Ok, background info. Well established (~1 year) 55 Gallon freshwater community tank. (Guppies, corys, neon tetras, glo-lite tetras, 2 pit bull plecos, 2 Kuhli loaches whenever we can find them).
Emperor 400 (with added AmmoCarb in second media slots) & Penguin 350 for filtration
Black sand substrate
3 small air stones
1 natural log, 2 natural rocks, several Java ferns
Historically, this has been a phenomenally healthy tank. To the point of unintentionally broods of cory fry and even 2 baby loaches (I didn't even know they bred in tanks, lol).
We've had intermittent issues with algae blooms (not dangerous, just unsightly) and recently, an recurring problem with Staghorn. It comes, we treat, it leaves. A month or 2 later, repeat.
Biggest problem has been battling low pH (due to the water we have, it's just low pH water), which the fish have all acclimated too, even if it's not their ideal. It typically tracks between 6.4-7. (Again, I know it's low for some of those species, but without constantly tinkering with pH Up and the resultant spikes, I prefer to keep it pretty stable and manage with treated water changes regularly)
I use liquid API test kit. Chems are almost infallibly below .5 for Ammonia and 0.0 for the Nitri/ates. I check them every weekend, and change filter media every 2 weeks (I know overkill, but I also over filter)
Flash forward to yesterday.
Every one looks fine. We're in a Staghorn flare-up again. I dose with Flourish Excel in the morning before work, like I have the past 2 days. Came home at lunch, everyone looks happy enough on my walk by glance. My wife comes home 2 hours later, and the tank is milky, we have multiple deaths.
I get home, pull a sample to test, fish out the deaths, do a ~30% water change, replace all 6 filter media, manually pull out the chunks of Staghorn, give a healthy dose of Stress Coat + and a dose of Melafix on instinct. All the fish were very lethargic. The normally skittish Plecos were docile to the point that I had to physically touch them to get a reaction. Cories looked the worse. It looked like someone took a cheese grater to their skin. Not just the dead ones, which I could attribute to nibbling, but even the a couple of the live ones. Chems tested higher than normal, but still not as bad as I expected. Ammonia was ~.5-.75. Nitrates and Nitrates were in the first range above 0 (I can't remember which is which and the correlations without my test kit). I thought about a dose of Prime, but figured that after a 30% wc, plus what they've already been through, another chem might be too much and to wait until today.
This morning, the tank is clearer, but still foggy. 2 more deaths. I fear more before this is fixed. I'm at work now, but as soon as I'm home, I'll do another 20-30% water change. This is killing me. I LOVE my fish, and enjoy taking good care of them.
Has anyone seen/experienced anything like this before? Does it even make sense? All I can think of is that something happened with Flourish Excel and the Staghorn... but I can't imagine what. Any advice or knowledge would be GREATLY appreciated. I'm torn between proactively putting a couple of the remainders that look the worst out of their misery in case it's an infection of some kind, but I also don't want to kill any that might be able to be saved. I tried to get some pics, but they were bad enough that they wouldn't be useful.
Emperor 400 (with added AmmoCarb in second media slots) & Penguin 350 for filtration
Black sand substrate
3 small air stones
1 natural log, 2 natural rocks, several Java ferns
Historically, this has been a phenomenally healthy tank. To the point of unintentionally broods of cory fry and even 2 baby loaches (I didn't even know they bred in tanks, lol).
We've had intermittent issues with algae blooms (not dangerous, just unsightly) and recently, an recurring problem with Staghorn. It comes, we treat, it leaves. A month or 2 later, repeat.
Biggest problem has been battling low pH (due to the water we have, it's just low pH water), which the fish have all acclimated too, even if it's not their ideal. It typically tracks between 6.4-7. (Again, I know it's low for some of those species, but without constantly tinkering with pH Up and the resultant spikes, I prefer to keep it pretty stable and manage with treated water changes regularly)
I use liquid API test kit. Chems are almost infallibly below .5 for Ammonia and 0.0 for the Nitri/ates. I check them every weekend, and change filter media every 2 weeks (I know overkill, but I also over filter)
Flash forward to yesterday.
Every one looks fine. We're in a Staghorn flare-up again. I dose with Flourish Excel in the morning before work, like I have the past 2 days. Came home at lunch, everyone looks happy enough on my walk by glance. My wife comes home 2 hours later, and the tank is milky, we have multiple deaths.
I get home, pull a sample to test, fish out the deaths, do a ~30% water change, replace all 6 filter media, manually pull out the chunks of Staghorn, give a healthy dose of Stress Coat + and a dose of Melafix on instinct. All the fish were very lethargic. The normally skittish Plecos were docile to the point that I had to physically touch them to get a reaction. Cories looked the worse. It looked like someone took a cheese grater to their skin. Not just the dead ones, which I could attribute to nibbling, but even the a couple of the live ones. Chems tested higher than normal, but still not as bad as I expected. Ammonia was ~.5-.75. Nitrates and Nitrates were in the first range above 0 (I can't remember which is which and the correlations without my test kit). I thought about a dose of Prime, but figured that after a 30% wc, plus what they've already been through, another chem might be too much and to wait until today.
This morning, the tank is clearer, but still foggy. 2 more deaths. I fear more before this is fixed. I'm at work now, but as soon as I'm home, I'll do another 20-30% water change. This is killing me. I LOVE my fish, and enjoy taking good care of them.
Has anyone seen/experienced anything like this before? Does it even make sense? All I can think of is that something happened with Flourish Excel and the Staghorn... but I can't imagine what. Any advice or knowledge would be GREATLY appreciated. I'm torn between proactively putting a couple of the remainders that look the worst out of their misery in case it's an infection of some kind, but I also don't want to kill any that might be able to be saved. I tried to get some pics, but they were bad enough that they wouldn't be useful.
