Sophos9 - Planted Tank Journal

Fingers crossed!

i've added about 80 stems today and have another 70 on order, the tank is pretty full of plants now - not sure how I'm going to get the rest in!!

Also... an added bonus! Came home today and the CO2 was working perfectly, tested KH and PH and I'm sitting around 20ppm - So the war starts!

Anyone use the Tetratest strips and can vouch for their accuracy?

Latest photo after adding a load of fast growing stems.... The algae is NOT getting any worse, a little of it has started to turn grey, that a good sign?

The CO2 is stable now and is running (last check at about 25ppm), plants are pearling like crazy in the second 5hr photo period

NOT EVERYTHING IS FINE IN THE TANK! I had 4 Amano shrimp of which only one is alive in my other tank and not sure what happened... Day one I had a large water change no problem, dosed initial load of Flourish Excel all good. Second day macros dosed, third day dosed usual Flourish Excel, fourth day dosed macros

Everything was fine until I added the new plants, when adding I had to shift the substrate and the whole tank went pretty cloudy then the shrimps started acting funny, throwing themselves up to the surface then free falling and laying kicking on their backs... only 1 made it

How could mixing the substrate up kill em? I'm a fishy murderer

Enjoy the pic....

Could have released some sulphur peroxide that occurs in stagnant substrate.

Hi mate, thanks for that

Would that have affected the fish at all?

RadaR said:

Could have released some sulphur peroxide that occurs in stagnant substrate.

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Would that have affected the fish at all?

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Yes... it would have...

Corin Castle said:

Would that have affected the fish at all?

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Yes... it would have...

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Hi... all fish are fine, no change in behaviour at all then or now? Just checked out the shrimps and his fishy adventure is continuing

Have just read a few articles about Flourish Excel and dying shrimps... seems to be a correlation

Added some new fish today, managed to get my hands on the last American Flag Fish.... this sucker eats green beard/fuzz algae like theres not tomorrow

Only problem is the new clown loach to join my other 3 loaches has had 2 white spots appear, now adding treatment for white spot....

It could have been the new plants, if they have been treated with snail killer your shrimps will go belly up.Also I wouldnt go adding any more shrimp until treatment is done as that also kills shrimp.

Btw I hate beaing the bearer of bad news but flag fish will eat certian plants, riccia being one of them.

nice tank.... I kind of like the algea on the background, makes it look more natural... but that's just my opinion...

sophos9 said:

Added some new fish today, managed to get my hands on the last American Flag Fish.... this sucker eats green beard/fuzz algae like theres not tomorrow

Only problem is the new clown loach to join my other 3 loaches has had 2 white spots appear, now adding treatment for white spot....

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wow , sorry to here that u seem to have problems after dee other , they were probably sick from the fish store

~T~ said:

It could have been the new plants, if they have been treated with snail killer your shrimps will go belly up.Also I wouldnt go adding any more shrimp until treatment is done as that also kills shrimp.

Btw I hate beaing the bearer of bad news but flag fish will eat certian plants, riccia being one of them.

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Hi ~T~, thanks for letting me know... I have been watching its behaviour and currently it is leaving the riccia in favour of the fuzz algae, I've got a load of the riccia out and into my second tank... yep the one I should have quarenteened the new fish in

prankster705 said:

nice tank.... I kind of like the algea on the background, makes it look more natural... but that's just my opinion...

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Hi, thanks, I agree just want it off the plants, it breaks up the symetry between both pieces of background!

cleekdaFish said:

wow , sorry to here that u seem to have problems after dee other , they were probably sick from the fish store

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at least things can only get better right.... I mean they must, erm they have to

Do you have any photo's of how you have connected the CO2 to your filter pipes?

The reason I as is I'm looking at different ways to do it.

Thanks

I had to overdose with flourish excel some time ago and it killed off some of my plants and I think thats what killed your shrimp off too..........the bottom line is you're overdosing the tank with co2 with excel as well as upping the co2 bpm

Algae, the bane of my life

sp8600 said:

Do you have any photo's of how you have connected the CO2 to your filter pipes?

The reason I as is I'm looking at different ways to do it.

Thanks

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Hi, all I have is the ceramic defuser positioned under the filter inlet so the difused CO2 gets sucked into it, nothing elaborate... There is a pic on the second page i think...

Terri 237 said:

I had to overdose with flourish excel some time ago and it killed off some of my plants and I think thats what killed your shrimp off too..........the bottom line is you're overdosing the tank with co2 with excel as well as upping the co2 bpm

Algae, the bane of my life

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Hi, the CO2 levels are approx 30ppm (using the 24hr PH test), my SERA kit also says they are fine, I have read some articles that flourish excel does not agree with shrimp (or the other way round)

Sorry shrimp