Taking A Disaster And Learning

[Gankutsuou]

I've had much a good time with my 38 and it's fish lately....

but tonight the 10 became a tragic story, and a great example why you need the whole test kit, not just part

so as you all might have heard, I got a pair of apistos.

Unfortunatly, BOTH have died now.

I own the ph and the ammonia parts of the test kit.
what went wrong? Major Nitrates. Why? Major crap trapped in the gravel.

This brings me up to the debate on gavel VS sand, which I can say now, sand is better as the crap stays on top and you get it in water changes. This was horrible. My nitrates were off the scale. I've done a 50% water change which included stabbing the gravel and filtering it to get the crap out.

Things are now stable. The new red tailed blue loach is in for now, for quarnt. purpose and midnight will go in as well, having a bloated problem, the hole rock and the space may help. I think it might be constipation or overeating.

For xmas, I will be getting myself a nitrate testing kit as well, and also getting (as agreed), a 20-30 gallon to replace the 10, hopefully a 30 g that's fairly short that;s 3 feet long and wider than a foot. I can only hope.

but it's a good learning experince, as unfortunate as it is, and taught me to do better than the minimal for fish keeping....

there is another thing to be learned.

Don't take rock out of one system into another without boiling it or something!

Different bacteria and possible disease could outbreak. be careful! I was in a rush due to the finding of the Red tailed loach and forgot to boil the rock as planned... sigh.

Good luck with fish keeping to the rest of you, and a happy holiday!

 

[lljdma06]

I am truely sorry that you had this problem with gravel. I have never experienced this with any gravel aquarium I've kept, but I vacumned my gravel regularly every week and my plants keep my nitrates very low. But sand also compacts and produces dangerous hygrogen sulphide, which is also extremely toxic, so nothing is really perfect. The point is that with any substrate, care must be taken to keep the substrate aerated and stirred up regularly to prevent this kind of disaster. You were so proud of your apistos too, a sad loss. I'm again, very sorry.

Happy Holidays, and I hope the 30g comes through for you.

llj

 

[QuotheRaven]

sorry about your losses Gank...I prefer sand aswell you know what needs to be cleaned if you have sand...

 

[Gankutsuou]

yeah....I had been looking for apistos for so long... and finally got a really interesting kind of them...

sigh....

But I'll do something great when I get the 30 I bet, probably involving them

 

[erk628]

yeah....I had been looking for apistos for so long... and finally got a really interesting kind of them...

sigh....

But I'll do something great when I get the 30 I bet, probably involving them

How do you vac you gravel, do you know that you have to dig down to the bott0m with the vac and do this along the whole floor. Anyways I agree sand is better. Also sorry for your lose!

 

[Gankutsuou]

thanks for the condolences....

and yes, I now realize digging is the way to clean gravel....

but the 30 will be sand I assure you if it happens, and the planting gravel will go into the small betta tanks

What can we do though? Learn and move on, that's what.

 

[Flumpus]

My gravel tank is easier to clean than the ones with sand in my opinion. It's nice to be able to just jam that gravel vac down in there and see all the gunk come up and out and into your bucket.