Cam
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi all.
I have a 200l planted tank with an Eheim canister filter, stocked with tetras, guppies, mollies, various BN cats, a few corys, a male Betta and a few others. Tank has been set up for about 12 months with no major dramas.
I work away from home for 2 weeks out of 4, and during that time the tankl doesn't get a lot of maintenance - an occasional PWC. When I'm home I'll do a coupe, of PWCs, about 25% each time.
Water is generally fairly stable, nitrates <40ppm, pH 7.2. I don't normally measure kh or Gh. Water for filling is normally straight from the (Adelaide) tap, just treated for chlorine.
Just before I left for work last time, I added a few guppies - just some I had picked up from the LFS when buying some live food, no big deal.
A few days after I had left I called the SO for the daily check in, and was told that the Betta had died, and that some of the others didn't look too good. The next day a guppy or two and a molly died - this was the case for the next few days, with a few more dying each day. A 20% PWC was performed, but nothing much changed.
By the time I got back home, about 15 fish had died, and the tank was looking very cloudy. I though I'd sort it the next morning....
When I got up the next day the water was almost opaque, and just about every surface in the tank was covered in a furry white growth - it was everywhere! The remaining fish were also looking quite stressed.
I immediately did a 60% PWC, and cleaned the filter. I was careful not do upset the media baskets, just cleaned the prefilter element, pump and case etc to remove as much of the muck as I could.
Everything was then reassembled and put back in to service. I also treated the tank with an anti-fungal at half strength.
Tests of the water showed nitrates <20ppm. pH appeared to be low, maybe 6.8 which was unusual. Normally I have high pH (say 7.5) which I treat every now and again with an acid buffer. I didn't have anything for low pH, so I left it as it was.
Over the following 24 hours the water cleared up considerably. There was still noticable furry white stuff on the plants, grasses, wood, and on the walls of the tank (looked like a 'dust coating'). I'm away again now, but a check home has revealed that all traces of it appear to have cleared, and everything is good again!
My question is - what happened? All I did was add a few (harmless) guppies, and next thing I know my tank has turned to muck. Normally the tank is very stable - the only thing I see sometimes is high nitrates (40ppm or so) if I've been away and there have beeb no water changes.
I think I'll wait for a while before replacing any of the fish, and see how we go.
Anyone have any thoughts on what might have happened?
Thanks
Cam
Update:
I originally posetd this on the Aus Fish forums, but didn't get any replies. Since then I have returned to work, and am a long way away from my tank.
My SO called this morning. After everything had seemed ok and returned to normal, things appear to have gone backwards again - she pulled another 12 dead fish from the tank this morning. A sample of water was taken to the LFS for analysis. It appears that pH is low, phosphates may be high, and that the water has little or no hardness.
I'm guessing that the lack of hardness has resulted in large pH swings, which have killed the fish.
I still have no idea what initiated all this, and what all the furry stuff that seems to have precipitated on everything was.
Up until now I had thought I had a grasp on aquarium chemistry, but clearly in this I am am clueless. The whole episode has left me feeling very despondant - I didn't think keeping fish should be this difficult, and thought that we did all the right things.
The lack of any reasonable explanation of what actually occurred makes me reluctant to invest in stocking the tank again, when it may all happen again in a week, month or year.
Might be time to take up stamp collecting.
Cam
I have a 200l planted tank with an Eheim canister filter, stocked with tetras, guppies, mollies, various BN cats, a few corys, a male Betta and a few others. Tank has been set up for about 12 months with no major dramas.
I work away from home for 2 weeks out of 4, and during that time the tankl doesn't get a lot of maintenance - an occasional PWC. When I'm home I'll do a coupe, of PWCs, about 25% each time.
Water is generally fairly stable, nitrates <40ppm, pH 7.2. I don't normally measure kh or Gh. Water for filling is normally straight from the (Adelaide) tap, just treated for chlorine.
Just before I left for work last time, I added a few guppies - just some I had picked up from the LFS when buying some live food, no big deal.
A few days after I had left I called the SO for the daily check in, and was told that the Betta had died, and that some of the others didn't look too good. The next day a guppy or two and a molly died - this was the case for the next few days, with a few more dying each day. A 20% PWC was performed, but nothing much changed.
By the time I got back home, about 15 fish had died, and the tank was looking very cloudy. I though I'd sort it the next morning....
When I got up the next day the water was almost opaque, and just about every surface in the tank was covered in a furry white growth - it was everywhere! The remaining fish were also looking quite stressed.
I immediately did a 60% PWC, and cleaned the filter. I was careful not do upset the media baskets, just cleaned the prefilter element, pump and case etc to remove as much of the muck as I could.
Everything was then reassembled and put back in to service. I also treated the tank with an anti-fungal at half strength.
Tests of the water showed nitrates <20ppm. pH appeared to be low, maybe 6.8 which was unusual. Normally I have high pH (say 7.5) which I treat every now and again with an acid buffer. I didn't have anything for low pH, so I left it as it was.
Over the following 24 hours the water cleared up considerably. There was still noticable furry white stuff on the plants, grasses, wood, and on the walls of the tank (looked like a 'dust coating'). I'm away again now, but a check home has revealed that all traces of it appear to have cleared, and everything is good again!
My question is - what happened? All I did was add a few (harmless) guppies, and next thing I know my tank has turned to muck. Normally the tank is very stable - the only thing I see sometimes is high nitrates (40ppm or so) if I've been away and there have beeb no water changes.
I think I'll wait for a while before replacing any of the fish, and see how we go.
Anyone have any thoughts on what might have happened?
Thanks
Cam
Update:
I originally posetd this on the Aus Fish forums, but didn't get any replies. Since then I have returned to work, and am a long way away from my tank.
My SO called this morning. After everything had seemed ok and returned to normal, things appear to have gone backwards again - she pulled another 12 dead fish from the tank this morning. A sample of water was taken to the LFS for analysis. It appears that pH is low, phosphates may be high, and that the water has little or no hardness.
I'm guessing that the lack of hardness has resulted in large pH swings, which have killed the fish.
I still have no idea what initiated all this, and what all the furry stuff that seems to have precipitated on everything was.
Up until now I had thought I had a grasp on aquarium chemistry, but clearly in this I am am clueless. The whole episode has left me feeling very despondant - I didn't think keeping fish should be this difficult, and thought that we did all the right things.
The lack of any reasonable explanation of what actually occurred makes me reluctant to invest in stocking the tank again, when it may all happen again in a week, month or year.
Might be time to take up stamp collecting.
Cam
