Another Death, Possibly Two?

[Rlon35]

I just lost 1-2 black neons.

Here are my levels (using strips):

160 PPM Nitrate
0 PPM Nitrite
150-300 PPM GH
0 PPM Chlorine
40 PPM KH
6.8 PH
79 Degrees

Here are my additives for plants:

Flourish, Flourish Excel, and Flourish Iron (which should I avoid using, which should I dose partially?)

I also have Kent Freshwater Pro Plant (I usually dose this weekly or less)

I add a bit of liquid Garlic about once every other week

I have been feeding the fish a bit heavily as of late/trying to guard against plant nipping (going to reduce to 2 times a day)

Will do a 50 percent water change tommorrow


Any other suggestions? I am starting to see alot more algea on plants and glass. Can I take out onions, anubias, and banana plants, soaking them in a 5 percent bleach solution for a few minutes? The only anubias really growing algae are the ones closest to the light, so I may replant them lower, in a shaded area. What type of bleaching methods do you guys use for plants?

 

[aaronnorth]

what tupe of algae are you getting?

spot dosing with excell is better. Get a pippette, trun the filter of for a few mminutes then squeeze this onto the infected leaf (under water). Only inject the amount what you would normally dose anyway.

 

[SuperColey1]

I dont use any bleaching methods. I run the plant under the tap and put it in.

One thing I notice is that you are using off the shelf ferts which will be reasonably low in nutrient. 160ppm of nitrate is much more than almost all achieve when using dry ferts (adding excess nutrient).

How is your nitrate reading so high?

Can you tell us the size of your tank, filter lph, lighting wattage+type and fish stocking.

Just to say that flourish is basically trace elements, excel is carbon, iron is iron.

Pro plant contains more trace, some nitrogen but no phosphates and no potassium. therefore these 2 are defficient in that the plants need them as well as the others to survive.

If you like the Seachem products I would head over to their site where they have a dosing regime using all the different bottles. This way you will add everything needed rather than missing some and adding double of others.

Alternatively you could mix your own solutions.

AC

 

[Rlon35]

How is your nitrate reading so high?

Can you tell us the size of your tank, filter lph, lighting wattage+type and fish stocking.^^^^^^^^

Um. My nitrate level has always been high, even when I did weekly water changes. I've always kept a rather heavily stocked tank in terms of fish, and while I gave some headaches away, I replenished with more. I have a 55G tank. I use a Fluval 305 Canister and a Fluval 3 Submersible, recently having taken off a hang-on (designed for 30 gallons). I no longer use carbon in my filtration. I run 130 watts of lighting 10 hours a day or so, with a Turbo yeast CO2 kit (only geared up to 40 gallons). At night, It changes to some little lunars, and air pumps out until the light comes back on. I have another black neon (5 altogether) dying as I type (please note that I just did a 40 percent water change today and the nitrates went down slightly). The PH, slightly acidic, has been stable, and the temp hasn't changed from 79 degrees. There are no Nitirites in the tank, which has been up and running for over 5 years.

My Stocking is a bit much, and I have been feeding more as of late, as I have been home more and wanted to prevent oplants from being nibbled by the usual suspects (as of Tommorrow, I will only feed 1-2 times per day - was at 3):

2 Clown Loaches that I hardly ever see (medium size)
1 Juvenile Festivum Cichlid
8 Black Neon Tetras left (not counting the one about to die)
1 Gold Nugget Pleco
1 Dwarf Rainbow
5 Giant Danios
2 Pearl Gouramis (babies)
1 Golden Algae Eater (baby)
4 Otos or so

3-4 mystery snails
7-9 tiny freshwater clams

 

[Renate]

After coming back from vacation I started losing fish. Put all of them in a quarantine tank, which is 10 gallons, and put 2tsp of aquarium salt in. Perhaps that would work for you.

At aquariumfish.net read that for treating stress disease you add 1 Tablespoon of per each 5 gallon and increase the by 4 degrees to a maximum of 82 degrees F.