Water Chemistry Problem And Silver Dollar Death

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drtim

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Hi
Ive had a problem which i have not encountered before (its properbly obvious!!!)
My tank (200ltrs) which has been in use for many years with no problems or disease outbreaks for at least a year, only one death
of an angel i had for many years (i put this down to natural causes as no signs of disease)
Performed water change as usual (change 30lts + any losses weekely) on sunday
Today silver dollar had died, and other one was being attacked around by the pink kissing gourami even though hes 4 times their size.
The deceased dollar was on the bottom and appeared to have lost his scales (had non-silver patches) had been acting a little differently recently, but
they are like that - characters of their own!!
Water chemistry has never been a problem, but today:
ammonia 0.25mg/l
nitrate 0mg/l
nitrite 0.25mg/l
pH 6 (tap water is 6.8)
Temp 24degrees
The only thing i have done recently (approx 3 weeks ago) was too switch off air pump to increase plant growth, plants now growing very well.
What has happened/have i done wrong?
cheers, tim
 
You have an ammonia that can kill fish.
How often do you do water changes and a gravel vac.
What your tap nitrate reading and ammonia reading.
 
Hi wilder.
In response to your Q's:
Tap water ammonia, nitrate and nitrite are all zero
Remove 30ltrs weekly with a gravel vac

Cheers Tim

You have an ammonia that can kill fish.
How often do you do water changes and a gravel vac.
What your tap nitrate reading and ammonia reading.
 
When did you last touch your sponges.
Try and not do so much of a large gravel vac.
 
Hi
I only vacuum 1/3rd of gravel each time to avoid removing too much of the 'friendly' bacteria
I cleaned one set of sponges on weekend (have two internal filters which i clean on seperate occasions if they need it)
Im wondering whether i need to have the air pump running during the night when the plants are not pordiucing any O2 as this
could raise the CO2 during the night resulting in bacteria death? plausible but does this happen in reality?


When did you last touch your sponges.
Try and not do so much of a large gravel vac.
 
Might of over done the sponges them best to only do one at a time.
Ask in the plants section about airstones.
Good luck.
 
Thanks wilder, will try your suggestions, seems a little odd that my normal practice has suddenly gone
wrong, but i suppose thats what they call learning!


Might of over done the sponges them best to only do one at a time.
Ask in the plants section about airstones.
Good luck.
 
Missed the nitrite reading sorry.
Sounds like you have over cleaned the sponges removed to much beneifical bacteria.
Just do the normal amount of water changes then.
good luck.
 

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