Fish keep dying in my planted tank

[Phyroath]

Hi everyone, I have been collecting a lot of information / advices on planted tank from AC and its kind members. This has help me a lot with limited availability of aquarium equipment and stuffs in my country i.e water test kit. My question is can one maintain a planted tank with such limitations?

Every time I throw my fish in to my planted tank, they stop taking food and the left over food becomes a mess to the tank and promote algae growth. What is wrong?

My tank is a 29G tank - recycled, DIY CO2 (avg 1 bubble/ sec), Lighting 1.3wpg, 20% water change and dosing dry fert.

The remaining fish I have now are 5 tetras and a platinum barb. Most the live-bearer died off first. I kept my fish in my 65g tank and they were all healthy. I made two attempts already in this planted tank and I experience the same thing. I actually never give in to something but what I feel really bad and sorry seeing them die and that I should have established an ideal living environment for them - should I go with a fishless planted tank. Please kindly help.

[Fordtrannyman]

Man Dude it's hard for me to say, not knowing certain values.
Are you acclimating them to the 29gal?
How long before they die?
I know a guy that is somewhat of a chemist. He runs this message board (http://groups.msn.com/AquariumTropicalFishKeepingHobbyists/messageboardindex.msnw). Go ahead and post the text of your thread over there. He knows lots of little tricks to test without kits.

[Phyroath]

yes I did two times - moving from my 65G. First my sword tails then the remaining. It took about 1 week and they died. Thanks I will post my thread there.

[Fordtrannyman]

May I ask, why you can't get test kits?

[KarlTh]

At 1.3 WPG, I doubt the plants are able to use the CO2. What CO2 levels are you getting?

[jones57742]

Phyroath:

Ford mentioned acclimating and this may be the problem.

I went through no telling how many $'s of show guppies.
I would receive them and place them in my 110G planted tank.
Within a week to 4 weeks they would be gone.

Obviously something had to give as I very much enjoy show guppies.

I set up two 5G hex tanks with only floating plants.
I cycled the tanks even though I do not "count on" their rudimentary biowheel filtration process.
The water surface in the hex tanks is well above the kitchen sink and well below the water surface in the 110G tank.

I ordered two types of show guppies and placed each type in a different 5G tank.
I did daily or bi-daily 90% WCs of the hex tanks with 110G tank water.
Not only did the guppies survive but I soon had guppy fry.
Two months ago, after two months in the 5G tanks, I transferred one male and three female guppies to the 110G tank.
Not only did these guppies survive but I soon had guppy fry in my 110G tank.

TR

[Phyroath]

Ford - Everything in Cambodia is just starting. My Lfs are not carrying this kind of stuff and ordering online is something that we are not familiar with and more importantly lack of knowledge. KarlTH I have no idea the amount of CO2 ppm in the water - I only count the bubbles - At first start - 2 bubbles/s and 1 bubble/second after a few days. None of the bubbles escape except when I turn of my diffuser. Jones and Ford, you might be right. My tetras used to take food from the surface but now they are just hiding however I am trying to identify other causes - water chem, fert, filter, current, or air pump. I only turn the air pump on at night and off during the day time to limit the surface agitation. Sorry if I said something wrong as I've just dive into a planted tank. Fish only was OK so far.

[KarlTh]

I would find out how much CO2 is in the water. If you're injecting and the plants can't use it, that can cause fish death. I think you need to establish whether that is happening, especially if it's on at night.

[Brohawk]

Your lights are too low. Need more wattage so your plants can use the CO2 and the ferts you're dosing. Most likely you're poisoning your fish w/ ferts, b/c your plants aren't able to absorb enough nitrates before your next dosing, and so they're building up in your tank water. Fish tend to hide when their water quality is bad.

[NeonFlux]

Ohh, you live in Cambodia, eh? My parents used to live there once upon a time until unfortunately, yes, war...happened. it sucked horribly. too many deaths of loved ones >_<

[nh5]

disconnect and stop using the co2 and stop dosing ferts. Then do a 30% water change see how it goes. How often are you dosing ferts and what are you dosing?

[Phyroath]

KarlTH and Bro thanks. I see your points. Let me look into these issues. I did posted another earlier thread on correcting my lighting and I also need a test kit.

Will let you know if things are improving.

Neon yes I am. I had been in that nightmare and that's why I do not want to see things die any more even fish/plants. That's was the result of the cold war and Cambodia got a hot war.

[Phyroath]

It's a bit ashame to say how I dose the fert. I really do not have the right fert for this. What I use is an all purpose plant food. The amount I dose is not properly measured. Do have Chuck's fert calculator but I can not follow the the measure with all purpose plant food. I usually dose after water change and one or two times after say 3 times a week.

[KarlTh]

KarlTH and Bro thanks. I see your points. Let me look into these issues. I did posted another earlier thread on correcting my lighting and I also need a test kit.

Will let you know if things are improving.

Neon yes I am. I had been in that nightmare and that's why I do not want to see things die any more even fish/plants. That's was the result of the cold war and Cambodia got a hot war.

I'd forget about CO2 for now; it's not the be all and end all, although it has its uses. I'd go for upgrading the lighting first of all. Don't worry about the dosing issue; I just use a generic plant food as well. Plants which do well I prune and divide and replant; plants that die I don't use again. Even without CO2 and using standard ferts I'm a net exporter of plants to other aquarists, but my lighting is good - 140 watts over 55 gallons. Having said that, the cover glasses need replacing as they're scratched and are probably taking 25-30% of the light.

Once the lighting is good and plants are growing (and fish surviving) then you can start to tweak and improve things with CO2 and serious fertilisation and so on and so forth, but you really need a test kit to go that route.

[Phyroath]

I really appreciate all your helps. This is very important to beginners and I think the issues I have experienced so far plants, Lighting, Algae, CO2, planaria etc. step by step have been cleared with lots of clues from valuable AC members. I am on my way from brown to green now.

[NeonFlux]

I hope everything works out for you