what to do?

[ecko]

Hey guy!
I have a problem. I have a 15 gallon tank that was fully cycled with 6 Redeye Tetras, 2 Corys, 6 Gold Shrimp, 6 Ghosts and 1 Mystery snail. As for the plants, I have 3 bundles of Anacharis which is about 10 plants. A banana plant? 2 Amazon Swords, 2 patches of dwarf grass? and 3 plants of a sword grass i believe. My substrate are smallish rocks about inch to inch 1/2 thick. For lighting I have 2 13w 6500K florecent bulbs 11 hours a day. I was battling some white hair algae and some brown algae for a bit but those have since subsided.
My problem is, the power went out overnight about a week and a half ago. When it finally came back on, the tank was fubar. The water was cloudy, half my shrimp died, my snail died and a cory died. The temp was 72 degrees when it normally sits at 80. My ammonia was through the roof and everyone seemed to be hiding. I did some rapid water changes, and tested to safer limits. I consulted my people at the local store where they didn't give me much info.
Monday, my anacharis' were yellow and covered in brown spots. Controlling the ammonia levels were impossible. So I lowered the water level to about 50% and took all the anacharis' out. replaced them with new ones and filled the tank back up. However, now, I cant even get a reading on my pH levels, ammonia is out of control again and as I figured would happen, the remaining Nitrates died off. Annnndd, my anacharis' are yellow again. The other plants seem to thrive, but not them. Should I just break it down and start over? I don't like seeing my fish hiding all the time, its not like them, I want to give them something they like you know? and healthy.
And why would my anacharis' look less healthy than the rest of my plants? I was told they were one of the hardiest bunch!

Thanks in advance!

 

[hdultra]

Wow man sorry to hear all that. You may be better off starting off with new water. That means cycle water again, and get it safe again. Hang on tight im sure other posters can further assist your delema. Good luck man.....

 

[XimeD]

Wow this is a tough one (at least for me), not really sure what is killing your anacharis.....hopefully someone else can help with that one.

About the rest, it looks like something happened that killed most of your good bacteria causing your tank to go through another cycle. I have a couple of questions, first how do you test your water? The liquid test kits are a lot more accurate than the test strips. second, what exactly do you mean by "cant even get a reading on my pH levels, ammonia is out of control cant even get a reading on my pH levels, ammonia is out of control"? Giving us your exact water parameters ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and pH will give us a better idea on what is going on.

For now since it looks like your are going through another cycle, make sure to do as many PWCs as necessary to keep ammonia and nitrites below 0.25ppm (if you are feeding your fish every day, start feeding every other day or one day yes, 2 days no to reduce fish waste. You can gradually increase it back once your tanks cycles)
I would take out the dying anacharis, it will only add to the poor water quality if it starts decomposing. As for the nitrates dying off, I assume you mean you had some and now you have little or none. This could either be due to the increased PWCs you are doing or it seems more likely that since your biofilter is compromised the bacteria are not producing enough nitrates for your plants and they (the plants) have used up the remaining nitrates. I would say at this point the ammonia and nitrite build-ups are bigger worries but you can get a liquid fertilizer like seachem nourish and/or root tabs (amazons are heavy root feeders).

You could try adding the anacharis while adding fertz once your tank is cycled again. This just ocurred to me, did you change the filter cartdrigde? If so, don't that is where most of the good bacteria live, just rinse the cartridge in old tank water (it has to be de-chlorinated as chlorine will kill the good bacteria) and put it back in (even though manufacturers will say to change once a month, this is not necessary they just want you to buy more filter media)

Another thing to do if you havent done so already, is to check your tap water for pH, ammonia. nitrites and nitrates (just to know what you are putting into your tank)

If after all this you are still having trouble with the anacharis, try posting it in the planted tank section, I am sure people there will know how to help.

Hope this helps =)

Edit: I wouldn't start with all new water since you already have fish in there, if you want to change out a large volume of water a series of large PWCs (ie 50% or 75% and assuming you match for temperature and pH - for pH no more than 0.2 difference is recommended) are better than one 100% one which would entail removing the fish and inverts and re-acclimating them. Like I said do as many PWCs to get the ammonia and nitrites below 0.25ppm.

 

[Coleallensmom]

Xime gave some good advice. What are you using to test your water? Knowing what exactly your water parameters are will allow us to better help. The ammonia spike that you are experiencing very well may be from the deaths of your shrimp/cory. It's even possible with the rapid change of water conditions in your tank that some of your bacteria could have been harmed as well. Which means you will have to act as though your tank is cycling all over again. Testing, &daily PWC's until the ammonia is under control. As far the issue with the plants..it very well may be a nitrate issue as Xime mentioned. If there are low nitrates in your tank from the loss of bacteria, there may not be enough available in the tank for all of your plants.

 

[ecko]

It never occurred to me that the lack of nitrates would harm my plants. Interesting. I use this API liquid testing kit. It has pH, high level pH, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. Each morning my ammonia levels are at about 4 to 8ppm +. I would lean towards between 4 and 8 ppms. Yellow is the color for a pH of 6. My tests are nearly clear. Well, were. I found some pH stabilizing tablets for 7. I've been adding one after the morning water change and one at night. It actually seems to be helping, my fish are a bit more active now. It is making my tank a bit cloudy though. Nitrites and Nitrates still remain 0 for now.
What I just dont get is how my anacharis are doing so terrible but the rest of the plants are doing so well? I use some aquarium plant food that the guy at the local store said would suffice in keeping my plants fed so ive been adding drops every other day. 5ml or so.
I didn't change the filter but. when i do my pwc's ill clean the filter as needed with the water i am removing from the tank. and lately. I am guessing due too my recent die off, my filter is covered in orange. I dont even have anything orange in my tank. 4 rocks, plants, substrate and my fish.
Ill try feeding them less. Hopefully get the ammonia under control so i can reduce my water changes. I cant expect to build a good bacteria by changing the water so much. I do use this jump start bacteria stuff. Since i got the tank ive been adding them at about 5ml every day to every other day. Its said to help jump start the cycle and get a good amount of bacteria growing. i can only hope!
thanks for your help! ill post again if there are any rapid changes!
My tap water pH is about a 7.6

 

[ecko]

oh. and what are the chances that the eggs my tetras laid about 2 days ago are still okay?

 

[XimeD]

It never occurred to me that the lack of nitrates would harm my plants. Interesting. I use this API liquid testing kit. It has pH, high level pH, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. Each morning my ammonia levels are at about 4 to 8ppm +. I would lean towards between 4 and 8 ppms.

That ammonia is very high! You need to do more or larger PWCs then, bring it down to below 0.25ppm by doing a series of large PWCs (50% or even 75%, but don't do 75% until the pH difference between your tap water and your tank is less). How big are your morning and night PWCs with 2 PWCs daily it seems excessive that you are getting 4ppm of ammonia just from fish, hopefully removing the anacharis and feeding less will help reduce the waste.

Yellow is the color for a pH of 6. My tests are nearly clear. Well, were. I found some pH stabilizing tablets for 7. I've been adding one after the morning water change and one at night. It actually seems to be helping, my fish are a bit more active now. It is making my tank a bit cloudy though. Nitrites and Nitrates still remain 0 for now.

So your pH is 6 or less. If adding the tablets is not changing the pH value on your test kit then I would say it was lower than 6. Also since your tap water is 7.6, it sure looks like you are going thorugh a pH crash in your tank. I am not sure what to tell you here, your ammonia is so high that you need to do PWCs to bring that down, but also you should be careful that your pH doesn't swing, hopefully someone else can help here. Maybe set aside a whole day and do like 20% PWCs every hour?

What I just dont get is how my anacharis are doing so terrible but the rest of the plants are doing so well? I use some aquarium plant food that the guy at the local store said would suffice in keeping my plants fed so ive been adding drops every other day. 5ml or so.

Yeah I don't think it is just the low nitrates that is killing your anacharis, I don't what is though, the low nitrates could just be a factor.

I didn't change the filter but. when i do my pwc's ill clean the filter as needed with the water i am removing from the tank. and lately. I am guessing due too my recent die off, my filter is covered in orange. I dont even have anything orange in my tank. 4 rocks, plants, substrate and my fish.
Ill try feeding them less. Hopefully get the ammonia under control so i can reduce my water changes. I cant expect to build a good bacteria by changing the water so much.

The people at my LFS kept trying to convince me of that too, but that is a misconception. The good bacteria live attached to surfaces (mostly in the filter because of the high surface area material the filter), they are not in the water. Doing PWCs will NOT stall your cycle, high levels of ammonia (above 6ppm) will, the extremely low pH could also be stalling your bacterial growth. So, as long as the water you are putting in your tank is dechlorinated, then you could be doing as many PWCs as needed without any fear of harming the bacteria.

I do use this jump start bacteria stuff. Since i got the tank ive been adding them at about 5ml every day to every other day. Its said to help jump start the cycle and get a good amount of bacteria growing. i can only hope!
thanks for your help! ill post again if there are any rapid changes!
My tap water pH is about a 7.6

Yeah the bacteria in a bottle products are hit or miss IMO, it all depends whether the bottle you bought actually had live bacteria in it.

Don't give up! This is awesome hobby, cycling the tank with fish takes a LOT of work (as you know) but once the tank is established then you can fall into a PWC schedule (such as 25% or 50% PWC weekly) and there is a lot less work. Hang in there, it gets better

 

[fort384]

Lots of good advice here... PWCs won't hurt your cycle. If you don't do them in this case, it will kill the fish.

As for the anacharis, I doubt the nitrates is the problem... it wouldn't die off that quickly with a lack of Nitrates... and ammonia and nitrites are also usable sources of N for plants (in fact, it is even better than nitrAtes... but not healthy for the fish).

Are you by chance using seachem Excel in your tank? This could be the problem with the anacharis.

I also think the pH being so low could actually cause this with anacharis. It is generally a hardy plant, but sensitive to certain parameters that other plants are not.

 

[Coleallensmom]

I also think the pH being so low could actually cause this with anacharis. It is generally a hardy plant, but sensitive to certain parameters that other plants are not.

I was wondering about this same thing...<one week is really quick for a plant to go from perfectly fine to dying.