tank was a problem and realized the lights were on for way too long. Did a clean last Sunday of the plastic plants and the rock. Left the wood piece though as I know it's stressful for fish to change too much at once. Reduced the time the lights are on to 10 hrs. Also now trying to net out as much as I can of the uneaten food (my fish don't like all off the components in either of the two foods and spit certain flakes out. Picky eaters!). Unfortunately my Hoplo cat sometimes gets skittish, and sometimes bangs into the side of the tank, so it's a bit of a precarious balance with how aggressive I get in there with the net.

Found out a month ago that I was supposed to be doing 10 - 15% weekly water changes, so started that. Have been letting the water sit for several days then treating it with Tetra Aqua Easy Balance Water Conditioner ("Reduces frequent water changes, keeps water biologically balanced for 6 months"). It didn't specifically say that it neutralized chemicals, but everything I read said you're supposed to treat water with a "water conditioner" so that's what I thought I had. Had been noticing the Hoplo and two Cory's breathing a little heavy, but two of them had been so neglected previously, I think they must have gotten a bit of gill damage as they always seem to breathe a little heavier. Was in a store today and saw my product beside "AquaSafe Water Conditioner ("makes tap water safe or fish, neutralizes chlorine, heavy minerals, chlormamine, etc)", and realized that I had not been using the right product to treat my tap water.

In the meantime, I see that most people seem to recommend a 25% weekly water change, so today I did that much. I treated the new water with Aqua Safe, then put more in according to the instructions on the bottle to neutralize the tap water crap that I'd been putting in there for the water changes (as I understand chloramine does not evaporate, so I assumed it's still in the tank).

Now, the Hoplo and 3 Cory's are breathing heavily (The Panda Cory and barbs aren't). The bronze Cory is swimming around like crazy (though he often does that - he's got a terrible 'crush' on the Hoplo [I'm not kidding] rubs all over her all of the time), but I'm paranoid that it seems worse now). AND there are some bubbles at the surface of the tank - not a huge amount, but I haven't seen any before. Since the AquaSafe is the only thing I changed/ new since the last water change, I assume the bubbles are from it. Probably this is obvious, but the bubbles increase or decrease when I increase/ decrease the filter speed. They are the same colour as the water (i.e. they're not white or foamy or anything).

Did I just pretty much seal the fate of my little guys? Can you O.D. on AquaSafe? I put the right amount in to treat my whole tank, though I just did a 25% water change.

All of the fish are acting pretty much normally other than the, er, 'heavy breathing' and increased energy from the Bronze Cory, and all have an appetite. The Hoplo and the Bronze are zipping up to the top, as they usually do, slightly more often, but the others are not and the Barbs aren't gulping air or even breathing fast.

Any ideas? I don't see any evidence sickness (I've read a bunch and looked at a lot of [horrible] pictures), though I know that it isn't always immediately apparent. Over the months I've had them, I've seen a couple of them occasionally 'flash' but rarely and inconsistently. Haven't noticed them doing that today at all.

Any advice is appreciated!

Kat

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Here are the tank spec's that I know:

Volume: 102.6 litres, 22.6 UK gallons or 27.1 US gallons
Substrate: Black Sand aka: Black Slag
Filtration: AquaClear 300 (I believe the newer versions are called AquaClear 70). I changed the charcoal Nov. 1.
Lighting: Incandescent Solar Series 2 x 25 watt bulbs
Heating: Stealth Pro Shatterproof Heater
Temperature: 25 to 26°C (77 - 78° F)

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
*I asked the fish store guy what I should have to test my water and he only gave me these two, so I don't know the pH among other things at present.

Inhabitants:
1 Corydoras aeneus
1 Hoplosternum littorale
1 Corydoras concolor
1 Corydoras schwartzi
1 Corydoras panda
(6 Puntius anchisporus)
Plants: 1 Anubias

Food:
Feed a pinch of flake, twice daily and alternate between
Sera San Colour and Growth Enhancing Flake Food
and Omega One Natural Protein Formula Freshwater Flakes.
Give 6 Hikari Sinking Wafers daily (3 in the am, 3 in the pm)

About twice a week I give half a 'cube' of frozen Bloodworm, at separate feedings, instead of the flake and wafers.

Hi,
It could be gill flukes or it could just be stress. Where they breathing heavily when you got them or have they just started to do it? Are their gills red and/or inflamed? It may also be that there is too much chemicals in the water. Cories especially are very sensitive to chemicals and I know that whenever I use chemicals in my tank (except for water conditioners), I have to use a half dose or my cories breath really heavily and lose all of their colour. As for the water conditioner, I personally believe that you should use Seachem Prime as a water conditioner as it removes ammonia as well as chloramines and chlorine out of the water, detoxifies nitrites and nitrates and puts a protective slime coat on the fish.
Calicocat

Hi Kat,

In a roundabout way, you've solved some of the issues quite well.
Your water values look good, water changes (wc's) are up to speed. Test for PH if you can as extremes of this can make fish hyper and can damage the gills... aim for around 6.5 to 7.2.
You could reduce the lighting to say, 6 to 8 hrs, to help battle the algae. And you might want to try adding more plants.
6 algae wafers a day might be on the heavy side. Be sure to remove uneaten food. One day per week without food, or just the frozen bloodworm helps their digestive system.
As you are doing regular wc's you don't need to use 'easy balance'.
Continue to use the tapwater conditioner, my view is you can guesstimate the dosage with this.
If you add chemicals to the tank, remove the carbon from your filter first or it will absorb them.
Retailers would have you spend a small fortune on chemicals and often its not necessary.
I'm not sure what the surface bubbles are about. Its probably the conditioner. One of the foods might be 'oily' and cause a surface film. Good aeration deals with that.

katgermain wrote: *I asked the fish store guy what I should have to test my water and he only gave me these two, so I don't know the pH among other things at present.

Hi Kat.

The PH for tap water in the Toronto area is about 7.4 to 7.6 (Lake Ontario water).
My fish are doing very well in it, so I would not bother trying to alter it ATM.
I would buy at least a "high range PH test kit" if I was you just to be sure that there is not somthing in your tank making you PH rise to high levels (I use the "API master freshwater test kit" it's about $45 but has all the basic stuff that you will need).

I have the same filter as you, an Aquaclear 70 (same as the old 300) check that the overflow on it is not running un-filtered water back in to your tank (you can check this by just looking at where the intake pipe goes into the filter, If water is running back out of that place you may nead to clean your impeller, or maybe the foam filter in the bottom is blocked up with crap? I would check the impeller first, but remember to NEVER CLEAN ALL THE FILTER PARTS IN ONE GO, ALSO NEVER WASH YOUR FILTER FOAM IN THE SINK, ONLY USE WATER FROM YOUR FISH TANK).

Agree with the others about feeding and think that you should cut it down a bit, I only use a pinch of flake for the tetras and 1 Sinking Wafer twice a day, but my fish are only babys ATM.

I Also use the Seachem Prime as a water conditioner, it's a lot better than the LFS own brand one that I had been useing before IMO.

Otto Catfish will help a bit with the algae, they are only about $4 each and they are fun to keep as well.

Cheer's...PanzerFodder...

BTW: Here's a good local forum that you might find usefull. http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/index.php

Hello, katgermain

I would follow the suggestions given by the others. Then wait a few days to let your tank balance out from
the chemicals.
Do not clean your filter on the same day that you do a water change.
The way that I clean my Aqua/Clear filters is, one day I will rinse the bio-bag and the carbon bag. Wait a day or two and then clean the sponge block. Like has been stated, you do not want to do all you tank maintance on one day.

You will start to get the flow of the karma.

LeeRoy