My tank went hyperactive, now what?

[_Nemo_]

I have never seen anything like it in my life! My tank has gone into athletic hyperactivity.

After changing the substrate to Fluorite and adding a DIY hood delivering close to 3.7 watts/gallon I did not get much of a response. I then added a DIY CO2 source diffused through an airs one and started dosing Seachem Flourish. That gave me brush/beard alga on the Java fern and dwarf hair grass. Last Friday, I removed the air stone, inserted the CO2 tubing right into the intake of my power filter, and raised the water level of the tank to meet the lower level of the glass top to minimize water disturbance caused by the return water of the power filter. I had 2 CO2 bottles running. Overnight, my pH dropped from 7.5 to 6.3!!! The fish were going nuts! By 10:00 am, one of the Otocinclus affinis was poisoned dead.

Immediately, I removed one of the CO2 bottles and dropped the water level in the tank by a couple of inches to create a strong aeration. I let that run until the pH climbed to 6.7-6.8. I then brought the water level back up and kept only one CO2 bottle running. That seemed to stabilize things, including the pH at 6.8-6.6. The kH in the tank is a steady 4 dkH.

On Sunday, I was mesmerized by the most delightful display of underwater plant activity. It was as if the plants were actually playing and enjoying themselves!

Most of the plants were sending steady columns of small bubbles (O2 presumably) to the surface, especially the annubias and the swords. The others were just bubbling up intermittently. Shoots, shoots .. everywhere, from all of the stem plants. You can actually see them growing!!! The Banana plant sent out a shoot/root from the top of the bananas. It reached the substrate by the end of the day (that is about 1.5 inches). The Ambulia and Ludwigia repens sent half a dozen shoots each!

Ok .. The brush/hair grass seemed to get a little kick to when I fertilized. But it was not sustained. I think from now on I’ll be dosing on a daily basis to minimize the availability of excess nutrients.

Now what? What do I do with all of the “white hairs” (shoots) growing from the stems of stem plants?

 

[brendan]

How did you know that the Oto was poison dead?

 

[Mr Burns]

i've read that otos are really sensative to environmental changes, main due to how they are 'harvested' in the wild. chances are the pH swing triggered something else and that was the cause of death, not the swing itself.

 

[_Nemo_]

At a pH ~6.2 and a kH of 4, the dissolved CO2 concentrations is estimated at 75 mg/L! This is toxic and the fish would most likely die of CO2 poisoning.

 

[Guest]

Now what? What do I do with all of the “white hairs” (shoots) growing from the stems of stem plants?

Nothing you can do, really. Stem plants are great, but they do have that drawback. When mine get too tall, I uproot the whole bunch, cut off the tops and replant the tops only. Chuck the lower parts with all the roots. Stem plants don't seem to mind it much, they just take off and grow again, the new growth just has less roots and better looking foliage.

Glad you are doing well, it sure sounds like you got things going great now! Gotta love the pearling!

 

[_Nemo_]

This is true according to, at least, the common view. Some views I've read quote that levels of several hundred ppm can be tolorated by tropical fish. Regardless, the pH swing was probably too rapid and could have caused the death.

At a pH ~6.2 and a kH of 4, the dissolved CO2 concentrations is estimated at 75 mg/L! This is toxic and the fish would most likely die of CO2 poisoning.

 

[_Nemo_]

Thanks for all the help

Now what? What do I do with all of the “white hairs” (shoots) growing from the stems of stem plants?

Nothing you can do, really. Stem plants are great, but they do have that drawback. When mine get too tall, I uproot the whole bunch, cut off the tops and replant the tops only. Chuck the lower parts with all the roots. Stem plants don't seem to mind it much, they just take off and grow again, the new growth just has less roots and better looking foliage.

Glad you are doing well, it sure sounds like you got things going great now! Gotta love the pearling!

 

[Sati]

Shoots, shoots .. everywhere, from all of the stem plants. You can actually see them growing!!! The Banana plant sent out a shoot/root from the top of the bananas. It reached the substrate by the end of the day (that is about 1.5 inches). The Ambulia and Ludwigia repens sent half a dozen shoots each!

Good lord, it's just like Jack and the Beanstalk!

 

[kagentx]

how many gallon is your tank? and what's your receipe for CO2? they seem to be working lovely for your plants. what other plants do you have in there?