Hi peeps!
I do love my 20 gallon planted tank, however I keep losing fish from time to time and don't really know why. Is my tank just "dirty", and why?
Tank setup and maintenance:
The tank has been established for more than half a year, and for a long time I had no casualties. It has aquasoil, is densely planted, driftwood, rocks, Marineland penguin 200 filter, Eheim heater 75 watt at 75F. The filter has an extra cartridge with media for beneficial bacteria. I do 30% water changes and deep gravel clean once a week. If fish look bad, I do larger water changes more often. Use API stress coat to condition the water.
Every time I check the water parameters, they are the same:
Nitrate 10, Nitrite 0, Ammonia 0, chlorine 0, GH 150, KH 20, pH 6.5.
Inhabitants and problems:
4 sparkling gourami, 5 pseudomugil gertrudae, 3 otocinclus, 2 nerite snails, 5 CPD, now only 1 florida flag fish
A couple months ago I had a spell where I lost some of my sparklers (they seemed weak, disoriented, slow, sank to the bottom and were dead the next day), now I am having a spell where I'm losing the flag fish (clamped fins, hang out at bottom and dead the next day - some developed stringy poop after clamped fins but no parasite medications helped - not prazi, not metro, not flubendazole). In between one CPD also passed, seemed bloated, otherwise unclear symptoms.
Is my tank really that dirty and what can I do to improve? One thing I want to note is that I don't have a quarantine tank, and tend to add new additions directly from a reputable source. But could it really be that every single one of my new additions is sick??
Thanks for your input!!!
I do love my 20 gallon planted tank, however I keep losing fish from time to time and don't really know why. Is my tank just "dirty", and why?
Tank setup and maintenance:
The tank has been established for more than half a year, and for a long time I had no casualties. It has aquasoil, is densely planted, driftwood, rocks, Marineland penguin 200 filter, Eheim heater 75 watt at 75F. The filter has an extra cartridge with media for beneficial bacteria. I do 30% water changes and deep gravel clean once a week. If fish look bad, I do larger water changes more often. Use API stress coat to condition the water.
Every time I check the water parameters, they are the same:
Nitrate 10, Nitrite 0, Ammonia 0, chlorine 0, GH 150, KH 20, pH 6.5.
Inhabitants and problems:
4 sparkling gourami, 5 pseudomugil gertrudae, 3 otocinclus, 2 nerite snails, 5 CPD, now only 1 florida flag fish
A couple months ago I had a spell where I lost some of my sparklers (they seemed weak, disoriented, slow, sank to the bottom and were dead the next day), now I am having a spell where I'm losing the flag fish (clamped fins, hang out at bottom and dead the next day - some developed stringy poop after clamped fins but no parasite medications helped - not prazi, not metro, not flubendazole). In between one CPD also passed, seemed bloated, otherwise unclear symptoms.
Is my tank really that dirty and what can I do to improve? One thing I want to note is that I don't have a quarantine tank, and tend to add new additions directly from a reputable source. But could it really be that every single one of my new additions is sick??
Thanks for your input!!!
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