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Learning from others' errors



I would like to pass on what happened to my tank this morning so that any other people new to injecting CO2 don't make the same mistake.  I changed over from DIY CO2 to bottled about 2 months ago.  I fed tubing to the inside a small pump inside the tank to disperse the bubbles.  It wasn't very efficient but it worked for the meantime.  Last night, I built a DIY reactor (same one as on Chuck Gadd's website) and hooked it up.  I figured that it would be more efficient, so I turned down the bubble rate to 1 bubble every 3 seconds.  Well, I should have went with my first feeling, which was to turn the CO2 off and try the new reactor in the morning.  Anyways, the new reactor was much more efficient.  This morning, I had 9 dead fish (a neon, some black neons and flag fish, and a cory) and I'm still not sure if my 3 large discus are going to recover.  By the time I ran home from work (and after my husband quickly shut off !
 the CO2 and started pumping some air into the tank), the CO2 level was still at 53, so I can't even imagine how high it was before.  I am amazed that my otos seem to be just fine!  The lesson learned here is to never change anything regarding your CO2 if you are not going to be able to watch your tank for a while.  I'm still sick to my stomach about it.  I also have a question.  Will my discus recover from this episode?  Their color is horrible (they look black) and they can't swim upright.  Is the damage reversible or am I better off putting the poor things out of their misery?



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