Ishar's 20 Gallon Long Planted Tank

[bunker_1]

Did you drip acclimate the new fish? May the old fish grew with the tank and it is just too much for the noobies. I would hate to think that you can't buy new fish.

BTW, it looks like if you were to ship me some of those plants, your fish would think you were really cool! LOL

[Hippie Chick]

Great journal!! Thank you!

[Lotus]

I've read before that a dose of 10ppm of nitrate can kill fish. Not that 10ppm is bad for fish, but adding it all at once has the possibility of killing fish. Supposedly, it's the sudden change.

I haven't personally tested it, but if you have fish dying, it might be worth adding something like 7.5ppm twice daily, or even cutting back on the dosing (if you have 40ppm).

[ishar]

Originally Posted by bunker_1

Did you drip acclimate the new fish? May the old fish grew with the tank and it is just too much for the noobies. I would hate to think that you can't buy new fish.

BTW, it looks like if you were to ship me some of those plants, your fish would think you were really cool! LOL

These fish were added about 2 weeks ago, and they were drip acclimated. The deaths have been constant over th course of them being in my tank for the last few weeks. I am down to one now, out of 15 . Two died the first night, then other than that they were fine for about 4 or 5 days, then they just dropped off, one by one. As far as I know nothing changed to the tank at the 4-5 day mark or thereafter.

And as far as sending you plants, I have some for sale at a link in my signature as well as in the store on the website I set up and linked to my signature . Feel free to buy any you want- I have only heard good things from people getting my plants, so don't be afraid .

Originally Posted by Hippie Chick

Great journal!! Thank you!

Well thank you! I am glad you like it. Eventually I will get soem decent pictures posted up so keep a close eye on this thread hehe.

Originally Posted by Lotus

I've read before that a dose of 10ppm of nitrate can kill fish. Not that 10ppm is bad for fish, but adding it all at once has the possibility of killing fish. Supposedly, it's the sudden change.

I haven't personally tested it, but if you have fish dying, it might be worth adding something like 7.5ppm twice daily, or even cutting back on the dosing (if you have 40ppm).

Oh yeah? I never heard that before- thank you for bringing it up Lotus. I will read around and see what I can find. I just find it really odd that my test kit reads 40 bloody ppm and yet my plants don't seem to survive with a lesser dose than what I am giving. I am considering maybe dosing heavy at the beginning of the week then taking a day in between and not dosing. No idea what that will do for algae, but it might help with the nutrient acclimation and reduce my 50% w/c each week. As I said, I will look into this- thanks Lotus.


On a side note, in a little over a month, I will be on Christmas holidays, and will be moving back home. Since I live over 1.5 hours away and weather makes driving in the winter quite hazardous, I don't want to have to visit my tank every week to do w/c and dosing and whatnot. So what I am going to do is ween my tank off of fertilizer and CO2, hopefully avoiding a tnak crash and algae outbreak. I will slowly decrease the fert doses and CO2 input and photoperiod, hopefully all in balance with each other. I will take a careful log of what I do and when, so that if it works effectively then I will post up an article on it, as I am sure that it would be very helpful information for people to know about for a similar situation.

[Lotus]

I found the link about the nitrate dosing here: Adding Nitrate to a planted tank

I've never personally added more than about 5ppm at a time (having had the information from the above link in the back of my mind).

Is it possible that the problem is a lack of potassium, and that when you dose high enough KNO3 then there's enough potassium in the tank, and that it's not a lack of nitrates?

[ishar]

Well I put a pinch of K2SO4 in the tank each week, and the K from the KNO3 and KH2PO4 give me over 10ppm per day... I would hope that that is enough. But at the same time, I see your point. Perhaps if I dosed more K2SO4, like semiweekly, then maybe I would be able to reduce the nitrate and phosphorous doses because the K would be covered... Good call, I never thought of that. I will have to play around with that and figure it out.

As for weening my tank off of ferts, Avalon thinks it is a very bad idea, so I might just try to train someone to do it for me. Simplify the routine and get them to do it every other day or something. Or every day, whatever works for them I guess.

[ishar]

Well I found the body of the last silver-tipped tetra today, so that is officially $30 down the drain .

I am also in the process of adjusting the fert levels so I can reduce this NO3 accumulation. I am going to put a pinch of K2SO4 in the filter every other day, and reduce the NO3 and PO4 dosing down to about half, and see what happens.

[ishar]

Alright. Well I cut my KNO3 and KH2PO4 dosing down to half, and added about 1/8th tsp of K2SO4 after my water change and will again tomorrow- it seems to be the answer. The fish are acting normal again and the plants are still growing quite quickly. Thanks for the help Lotus

[ishar]

I added 12 neon tetras to my tank today. We'll see how long these last :/. They better live though, I tell you that much .

I rescaped the tank a little bit yesterday. Nothing major- just shifted the bacopa and Hygro and stargrass a bit. Nothing picture worthy. I wish I could get a real camera to get a picture for you all. I am working on it though.

[emmanuelchavez]

Your tank looks great - I hope my vals get as green as yours, they're still recovering from the excel OD.

I hope your neons fare well in your tank. Pictures!!!