New Stones Added To Display

[BobRivers]

Hello,

Recently returned from the river Spey near Pitlochry where I collected some nice stones from the river, for my display in my 2' tank. I boiled the stones over the period of a week then put them in my tank(60l)there is only guppies and cardinals in there. After a day I noticed the guppies all round the surface and the filter which is Tetrtec ex700(a little over kill but works good). Time for water test the tank had ran for over a year with no deaths the readings were horrific the PH had dropped to below 6 and the Ammonia was 1.5ppm.

Can somebody explain why this happens with the rocks as I thought boiling them would make them safe.

The rocks look just like normal stones a little shinny perhaps.

I removed the fish to another tank and all are doing well, I will return them slowly once the stats have settled down.

 

[snowflake311]

I would have to guess that maybe some small organisam is rotting away on the rock.

Take the rock out now. Do a large water change . Test the water. Wait a day test the water again. Then do another water change. Wait a few days and test the water. If all is well for 3 weeks after taking the rock out then the rock was the problem.

Also put the rock in a bucket by it's self. Keep it in there for a week test the water before you add the rock and then after a week test the water again. If you see a change you will know for sure that it was the rock.

If the rock tunes out to not be a problem then you will have to try and figure out whatit is. Sounds like a ph crash normaly due to a problem with your cycle something throw it off.

Have you done any other changes to the tank since this started?

 

[BobRivers]

Hi

There has been no other changes to the tank before the stones were added. The tank has performed excellent over the past year with weekly water changes. I have always wanted to get stones but would never pay the price in the shops I thought from the freshwater river they would be fine. I started water changes daily right away and there has been a slight improvement on the stats.

I will put the stones in a bucket and do the tests as you suggested just to get a few readings.

I do belive it is the rocks that have caused this but don't know why you would get high ammonia readings?

Thanks again.