Murky/yellow water in QT

J

juanmanuelsanch

New member
hi all ! Im having an issue with my QT, I have no ammonia in it have several fish inside. But the water becomes really murky and yellow. I have some carbon in the filter but still.

Plus carbon is no use if Im medicating.

I do water changes, but after a few days its back to dirty water. The glass is covered with algae. I dont clean it because some of the fishes (specially the potters angel eats from it)

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

Thanks!
 
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None at the moment. But I usually use cupramine, paraguard, prazipro. Not all together of course but those are in the protocol.

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I was using cupramine. But since I put some carbon filters to help with the water color there is no left in the system.

The QT has been used for months now. It's being hosting several fishes at a times. There is no ammonia in the system. It could have high nitrates and phosphates. But I don't know how to control them without risk of mixing it with a medication, that I will resume shortly.

Thanks for the help

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Though it is nice and convenient to have a QT running all the time, you run the risk of bacterial blooms from different medications being used over time. It is always wise to sterilize after each batch of fish.

On another note, the build up of biofilm on the glass and decorations, etc. can weaken the medication, sometimes to the point of it not being therapeutic.

My recommendation would be to break it down and sterilize and start over. You don’t have to do this but no matter how many water changes you do, it won’t go away. The bacterial bloom isn’t necessarily dangerous to the fish either, as long as the oxygen levels are good. Bacterial blooms tend to lower the O2 in the tank.
 
Yeah, the problem with starting over every time is that there is no bacteria to manage the ammonia. It's more stress for the fish and me to be honest.

The QT has good circulation and oxygen it's not a problem.



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Here is a pic. Believe me, the the pics don't show how dirty the water is. Ammonia is still at 0.
446f323e2c4fb34c31b75483355c04e6.jpg
c097432c6c9b691570e30b8de71af313.jpg


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It is definitely a bacterial bloom and more than like caused by not sterilizing the tank since it’s last use. Even though you’re not using any meds at the moment, there are probably remains still in the biofilm causing this.

Are you running lights over the tank?
 
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Thanks. Yes I do have lights on it.

My question would be. How do I avoid the ammonia or cycling each time I reset the tank?

Thanks again for the help.

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Seed a sponge from the DT and always have water ready for a water change. When you do have a bio filter established, cupramine is very gentle on it not causing a lot of die off.
 
Yes the problem is that the fishes are in the QT because ich got into the main tank. So I prefer not having any contamination.

I will do that probably after the fallow process is over in a couple of months.

Thanks

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I understand your concern. Any free swimming parasite would be eliminated when medicine is at therapeutic levels. Hypothetically, let’s say you’re treating with cupramine. You treat for 28 days, you remove the copper after. The fish need to go to a sterile tank. They can’t stay in the same tank. This is one of the biggest mistakes most people make. With ich, there are so many different strains with different hatch times for the tomonts.

It’s very simple. You can keep your fish in the tank you have now, with the bacterial bloom you have. Eventually they will need moved to a contaminate free tank with no biological filter. You can seed it with products like bio-spira and what not. If they are not moved to a clean and sterile tank, you risk a strain that lasts longer than the treatment you’re doing.

With a proper QT, this needs to be done and we all have done it. Once you’re ich free, it’s much easier but right now you have ich and it’s more of a pain.

It looks like you only have a few fish so the tank can be small, just have water made up and ready for a water change. The ammonia will not build up quick enough over 1 day to need to worry much.

When the treatment is done and the fish are back in the DT, break down the QT and sterilize it and set it back up and it will be ready for the new fish.

I made the mistake once of doing everything correct but I left my fish in the QT for the remainder of the fallow period. This is a big no no with ich.
 
JustinM said:
I understand your concern. Any free swimming parasite would be eliminated when medicine is at therapeutic levels. Hypothetically, let's say you're treating with cupramine. You treat for 28 days, you remove the copper after. The fish need to go to a sterile tank. They can't stay in the same tank. This is one of the biggest mistakes most people make. With ich, there are so many different strains with different hatch times for the tomonts.

It's very simple. You can keep your fish in the tank you have now, with the bacterial bloom you have. Eventually they will need moved to a contaminate free tank with no biological filter. You can seed it with products like bio-spira and what not. If they are not moved to a clean and sterile tank, you risk a strain that lasts longer than the treatment you're doing.

With a proper QT, this needs to be done and we all have done it. Once you're ich free, it's much easier but right now you have ich and it's more of a pain.

It looks like you only have a few fish so the tank can be small, just have water made up and ready for a water change. The ammonia will not build up quick enough over 1 day to need to worry much.

When the treatment is done and the fish are back in the DT, break down the QT and sterilize it and set it back up and it will be ready for the new fish.

I made the mistake once of doing everything correct but I left my fish in the QT for the remainder of the fallow period. This is a big no no with ich.
Click to expand...
Well I usually make the cupramine treatment longer, specially of there is ich present. At the moment there's no signs of infection in the QT. I know it could be a phase and start all over again.

I will have to figure out what to do now. And find a container that is a proper size. There are 7 fish and one of them its a blue tang.

Thanks again for all the help and tips

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Well sadly despite all my efforts the tank looks like crap. All the fish are still alive and well, eating like pigs.

Believe me... It looks way worse than in the pics. The pics are way to favorable...
26b5ee3456b57649f17cd55f7997e8f5.jpg


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If you want to get rid of it, move your fish to some 5 gallon buckets, drain it and sterilize it. Seed it with some bio spira and start it back up. Nothing you do will change this besides what I have mentioned numerous times.
 
juanmanuelsanch said:
Thanks. Yes I do have lights on it.

My question would be. How do I avoid the ammonia or cycling each time I reset the tank?

Thanks again for the help.

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Click to expand...

I use a small/cheap HOB filter on my QT tank. I leave the filter pad for the HOB filter in the sump of my DT. When I'm ready to use the QT tank...I just pull that filter pad out of my sump and put it in the HOB filter in the QT. Filter pad has plenty of bacteria to handle a fish for a few weeks.

Just don't reuse the same filter pad. Always have one in the sump ready to go. A few weeks in the sump should be enough to seed the bacteria.
 
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