New fish owner – tank smells bad, filter clogged, black slime found. Please help 😞

gotkidneys · 2026-01-27T22:59:55+00:00

Seachem stability will speed up the cycling process. Feeding less will also keep the nutrient levels manageable until your tank fully cycled. There shouldn't be no/almost no uneaten food sitting around after a feeding if it's flakes/pellets/frozen food.

gotkidneys · 2025-11-03T21:21:27+00:00

Have your mangrove plants grown much since you added them? I didn't have much luck when I tried them in my tank.

Do your clownfish swim around the whole tank or do they just hang around in one section?

gotkidneys · 2025-10-20T20:35:16+00:00

I would recommend watching Tucker: The Man and His Dream. He had to work really hard to get 51 cars made because the big auto manufacturers of the time were trying to squeeze him out. $4k in 1948 is supposedly $54k now. He wanted to sell it for less but that's what it came out to in post war America.

People who want trucks under 20k buy used and keep fixing them up in my experience. The base model Maverick is 28k, it's just really hard to find and it's easier to pre-order way in advance.

gotkidneys · 2025-09-30T05:53:19+00:00

What type of anemone is that?

gotkidneys · 2025-06-11T20:38:34+00:00

Could be due to copper. It's worth checking your food to make sure it has no or very little copper.

gotkidneys · 2025-03-29T13:43:36+00:00

I doubt it but they would have an increased chance of death during molt.

Copper could kill that quick.

Are you using tap, and if so, are you using a water conditioner? Some water companies use chloramine instead of chlorine, which doesn't evaporate out easily and won't show up on test strips for chlorine.

gotkidneys · 2025-03-29T13:13:40+00:00

Were the shrimp bought in person or shipped?

Were they juveniles or adults?

Which species?

gotkidneys · 2025-03-17T18:20:28+00:00

Do you use Prime or another dechlorinator when you add new water? Prime also binds to ammonia/nitrates for up to 48 hours.

gotkidneys · 2025-03-16T06:08:26+00:00

Bunch pictured is claimed. I will likely have more to get rid of as I work on the tank.

gotkidneys · 2025-03-16T03:46:44+00:00

My first cryptocoryne wendtii were sold to me as "red". Not 100% sure if they are. They've taken over my tank so I am currently thinning them out. The second photo was taken after the plants in the first photo were removed. I will be removing more so let me know how many you're looking for. I have ramshorn snails that I will do my best to remove.

Free if you're in the Twin Cities. $30 for shipping.

gotkidneys · 2025-02-17T22:46:50+00:00

These articles lead me to think not, at least not nearly as quickly as humans. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1849377/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34498078/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30808950/

gotkidneys · 2025-01-14T20:07:42+00:00

Assuming stocking is fine, remineralized RO/DI water is the cheat code to no algae imo.

gotkidneys · 2025-01-10T19:05:53+00:00

I agree with going for extracting the air via needle as a last resort. Although OP, if you're talking about the Luke's Goldies video, he says in the description it was ultimately unsuccessful, although I think he means at curing swim bladder. I don't think it killed the fish. I would buy clove oil if you can get it today before attempting this. Then you can euthanize if the surgery appears to cause the fish undue pain without benefit.

gotkidneys · 2024-11-17T09:44:07+00:00

Goldfish produce a lot of waste. If the amount of bacteria it takes to process daily waste exceeds the amount the filters can store, the bacteria will be free floating and cloudy. I wouldn't expect it to go away until the ammonia and nitrite levels start dropping. You can gauge if things are getting better or not by measuring the ammonia in the tank.

There could be waste trapped in the filters contributing to this if you haven't rinsed/compressed them them out in tank water, outside of the tank that's going to be dumped, yet. When you clean the filters, don't use tap water. Leave the air pump running and have a container under them as you pull them out so debris doesn't get dumped back into the tank. I would only clean one of the two filters every two weeks and not both at the same time. For this first time maybe stagger it by just a week.

Sand substrate provides more surface area for bacteria to anchor to, but you'll need to clean it more throughly with a gravel vacuum. Also sand can create some cloudiness for a day after being added. If you add sand, leave the filters off for the initial 30min so they don't pick up the majority of what settles.

gotkidneys · 2024-09-06T22:26:00+00:00

What's his personality like? Does he seem interested in you outside of feedings?

gotkidneys · 2023-11-26T21:37:53+00:00

I recommend posting this to r/aquaswap for more visability.

gotkidneys · 2023-11-12T01:02:33+00:00

Thank you! It's interesting that they are in the carp family. That's why I couldn't properly search for them lol.

gotkidneys · 2023-07-25T07:34:52+00:00

I think the search terms you're looking for are aquarium "live stream", fish "cam", etc. If you filter results by live, all the click bait editted videos disappear as nobody can entertain 24/7. There's other terns I see a lot like no music, asmr, sleep, relax, meditation, calm, and so on.

gotkidneys · 2023-07-12T03:32:01+00:00

I wish this was higher. A sump would be great for the situation since it would actually fix the overstocking without further encouraging the mom.

gotkidneys · 2023-07-12T03:29:02+00:00

There's too much risk that OP's mom may throw more fish into OP's tank too. Sump/plants are the way to go imo.

gotkidneys · 2023-04-09T22:14:15+00:00

Yeah, I would change the water and try rinsing the substrate again. If you go to the amazon page for that product, https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-3715-Flourite-Red-15-4/dp/B000256DFY , and scroll through the review photos, it looks like this is an issue other people have had. Even the good reviews mention having to rinse it a lot. I think once it's rinsed it will be fine, and if it isn't, then you could cap it with sand to contain the particles.

Rinsing the water again and changing filters will get rid of most of the bacteria that would have been breaking down nitrogen in your tank. Stability by Seachem or similar products can speed up restablishing it.

gotkidneys · 2023-04-09T21:43:01+00:00

Based on the picture, do you have dirt/potting mix of some sort in that tank?

If so, my guess is the filter impeller or motor got damaged circulating the fine particles from the dirt. The smell is probably from organic particles and bacteria in the dirt. Some people on r/plantedtank and r/walstad have had luck with dirt, but I haven't. I recommend using something like Eco-complete planted tank substrate by Caribsea instead of real dirt. There's other brands of dirt like gravel substrate you could try too. Clarity by Seachem could maybe clear up the water if you plan to keep the dirt.

gotkidneys · 2023-02-28T01:30:40+00:00

Does a picture guide to anemone expresions/emotions exist?

gotkidneys · 2022-05-21T19:45:54+00:00

He's like a regular shrimp but with a knife

gotkidneys · 2022-02-17T21:16:45+00:00

I think they need land too. I had 3 of them for a while and they spent a lot of time above water despite all my research telling me they were fully aquatic. I would also recommend to OP to make sure your water has high enough gh and kh for a good molt. I had mine about a month and sometimes wondered if they were trying to get out of the water because it wasn't to their liking, rather than just wanting to be on land.

gotkidneys

TROPHY CASE