Old Tank Syndrome, Nothing Helps, NO3 Test Makes No Sense!

[Essjay]

Can you leave the blue night light on all night and have the fish sleep just fine?

No, I'm afraid not. Fish need a period of several hours total darkness in every 24. But you can have the blue light on for an hour or two after the main lighting period.


Lights should be on at the same time of day every day for the same length of time every day. There should be a period of several hours total darkness, and the room should be in daylight or electric light for at least half an hour before the tank lights turn on and after the tank lights turn off rather than go from total darkness to on and off to total darkness. Fish's eyes need time to adjust to and from total darkness.

 

[StevenF]

If you are doing 60% weekly water changes your tank wouldn't have old tank syndrome. Can you add a photo of the tank and plants?
With the API test the instructions say shake for 30 seconds but you need to do it for 2 minutes.

A 60% water change can cause a nutrient deficiency. It all depends on what nutrient is deficient and what the source of that nutrient is. There are 4 major sources of nutrients.
1. Fish waste
2. fetilizer
3. Substrate
4. the water source.

If the fertilizer, water source, fish waste, doesn't have enough for any of one nutrient, the substrate is the only source of the nutrient the plants need. Then each and ever water change will reduce the amount of that nutrient in the substrate and eventually it will run out and plant growth will slow and then stop.
and then the plants will die. And if the nutrient deficiency is bad enough even algae will die off.

Jtcp went 2 to 3 months with good plant growth and some algae. He now has dying plants and less algae. Seachem Flourish comeprehensive is really weak in some nutrients and we have no idea what is in his tap water. The longest I have seen anyone go in this situation is about 1 year.

Now in ocntrast if the water had the needed nutrient a 60% water change would be beneficial and would help avoid a nutrient deficiency. The best way to prevent.

The bet way to resolve this situation is to supply the missing nutrient. Without lab testing it is not possible to determine what nutrient is the problem. The other option is try and identify a better more complete fertilizer and try that. IN this case I think TNC complete fertilizer is a a good option to try..

 

[Naughts]

A 60% water change can cause a nutrient deficiency. It all depends on what nutrient is deficient and what the source of that nutrient is. There are 4 major sources of nutrients.
1. Fish waste
2. fetilizer
3. Substrate
4. the water source.

If the fertilizer, water source, fish waste, doesn't have enough for any of one nutrient, the substrate is the only source of the nutrient the plants need. Then each and ever water change will reduce the amount of that nutrient in the substrate and eventually it will run out and plant growth will slow and then stop.
and then the plants will die. And if the nutrient deficiency is bad enough even algae will die off.

Jtcp went 2 to 3 months with good plant growth and some algae. He now has dying plants and less algae. Seachem Flourish comeprehensive is really weak in some nutrients and we have no idea what is in his tap water. The longest I have seen anyone go in this situation is about 1 year.

Now in ocntrast if the water had the needed nutrient a 60% water change would be beneficial and would help avoid a nutrient deficiency. The best way to prevent.

The bet way to resolve this situation is to supply the missing nutrient. Without lab testing it is not possible to determine what nutrient is the problem. The other option is try and identify a better more complete fertilizer and try that. IN this case I think TNC complete fertilizer is a a good option to try..

The term Old Tank Syndrome and nutrient deficiency appear to be being used interchangeably. To clarify, Old tank syndrome occurs when you fail to maintain your tank and do not do water changes, which, over time, leads to a build up of nitrates and a decline in the pH of the water in the tank. This is not the case here.

 

[StevenF]

To clarify, Old tank syndrome occurs when you fail to maintain your tank and do not do water changes, which, over time, leads to a build up of nitrates and a decline in the pH of the water in the tank. This is not the case here.

That is your definition. For most people old tank syndrome simply means what was working successfully is no longer working. Many people when they read something like this that they assume the person did something wrong or was not taking proper care of the aquarium. But even if you take proper care of your car it still will occasionally get a flat, won't start, or the engine suddenly stops working.

But as you can see this tank did go bad even though all the regular maintenance was done. You assumed that PH and Nitrate would would change without porper maintenance. But if you study chemistry you would realize not all situations will change in nitrate, ammonia, or PH. However if you do a lab test for every nutrient in an aquarium you will see things that regular aquarium test will not show.

Recently i resorted to using ICP-OES lab test (icp-analysis.com)to to try and figure out what was wrong with my aquarium, The problem was excess boron causing a depletion of zinc. Since plants need both to grow. So may plants were suffering and if not corrected would have eventually caused health problem from the animals in my tank. In short the tank had become "unbalanced" without any change in fetilization or water changes. Why, a change in my source water that never registered on your typical aquarium tests. The longest I have been able to go without issues on this 5 gallon tank is 1 year even though my typical maintenance has not changed. Eng every single problem I have had in my tank has been traced to nutrient issues. Typically deficiencies.

 

[Naughts]

Not my definition, the definition:

How to avoid 'old tank syndrome'

How to avoid 'old tank syndrome'

www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk

 

[Essjay]

I have to agree with Naughts. The only definition of old tank syndrome I've ever heard is a tank that has had little or no regular maintenance so that the water conditions have deteriorated to be considerably different from the source water.