# The tank of death - but the plants look really nice!



## TMonahan (Aug 29, 2019)

So I've got a really nice planted tank. No algae, crystal clear water and it had single gold fish that lived for 4.5 years before my beneficial bacteria crashed and he was claimed by an ammonia spike I didn't catch in time.

Never found the reason my bacteria crashed... but I moved on and keep the tank running. Still doing water changes and vacuuming the substrate when required.

Fast forward, its several months later and I've been maintaining the tank fish-less using Seachem Stability to maintain the little bacteria I have left. Their only source of ammonia is the occasional rotting leaf on the various anubias that call the tank home. 

My water tests show
7.0 ph
0.0 Ammonia
0.0 Nitrites
5.0 ppm Nitrates

Deciding to get some snails and another goldfish. After acclimating them over several hours (3 hrs actually)... the snails never moved or came out of their shells. That was a week ago. And the gold fish - well I'm on the 3rd one. The other two didn't last more than 24 hours. Pet store says I'm running a bit acidic that if I could get it up to 7.4 ph the goldfish would be happier?

What am I missing? Is it shock? I'm acclimating them where you add 4 oz of aquarium water to the pet store bag every 1/2 hour .... then around 3 hours in - I net them out into the tank, discarding the pet shop water into my plants.

The tank has never had anything but fresh water (treated with Seachem Prime) in it, and its never been medicated (I heard the silicon could hold copper or other meds long afterwards). Am I doomed to have an aquascape with gorgeous plants only?


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

take a pic of your tank


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*tank*

don't acclimate that long &#8230; me I usually half hour or so no longer then a hour &#8230; just my opinion here 
cheers


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

I have to agree with Tom, I always drip acclimate for about 20 minutes. Sometimes an hour (when I forget I'm acclimating something lol). 3 hours is too long, but I want to see a pic of your tank though, based on your parameters they look perfectly fine 7PH is not going to kill any fish. I have feeling I know what it is but I don't want to put any ideas in your head until I see a pic.


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## TMonahan (Aug 29, 2019)

He's a pic... And of course I arrive this morning to find the new guy sitting on the bottom... Barely moving. Acting like he's experiencing ph shock. Slowly breathing, looking around... No movement otherwise.


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## TMonahan (Aug 29, 2019)

Here's another photo. Tank is 10 gallon with a 2 gallon custom built canister filter on the floor. They said you can never over Filter...and those HOB jobs are grossly too small. Filter is full of lava rock, filter floss and dense foam sheets. The peace lily has been growing hydroponically atop for like 6 years. Substrate is just regular aquarium gravel but I'm thinking about adding crushed coral? Led Lighting. The whole thing is custom build. Including the PEX lines. This morning I put some rinsed crushed coral in a cloth bag and suspended near the outflow/return.... And several hours later my fish is starting to move around limitedly. Beginning to question the validity of my ph tests. The only thing added to the tank today was crushed coral... hmmmm


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

TMonahan said:


> Here's another photo. Tank is 10 gallon with a 2 gallon custom built canister filter on the floor. They said you can never over Filter...and those HOB jobs are grossly too small. Filter is full of lava rock, filter floss and dense foam sheets. The peace lily has been growing hydroponically atop for like 6 years. Substrate is just regular aquarium gravel but I'm thinking about adding crushed coral? Led Lighting. The whole thing is custom build. Including the PEX lines. This morning I put some rinsed crushed coral in a cloth bag and suspended near the outflow/return.... And several hours later my fish is starting to move around limitedly. Beginning to question the validity of my ph tests. The only thing added to the tank today was crushed coral... hmmmm


Hmm Thanks for the pic, I was going to say it's your substrate if you cheaped out and decided to go with black blasting sand (bad batch) but since you are not using BBS, I have no idea. Are you using API ph testing kit? they have a expiration date on them, if you do not see that on the bottle then it's a really old stock and is definitely expired, I think API PH made in the last 4 years started to put expiration dates on them before that it was made date that you have to figure out when they expired. I would get a second opinion on the PH of your water, if it's really low in the 6's test for KH and GH if your KH is close to 0 on tap water then you might be suffering from old tank syndrome.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*tank issue*

can i make one suggestion &#8230; do u have a old or handy hang on back filter 
i would try is take cannister offline , take out some sponge and that's it and run filter on tank , your tank looks really good and im thinking maybe something in the cannister , this is again just my way of thinking to separate tank and filter and see if one is the issue to the other. maybe u can post a pic of the filter , 
but my first task would be to run it alone on a hang on back 
maybe add a bubbler to the water .. but this is just to fig out where the issue lies , the tank looks like u should be able to sustain fish ...with out any issues 
don't chase the numbers if the tanks been running for years gold fish have been living in a bowl in my moms house for years with her doing redicoulous cleaning regeme&#8230;
good luck 
cheers


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## Karin (May 21, 2019)

Try pond snails. Those suckers might survive a nuclear winter...
Was there anything you added/changed before the first fish died?
Did you or someone else re-seal the tank (maybe with a toxic batch of silicone?)
Were you feeding the tank whilst it sat empty?
I'd probably do a near complete water change and maybe even cycle the tank afresh.
But if there's anything in there leaching toxicity, that won't go away with just a water change...


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## TMonahan (Aug 29, 2019)

*The missing element was heat*

So its been a few days since the last fish (and only fish) was added. Its done nothing but sit on the bottom and watch me. Occasionally it swims to another spot and then settles on the bottom.

Spoke to the pet store for suggestions and they asked if I heated my tank (which I don't, as its for goldfish). BUT they suggested I find my old heater and try it. The fish they sell at the store are all in "connected" tanks with the same water, and as such - even their cold water fish have heat. All the tanks are sharing a heated filer system.

Skeptical, I tried it. Put the heater in a few hours ago and voila, my fish is up moving and swimming. I've got a goldie that likes warm water. Simple fix. I was running outta ideas. So apparently temperature does matter.


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