tank of death...

[allysangels]

I run the aquatics department at a big pet store. my system is divided into 5 sumps, 3 of which have 12 15g tanks housing various tropical fish. one sump has 6 15g tanks with comet goldfish and rosie reds, and the last sump has 6 15g tanks with all plants. all these are drip fed the same water from culligan filtered temp controlled tap water. in my plant system, I keep one tank empty for when customers show up with fish in buckets that they no longer want. (this happens fairly often.) over the past few months, this tank seems to be killing everything that is put inside! I always look and make sure there are no visible signs of illness before putting anything into my tanks, and won't take in sick animals. but a few months ago, the first casualty was a 8in comet. perfectly fine, but after spending 2 hours in this tank, belly up. a couple weeks later, a big fat healthy rainbow shark, same story. then an overgrown common pleco. now I've lost a group of shrimp, (sorry nick) out of 10 that came in, 1 died in the tank, and the rest within 2 days after coming home. it has to be something in the water. a friend suggested that fertilizer from the potted plants might be doing them in. I do water changes of about 75% once a month since there are no fish living in this system other than for a few hours here and there, and I dose weekly with leaf zone. all parameters are normal, I've even tested for copper without finding any. any ideas? thanks.

[R_sustaita]

get an spare tank

[allysangels]

not an option.

[sunkenmetal]

that sucks :(

I will have more shrimp soon

[allysangels]

my friend i split the shrimp with took 4, 2 died within a couple hours, but he says he saw a berried female still there last night, so there may be hope... im just wondering what could be in the water that is killing everything? i had a giant crawfish in there last week, and it's fine, and a softshell turtle a couple days ago, also fine. but all these deaths have to be caused by something... what about the lead bands on the stem plants? can this leach into the water in enough concentration to cause this?

[sunkenmetal]

is the water softened? Not ph but general hardness....

[allysangels]

no. typical houston tapwater, hard and alkaline.

[Totenkampf]

i guess i am not visualizing this correctly, each sump is independant of the others with the only common element being the fresh water supply? how would contamination from the plant bank cross into the other banks? there have been reports of plant importers dosing the heck out of plants with potassium permanganate and other toxins to remove critters that may casue them to fail at obtaining an export license. it has been suggested that you thoroughly rinse these plants if they are coming directly from overseas growers, especially malaysia and indonesia. these toxins are especially effective agains crustaceans.

[allysangels]

each bank is separate except for that they share the same incoming water supply. the tank in question is in the plant section. i just don't put plants in that one, i leave it empty, like a hotel room... a haunted hotel room...
the plants come from florida.

[wesleydnunder]

All the planted tanks share a single sump filter, including the empty one? Check the hardness of the planted system. Plants can strip calcium carbonate out of the water. If the tank goes a month between water changes, hardness (potentially a big factor) and ph (a factor, but to a lesser degree) can both fall due to decalcification by the plants. If the ionic content of your tankwater differs greatly from the water the fish are coming from they could be experiencing osmotic shock, which can kill quickly. A solution to this is to change the water more frequently to replenish depleted ions.

Mark

[TangoMIke]

Mark is right on. The plants come in to you potted in pete moss correct? This along with the general cycling of the plants in the system and the fertiliser can make for a pretty wide PH/Hardness swing from what the fish have grown up in(Houston) and what the tank is cycling at. Ph especially larg drastic changes can kill, trust me I have done it...
Mike

[allysangels]

I think mark may be right, I will start doing weekly water changes and see if that helps. thanks guys! ph tests the same as other tanks- 8.4

[Totenkampf]

do they really come potted in peat moss? i would think that they would be potted in mineral wool which is mostly inert by itself but can carry over ferts. theres just no telling what is coming in with frequent shipments like what you endure. frequesnt WC is probably the best option.

[allysangels]

potted plants are in wool, stem plants in bunches with rubber bands and lead strips wrapped around them. I'm going to start doing more frequent water changes, starting today, 50%. thanks so much to everyone for your thoughts and ideas. now if I could only get them to stop shipping me house plants labeled as aquatics... lol. I usually just throw them away as I unpack the boxes.

[allysangels]

it seems the solution to almost every problem is more frequent water changes...