Gunnie
12-21-2003, 5:42 PM
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2003 9:58 am Post subject: 20 gal. long massacre
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I have been dealing with algae problems with my 20 gal. long tank for awhile, and have been keeping the light off except for a few hours a day. I came home Tuesday early and took a nap without turning the tank light on. when I got up, I turned on the light, and it looked like a war zone. My water is milky, 4 of my corys, 6 neon tetras, 1 bristlenose pleco, 3 otos, & 1 chinese hillstream loach were dead. The survivors look stressed, and their fins and undersides look inflamed. I tested my water and had 0 ammonia, & 0 nitrites. I immediately did a 50% water change and changed the filter. I did not clean the sponge filter in the tank. There seems to be a lot of white sediment in the water which looks like when you disturb the gravel and there are dissolved plant spikes in it. After I lost another cory about 2 hours later, I decided to move all the survivors to a 10 gal. hospital tank. I guess I'm going to tear the whole tank down and start over. Does anyone have any idea what just happened? This tank has been up and running since January. The only thing that has happened out of the ordinary was about a week ago I got some amazon sword plants and had thrown them in the tank to float until I use them. I also had a piece of lucky bamboo which I had the root system in the filter.
This thread has been posted on other forums, but I didn't get much of a response. Since moving the fish to another tank, I lost another cory and my male betta. It appears the remaining fish are on the mend. I still would like to know what might have happened to avoid this in the future. Some of the questions I have gotten so far are, did your power go off? I don't know if this happened. The filters were running when I got home. The tank has a glass top, and is not near any chemicals which could have spilled into it. I had done my routine gravel vac and water change about 3 days earlier. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated!
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I have been dealing with algae problems with my 20 gal. long tank for awhile, and have been keeping the light off except for a few hours a day. I came home Tuesday early and took a nap without turning the tank light on. when I got up, I turned on the light, and it looked like a war zone. My water is milky, 4 of my corys, 6 neon tetras, 1 bristlenose pleco, 3 otos, & 1 chinese hillstream loach were dead. The survivors look stressed, and their fins and undersides look inflamed. I tested my water and had 0 ammonia, & 0 nitrites. I immediately did a 50% water change and changed the filter. I did not clean the sponge filter in the tank. There seems to be a lot of white sediment in the water which looks like when you disturb the gravel and there are dissolved plant spikes in it. After I lost another cory about 2 hours later, I decided to move all the survivors to a 10 gal. hospital tank. I guess I'm going to tear the whole tank down and start over. Does anyone have any idea what just happened? This tank has been up and running since January. The only thing that has happened out of the ordinary was about a week ago I got some amazon sword plants and had thrown them in the tank to float until I use them. I also had a piece of lucky bamboo which I had the root system in the filter.
This thread has been posted on other forums, but I didn't get much of a response. Since moving the fish to another tank, I lost another cory and my male betta. It appears the remaining fish are on the mend. I still would like to know what might have happened to avoid this in the future. Some of the questions I have gotten so far are, did your power go off? I don't know if this happened. The filters were running when I got home. The tank has a glass top, and is not near any chemicals which could have spilled into it. I had done my routine gravel vac and water change about 3 days earlier. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated!