Severe Bacterial Bloom And Low Ph

[Crazycat lady]

Couple of days ago my fry tank started gettin cloudy, so I set abt doing daily 30% water changes and testing.
Levels are normal ammonia, nitrite 0
Nitrate 25mg/l
But ph is 6.5 my normal ph is around 7.5 (how has this happened)
No additions but lost all my shrimp and a few babies
(I'm havin right bad luck with both my tanks)

Throughout my fry raising I've been changing 30-50% water every day (dechlorinated, temp matched etc)

There are abt 20 ish 1 month old fry in there so my initial thought is the're size is making bio load an issue now. 15 are moving house at the weekend to a friends but for now I've moved 10 into my 60l to decrease the strain on my fry tank.

Put filter on top blower to agitate surface and light off.

I'm hoovering sand every water change too. And feedin less.

I know best bet is to get them teenagers moved out asap but can I do anything else? What's with the low ph? tank has been runnin 6 weeks but filter had been running in my main tank for 6 months (same pads)

 

[Crazycat lady]

Can anyone help?

 

[fluttermoth]

Have you checked all your equpiment? Heaters, filters etc?

You could just do some bigger water changes; that should be fine with month old fry.

 

[Crazycat lady]

Filter is running fine! Heater itself is fine when it's turned on. Unfortunately for some reason when I turn off the heater and filter to do water changes, I keep forgetting to turn it back on
I honestly don't know how I keep forgetting! I remember to turn the filter on straight away! So recently there have been a few temp fluctuations! Could that be it?
The surface has a lot of scum on it too

 

[Crazycat lady]

The second I read that back to myself I figured out what had happened!

 

[This Old Spouse]

Filter is running fine! Heater itself is fine when it's turned on. Unfortunately for some reason when I turn off the heater and filter to do water changes, I keep forgetting to turn it back on
I honestly don't know how I keep forgetting! I remember to turn the filter on straight away! So recently there have been a few temp fluctuations! Could that be it?
The surface has a lot of scum on it too

My heater is at about a 30º angle near the bottom of the tank, so I usually don't even have to turn it off. But if I do turn it off, I also turn off the filters. When I plug in the filters when I'm done, I plug in the heater as well. Seems to be working for me.

 

[Crazycat lady]

I always remember the filter but not the heater. Even though they are on the same extension lead! It's the insomnia now planning to set a reminder on my phone to go off 10 mins after I start a water change!

 

[fluttermoth]

I think that probably is the cause of the bacterial bloom! The reminder on your phone is a genius idea; always assuming you remember to set it of course

 

[Crazycat lady]

I need a reminder to set my reminder at the moment! Can't even remember to get dressed before I get in the car at the moment!

 

[Crazycat lady]

Last night after it clicked what had happened ( real eureka moment! I swear a lightbulb appeared above my head)
I swapped 1 filter cartridge from my main tank, with my problem tank.
Main tank has 2 filters with 2 cartridges each so should be fine. Just looked this morning as I've had the light off constantly,
And it looks sooooo much better . Will continue with daily water changes still and watch feeding, but things are looking up! Phew!

8 of the month old gupps moved house yesterday to a lovely 120l. They all looked really happy and are about 2cm long with red or black tails! Really chuffed I was able to raise them to that size, hard work mind!