January 2nd was the 3 year anniversary of setting up my 125 gallon planted aquarium. I pulled up a two year old Amazon swordplant that had out grown this aquarium. It ended up being two large swords and a bunch of Sagittaria, a 10" diameter root mass!
My substrate is 2 1/2" of EcoComplete, and it made a hell of a mess!
I am pumping a minimum of 1200 gph through a wet/dry sump, so I just let the filter clear up the water.
Right away I noticed my black Pinoy Angelfish looked like he had a layer of dust on him. After a day or two it looked like a slime coat issue...
He died 3 days later, a large blusher/ paraiba lost equilibrium and died the next day. I did a 50% WC that Saturday, and another Sunday.
I had 5 adults near the top facing the incoming water stream. Had a little labored breathing going on.
I have 3 juveniles, quarter to fifty cent size that appeared unaffected, and my Bolivian rams and Ancistrus seemed fine.
All in all I lost 5 beautiful Angelfish I had for 4 years. In the past year I had two Angelfish exhibit equilibrium problems and die shortly after. One of these bloated horribly, and I had to put him down. I had another adult fish simply vanish. My 5 Corydoras simply disappeared...I had given the Swordplant to a friend's son, and found out today, he had his entire group of adult Angelfish die within 4 days of introducing the plant!
The survivors, after enduring a 4 hour Potassium Permanganate bath appear healthy now. One veiltail lost half of his tail to finrot.
This tank is set up on continuous water changes, approximately 80 gallons dripped weekly. Water parameters are consistantly as follows: Ammonia=0, Nitrites=0. Nitrates=0,and Phosphates=0 (or close to it!) I am now dosing large amounts of Bacillus to overwhelm the pathogenic bacteria residing in the substrate, feeding probiotic fishfood. I am feeding less, and vacuuming substrate to a degree. You really can't vacuum EcoComplete, as it is loaded with fines, plus the tank is heavily planted. The lesson learned here I guess, is if you are going to majorly disrupt the substrate, remove the fish first! Using probiotics, and following "competitive exclusion"principles, I will rein in the lurking monster.
My substrate is 2 1/2" of EcoComplete, and it made a hell of a mess!
I am pumping a minimum of 1200 gph through a wet/dry sump, so I just let the filter clear up the water.
Right away I noticed my black Pinoy Angelfish looked like he had a layer of dust on him. After a day or two it looked like a slime coat issue...
He died 3 days later, a large blusher/ paraiba lost equilibrium and died the next day. I did a 50% WC that Saturday, and another Sunday.
I had 5 adults near the top facing the incoming water stream. Had a little labored breathing going on.
I have 3 juveniles, quarter to fifty cent size that appeared unaffected, and my Bolivian rams and Ancistrus seemed fine.
All in all I lost 5 beautiful Angelfish I had for 4 years. In the past year I had two Angelfish exhibit equilibrium problems and die shortly after. One of these bloated horribly, and I had to put him down. I had another adult fish simply vanish. My 5 Corydoras simply disappeared...I had given the Swordplant to a friend's son, and found out today, he had his entire group of adult Angelfish die within 4 days of introducing the plant!
The survivors, after enduring a 4 hour Potassium Permanganate bath appear healthy now. One veiltail lost half of his tail to finrot.
This tank is set up on continuous water changes, approximately 80 gallons dripped weekly. Water parameters are consistantly as follows: Ammonia=0, Nitrites=0. Nitrates=0,and Phosphates=0 (or close to it!) I am now dosing large amounts of Bacillus to overwhelm the pathogenic bacteria residing in the substrate, feeding probiotic fishfood. I am feeding less, and vacuuming substrate to a degree. You really can't vacuum EcoComplete, as it is loaded with fines, plus the tank is heavily planted. The lesson learned here I guess, is if you are going to majorly disrupt the substrate, remove the fish first! Using probiotics, and following "competitive exclusion"principles, I will rein in the lurking monster.
