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Bit of an emergency, Cattapa logs?

AverageWhiteBloke

AverageWhiteBloke

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Joined
27 Oct 2009
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Cumbria
Is anybody aware of issues with Cattapa logs? I put 2 in my 30 Gall tank yesterday. Got home tonight and my 3 prize Rams were gasping at the surface. I've switched off my co2 even though the drop checker is only moderately green with a ph checked with a metre of 6.2. I've reduced my water level to improve agitation but I'm struggling to do a water change because I've left my water changing equipment at work.

Anybody got any advice?

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I'm in the middle of a water change right now. Great way to start a xmas holiday! I had to go back to work to pick up my equipment. Very odd that it should only affect the Rams, they are probably the most sensitive fish in there but all the others seem unnafected.

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Finished the Wc about 15mins ago, starting to get some normal cichlid behaviour back. They're all starting to come back down to lower levels and do a bit of displaying at each other. Can't see it being an oxygen or co2 issue but if it was the columns well and truly degassed and oxygenated now.

Hopefully if it was pollution I've diluted it enough to make it through the night. Ill do a 50% in the morning when they've had time to settle. Unfortunately I don't have any carbon though. Do not want to lose these rams. I've never had any luck with these fish before and I have always wanted some since I started fishkeeping many moons ago. I think these are the best and longest I've had.

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According to the instructions you can have 1 per 50 litres and my tank is about 160. Didn't realise you had to boil them ! I assumed they were good to go. I thought the only problem coukd have been from a sudden ph droo but it only measured 6.2 which is a pretty normal reading for me at that time.

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:thumbup: All present and correct this morning. Just about to embark on my 50% wc, today is my usual wc day anyway. I didn't check nitrite and ammonia purely because I don't have tests and this tank tank has been running for about 7 years. The filter was done about 3 weeks ago. The only thing untoward was the other day one of my panda cats was looking a bit ropey but if this was de composing somewhere I doubt it was a big enough fish to crash the system and it being always acidic should have been safe from an ammonia point of view, I think!
Total mystery why this happened. The logs were from a reputable shrimp keeping uk source and in sealed bags. Maybe unrelated but I have to point the finger because they are the only thing that I have done out of the ordinary for many years. My ritual is like clockwork.
 
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I know what you mean. I stopped trying to keep them for years for that exact reason. The problem with these fish is they seem very susceptible to some sort of bacterial disease that I have yet to find which. It starts with heavy breathing then just seem to go. I've seen this happen so many times and have yet to.save one.

I knew it wasn't the case on this occasion because it heppened to all three at the same time. They seemed to have settled a lot. As crazy as it seems I left the log soaking in water for 24hours and tried it again, just one though. Everything seems fine for now. I also added a bit of KH. I've been trying to reduce the TDS of the tank for a few months but I forget that doing 50% changes bi weekly drastically reduces KH. Water out my tap has no measurable kh/gh with a tds of 39ppm. I can't rule out I may have crashed the system through low kh combined with 2 of these logs and a few oak leaves. Seems odd the the ph was only 6.2 with a.green dc when thus occured. My kh only measured 2 degrees in the tank. The lights had been on nearly 3 hours by then so I suppose I could have came home to an aftermath of something that had happened earlier when the lights were off.

Other option I guess could have been something on the logs that needed rinsed off first. Don't know, bit of a mystery to me. Whatever happened it happened fast, was severe and only affected the Rams.

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