Effects of fertilizers and additives on fish

My oto mostly hangs around as well. He did this in both the planted and unplanted aquariums I've had him in. Otos are not very zippy fish in my experience... until you try to catch them that is. I doubt it has anything to do with the ferts, but I'm no expert. He could be stressed for other reasons.
:hang:

As for using Flourish Excel as the sole source of carbon, not long ago I tried this myself. It didn't seem to work too well. The tank was still choked with algae and plants were dying and/or stunted. Not until I plugged the CO2 back in and performed significant water changes twice a week to starve the algae of nutrients did the tank take a 180 for the better. Now my plants are healthier than ever.

Based on my experience I would recommend Excel as a suppliment to low-light tanks that rely on ambient CO2 levels for carbon. I have a 5 gal that I'm experimenting with Hygro and Chain Sword clippings in from my live tank using Excel as the main source of carbon. If anything important happens I'll let you know.

Your otto is probably just full. Full belly, nice environment, just chillin'. I don't believe you can bubble off the carbon in excel...it isn't carbon dioxide.

beviking said:

I don't believe you can bubble off the carbon in excel...it isn't carbon dioxide.

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This is correct. It'll get rid of the barnacles on your boat too. Really, Excel seems to be good for shock-killing long algaes and as a carbon source for tanks that are too small to use CO2. I usually dose about 1.5x the amount recommended for Excel, because it isn't as effective as the real deal.

The only adverse reactions I have ever seen because of fertilization was because of magnesium/epsom salts.

1) Due to it's nature (laxative), it makes all the fish take a giant poop right after addition to the water column. Not dangerous, but certainly funny.
2) Kills "scaleless" fish. I used to keep elephantnose, but not anymore.

Well, those are considered scaleless, but I have never kept loaches, other than hillstream (which did pretty well, but are susceptible to high nitrates). You'll need to find someone who has kept loaches in Magnesium-laden tank to know for sure.

I started dosing magnesium (in the form of Epsom salt) about two weeks ago in my 46g planted. Recently my clown loaches (one imparticular) had been acting strange...really lethargic, hiding all the time. I didn't think these were related until I stumbled across this thread. I did a 50% water change, and did not redose the magnesium, and they seem much improved today.

This seems to lend some weight to the argument that magnesium is detrimental to clown loaches, but I have seen some beautiful planted tanks with clown loaches thriving in them, so I still have my doubts. If the loaches really can't handle the magnesium, how do these tanks get around that?

I have seen suggestions on other sites that epsom salts might be bad for loaches, but it feels like little more than conjecture with no solid evidence backing it up. It seems like this would be a known problem by now, and I would be able to find good resources in which it is documented.

All this to say, I would be curious to hear some other experiences. Is anyone on this forum successfully keeping clown loaches and dosing magnesium? Has anyone ever killed a clown loach by dosing epsom salts? I look forward to hearing others' opinions.

Cheers.

-sj

I wouldn't worry about magnesium dosing(epsom salts). This only affects those people that use salt as a common treatment when fish is bloated. Unless you're adding 1 tablespoon per 10g when dosing . I dose epsom salts, but maybe every 2 weeks or so and it's only 2g for a 120g.

I have used coarse salt to treat ich in the tank before. I had loaches there as well. Two of them died, but most likely from ich then anything else. One survived ich and the salt treatment and is still doing real well - a year after the treatment. Scaleless fish don't like salt, but most can handle elevated levels for short periods. I treated a week at the time, I believe.