yesterday V. V. Sad day for me.

[prabuddhasarkar]

Hi all. I wanna share u something v sad happened to me yesterday. I hd a 26 G partially heavy planted tank. having 5 discus, one feather fin, 2 boasemani rainbow one platty. temp 30C. I do 25% water change everyday. I hv top filter with seramics and sponge filter and air pump. 2 tubes attached. Yesterday when I went to my lab, either I somhow forgotten to on my air pump, or it was on but got disconnected. when I returned home, I foundone of my boasemani was almost dying and became dead. Same kind ofthing happened with ny platty somedays b4, but at that time the pump was on, I usualyy keepmy T5 light on whole day as it helps in photosynthesis, but the other tube is of hitachi and not fullspectrum. that day it was on whole day and probably only respiration occured in the tank with no photosynthesis. so plants released heavy amount of CO2, when I came back home in afternoon, found oneof myplatty dead and discuses with heavy breathing. I did 50% water change twice and they became ok. But this time same thing happened, and I am really in a shock.that was very good rainbow and the platyy was also very big. I request all of u to take more care of ur aquariums and more precious fishes to avoid such incident like I did. They need our help to become happy. Thanx.

[mmorris]

I'm so sorry to hear! To be honest, though, your tank sounds like it is seriously over-stocked. Discus need roughly 10 gallons per fish. You might want to think seriously about up-grading to a 55 gallon.

[prabuddhasarkar]

Yes I know that, that is due to space shortage. It is not inmy home. I stay in a rented house for study purpose. my discuses are one is 4inch, 2 are 3inch and 2 are 2.5 inch. anyways, thanx for reply. but really they r happy. u can see picture of them in the thread in this section names "how the heavily planted tanks get filtered". I always wanted a heavily planted tank. But previusly started with sands,now v difficult to grow good plants. But still Im trying. Can u tell me one thing? I want UV light to be in. Can normal UV lamps be used? is it only for sterilization or for looks also? And what r the lights used, so that the tanks plants r seen bright green? I use hitachi aquarium tube which is available.It isgood,but as good as some of the aquarium pictures I hv seen here.

[mmorris]

Are you thinking that uv is going to keep problems from developing? I wouldn't count on it. The discus may be small now, but if you want them to grow to their potential, IMO uv isn't going to help.