allottaspots
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Do I have a killer tank or just bad technique? History-I had never had fish before I acquired a 125 gal tank when I bought my current house in fall 2003. The two resident plecos that had been surviving without my help died when a hurricane took out the power for several days last fall. Rather than leave the tank empty, I thought I'd give fish keeping a try. Bought some BA tetras, danios, tiger barbs, two plecos, and a couple plants. No major problems. Added some pearl gouramis. Still no problems. Then one of the tiger barbs showed signs of ich. Sucessfully treated the tank with a few days of meds followed by a week + with high temps. But this scare prompted me to set up a quarantine tank. Bought a 10 gal tank+filter+hood combo and heater at Walmart and washed with just water. Filled it with water from the 125 gal + fresh water 50:50. Added some danios from the 125 gal tank that had been spawning, let them spawn in the 10 gal for a few days and returned them to the 125 gal. The eggs hatched but all the fry died within a few days. Cleaned out the tank and added the water as above. Made second spawning attempt but could only catch the females this time. One of the females became very stressed so I returned her to the main tank where she apparently died (no body found). Returned other females without incident. Bought new heater-thought "old" one was not holding temp properly. Washed out 10 gal tank and filled as above. Bought 6 small neon rainbows from lfs (actually not so local-2 hour drive), floated bag for 90 min, added some tank water during the 90 min, netted fish out of bag and added to tank. Left lights off. All were dead the next morning. Bummer. Cleaned out tank added water as above. Netted one of my very robust BA tetras out of the 125 gal and placed in the 10 gal. Turned light off because the tetra was swimming as if panicked. It was dead when I checked a few hours later. So... could the filter or heater be leaking voltage and literally shocking the recently added fish? Or not enough acclimating? Was the tetra traumatized at being alone for the few hours (while I tried to net another)? Or is the 10 gal just plain cursed? My pearl gouramis have really colored lately and (maybe) they'd like to spawn but I'm afraid to put anything I value in this tank right now.
Water parameters as measured by a 5 in 1 dip strip:Nitrate 20 ppm, nitrite undetectable, total hardness 50 ppm, total alkalinity 40 ppm, pH 6.8-7.0. Temp- 78F. StressCoat 5 ml/gallon was added for the neon rainbows, but not the tetra.
Water parameters as measured by a 5 in 1 dip strip:Nitrate 20 ppm, nitrite undetectable, total hardness 50 ppm, total alkalinity 40 ppm, pH 6.8-7.0. Temp- 78F. StressCoat 5 ml/gallon was added for the neon rainbows, but not the tetra.