Burial at sea

[JRagg]

I’m just sick to my stomach about this. I set up a pressurized CO2 system on Sunday. I’ve been battling BBA and Staghorn algae for months now and decided to take the next step in getting my planted tank growing well. I switched from DIY CO2 to pressurized. I was using a mist system (piped into the inlet of a powerhead) to disperse the CO2.

I was having some small issues getting the bubble rate set along the way. I would have it set and then a few hours later there would be no flow at all. I continued upping it just a little bit a couple times each day. I was running it 24 hours a day so that I could better refine the bubble count. I was shooting for 1.5-2 bubbles / second. The powerhead outlet was directed slightly upwards, so there was surface agitation. I wasn’t worried about O2 depletion, and had never seen the fish gasping at the surface.

Last night I bumped up the flow just a small amount again. I kept an eye on it for the next 10 minutes or so, and it looked normal. I went and watched a movie in the basement and when I came upstairs to go to sleep it still looked normal.

When my wife woke up this morning for work (she normally puts the cats out of the bedroom before showering so that they don’t sit outside the bathroom door and meow) she came in and told me there was something wrong with my tank. I went and looked and saw the bubble counter splashing vigorously. The powerhead was making a lot of noise. The bubble rate (more of a constant gushing flow of CO2 than bubbles) was extremely high. I looked up at the tank and saw all 4 of my fish floating belly up in the corner . I turned the CO2 way down (off) and gave them all a burial at sea. I didn’t bother testing for ppm CO2 because it would have been off of the charts.

I’m just sick to my stomach about this. This is why I quit keeping fish a few years ago. I lost 17 out of 21 then (to a freak bacterial infection). Now I lost a breeding pair of Apistos (1 successful spawn and 2 unsuccessful) and two otos that were doing very well. I’m pretty sure that my snails are dead too. The only saving grace is that I moved the “children” fish (4 apistos between ½” and 1”) to another tank two days ago with about 4 snails.

To be honest, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the tank. I may run it fishless for a while with only inverts and plants. I don't plan on putting any fish in until I'm 100% sure that I've got the CO2 set correctly.

 

[coldmachineUK]

I'm really really sorry to hear about this It definitely wasn't deliberate, so you can't blame yourself. Sometimes I think the more complex you make something the more chance of it going wrong, which is why I've never bothered with CO2 before even though I've seen the amazing results of people who have.

Don't let this put you off keeping fish, please, whatever you do. You obviously know what you're doing, you've kept fish for a long long time, and you clearly care for their wellbeing, so it'd be a shame for the hobby to lose someone with the knowledge and care that's needed.

Sometimes blips like this happen and they can be huge in the effect: since we're dealing with micromanagement in fishkeeping you can't always predict for EVERYTHING unfortunately

I hope you decide against dropping the tank. If anything, maybe just go without the CO2. You may not have a show-quality tank, but if you're happy with what you're doing and your fish are thriving then that should surely be enough

 

[joannde]

Oh I'm so sorry I'm with coldmachine - don't throw in the towel. The hobby has brought you much enjoyment; this was a setback and you'll overcome it.
And thank you for sharing your story - I'm sure there are many who will take away valuable information from it.

 

[Mosaic]

I'm so sorry! I know exactly how you feel. My DIY CO2 mix backed up into the tank, killing my precious ctenopoma. Its the only time I've cried over losing a fish. It's at that point I went no-tech.

The only thing to do is forgive yourself and move forward.

 

[JRagg]

Thanks for the words.

I think I may have misworded myself earlier. I'm not going to give up altogether. There's too much time and money invested already to do that. I know that may be a bad reason to keep keeping fish, but it helps justify me keeping the tanks.

I'm just bummed out. I think I may know what the problem was, but I'm still not sure. To make a long story short, I plan on making full use of the needle valve now. I wasn't using it nearly enough before.

 

[tropicfishman]

thast why I stay away from anything that requires alot of setup and monitoring, sorry for your loss man

 

[An t-iasg]

JRagg, I'm so sorry to hear that

I did the same thing when I first set up my CO2 tank - I didn't do something quite right and the CO2 roared out into the aquarium with such turbulence that the pH dropped from 7.8 to 6.8 in 30 seconds (I have a pH controller also, and set it to 6.8. It took all of 30 seconds to get there.)

I have no fish in this tank but an hour later I was still a bit upset thinking of what could have happened. I can't quite remember what I did that night, but since then I've been better able to use the needle valve, and I've read the instructions a number of times to try to understand better what happens between the CO2 cylinder and the needle valve and the adjustment knob on the regulator.

When I get a CO2 refill, I may (since you have to hook up the regulator all over again) just put the diffusor in a bucket of water first to get the needle valve set. And you have to remember, practice makes perfect! After your first few fill-ups, you'll (and hopefully me too!) will become experts at getting the cylinder-bubble counter-needle valve to behave!

 

[Guest]

Im with the others who went 'low tech' because of the constant monitoring and things going wrong. I call it my 'natural balance' tank which requires little interference and my part, but my fish like it more, lol. But if there is a silver lining to this dark cloud, it is that you gained valuable experience with this mishap, and I'll bet that if you stick with it, you might eventually end up with one of the best show tanks around. GL.

 

[Esra]

I always go with the KISS principle.

Keep It Simple Stupid.

All i do are water changes with some dechlorinator and i have no problems.
My Ph is a bit high but i think messing with buffered and chems causes more problem.

i even keep 4 discus who are doing really well.

Stay in the hobby, just avoid anything that makes it seem more like work than fun.

 

[rkilling1]

I guess I have to be the one that goes against most of the responses in this thread. A CO2 regulator can be finicky(especially a new one), but once it is set, you can forget about it.

Everyone saying to stop the high tech setup, because of this. Would be just like my son burning his hand on the stove and never wanting to touch the stove agian. But do you tell him to never touch the stove again or do you teach him the rightway and make him do it agian so he is not scared of it?

A high tech setup has it's rewards along with it's bumps in the road, if you will. If you want a high tech setup, then the pressurized CO2 is the way to go. To each his own, as they say. If this is the setup you want, go for it.

Im with the others who went 'low tech' because of the constant monitoring and things going wrong.

Actually, I monitor my 'high tech' tank setup much less then I ever did on my 'low tech' setups. I know what the parameters are at all times without monitoring it.

JRagg, I am truly sorry for what has happened. I would go ahead with what you purposed. My regulator needed constant adjustment when it was first setup. That lasted maybe a week at most. FWIW, I never adjusted my needle valve, I only adjusted the regulator setting until the output pressure stayed constant and then fine tuned it with the needle valve. You need to have the regulator pressure atleast 10-20#'s minimum to maintain a constant output pressure.

All regulators will act differently, so my experience will be somewhat different then yours.

 

[JRagg]

I have yet to even get the needle to move on the second gauge. It's been pegged at zero the whole time.

I'm not going to ditch the high tech setup. It cost way too much to just get rid of, and my goals with the tank have not been achieved yet. It looks like I've got some dead snails, but quite a few still alive. I am expecting an ammonia spike over the next few days from decaying snails. At least I know that the tank will stay cycled and I'll probably add new fish in a few more weeks after everything has settled out.

This regulator is really finicky. I should have gotten everything working on an uninhabited tank, which I recommend for anyone from now on. Thanks for the words of support everyone.

 

[Guest]

Actually, I monitor my 'high tech' tank setup much less then I ever did on my 'low tech' setups. I know what the parameters are at all times without monitoring it.

Exactly my point. You have great experience/knowledge and I would bet you got to that point through constant monitoring, mistakes, learning curves, etc, and most important, a willingness to not give up.

 

[7Enigma]

rkilling1, completely agree. I'm planning on going high tech this holiday season for the very reason you mention. I have a moderately planted tank with good lighting (65w CF on 20gallons), dose the full complement of ferts, and am SICK of the DIY routinue. Fluctuating CO2 levels, changing out bottles, screwing around with formulas due to temperature changes, it just gets old, and my plants suffer.

Like anything, things take some time to get used too. I NEVER change anything drastically in the tank shortly before leaving it for a long period of time. I wait until I have several hours to monitor the conditions since it takes very little for something bad to happen. PH's can be problematic if not set up properly. I have my PH set to turn on slightly before lights on in the morning and off slightly after lights out at night. This means that no matter how much CO2 is being released by my yeast (or in your case the CO2 tank), very little is getting dissolved in the water (it just bubbles up in large burps). This is a great safety mechanism because the highest CO2 levels will always be in the tank when the lights are out (since both the plants and the fish are respiring CO2). An extra $5 timer is all it took.

Sorry for your losses...

 

[frostby]

I've gassed my fish so they've been anesthetized a few times, must have caught it in time, cuz when I cut the co2, add an air stone they slowly recover... Sorry to hear about your loss