Hi,
Sorry if this is a bit long-winded but I wanted to be thorough.
I'm getting back into the hobby. I am trying out some aquascaping. I have a 25 gallon Cube (18" x 18" x 18"), with a DIY CO2 tank, temperature is 77F, PH is 6.5.
I keep the CO2 on during the light cycle from 2 pm to 10 pm, and my drop checker is usually green, on the lighter side typically. I used some of the fish cycling starter, and just recently checked my parameters and they were: 0 for nitrites, nitrates and ammonia.
So about 2 months in, I finally decided to add some fish. I chose some simple stuff, 4 amano shrimp, 3 Otocinclus, 10 neons and 3 Panda Corys. I live about 20 minutes from the pet store. I got home, did a 50% water change, and floated the bags for about 20 minutes. I cut the bags and drained them through a net and put them in the tank. Everything other than the Corys did fine so far, but the Cory's seemed to react immediately One sort of swam erratically and labored and died shortly after. The other two seemed pretty sluggish and I found one dead this morning. The last one is not to be seen, so it is probably dead as well. It's been about a day and the neons seem fine, being a little shy, but swimming in the middle of the tank in general. The Otto's are cleaning algae as expected and the shrimp I see every once in a while doing their thing.
I feel really bad. I would guess either the Cory's had something going on (which I doubt) or the CO2 in the tank was the culprit as I guess bottom dwellers can be more susceptible since there is more CO2 at the bottom? But the drop checker seemed fine, the parameters seemed fine. I have a fluval 207 which should be plenty of flow. Lots of live plants for oxygen.
Any thoughts or suggestions, or things I could have done better? Things I could check for in regard to water parameters? I read and watched some videos on acclimation, and I'm guessing it is one of those "touchy" subjects, but most long time fish keepers don't believe in drip acclimation as they prefer to get the fish out of the micro environment in the bag asap.
I did notice that my CO2 regulator was having a stuck open problem after the fact, but I am still only running a bubble a second or so for 25 gallons, and I doubt that is excessive. And they were added in the middle of the day, not in the evening when Plant CO2 absorption is probably negligible.
Thanks for any and all suggestions or knowledge dropped,
Drew
Sorry if this is a bit long-winded but I wanted to be thorough.
I'm getting back into the hobby. I am trying out some aquascaping. I have a 25 gallon Cube (18" x 18" x 18"), with a DIY CO2 tank, temperature is 77F, PH is 6.5.
I keep the CO2 on during the light cycle from 2 pm to 10 pm, and my drop checker is usually green, on the lighter side typically. I used some of the fish cycling starter, and just recently checked my parameters and they were: 0 for nitrites, nitrates and ammonia.
So about 2 months in, I finally decided to add some fish. I chose some simple stuff, 4 amano shrimp, 3 Otocinclus, 10 neons and 3 Panda Corys. I live about 20 minutes from the pet store. I got home, did a 50% water change, and floated the bags for about 20 minutes. I cut the bags and drained them through a net and put them in the tank. Everything other than the Corys did fine so far, but the Cory's seemed to react immediately One sort of swam erratically and labored and died shortly after. The other two seemed pretty sluggish and I found one dead this morning. The last one is not to be seen, so it is probably dead as well. It's been about a day and the neons seem fine, being a little shy, but swimming in the middle of the tank in general. The Otto's are cleaning algae as expected and the shrimp I see every once in a while doing their thing.
I feel really bad. I would guess either the Cory's had something going on (which I doubt) or the CO2 in the tank was the culprit as I guess bottom dwellers can be more susceptible since there is more CO2 at the bottom? But the drop checker seemed fine, the parameters seemed fine. I have a fluval 207 which should be plenty of flow. Lots of live plants for oxygen.
Any thoughts or suggestions, or things I could have done better? Things I could check for in regard to water parameters? I read and watched some videos on acclimation, and I'm guessing it is one of those "touchy" subjects, but most long time fish keepers don't believe in drip acclimation as they prefer to get the fish out of the micro environment in the bag asap.
I did notice that my CO2 regulator was having a stuck open problem after the fact, but I am still only running a bubble a second or so for 25 gallons, and I doubt that is excessive. And they were added in the middle of the day, not in the evening when Plant CO2 absorption is probably negligible.
Thanks for any and all suggestions or knowledge dropped,
Drew
