A couple of weeks ago I used the wonderful advice of Tempest and Oriongirl on identifying what I had and what I could add. I siphoned out what we decided was a 15 to 20 gallon tank, used AmQuel to detoxify the replacement water before putting it in. Then I went out and got 4 Lemon and 4 Serpae Tetras to be tank mates with the Gold Gourami, Spotted Raphael, and Chinese Algae eater. This was 2 weeks ago last Friday. Everything was great. No floaters the following Monday, happy swimmers all.
4th of July I came in, all was good. Still had my newbies, and the older set. Then, last Monday one Lemon Tetra was gone and no remains remained. Clearly it died and became part of the food chain. Last Friday I set everything up to clean the tank (see Oriongirl? I'm trying to stick to your recommended schedule!) I vaccumed out about 2.5 gallons and added the same back in after using the AmQuel and acclimating the new water temp to the old.
AND...
One of the Lemon tetras quietly drifted to the bottom and keeled over. About 20 minutes after adding the water, a second Lemon Tetra begin swimming frantically and rather horizontally, drifted onto a plant and died. Whoa! Wasn't expecting THAT! So, I waited for about 30 minutes to make sure I lost no others. Then I took a water sample over to Petsmart. The nice lady there tested, said the ammonia was a bit high, that the nitrAtes were HIGH (bright purple on the strip and reached it within 10 seconds), but everything else was great. They recommended another water change with AmQuel PLUS and bring test again before restocking. Also suggested live plants as opposed to the plastic ones.
I did that (this time siphoned maybe 50% of the total volume) and replaced after treating with the Amquel +, and also took out the old plastic plants.
SO..this AM, the last Lemon Tetra is history. No body to be found. I snagged my dad's test kit from home and the nitrAtes measured between 20 and 30 ppm. I treated the tank with more AmQuel + and tested an hour later, down to 5 ppm. Tested 4 hours later and showing @ 0 ppm.
I'd originally intended to add live plants, but as the tank has gravel don't know if that would work. Also, just noted multiple feathery algae clumps growing on the faux rock castle that were not there on Friday.
Any idea what my tank is doing? Think it's safe to add some new fish (obviously not more Lemons, though the Serpaes all made it through), and should I add some plants and if so what. Currently emply except for several small rocks and the castle inhabited by the raphael.
Much thanks for any help/.
4th of July I came in, all was good. Still had my newbies, and the older set. Then, last Monday one Lemon Tetra was gone and no remains remained. Clearly it died and became part of the food chain. Last Friday I set everything up to clean the tank (see Oriongirl? I'm trying to stick to your recommended schedule!) I vaccumed out about 2.5 gallons and added the same back in after using the AmQuel and acclimating the new water temp to the old.
AND...
One of the Lemon tetras quietly drifted to the bottom and keeled over. About 20 minutes after adding the water, a second Lemon Tetra begin swimming frantically and rather horizontally, drifted onto a plant and died. Whoa! Wasn't expecting THAT! So, I waited for about 30 minutes to make sure I lost no others. Then I took a water sample over to Petsmart. The nice lady there tested, said the ammonia was a bit high, that the nitrAtes were HIGH (bright purple on the strip and reached it within 10 seconds), but everything else was great. They recommended another water change with AmQuel PLUS and bring test again before restocking. Also suggested live plants as opposed to the plastic ones.
I did that (this time siphoned maybe 50% of the total volume) and replaced after treating with the Amquel +, and also took out the old plastic plants.
SO..this AM, the last Lemon Tetra is history. No body to be found. I snagged my dad's test kit from home and the nitrAtes measured between 20 and 30 ppm. I treated the tank with more AmQuel + and tested an hour later, down to 5 ppm. Tested 4 hours later and showing @ 0 ppm.
I'd originally intended to add live plants, but as the tank has gravel don't know if that would work. Also, just noted multiple feathery algae clumps growing on the faux rock castle that were not there on Friday.
Any idea what my tank is doing? Think it's safe to add some new fish (obviously not more Lemons, though the Serpaes all made it through), and should I add some plants and if so what. Currently emply except for several small rocks and the castle inhabited by the raphael.
Much thanks for any help/.
