I've got a 5g heavily planted tank with some very active shrimp + one snail. Every fish I've placed in there has died. A male betta seemed to have fin rot + died. A female betta died - no visible weirdness. Two male guppies, one right away (couldn't have been the tank) the other a week later (probably the tank?). I've checked all the parameters (ph, alkalinity, nitrate, nitrite, etc) and everything reads fine. The tank has been up for awhile (5 months, now?). The one questionable thing that I do with the tank is use ro filtered water for the water changes... A fishy guy said that the water might be too "pure" can that be?
A Cursed Tank?
- Thread starter Yerdua
- Start date
Yes, straight RO has no buffers so the pH can swing wildly. Why did you chose RO? What are your tap water parameters?
If your KH/GH is high enough to keep your pH stable then I doubt the water is too pure. If you can, post your parameters. You said you tested for alkalinity and that your params were fine, so maybe your substrate or something else in the tank is buffering the water for you. That could also be a problem if it's leeching things into the water column.
Depending on your shrimp species and the params of your tap, you may want to start using that instead or mixing the RO down more. Your snail isn't going to like soft acid water, and neither will guppies (I realize not all RO is below neutral, but mine is). And as leeser said, most conditioners will remove chloramine + chlorine.
Depending on your shrimp species and the params of your tap, you may want to start using that instead or mixing the RO down more. Your snail isn't going to like soft acid water, and neither will guppies (I realize not all RO is below neutral, but mine is). And as leeser said, most conditioners will remove chloramine + chlorine.
There's a few conditioners that break down the ammonia and nitrites as well as chlorine and chloramine... most of us here use Prime.
By the way, those test strips are not very reliable. I'd recommend a liquid test kit.
By the way, those test strips are not very reliable. I'd recommend a liquid test kit.
Is the test strip saying that it's positive for NO2? If so, that could be the reason that your fish get sick and die -- constant exposure to NO2 is stressful to their systems, including their immune system. I'm not sur what +TH is. A better test is the water test kits that actually give you the amounts (I've been very happy with the API freshwater testing kit).