AshRolls
Member
Ok,so here comes another guy with a new tank, assuming he has a grasp of the whole planted tank game after reading the forums extensively, who suddenly hits reality and loses some stock. Any help would be appreciated so I can clearly see where I went wrong.
New planted tank (180L rio) (amazon sword, dwarf sag, moss, ludwigia etc)
Liquid carbon dosing (5ml = 1.5x recommended dose) (neutro co2)
EI dosing dry salts directly into the tank
Cycling for 5 weeks, tested for 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites
I introduced 12 cardinal tetras, 6 cherry shrimp and 2 amano on sunday and all looked happy.
Last night (Tuesday, 48 hours after introduction) I got home from work and dosed the usual 5ml liquid co2, dosed macros, and fed a couple of flakes.
20 mins later and 1 cardinal dead, 60 mins later and another 3 cardinals are dead. The cherries seem fine except for one which was looking peaky even before released into the tank. The amanos are also fine.
The remaining 8 tetras look fine today.
Here are my guesses as to what could have happened :-
1) Liquid co2 overdose. The glutaraldehyde got to toxic levels and poisoned the tetras. This is the most likely candidate but I would have expected the cherries to bite the bullet first?
2) Injecting the liquid co2 into the tank caused a LOCALISED toxic cloud before it was fully dispersed into the water column, the 4 tetra that bought it just happened to swim through this cloud.
3) The stress of the lights going on, the lid being opened, the dosing and the feeding knocked the weaker tetras out who were still acclimatising to the new tank.
4) The test kit lied and my tank isn't finished cycling (nitrites and/or ammonia still present)
5) I noticed the tetra trying to feed on the EI salts as they were drifting down to the bottom after dry dosing. This salt somehow damaged them.
Any feedback appreciated, thanks Ash
New planted tank (180L rio) (amazon sword, dwarf sag, moss, ludwigia etc)
Liquid carbon dosing (5ml = 1.5x recommended dose) (neutro co2)
EI dosing dry salts directly into the tank
Cycling for 5 weeks, tested for 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites
I introduced 12 cardinal tetras, 6 cherry shrimp and 2 amano on sunday and all looked happy.
Last night (Tuesday, 48 hours after introduction) I got home from work and dosed the usual 5ml liquid co2, dosed macros, and fed a couple of flakes.
20 mins later and 1 cardinal dead, 60 mins later and another 3 cardinals are dead. The cherries seem fine except for one which was looking peaky even before released into the tank. The amanos are also fine.
The remaining 8 tetras look fine today.
Here are my guesses as to what could have happened :-
1) Liquid co2 overdose. The glutaraldehyde got to toxic levels and poisoned the tetras. This is the most likely candidate but I would have expected the cherries to bite the bullet first?
2) Injecting the liquid co2 into the tank caused a LOCALISED toxic cloud before it was fully dispersed into the water column, the 4 tetra that bought it just happened to swim through this cloud.
3) The stress of the lights going on, the lid being opened, the dosing and the feeding knocked the weaker tetras out who were still acclimatising to the new tank.
4) The test kit lied and my tank isn't finished cycling (nitrites and/or ammonia still present)
5) I noticed the tetra trying to feed on the EI salts as they were drifting down to the bottom after dry dosing. This salt somehow damaged them.
Any feedback appreciated, thanks Ash