Rasp
Seedling
*sorry for the essay*
Hello all,
I believe this is my first post but i've been browsing for a few years now. I shut down my tank after not having time to do the required maintenance on it and it all going to pot. It was sat empty for a while and I had planned on turning it in to a paludarium but a tank cracking (nice 50+litres of water in my dining room carpet) has caused an emergency set up and now wanting to have another attempt at getting it nice again.
So, here is where I am really wracking my brains and trying to sort out the rubbish from what could have really gone wrong.
The tank is 125litres, filter outputs about 300lph. We have a few new plants in and I started dosing a made up EI solution; macro one day, trace the next etc. etc. as you all know it goes. I found the recipe online and figured it would be a good start until we could see how the plants reacted to it then adjust it accordingly.
We bought some new fish last week and over the last three days (started Saturday morning) we have so far lost ten fish. I did a water change before adding the fish - didn't test it before though because we rarely ever do - The filter has been running on this tank then our cracked one for years now so completely established. The water parameters were reading (on our kit) Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: ~20, PH: 7.2. I went to the lfs with a sample of water and our really nice betta splenden who had perished that morning in a bag so they could check for disease (pee'd off didn't even cover it)
They tested the water and said the following:
- Amm: 0, Ni: 0, Na: 60+, PH: 7.2.
- I'd changed too much water and had probably polluted it with something (about 40%)
- I mentioned the plants to try and explain why i'd changed so much so then it was said i'd overdosed the tank with nitrates.
- The fish hadn't shown ANY signs of sickness or disease - they are literally fine one minute then dropping like flies.
In the god knows how many years i've had tanks running i've had high nitrates before and it has never affected the fish before. I rarely even test for Nitrates - normally just ammonia and nitrites - when we actually do a test because how reliable are nitrate tests anyway?
So stressed, so upset and already so fed up. I'm trying to do water changes in case this guy was correct but worried about the plants and how much it's messing up the ferts. Ugh!
Hello all,
I believe this is my first post but i've been browsing for a few years now. I shut down my tank after not having time to do the required maintenance on it and it all going to pot. It was sat empty for a while and I had planned on turning it in to a paludarium but a tank cracking (nice 50+litres of water in my dining room carpet) has caused an emergency set up and now wanting to have another attempt at getting it nice again.
So, here is where I am really wracking my brains and trying to sort out the rubbish from what could have really gone wrong.
The tank is 125litres, filter outputs about 300lph. We have a few new plants in and I started dosing a made up EI solution; macro one day, trace the next etc. etc. as you all know it goes. I found the recipe online and figured it would be a good start until we could see how the plants reacted to it then adjust it accordingly.
We bought some new fish last week and over the last three days (started Saturday morning) we have so far lost ten fish. I did a water change before adding the fish - didn't test it before though because we rarely ever do - The filter has been running on this tank then our cracked one for years now so completely established. The water parameters were reading (on our kit) Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: ~20, PH: 7.2. I went to the lfs with a sample of water and our really nice betta splenden who had perished that morning in a bag so they could check for disease (pee'd off didn't even cover it)
They tested the water and said the following:
- Amm: 0, Ni: 0, Na: 60+, PH: 7.2.
- I'd changed too much water and had probably polluted it with something (about 40%)
- I mentioned the plants to try and explain why i'd changed so much so then it was said i'd overdosed the tank with nitrates.
- The fish hadn't shown ANY signs of sickness or disease - they are literally fine one minute then dropping like flies.
In the god knows how many years i've had tanks running i've had high nitrates before and it has never affected the fish before. I rarely even test for Nitrates - normally just ammonia and nitrites - when we actually do a test because how reliable are nitrate tests anyway?
So stressed, so upset and already so fed up. I'm trying to do water changes in case this guy was correct but worried about the plants and how much it's messing up the ferts. Ugh!