Two dead and another on his last legs - help!!

Hi all,

I've had my 450L tank with +/-34 Malawi's and a couple of rusty plecos for just over a year. All in all it's gone very well but over the past few motnhs I've had to do water changes more frequently due to Nitrate build ups and large amounts of algae building up also.

Today I had two fish die (one this morning and one this afternoon) and one of the largest guys looks to be on his way out, he's totally lethargic and barley moving. I don't expect him to last until the morning.

As soon as I got home from work I tested the water and did an immediate 50% water change. The readings were Nitrate 40, Nitrite 0, Ammonia 0 and PH 7.8.

I fell into the trap of over feeding a few months ago so have really pulled back the amount they now get but I don't think it's that as they are all still quite healthy looking (most of the time) and none of them look in any way 'skinny' + I've have two seperate fish hollding and one spat a fry which survived a week or two until it suddenly 'diaappeared'. Now I'm thinking I'm under feeding...AGGGH!!!

The one thing I think I should be doing but haven't is taking out the 70KG of rock and giving it a good scrubbing down + really mixing up the relatively deep layer of crushed coral. The rock has only been moved once in the last 12 months and hasn't been taken out and really cleaned in that period. Is this a possible cause of my problems?

Also, have I overloaded the tank for both it's size (450L) and the filtration equipment I'm using which is a Tetra Tec Ex 1200 filter & 400 uv sterilizer. Dual Tetra Tec 300 w & a HEO 450 w heaters. T5 lighting unit. Should I have a higher capacity/bigger filter?

Should I get rid of some of the fish to lighten the load on the overall system? Sould there be an infection in the tank?

Am I losing the plot and over reacting alltogether?

I'm away in the UK tomorrow and Thursday so am hoping the water change will keep things ticking along until Friday and that by then my fellow Cichlid fans here on ITFS will have come up with some possible solutions I can start to implement on Friday.

Here's relying on you all!!

Ban

I imagine that there is a huge buildup of waste under those rocks, remove them and do a huge gravel vac on the sand coupled with a decent water change.

If you feel the sand is too deep I would thin it out, could also be causing a build up of anearbic(sic) gasses. Run your finger right through the sand to let any trapped gasses escape.

While that filter is a good one and the rating is spot on for your tank size I would beef it up with a good internal. Malawis can be very messy. The internal is good for physical waste especially. You can leave the external for 2months between cleaning it out but keep cleaning the internal every two weeks, you'd be amazed at the amount of waste it will pull in.

Good luck.

Are you using RO water? One of the other guys on here mentioned that he was getting nitrate readings straight from his tap (I think it was GerryBerry but I'm not sure). Give your tap water a check and see if you're starting with poor water in the first place.

I highly recommend a fluval 4 internal filter to boost your filtration. I have a 400l with only about 9 fish, 3 are cichlids. I have 2 external fluval 3 and one internal fluval 4 plus, thats enough filtration for an 800l but with messy eaters like cichlids I believe over filtration is essential. I wouldn't dream of putting 30 odd malawi's in the same system! You tank has less filtration then mine and should hold 10 less fish then it does imo. How big are the cichlids on average? Sounds like a filter crash to me , any signs of disease ?

Hi all,

Thanks as ever for all the very helpful suggestions.

I went down to Dimitri in Fintastic Aquatics in Dun Laoghaire and he totally sorted me out. He listened to my problems, asked a few questions and then suggested a few tweaks which he felt would do the trick and boy have they done the trick.

The three key things he got me to do were:-

1. Start using the OrganicAqua water care regime which he swears by.
2. I re-installed my TetraTec APS400 air pump to help expel some of the gasses (I had taken it out as I thought its main function was aesthetic)and leave it on 24/7.
3. I installed a new internal JAD SP-2300III submersible filter which not only takes some of the load off my external TetraTec 1200 but also expels a really nice water flow which the fish absolutely love swimming into.

Other minor changes were to put in a layer of charcol media in the external filter (just for this next few weeks) and to adjust the condensation trays which sit on top of the tank so they leave room for gases to escape. Proior to this they had been fairy tight fitting which resulted in the condensation reforming and dripping back into the tank thus returning some of the expelled substances back into the tank.

I spent most of Saturday morning sorting this out and after 2 days the tank looks amazing. The water is crystal clear, the tank is mega clean, the fish are healty, happy and really active and I'm happy again!!

BTW I also decided to introduce a couple of Apple Snails to help the fight against algae build up. The tank is a built-in room divider and is 15ft from the nearest window but I get a lot of algae build up so will try pretty much anything to keep it at bay as much as possible as the two rusty plecos don't seems to be doing a great job. Anyone got an opinion on these guys? They seem to be slowly working their way over all the rocks and the fish are leaving them alone so all appears ok although they haven't as yet attacked the algae build up on the glass (just a few spots so far) and I'd really like them to concentrate on that!! Are they a good thing or bad thing? Will they breed? How many should I introduce into a 450L tank?

Kudos to all of you who responded with ideas and Kudos to Dimitri in Fintastic Aquatics. Great guy.

Ben

the rusty plecs will never catch up on the algae produced by an overloaded system. Now that your sorted out and hopefully you can get your nitrates below 20, they should be able to keep on top of new algae produced but will never catch up on what you describe. You'll have to scrub the glass though and possibly the rocks if you want them to look clean.

Hey man dont use carbon/charcoal with the organic, organic aqua kicks A!