cr0wley

I'd wager 30-45 snails. I've been doing more reading about old tank syndrome, and I think that old tank syndrome + the death + the removal of coral initiated the crash. I'm about a week and a bit more in on doing daily wc's, de ammoniafication, and gravel vaccing.

Thank you. Do you know if neon tetras and zebra danios are fine with aquarium salt? Does it look like I have enough media in the filter? I have 2 sponges, a carbon pad, and then 2 bags of bio rings.

I just set a green bean in a glass dish in the tank. Going to see how many I can clear out. I have an airstone in the tank, I would like a 20 gallon long in the future, but am bound by space constraints (eventually going to build a shelving system or get heavier duty racks rated for over 250lbs. Do you think it is a good idea to keep a sponge filter going in the tanks along with their primary filter just for backup? What exactly does the aquarium salt do? I've heard it recommended often for illnesses, but I'm curious about the mechanism. The HOB is a Top Fin Pro 30, which is close to a clone of the Aquaclear 30s. I purposefully picked a larger filter since I knew I was going to be pushing the bioload a bit. I'm just pissed off at myself that I removed the coral from the filter originally, I'm thinking that the fish death + coral removal is what uncycled my tank.

Interesting. Would using a small dose of copper supplement kill off enough to pick out?

I feel like smushing the babies would just increase the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates wouldn't it? Interesting. I'm going to do a double check and make sure there's no dead snails anywhere, and then I guess I'll leave them be for now as I re-cycle the tank. Thanks to everyone in the thread by the way.

I originally was using the crushed coral as like I said previously I have the fluval bio stratum which buffers a bit lower. Edit: Do you have any tips or tricks for snatching snails out of the tank?

The stones have been in there since the tank was started, aquarium pebbles from an aquarium company. Are the snails really adding that much more of a bioload? I always heard that they had small bioload like shrimp.

No C02. Only things in here besides the fish are snails and a fair bit of plants. I've scoured the tank bottom and cannot find any dead creatures. At this point I am suspecting filter media. Its the original media and has been in there for about 6 months. For test kits I currently have a full API kit as well as test strips, but the ammonia patch on the strips never does anything, so it can only be used to gauge ph, nitrites, nitrates, gh, and kh.

Would this plus the fish death be enough to drop it hard you think? What I'm thinking now is just use soda to keep it at bay while waiting for coral to arrive. I am thinking that the removal of the coral, fish death, and the fact that my plant substrate buffers are all working against me.

I'm actually a dumba**, I completely had forgotten that I took out a bag of coral I had in my filter a few weeks ago to put more biomedia in.

I'll check into it tomorrow when its light out. Should I continue adding bacteria until the issue resolves?

hmmm, the only thing i added recently was a very damaged java windelov. i pitched it a few days ago. could that have caused any of these problems?

Yeah from what I've read it really seems like one fish death, albeit a larger one, shouldn't have affected the ph as much as it did. I'm going to be keeping an eye on my water from the tap for a while and see if I notice anything. Edit: I've also cut feeding down to once every 3 days while I'm figuring this out. Is this a good idea? I'm honestly confused at this point, I have a lot of plants and snails that should have been helping.

From what I gather I should only need to add baking soda for the amount of time it takes for bacteria to come back and reproduce right?

Source water is ph 7.6, amm 0, nitrite 0, nitrates 0-5. I also remembered that I do have the fluval biostratum in the 10g, which buffers the PH slightly, but shouldn't be affecting the ph as much as whatever is going on is. I did a teaspoon of baking soda and brought the ph from 6 to 7.2, and added bacteria. Here's a peek at my log.

Baking soda is to increase the ph a bit to promote bacteria growth. Tank previouslyph, hovered around 6.8-7.2. Just planning on using baking soda until I can grab crushed coral to help out. Aqua Essentials is essentially Seachem Prime. 10g, tank has been running for a year and a half. I have an oversized top fin aquaclear 30g knockoff. Filter media is bio rings and sponges. Livestock is 9 neons, 5 danios. I previously haven't had issues due to the over filtration but I think that the gourami death threw everything out of balance.

I had a dwarf gourami pass last week. It was in the tank overnight before I realized it. After the initial water change post mortem, I noticed that the PH was now 6, with 0.5 ammonia, high nitrites, high nitrates. This sounds to me like the cycle basically restarted. I've been doing 50% wc's every 2 days, supplementating baking soda to stabilize the PH, and using API Aqua Essentials twice a day. I've also been adding bacteria. Is treating this like a fish in cycle the proper way to stabilize my tank?

WC?

I recently had a beautiful dwarf gourami pass randomly overnight, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 15, hadn't seen him all day and found him pale and covered in snails, dead. Based on the parameters and no signs of parasites or illness, it falls on DGIR. Where can I peruse dwarf gouramis that are in much better health genetically?

I've got a year and a half year old, very established and over filtered 10 gallon tank (top fin pro 30g filter with loads of media). The 10g has a dwarf gourami, a few zebra danios and pearl danios, and a few neon Tetras. And loads of ramshorns. The second tank is a currently cycling rebuild of a tank that had a heater meltdown. Added live sand, bottled bacteria, and media from my 10g. Right now it just has a few ramshorns in it, I plan on adding blue dream neos and possibly some red nosed shrimp. I plan on getting a glass top for the 10g,a better light for it, and more jungle Val for the 5g in the near future.

I'd say a day or so before I had the free time to break it all down. It was in a Fluval Spec 5 tank that I scrubbed out and washed with soap and bleach and heavy, heavy rinsing. Getting it set up again with sand and a new heater. I'm thinking I'll soak it for a few weeks with water changes in a bucket, and then add it to the tank and let it run without livestock for another few weeks, to ensure that nothing is left. For filter media I'm thinking purigen, biomedia, and sponges soaked in my very established tank. Does this sound like a good route of action?

Gotcha, thanks. I took it out and its been sitting in a bucket for like 6 months, since it happened.

Is the wood going to hold copper?

I listen to a ton of music. Lately I've been getting back into shoegazey type music, a lot of Alvvays, Tame Impala, Asobi Seksu, and stuff like that. Overall though I listen to pretty much anything, with a heavy focus on industrial music and thrash metal. https://www.last.fm/user/cr0wley_