Hi, I've had an aquarium for a few years now and have had a large variety of fish. However, these have stayed alive more by luck than anything else.
I recently had most of my fish die within a week of each other including two of my large Clown Loaches, all of my Tetras and two Plecs. I've since found out that it was my own stupid fault by not checking the water correctly and thinking that as long as the fish were alive, then all would be ok. How wrong I was.
Anyway, I've since found out that my nitrates were "off the scale", my ammonia was very high and my Ph was around 6. There was also a severe case of whitespot which I just didn't spot (no pun intended). Now I've learnt what all this means, I can understand why so many of my fish died. I've also been told that the bacteria in my filter had probably died too!
So, I'm starting from fresh. I'm using a Ph buffer and it is now around 7.4, the nitrates are around 10ppm and the ammonia is quite low but could be lower.
The fish that did survive seem to have "picked up". However, I'm going to wait a couple of weeks before I consider re-stocking.
I joined the site hoping to get some advice from you all, make a few friends and perhaps warn other of the dangers of neglecting their tank setup
Glen
I recently had most of my fish die within a week of each other including two of my large Clown Loaches, all of my Tetras and two Plecs. I've since found out that it was my own stupid fault by not checking the water correctly and thinking that as long as the fish were alive, then all would be ok. How wrong I was.
Anyway, I've since found out that my nitrates were "off the scale", my ammonia was very high and my Ph was around 6. There was also a severe case of whitespot which I just didn't spot (no pun intended). Now I've learnt what all this means, I can understand why so many of my fish died. I've also been told that the bacteria in my filter had probably died too!
So, I'm starting from fresh. I'm using a Ph buffer and it is now around 7.4, the nitrates are around 10ppm and the ammonia is quite low but could be lower.
The fish that did survive seem to have "picked up". However, I'm going to wait a couple of weeks before I consider re-stocking.
I joined the site hoping to get some advice from you all, make a few friends and perhaps warn other of the dangers of neglecting their tank setup
Glen