smokey11
Aquarium Advice Regular
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2012
- Messages
- 68
I've had my 15G for 3 months now. The first 1.5 months was very calm, I had 12 neon tetras & 6 shrimps & a bristlenose pleco. No one died in that 1.5 months. Then I did something stupid, I added 4 guppies and I did a big water change just when the weather was getting cold. I didn't know it at the time since I just joined this hobby, but I found out 2 days later mixing cold water to the tank can cause ich.
After that, it's all been downhill. 8 of my tetras, all the shrimps & 2 guppies died within the following week even as I raised the temperature to 86F and administered ich medication & a hint of salt.
3 weeks after the outbreak, I had 4 tetras left and the pleco. I changed water regularly and it seemed like the worst was over.
I was told that shrimps dont get ich, so I decided to re-populate my tank with shrimps first (to help clean the water). I got 4 tiger shrimps, 4 long nosed shrimps, 4 RCS and 10 black shrimps.
I tested the water conditions regularly, i had 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and <20ppm of nitrates. pH 7.8, temperature 80F. But after another week, all but the black shrimps survived.
Even worse, I am noticing my plants are started to die too. Stems breaking off, leaves decaying. I try to remove any decaying, dying plants as prudently as possible to reduce chance of contamination but the dying continues.
So now I am totally lost. I am not planning to add anything to the tank. I need to figure out what I am doing wrong. I don't think my water parameters are that bad:
ammonia:0 // nitrites:0 // nitrates:15ppm // 80F // pH 7.8 // substrate = soil
// CO2 : 2 bubbles per sec for 5 hrs // LED light 7 hours per day
(the pH is a little high but that is the pH of the tap water here, i've been told actively adjusting the pH may bring more pain than good b/c there'll be fluctuation everytime you change water - is this true?)
anyways, I would really appreciate if anyone has noticed what I did wrong and how i can stop my plants from dying.
After that, it's all been downhill. 8 of my tetras, all the shrimps & 2 guppies died within the following week even as I raised the temperature to 86F and administered ich medication & a hint of salt.
3 weeks after the outbreak, I had 4 tetras left and the pleco. I changed water regularly and it seemed like the worst was over.
I was told that shrimps dont get ich, so I decided to re-populate my tank with shrimps first (to help clean the water). I got 4 tiger shrimps, 4 long nosed shrimps, 4 RCS and 10 black shrimps.
I tested the water conditions regularly, i had 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and <20ppm of nitrates. pH 7.8, temperature 80F. But after another week, all but the black shrimps survived.
Even worse, I am noticing my plants are started to die too. Stems breaking off, leaves decaying. I try to remove any decaying, dying plants as prudently as possible to reduce chance of contamination but the dying continues.
So now I am totally lost. I am not planning to add anything to the tank. I need to figure out what I am doing wrong. I don't think my water parameters are that bad:
ammonia:0 // nitrites:0 // nitrates:15ppm // 80F // pH 7.8 // substrate = soil
// CO2 : 2 bubbles per sec for 5 hrs // LED light 7 hours per day
(the pH is a little high but that is the pH of the tap water here, i've been told actively adjusting the pH may bring more pain than good b/c there'll be fluctuation everytime you change water - is this true?)
anyways, I would really appreciate if anyone has noticed what I did wrong and how i can stop my plants from dying.