soil making fish sick?

[flukekiller]

oddly enough years ago i had a tank where everything was dying over a week and a half long period. It drove me nuts, i finally realized that my wife had put one of those automatic air freshener sprays on the wall next to the tank. long story short they were getting poisoned. has anything new been added like that?

 

[o5b0rn3b]

don't forget that you lose a lot of oxygen with water temps like that, I'm sure that isn't helping your situation.

 

[ehh]

Cories prefer temps in the high 60's- low 70's. I would think any temp in the 80's would be bad for them. 88 sounds like a death warrant to me.

I didn't know they needed temps that low. I know I've read high 70s low 80s before. And I've kept them before during a summer and didn't lose any. I figured the high temps would encourage illness but I've been trying to keep the water really clean to combat that. But you're right, I'm sure the high temps aren't helping.

 

[ehh]

oddly enough years ago i had a tank where everything was dying over a week and a half long period. It drove me nuts, i finally realized that my wife had put one of those automatic air freshener sprays on the wall next to the tank. long story short they were getting poisoned. has anything new been added like that?

There's nothing like that going on. I'm too paranoid to let me gf use air fresheners. Not only for the tanks but one of our dogs has bad allergies.

 

[ehh]

Man... The soil is composted manure. It's not advertised as having manure in it. I figured manure would be labeled as so.
Guess I'll be ripping the tank apart tomorrow morning.
I'm guessing I should expect long term effects, right? This might explain why the betta died only after a year.
Stupid stupid stupid.

 

[ehh]

Well completely dismantled the planted tank. Sucks. That's the first time I've set up a planted tank and the plants did really well.
Hopefully I don't lose any more of my Cory cats.

 

[HybridHerp]

How old was the soil and how long was the tank running? Generally for dirted tanks you're going to want to be using an organic potting mix, the potting mix is chicken manure instead of cow manure so its easier to process and breaks down a little more cleanly...I also presume you had the tank capped with a small gravel or sand so as to keep the soil at the bottom layer of the substrate bed and not let it enter the water column?
The high temp definitely isn't doing you any favors just with it being that high and with it decreasing oxygen dissolved in the water.