Tank slowly failing, but kinda not

[Corbidorbidoodle]

I've got a 20 gallon that can't decide if it wants to fail or not. I don't know what the deal is with this thing.

Things I did right: lots of healthy growing plants, fully cycled, passive CO2, ACO Sponge Filter, ACO heater, balanced lighting, regular water changes, regular testing - NO3 10-25, NO2 0, GH 300+, KH 80-120, PH 6.8-7.2, CL2 0

Things I probably shouldn't aughta have done: Thrift store tank, thriftstore wood (was in my back yard for a while but I didn't sanitize it), BDBS substrate, lots of water changes to remove tannins, some temperature fluctuations cus it's hot here right now (tank set to 72 but it's around 74 to 78 inside), and who knows what else. And I think that piece of wood may have been in a reptile tank at some point in it's past.

So I can't figure this tank out. I had about 12 CPDs, about 8 Emerald Green Dwarf Rasboras, and a dozen or so Yellow Cherry Shrimp. Everybody was happy for a while, but then I started loosing the occasional shrimp. Several freshly molted females, sometimes just a random male, but kind of randomly. No big die offs. Also losing some CPDs. Was occasionally, but just lost three to saddle-back, I think, but not totally sure. I just put three Golden Endlers in there to pick at some of the algae. They're making a dent and the CPDs feel better with them in there it seems.

At the same time, I'm seeing healthy CPDs with mating behavior, nice bright colors on the EGDRs. And I just watched a berried female give birth to little shrimplets that're happily cleaning the Mopani Wood. I'm not terribly worried about this tank. If everybody dies, I'll just start over with some new knowledge. If everybody lives, it's a good looking tank for now. But I wanted to avoid a long, slow, agonizing, failed experiment.

When you've got a tank that's only kinda working, but all the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted, what do you look for? You can't test for everything. But I'm sure there's some black magic folk knowledge that you pick up along the way. What kinda stuff do you guys look for or try out?

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/14/2022 at 2:57 PM, Corbidorbidoodle said:

I had about 12 CPDs, about 8 Emerald Green Dwarf Rasboras, and a dozen or so Yellow Cherry Shrimp. Everybody was happy for a while, but then I started loosing the occasional shrimp.

Shrimp could've had issues with the substrate. It's difficult to say.  Was there any signs of stress on them?  I recently lost 2 in my tank because of a nitrite spike and drop in flow.

Can you share your light settings also? Dosing weekly?

On 7/14/2022 at 2:57 PM, Corbidorbidoodle said:

Also losing some CPDs. Was occasionally, but just lost three to saddle-back, I think, but not totally sure. I just put three Golden Endlers in there to pick at some of the algae. They're making a dent and the CPDs feel better with them in there it seems.

Hm, definitely a fickle tank.  I can totally relate!  What is feeding like, what is your usual method?  Have you noticed some of the CPDs not being as aggressive towards food as others?

I know the rasboras wont mind it, I also believe the shrimp won't mind it, Danios also, They all might just prefer to have the heater lower.  It's something where you might see a difference in behavior, less algae even, and it might be a very slight thing when it comes to a change that you see.  Here's a fun video about fish behavior / temp.
 

 

On 7/14/2022 at 2:57 PM, Corbidorbidoodle said:

what do you look for? You can't test for everything. But I'm sure there's some black magic folk knowledge that you pick up along the way. What kinda stuff do you guys look for or try out?

One "trick" might be to grab some polyfilter and see what exactly it absorbs from the tank.
 

Edited July 14, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Crash_2011]

hello sorry to hear about this picky tank I have some follow up question I didn't see any ammonia in ur parameters and how old is the tank it looks really nice by the way and how often do u change water do u change just because or is it cuz the parameters are off I'm asking cuz I have found that sometimes changing water (weekly) has hurt tanks in stead of letting them work out problems on their own 

[Corbidorbidoodle]

I tested the ammonia. 0.

Weird, right?

All of the CPDs have finally died. And some of the dwarf emerald rasboras too. But there're still several hanging on.

So you know what else... I set up a new little tank for the yellow neo shrimp that were in the 20, cuz it just seemed like a good idea. I still had 10 adults with 3 berried females. And I moved at least a dozen babies. But probably more like 20 (and there's still a bunch in there). But in the new tank I noticed something non-shrimpy swimming around. It's freakin' fry!?

So the DERs made some babies! I'm not going to the trouble of culturing daphnia or anything like that. But there are quite a bit of babies in the 20. Pretty much anywhere you look, if you hold still, you'll see a little thing darting about. It'll be cool if some of them actually survive.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

The fry will be hardier as they were born in your water @Corbidorbidoodle. 

New tanks and CPDs, DERs, and Neos it doesn't always go well. I have done CPDs 3 x and each time they have died. Like you slowly but surely but they've not made it. I think of them as the last fish I would add to a tank as I would want mature filters and bio to accommodate their in my mind fragile nature. I think of DERs as very similar in their make up being both Lake Inlee in Burma fish. 

Neocaridina. I have had great successes and horrible failures with them. In general, adding them after a couple months of not only cycling but seasoning the tank has led to my best successes. Aragonite or crushed coral as part of the substrate to keep the parameters steady. Lots of fast growing plants like hornwort and guppy grass along with moss. Even then, I have had times where they have looked fantastic and done well for weeks and then had a sudden die off. In general, the younger the neos are the more adaptable they are. It has not at all been unusual to have bad or incomplete molts and deaths in my tanks shortly after they arrived especially the older and berried females. But if they survive that they have been super hardy and each successive generation has been better.