Tank disaster related to DIY CO2?

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I am not sure if this is the proper forum for this topic redirect or delet if needed.

For the last 2 months I have been trying my hand at a planted tank. I am using the DIY yeast method with a simple bell reactor. My plant growth has been amazing. I have to cut/trim back daily.

Here is my problem. Over the last 10 days all of my fish except 1 molly and about 8 ghost shrimp have died. (6 platys, 4 guppies, 20 platy fry, 4 corys)

I at first, assumed that I had a bacteria infection so they were treated accordinly. Obviously this did not work at the cost of massive fish death. :(

I did discover that my pH had tanked. (pH was around 7.2 and fell to around 5.6) I am now buffering to bring pH back to around 7.

I need to figure this problem out before i try and restock this tank. Do you think CO2 was the killer here?

This tank was well established almost 2 years with hardly ever a problem. p.s. sorry about the long post and thanks for any help.
 
I would say that the ph drop was the cause of the death, was the ph at 5.6 while the fish were dieing? or did they die after the fact?

~ MyShrimpDied
 
It definately looks like the CO2 did it, adding CO2 will drop the PH in your water, and a drastic drop like that probably killed your fishes. Buffering the water will help short term but you need to reduce the amount of CO2 going into your water.
 
Yes the pH was that low when the mortality started. I wasn't aware of the low pH until the third day of problems. It took me two days to get the pH back up after this... by this time all were in very bad shape with more dieing each day even after the pH was raised.

Thats what I am thinking as well. I am going to let the tank set for two weeks after I can find a way to keep the pH stable. I have reduced the amount of CO2. I was running two bottles at a time which was giving my about two bubbles every second. Now I am running just one. My tap water fairly hard from the tap and untreated is around 8 pH. Hopefully with the reduced pH I can find a balance.

Thanks for the quick replies..... if i can get this ironed out for sure i will update.
 
This is very sad. I'm sorry to hear this.
A person should never inject CO2 into a tank blindly. You need to know your kH before even thinking about injecting gas into the water table. Then the kH/pH relationship must be monitored very carefully for the first few days to determine the water's reaction to the amount of gas being injected.
Plant mass also plays a big part in the equation.
Do you know your water's kH? What size tank are we talking about?
Again, sorry for the loss.

Len
 
You gotta have a Target before you shoot!

[rant] You must have a target pH!

You must know your KH and that plus the charts will give you your target pH (where CO2 ~ 20ppm +/- 5ppm)

If your KH is below 3degrees, you must increase it.


Did you know these things???

[/rant]

OK, now get your KH and raise it up to about 3 degrees.

Keep the bacteria alive (if any survived) by ammonia feed, wild guess is 1/4 teaspoon/day.

Restock slowly. Mind the ammonia and nitrite, you may have damaged the biofilter.

good luck!
 
djlen summed up what I was going to say, but I'd like to include a CO2 chart. You absolutely need to know your KH. It doesn't really change, so it only needs to be tested about once a week, and even less often once you've got the hang of it. Test your pH at least in the morning and at night when you first start injecting CO2. Once it's stable and you know it won't swing down, you can test much less frequently. But it's very very important when you first set up a new bottle.

Which reminds me - how big is your tank? It's very rare to have problems like this with DIY CO2, unless you have very soft water. Your KH should be at least 3.

Here's the CO2 chart.
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/kh-ph-co2-chart.html
You measure KH and pH, and read the CO2 concentration off the chart. It should be between 15-30ppm, for healthy plants AND fish.

Hope everything works out.
 
Re: You gotta have a Target before you shoot!

Originally posted by anonapersona

Keep the bacteria alive (if any survived) by ammonia feed, wild guess is 1/4 teaspoon/day.

[/B]
Click to expand...

BUT, don't add ammonia if you still have fish! Even so, it's probably not necessary, just restock slowly once you have the CO2 problems ironed out.
AND, 1/4 tsp is a lot. If you do decide to do this, try a few drops, then test (it should be around 1ppm I guess). Again, I'm wondering what size your tank is...
 
My kH is around 4 degrees straight from the tap. I figured i was in the clear. I do understand the relationship between CO2 and kH. Before I even considered using the DIY CO2 I double checked my alkalinty and general hardness.

I know that I oversaturated the tank with CO2 (how this happens in a 30 gallown with only an airline and a simple bell reactor?)

This is what happens when I assume. I assummed that I would be lucky to even get 15 ppm CO2 dissolved in the water. This led to me not being very vigilant with keeping tabs on the pH and kH after I begun injecting. My pH crashed and basically I killed all of my fish by burning them alive with carbonic acid. :(

The only survivor to my clumsy attempted at CO2 supplementation is a black female mollly that I have had for over a year in this tank. Since I have cut in half my CO2, buffered the water she is showing signs of improvement.

Thanks for the input everyone.
 
water parameters?

So, your tap water has KH of 4 and pH of 8.

The tank was at pH 7.2 and fell to 5.6 with the addition of CO2 with a bell to dissolve???

This just doesn't add up.


Were you using some sort of pH down product? RO water? Distilled water? Rain water?

how often do you change water? Using tap water?
 
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