Hi everyone,
Can anyone help me? I'll try to be brief:
Rio 300. Running 5 years with no problems until now. Temp: 24-25C, nitrates 20ppm on average, pH 6.4-6.6. Water insanely soft, doesn't even register on GH or KH tests. Tiny amount of crushed coral in the internal filter to help, but too much just causes the pH to rise too much / too quickly, so I tend to leave alone. Has jumbo Juwel filter and eHeim classic 2217 running. Current population:
1 common plec (about 10")
3 bosemani rainbows
4 corys
11 marbled hatchets
4 scissortails
Around 26 small tetras (neons, glows, xrays)
No fish added since August and have lost a couple of tetras since then.
1st Jan - fungus on a tetra and as one of the rainbows had a slight injury, thought it best to treat the whole tank as a a precaution with Interpet 8 Anti-Fungus and Finrot. Treated based on a dosage for a 260L tank. Did a 20% water change and cleaned the internal filter first (probably a mistake).
A couple of hours later, no fungus on tetra (weird), but plec showing stress colouration and sitting on bottom looking miserable and not eating (normally he's very active, greedy and dark brown). Did a 10% water change. After a few more hours, plec back to normal.
Saturday 7th evening - some of the fish puffing (corys, rainbows and scissors). Tested tank: ammonia 1ppm, nitrite 0, nitrate 20, pH 6.4. 30% water change and added 2 caps of Prime to see if that would help. Following morning, tested again and ammonia down to 0.
Tested again about an hour ago - ammonia 0.5ppm (no nitrite). Another 30% water change (thankfully, all fish seem fine). Found some carbon in the cupboard, so have bunged this in the filter, in case there are still meds left in the tank.
Can anyone advise me? I have never had ammonia issues with this tank before, even when I've had to switch off external filters due to leakage for a couple of days (this happened about 2 years ago, and again last summer, when I changed to the eHeim). Even without the external running (which worried the hell out me), there was no ammonia on either occasion.
Aside from daily monitoring and water changes if necessary, is there anything else I can do? Is it worth getting some Stresszyme to see if that will help? It looks as though I've lost my filter bacteria. I have 7 other tanks of varying sizes, which all appear fine (fish all acting normally), though I'm going to test the lot tonight now! The only think I can think is that maybe the meds have knackered the filter bacteria, as that's is the only thing I've done differently (I have never used any kind of meds on this tank before, though I have used that medication on another tank with no issues, but that tank's water isn't as soft). Anyway, any advice would be very welcome just now! :cry:
Cheers guys.
Can anyone help me? I'll try to be brief:
Rio 300. Running 5 years with no problems until now. Temp: 24-25C, nitrates 20ppm on average, pH 6.4-6.6. Water insanely soft, doesn't even register on GH or KH tests. Tiny amount of crushed coral in the internal filter to help, but too much just causes the pH to rise too much / too quickly, so I tend to leave alone. Has jumbo Juwel filter and eHeim classic 2217 running. Current population:
1 common plec (about 10")
3 bosemani rainbows
4 corys
11 marbled hatchets
4 scissortails
Around 26 small tetras (neons, glows, xrays)
No fish added since August and have lost a couple of tetras since then.
1st Jan - fungus on a tetra and as one of the rainbows had a slight injury, thought it best to treat the whole tank as a a precaution with Interpet 8 Anti-Fungus and Finrot. Treated based on a dosage for a 260L tank. Did a 20% water change and cleaned the internal filter first (probably a mistake).
A couple of hours later, no fungus on tetra (weird), but plec showing stress colouration and sitting on bottom looking miserable and not eating (normally he's very active, greedy and dark brown). Did a 10% water change. After a few more hours, plec back to normal.
Saturday 7th evening - some of the fish puffing (corys, rainbows and scissors). Tested tank: ammonia 1ppm, nitrite 0, nitrate 20, pH 6.4. 30% water change and added 2 caps of Prime to see if that would help. Following morning, tested again and ammonia down to 0.
Tested again about an hour ago - ammonia 0.5ppm (no nitrite). Another 30% water change (thankfully, all fish seem fine). Found some carbon in the cupboard, so have bunged this in the filter, in case there are still meds left in the tank.
Can anyone advise me? I have never had ammonia issues with this tank before, even when I've had to switch off external filters due to leakage for a couple of days (this happened about 2 years ago, and again last summer, when I changed to the eHeim). Even without the external running (which worried the hell out me), there was no ammonia on either occasion.
Aside from daily monitoring and water changes if necessary, is there anything else I can do? Is it worth getting some Stresszyme to see if that will help? It looks as though I've lost my filter bacteria. I have 7 other tanks of varying sizes, which all appear fine (fish all acting normally), though I'm going to test the lot tonight now! The only think I can think is that maybe the meds have knackered the filter bacteria, as that's is the only thing I've done differently (I have never used any kind of meds on this tank before, though I have used that medication on another tank with no issues, but that tank's water isn't as soft). Anyway, any advice would be very welcome just now! :cry:
Cheers guys.
