WARNING: Before you use DIY CO2...

[sammydee]

It was very fresh - like two hours old. The tank stinks of yeast, so I have no doubt that this was the cause.

BTW I have a one way valve and it did nothing.

 

[jimbooo]

doh, dumb moment of course it wont work it'll stop tank water getting into the diy bottle not the other way around.

long day, sorry

 

[andywg]

I've had this happen on all my tanks, and on my 85 gallon community it really went bad, I only lost a White cloud mountain minnow. I found most of the fish were gasping for "breath" at the top of the tank and extra aeration (like lower the level and letting all the filter returns splash in the water as well as a couple of extra air pumps) and that seemed to sort it out.

I can't see why the yeast and sugar would be so horrendous to fish

 

[sammydee]

i think the yeast multiplied like crazy and used up all the oxygen - some ate it and exploded (no joke) - the others suffocated. The two remaining fish which are still alive and well were gasping for air at the sirface.

 

[Yenko]

I don't use a plenum; but I use a metal bracket intended to hold pipes in place to hold my bottle upright. It works just as well and stops air from being introduced into the reactor, which lowers the rate the CO2 dissolves at.

 

[sammydee]

I filled up the whole tank with extremely concentrated chrlorine solution for a day - that should just about wipe out anything living in there.

I've emptied it now and refilled it with tap water. I put all the plants back in and used sand instead of gravel this time. The other two remaining fish are doing ok in my little three gallon, but I'd like to move them out of there pretty quick, as it is not cycled (lots of waterchanges!).

Is this thread gonna be pinned or what? I don't want anyone else to go through the same disaster that happened to me.

A TIP: If your co2 canister does fall over, throw as many powerheads/airstones in there as you can to get oxygen levels up. Its the oxygen shortage which kills the fish.