Nano Tank Issues

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Woody777

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Hello

I recently set up a 3 gallon nano tank to house 4 CPDs, a few assassin snails, and RCS

I went through the following process:

I rinsed Seachem Flourite Black Sand thoroughly, then added a thick layer to the tank, added Seachem root tabs. I then put in some rock work and driftwood, supergluing the wood to rocks to help it stay down while it saturated with water.

I then ordered some plants online. (Italian val, hornwort, Money wort, Amazon sword, Amazon flame sword, crypto bronze, dwarf hairgrass, dwarf baby tears

I filled gently as I planted, then added a heater set to 74F, then added some liquid ammonia and waited to cycle the tank

I waited weeks until I read 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, <10ppm nitrates

during this time I kept the lights on 6-8 hours a day, injected co2, and doses liquid fertlizers from Seachem

Once I had everything established and cycled, I ordered the fish to my LFS and I reces 2 make and 2 females adolowscabt CPDs, 7 small red cherry shrimp, and 4 assassin snails (the plants I ordered had pet snails on them). I drop acclimated the livestock, added them, and everyone was healthy and happy eating well. Nitrates stayed low.

But now, In just over a week, I have had lots of dead plant matter, all shrimp have died, one CPD got ich, then two of them died

I have a horrible god-awful smell in my aquarium (even before the dead bodies),the remaining CPDs won’t eat, and overall it just looks to be in poor condition

I am at a loss as to what I did wrong.

thoughts?
 

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Hi I have a suspicion its your sand. Is Flourite an active substrate like Aquarium Soil or is it just inert sand?

I would have thought with all the roots you would have been able to rely on them to move the sand sufficiently but your sand could have grown bad bacteria and thats whats causing the smell. Sand in this condition also produces gas into the water so mixed with injected Co2 could have removed too much oxygen from the water.

I would remove as much of the dead plant mater as possible as a first step and try and find a way to move the sand over.

Wills
 
Hi I have a suspicion its your sand. Is Flourite an active substrate like Aquarium Soil or is it just inert sand?

I would have thought with all the roots you would have been able to rely on them to move the sand sufficiently but your sand could have grown bad bacteria and thats whats causing the smell. Sand in this condition also produces gas into the water so mixed with injected Co2 could have removed too much oxygen from the water.

I would remove as much of the dead plant mater as possible as a first step and try and find a way to move the sand over.

Wills
Thanks for the reply! I think you are right. The picture shows how much in disarray the tank had become. Last night I did a total overall. Removed the plants, trimmed them. Removed the rocks and driftwood, fished out all dead and decaying bodies and plant matter. Re scaped the tank and replanted.

I also added prazipro to get rid of the detritus worms.

The smell has been dramatically reduced, but all of the above disrupted the bacteria colonies so I am dosing the tank with liquid ammonia to make sure it stabilizes again before adding back the 2 survivors CPDs.

Another issue is that the tank has such a low flow that I believe oxygen is an issue. But an air stone causes a lot of stress to the CPDs even with a reduced flow on the air pump. The CPDs are doing “okay”. My next plan is to simplify the tank by just getting a single betta and not pushing it with more complex options.
 
You may want to treat the tank with Tetra Safe Start Plus, that has the right bacteria and there is no need to add ammonia.
 
Firstly, I think you should remove all the dead plants and change the water. I see a lot of plants in your tank but I think it's not necessary yo put too much plant in the tank because it can lead to a lack of oxy.
 

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