discuspaul
11-29-2012, 08:19 PM
As some of you may know, I've kept discus in a planted tank for quite some time.
Over the past year I've had 8 near adults in my 75 gal tank without having made any changes, nor any additions, etc. whatsoever, and everything was just 'swimming along' very nicely.
Then....... but first here's a little background:
Here in Vancouver we are blessed (or perhaps not so blessed), to have quite soft water straight out of the tap, @ around 6.8 pH, with very low need for, nor usage, of chlorine or chloramines by the water supply people, although the water supply is very low in mineral content, and yielding water that is abnormally low in GH & KH. So, most discus-keepers here feel the need to do some occasional buffering, as I do.
Well, it turns out that the pH in my tank, even after fairly large wcs at least twice a week, has been gradually reducing, to the point where when I checked some weeks ago, my reading was quite off the chart, seemingly well below 6.0, which is the lowest reading on my 2 test kits - an API & a Nutrafin Mini Master.
A few days ago, I noticed that a couple of my Red Snakeskins had darkened somewhat, but didn't think much of it at the time. Usual stress from the pecking order aggression. All fish were eating with gusto as usual & behaving quite normally.
The following day all 3 RSS's had darkened considerably more, and late in the day I noted one of them seemed quite skittish, and he suddenly, inexplicably made a mad dash across the back of the tank, striking himself against the glass.
Bad news I thought..... so decided to check water params......test showed no ammonia, no nitrite, as usual . I test every few weeks but it's always been the same.
Anyway, the following day, I walk into the den to find 2 Albino Goldens dried up/ dead on the floor. Had jumped out of a fairly narrow space.
Never happened to me before.... alarm bells.
I checked both of my test kits carefully, and noted then that both of them had expiry dates long since passed, several months before ( real dumb - I should have known better & checked this much earlier - I'd had those test kits for quite some time).
Late that day, a BD took a mad dash across the tank, several times, and ended up bashing himself so hard against the glass that he perished on the spot - he'd committed hari-kari!
I guess some of you know what's coming next.
Anyway, I do a good sized wc, and vow to go out & get a fresh new test kit first thing the following morning.
Next day, before leaving for the nearby LFS, I turn on the tank light & see a dead RSS floating in the tank.
I get the new test kit home, and sure enough .... ammonia readings (.50).
To top things off I'd been recently using an inexpensive run-of-the-mill conditioner (rather than Prime, which I had on hand !) due to our water being very low in chlorine/chloramines, and no ammonia presence.
I do another huge wc and condition with Prime to de-toxify the ammmonia, but of course, it's too late .... I've lost 4 of 8 discus in the blink of an eye (so I felt).
Anyway, to make a long story short, and while I may be wrong, I self-diagnosed that my tank pH had reduced to around 5.0 or so, and with little or no buffering, almost non-existent GH & KH, that my bio-filtration had gone into full dormancy & ceased functioning effectively. I have since taken steps to re-build an effective nitrifying bacterial base while using Prime with every wc.
My remaining 4 discus have fully returned to normal coloration and once again eating like vultures !
But this just goes to show that a bit of a disaster can happen to any one of us, at any time, and that we're all subject to occasional brain cramps that may lose us some fish. Lesson learned.
Over the past year I've had 8 near adults in my 75 gal tank without having made any changes, nor any additions, etc. whatsoever, and everything was just 'swimming along' very nicely.
Then....... but first here's a little background:
Here in Vancouver we are blessed (or perhaps not so blessed), to have quite soft water straight out of the tap, @ around 6.8 pH, with very low need for, nor usage, of chlorine or chloramines by the water supply people, although the water supply is very low in mineral content, and yielding water that is abnormally low in GH & KH. So, most discus-keepers here feel the need to do some occasional buffering, as I do.
Well, it turns out that the pH in my tank, even after fairly large wcs at least twice a week, has been gradually reducing, to the point where when I checked some weeks ago, my reading was quite off the chart, seemingly well below 6.0, which is the lowest reading on my 2 test kits - an API & a Nutrafin Mini Master.
A few days ago, I noticed that a couple of my Red Snakeskins had darkened somewhat, but didn't think much of it at the time. Usual stress from the pecking order aggression. All fish were eating with gusto as usual & behaving quite normally.
The following day all 3 RSS's had darkened considerably more, and late in the day I noted one of them seemed quite skittish, and he suddenly, inexplicably made a mad dash across the back of the tank, striking himself against the glass.
Bad news I thought..... so decided to check water params......test showed no ammonia, no nitrite, as usual . I test every few weeks but it's always been the same.
Anyway, the following day, I walk into the den to find 2 Albino Goldens dried up/ dead on the floor. Had jumped out of a fairly narrow space.
Never happened to me before.... alarm bells.
I checked both of my test kits carefully, and noted then that both of them had expiry dates long since passed, several months before ( real dumb - I should have known better & checked this much earlier - I'd had those test kits for quite some time).
Late that day, a BD took a mad dash across the tank, several times, and ended up bashing himself so hard against the glass that he perished on the spot - he'd committed hari-kari!
I guess some of you know what's coming next.
Anyway, I do a good sized wc, and vow to go out & get a fresh new test kit first thing the following morning.
Next day, before leaving for the nearby LFS, I turn on the tank light & see a dead RSS floating in the tank.
I get the new test kit home, and sure enough .... ammonia readings (.50).
To top things off I'd been recently using an inexpensive run-of-the-mill conditioner (rather than Prime, which I had on hand !) due to our water being very low in chlorine/chloramines, and no ammonia presence.
I do another huge wc and condition with Prime to de-toxify the ammmonia, but of course, it's too late .... I've lost 4 of 8 discus in the blink of an eye (so I felt).
Anyway, to make a long story short, and while I may be wrong, I self-diagnosed that my tank pH had reduced to around 5.0 or so, and with little or no buffering, almost non-existent GH & KH, that my bio-filtration had gone into full dormancy & ceased functioning effectively. I have since taken steps to re-build an effective nitrifying bacterial base while using Prime with every wc.
My remaining 4 discus have fully returned to normal coloration and once again eating like vultures !
But this just goes to show that a bit of a disaster can happen to any one of us, at any time, and that we're all subject to occasional brain cramps that may lose us some fish. Lesson learned.