Broke EF
Aquarium Advice Activist
Well some of you may already know about my sudden crash in my tank. If not, let me bring you all up to speed on my ordeal. A few months ago my wife and I decided to get a fish tank. I had had some when I was younger (had no idea what I was doing), and she had one growing up. So we go out and pick up a 46 gallon bow front, and all of the stuff to get it started up. I did a fishless cycle using the ACE Hardware ammonia, and tested with the API Freshwater test kit. Everything was going great! I started adding fish, and watched the water like a hawk to make sure everything was good. Eventually I got to a stock of,
8 x Lemon Tetra
8 x Diamond Tetra
7 x Panda Cory
I did have a couple of deaths here and there, mostly the pandas. I had some fish that didn't look all that healthy when I put them in, and died quickly. Others were in the tank a while and slowly passed away. Point is, I usually could figure out why they died. Every time I had a fish die I would test the water to check for anything out of the ordinary and never saw anything.
I changed equipment a little here and there, and added some stuff. The current equipment list is.
Aqueon 46 Gallon Bow Front
Aqueon glass lid, and standard light
Fluval 306 canister filter
Aqueon 55/75 filter (still running just to seed my Fluval)
Two Aqueon Pro 200 watt heater's
Rena 400 air pump with two 10" bubble wands on the sides
I am using sand as my substraight and fake plants with a piece of driftwood. And the stock (before the crash) was.
8 x Lemon Tetra
8 x Diamond Tetra
7 x Panda Cory
1 Starlight Pleco (L183)
And now were are up to speed on what I am working with. I had added two panda's on Tuesday to replace two that had died. Thursday I added in the pleco which I was on the fence about since the tank had been cloudy for a week or two. Friday morning I woke up to a dead Lemon tetra, and one more that looked like it was about to go. I got home from work, and had two more dead lemons. I tested the water and it was perfect, but I did a 50% water change anyway. Saturday morning the wife found 3 more dead lemon tetras. Later in the day a panda died. Today we lost a Diamond, and one Lemon probably wont make it.
So as you can tell, on the fish front, its been a bad weekend. Now I am in the recovery, planning stages for stage 2. Unfortunately there is no way for me to get a second tank quickly to move the fish out. For now I will have to let do whatever its going to do, and try my best to keep the water good.
Eventually I am going to borrow a friends 29 gallon tank to store the fish temporarily. This starts the first set of questions for the quarantine
1. I have a spare Aqueon QuietFlow 50 (uses the same filter pads as the 55/75 that's on the tank), should I use a new filter, or move one over?
2. Because of the Pleco should I move the piece of driftwood over?
3. Should I fill the 29 gallon with partial tank water, or all new water?
4. Do I need to acclimate the fish from tank to tank?
Most of those questions are also applicable to a quarantine tank that I plan on having in the future. I don't have the space to have one set up all of the time, so I will probably only have one set up and running when needed.
On to the bigger set of questions in reference to the main tank.
1. Should I pull out all of the decorations and sterilize them (and how)
2. Should I also do the same with the sand?
3. Since I am "starting new" should I leave the same amount of sand in the tank, or remove some? Its about 1-1/2 to 2 inches deep now.
4. I want to make a better environment for the fish and give them hiding places, which is better rocks or plants?
5. Should I add a spray bar to the Fluval, or is it not needed?
That is really all I can think of right now. I am just burnt out from this weekend. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. I am not ready to give up yet (I'm close) but I want everything to be perfect the next time around.
Thanks,
Sean
8 x Lemon Tetra
8 x Diamond Tetra
7 x Panda Cory
I did have a couple of deaths here and there, mostly the pandas. I had some fish that didn't look all that healthy when I put them in, and died quickly. Others were in the tank a while and slowly passed away. Point is, I usually could figure out why they died. Every time I had a fish die I would test the water to check for anything out of the ordinary and never saw anything.
I changed equipment a little here and there, and added some stuff. The current equipment list is.
Aqueon 46 Gallon Bow Front
Aqueon glass lid, and standard light
Fluval 306 canister filter
Aqueon 55/75 filter (still running just to seed my Fluval)
Two Aqueon Pro 200 watt heater's
Rena 400 air pump with two 10" bubble wands on the sides
I am using sand as my substraight and fake plants with a piece of driftwood. And the stock (before the crash) was.
8 x Lemon Tetra
8 x Diamond Tetra
7 x Panda Cory
1 Starlight Pleco (L183)
And now were are up to speed on what I am working with. I had added two panda's on Tuesday to replace two that had died. Thursday I added in the pleco which I was on the fence about since the tank had been cloudy for a week or two. Friday morning I woke up to a dead Lemon tetra, and one more that looked like it was about to go. I got home from work, and had two more dead lemons. I tested the water and it was perfect, but I did a 50% water change anyway. Saturday morning the wife found 3 more dead lemon tetras. Later in the day a panda died. Today we lost a Diamond, and one Lemon probably wont make it.
So as you can tell, on the fish front, its been a bad weekend. Now I am in the recovery, planning stages for stage 2. Unfortunately there is no way for me to get a second tank quickly to move the fish out. For now I will have to let do whatever its going to do, and try my best to keep the water good.
Eventually I am going to borrow a friends 29 gallon tank to store the fish temporarily. This starts the first set of questions for the quarantine
1. I have a spare Aqueon QuietFlow 50 (uses the same filter pads as the 55/75 that's on the tank), should I use a new filter, or move one over?
2. Because of the Pleco should I move the piece of driftwood over?
3. Should I fill the 29 gallon with partial tank water, or all new water?
4. Do I need to acclimate the fish from tank to tank?
Most of those questions are also applicable to a quarantine tank that I plan on having in the future. I don't have the space to have one set up all of the time, so I will probably only have one set up and running when needed.
On to the bigger set of questions in reference to the main tank.
1. Should I pull out all of the decorations and sterilize them (and how)
2. Should I also do the same with the sand?
3. Since I am "starting new" should I leave the same amount of sand in the tank, or remove some? Its about 1-1/2 to 2 inches deep now.
4. I want to make a better environment for the fish and give them hiding places, which is better rocks or plants?
5. Should I add a spray bar to the Fluval, or is it not needed?
That is really all I can think of right now. I am just burnt out from this weekend. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. I am not ready to give up yet (I'm close) but I want everything to be perfect the next time around.
Thanks,
Sean