Help .... Water imbalance?

[nuart]

Hi

My planted tank was not doin well with plants looking a bit sick. Decided it was the nutrients and I was right. Started doing EI dosing - N,P,K + trace. Things turned for the better- so much so that algae started to be a prob. Cranked up CO2. And thinking water circulation maybe a prob, decided that an unused air pump may be useful to help create more circulation.

Then... 2 rams. Thinking something is amiss, check the water. NItrates were way too high. Immediate massive water change for next few days until the nitrates were 10ppm on the check strip. 7 neon tetras died along the way., then no more deaths.

Since I stopped the EI dose. Some plants started to turn holey. Decided I can resume dosing, I resumed EI and I think holey plant doing better. Next day, a platy died. Nitrates is at 10ppm. Removed the air pump as I think may be the air was causing the CO2 to escape faster not reaching the plants. ..

So what next? Where do u think the problem is at?

[wongce]

bro, my tank's nitrate is 20, and all my neons and guppy is still swimming happily...

1) did you use any anti-chlorine/water treatment for tap water? most basic water treatment often forgotten or ignored
2) is your fish gasping for air near the surface of the water? suspect high level of co2;- co2 poisoning/lack of oxygen, get a timer and set the air pump to run during Non-lighting hours, not all plants produce o2 at a fast rate, you may overstocked your tank or you did not plant dense enough to supply the o2 needed by fish.

some information of your tank + pictures will help...

platy is hardy fish, i am surprised that your ram still alive although neons and platy up lorry....

[greenie]

I've just restarted this hobby after a 5 year hiatus. It was a good learning experience then but spent a few thousands $$$. As usual, I had a couple of hiccup along the way, now after 3 months seems more or less there again.

1st you have to invest in a few water test kit.

First is Ammonia test kit. Even though we think we have cycled the tank, sometimes there might be mini-cycle especially after water changes. After reading all over the net, I found that many anti-chloramine liquid only break down chloramine into chlorine and ammonia. While chlorine will dissipate, ammonia will accumulate and cause harm. It could trigger a mini-cycle of ammonia-nitrite-nitrate that could stress out or kill your livestock. Now I solely use Seachem Prime when previously I used Nutrafin and API anti-chloramine. As Seachem Prime binds the ammonia into the less harmless ammonium compound.

Second and thirdly get KH test kit and a pH testkit or electronic tester. Use this to test result to determine your C02 concentrations.

See this CO2 chart

30ppm is a guideline, I've ever go to 45ppm without ill effect to my livestock but some species might not tolerate such concentrations. Over dosing is a major killer for most planted setup. Do note if you use products to bring down pH, these mostly contain phosphorous-based chemicals that can screw-up your pH test. Better not to use and save some $$.
Another thing to note is try to keep KH between 3-6 as it provide buffering of pH when C02 is dose. pH crashes due to little or no buffer can stress and kill livestock too. I've experience before yamato shrimps dying because of pH crashes 5 years ago. To counter low kH, I dose soda bicarbonate, those for making cake. If my kH is ok, 3-6 but my livestock is at surface gsaping for air, I know I overdose and immediate action is to reduce Co2 and pump in air to the max via air stone.

And lastly , get a Nitrate test kit. Guideline max 30ppm. Also using EI dosing, I'll monitor N03 daily and/or every other day to determine how much of N,P and K to dose. If N03 creeps up to more than 30ppm for 2 consecutive day, I know I'm lacking in K or P.

So depends on my livestock behaviour, instead of doing water changes, I dose P first. If N03 levels remains high, I then dose K.

My current setup consists of high demand plants so N03 intake can be check quite noticeable in a matter of hours.

I change water only when I need to vaccum detritus from substrate surface and leaves.

[stormhawk]

My nitrate levels is the same as wongce, and my fish are fine. Did you check TDS? A sudden change in TDS can cause stress in your fish too.

[Shadow]

talking about TDS, roughly how many ppm differences does fish/shrimps can handle?

[stormhawk]

These articles might be handy:

http://www.shrimpnow.com/content.php...ing-New-Shrimp
http://www.oscarfish.com/article-hom...-ph-shock.html

Or, it could just be a case of disease.

[nuart]

Hey all, thanks for ur input... Very imformative