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Torn down tank
>>From: Kenny Song <kensong at pc_jaring.my>
>>To: Aquatic Plants Mailing List <Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com>
>>The Cabomba was first pruned, then thinned out before being removed. That
>>was 2 weeks before the outbreak. My frequent water change never really
>>showed any signs of discomfort to the fishes because they are especially
>>active after a change.
Especially active fish after a water change is not necessarily a good
thing. A change in pH can make fish dash about and exhibit a lot of stress.
In fact if you noticed this with each water change I would say that the
fish were NOT happy.
Also the excellent book -Nature Aquarium World Vol
>>1-3 by Takashi Amano
>>recommends a 50% water change weekly!!! so I thought I was already being
>>conservative and those books had tanks with the loveliest plant and
>>aquascaping.
I've never read those books for advice. I know they are full of lovely
pictures but surely Amano does not just say "change 50% of the water
weekly" without any further explanations of conditions? If I changed 50% of
my water every week I would be constantly adjusting pH, KH, GH, iron,
nitrate..etc, etc. What a nightmare! Anyone else out there...how about
comments?
>>Yes, I think so too, but I never saw them gasp. When I found them, they
>>were already dead. Incidently, they had something that looked like hair
>>algae stuck to their gills. Those are found on some driftwood. Any ideas?
No ideas. I still think it was simple oxygen deprivation and possible pH shock.
>>My water change is always dechlorinated and the pH is 7.0. My tank pH range
>>from 6.4-6.8 day and night and temperature is between 79o -81o. I did not
>>measure KH and GH? My Co2 is dosed manually from a compressed tank at one
>>bubble per 2 secs. I don't use fertilizers since I use JBL laterite and the
>>tank is still quite new (4 Months). No pH adjustment since I thought the
>>range is acceptable.
You mean your source water has a pH of 7? So you don't adjust for pH with
40% water changes and your pH could have been 6.4 and went to 7 suddenly?
Not good. Also your pH range seems quite low and it would be better to keep
it between 6.9 and 7. Do you continue to measure pH as the CO2 is
dissolved? If you do not harden your water to conpensate CO2 can drop pH
pretty low and I assume that you have no controller. If you are using CO2
(especially compressed tank injected) then you should be testing the KH
(carbonate hardness) and GH (general hardness) of the water.
>>During the 2 weeks while the tank was without fish, I aerated the water
>>well and off the CO 2 but that did not help.
Did not help what? What were you expecting it to do? If the tank was
without fish this would just deprive the plants of CO2. Eliminating CO2
would raise pH. It wouldn't bother the plants...it may or may not have
bothered fish depending on how high it rose and whether it stayed stable.
>>Thanks for your feedback but I am still wary about whether I can put back
>>those fishes in my newly set up tank and whether my pp treatment of the
>>plants is sufficient.
I don't think any treatment of the plants was necessary. Get some test kits
for water hardness and keep your pH stable. Read George Booth's excellent
article on water chemistry on the Krib...address:
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~aquaria/Krib/
Good luck
Olga
in Vancouver