Is my water the cause for all my problems?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
sorry your having such problems mate.

just wanted to add a couple of questions.

have you added salt?
are you changing to much water?

ive been doing daily waterchanges since my male MM took a turn for the worse and all my rays and now looking pritty upset.

theyve become very very quiet and hiding alot. they no longer dive on food.

what about adding polyfilter to your setup? its ment to remove just about everything thats not good to have in your water.
 
i forgot to say that i think my problem has been caused by a ph change.

my tank was running around 6.6/6.8 and since change the large amounts of water its now at 7.2 the day after my last waterchange.

its the only difference i can find in my water which could of upset the rays.
every other fish on my system is perfectly fine with no sighns of a problem what so ever. including my asian aro.

all i can think is the huge bit of wood in the tank has been lowering my ph over time and normal water changes kept it at a constant steadly level.
 
I think that maybe MM have way more parasites etc. then other rays and are always there. It might be a matter of stress like giving birth,water pereameteres,new borns, etc that brings it out in them at a faster rate that they cant fight off as easy. Why else would we lose these mm out of no where? and it usually seems to be when something changes in their enviroment. JMO. ive lost thousandds of dollars in mm in the last 3 years. i know how u feel.
 
MM's do come from columbia which is the same place flowers come from. Both seem to be more sensitive to stress and change of environment. Maybe there is something in the water there that they have adapted to that is missing in our water supply here in the US.
 
I think it comes down to room. Can't throw a bunch in a tank long term and expect no repercusions.

I overstocked. Filter seemed to handle it, still have never seen any nitrite or amonia. The mechanical media is very easy to change and is done twice a week. I spend a lot of time changing water. BUT all this stuff combined doesn't change the fact that they need space.

They just seem to really need their own personal space. Ability to escape something if they don't like it.

My 300 growout has been working great since it was stocked. 6 rays in there ranging from 7 to 10 inches. Driftwood to hide in. I think if I added even one more it would crash. I often see rays at opposite ends. Some rays get annoying to others and with room they remain happy cause they avoid eachother. Maybe a good rule of thumb would be a zero added to disk size to account for how many gallons to factor in to keep that ray happy?

The PH... Having a drip system dumping new in at all times should make for very little to no fluctuation. Plus seeing the true heating capabilities is crazy when warm water is used. My rays seem to love waterchanges. They seem happy after a huge wc. I even noticed them hanging out under the new water dripping in.

Just checked on the rays. Very hard to see with all the foam but it appears there is an improvement in breathing.
 
Hope for continued improvement!
 
I am very leary of the Walmart earth worms. Many times I find mold/fungus in the container. I havent had a loss in quite some time since I stopped using them.
Alex
 
are any more losing appetite. i've had fish that would not eat after getting roughed up and if they haven't been fed well prior. it seemed like they didn't have the strength to recuperate.
 
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