FastCray
- #1
Hi
Some time ago I set up a new tank. The capacity is 126 litres (about 30 gallons). It stood for a long time without any inhabitants. It's a typical fish tank with basic plants, low light LEDs, some gravel and sand. There is a canister filter and a sponge one which aerates the water with bubbles. After I felt like it's ready I started trasfering fish from my previous smaller tank. In total I relocated 13 guppies (P. wingeI and P. reticulata mixed, most of them small in size), one pleco that's about 1 year old and one Amano shrimp. This might look like a pretty weird mix but they lived together fine. Anyway, after moving they looked stressed but eventually all got accustomed to new conditions. After about a week I decided to buy some more fish because the big tank felt empty. I purchased 4 pearl gouramis, 5 Indian glass fish and 6 cory catfish. Acclimated them by first submerging the bag, and then putting them in a bucket and letting aquarium water mix with the bag water by dripping into the bucket. Finally moved the fish with a net. They all seemed fine and pretty quickly got used to new surroundings. Somewhere along the way one of the guppies died but it was just one and I thought "well it happens". Issues started about two weeks later, just when I was about to do the first water change. On friday I noticed one of the Indian glass fish being tossed around by the water current when it came near the filter, it barely could move on its own and had its spine slightly bent sideways. I figured out maybe it's bloated because of overeating, even though it didn't look bloated but nothing else came to my mind. Left it in peace thinking I can't really help it as it shows no other signs of disease like ich or rot. Temporarily stopped feeding them for a day or one and a half. One of the other 4 Indian glass fish was behaving kind of shy but everything else seemed to be alright. When I woke up on Saturday morning, both of these fish were dead. One was laying flat on the bottom of the tank and looked like it was already eaten inside (maybe done by the shrimp after it died). Another one was bent sideways and floating in the corner of the tank. I took them both out and disposed of them. Since then, nothing else happened (it's now Monday morning in my country). After getting the dead fish out, I replaced about 15 litres of water. Cleaned the plastic lid because there was leftover food that stuck to it and had mold over it (fish couldn't access it though as it was way above water surface). Did water quality tests and got the following:
pH: 7,8-8 (somewhere between)
Ammonia NH3: 0
Nitrities NO2: 0
Nitrates NO3: 10-20 mg/l
General hardness GH: between 1-2 German degrees
Carbonate hardness KH: 13 German degrees
This is before the water change (tested from the water I siphoned out of the tank). I live in a rural area and we have really hard water, before I started this tank we had a softening and purifying device installed. Since then the water got significantly softer as it doesn't leave those white stains etc. in the sinks. Tap water (softened and purified) parameters are:
pH: 7,4
General hardness GH: 0-1 German degrees
Carbonate hardness KH: 13 German degrees
Temperature in the tank is right now about 27 deg Celsius (analog thermometer). There is no heater at all.
So, that's about it. I tried to explain everything I did. Can you spot a mistake? Was the fish dying just bad luck? Thanks for any responses.
Some time ago I set up a new tank. The capacity is 126 litres (about 30 gallons). It stood for a long time without any inhabitants. It's a typical fish tank with basic plants, low light LEDs, some gravel and sand. There is a canister filter and a sponge one which aerates the water with bubbles. After I felt like it's ready I started trasfering fish from my previous smaller tank. In total I relocated 13 guppies (P. wingeI and P. reticulata mixed, most of them small in size), one pleco that's about 1 year old and one Amano shrimp. This might look like a pretty weird mix but they lived together fine. Anyway, after moving they looked stressed but eventually all got accustomed to new conditions. After about a week I decided to buy some more fish because the big tank felt empty. I purchased 4 pearl gouramis, 5 Indian glass fish and 6 cory catfish. Acclimated them by first submerging the bag, and then putting them in a bucket and letting aquarium water mix with the bag water by dripping into the bucket. Finally moved the fish with a net. They all seemed fine and pretty quickly got used to new surroundings. Somewhere along the way one of the guppies died but it was just one and I thought "well it happens". Issues started about two weeks later, just when I was about to do the first water change. On friday I noticed one of the Indian glass fish being tossed around by the water current when it came near the filter, it barely could move on its own and had its spine slightly bent sideways. I figured out maybe it's bloated because of overeating, even though it didn't look bloated but nothing else came to my mind. Left it in peace thinking I can't really help it as it shows no other signs of disease like ich or rot. Temporarily stopped feeding them for a day or one and a half. One of the other 4 Indian glass fish was behaving kind of shy but everything else seemed to be alright. When I woke up on Saturday morning, both of these fish were dead. One was laying flat on the bottom of the tank and looked like it was already eaten inside (maybe done by the shrimp after it died). Another one was bent sideways and floating in the corner of the tank. I took them both out and disposed of them. Since then, nothing else happened (it's now Monday morning in my country). After getting the dead fish out, I replaced about 15 litres of water. Cleaned the plastic lid because there was leftover food that stuck to it and had mold over it (fish couldn't access it though as it was way above water surface). Did water quality tests and got the following:
pH: 7,8-8 (somewhere between)
Ammonia NH3: 0
Nitrities NO2: 0
Nitrates NO3: 10-20 mg/l
General hardness GH: between 1-2 German degrees
Carbonate hardness KH: 13 German degrees
This is before the water change (tested from the water I siphoned out of the tank). I live in a rural area and we have really hard water, before I started this tank we had a softening and purifying device installed. Since then the water got significantly softer as it doesn't leave those white stains etc. in the sinks. Tap water (softened and purified) parameters are:
pH: 7,4
General hardness GH: 0-1 German degrees
Carbonate hardness KH: 13 German degrees
Temperature in the tank is right now about 27 deg Celsius (analog thermometer). There is no heater at all.
So, that's about it. I tried to explain everything I did. Can you spot a mistake? Was the fish dying just bad luck? Thanks for any responses.