Squirmteben
New Member
I bought some lace rock from a LFS in January when I was setting up a new 30 gallon, which the clerk told me were inert and wouldn't change water chemistry. I cycled the tank with a sponge from one of my other tanks and everything seemed fine, except the ramshorn snails kept dying. At one point, I had a snail graveyard, but the fish seemed fine. Eventually I had to drip acclimate my snails for a couple hours so they would survive the transition. Never in my life thought I would acclimate ramshorns.
About a month ago, fish started dying, some with no symptoms, others with popeye and dropsy. Water changes didn't seem to help. Every day there would be another dead fish. Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates were at 0. I even went out and got a copper test kit, which also showed zero. The only strange thing was the pH was up around 7.6-7.8, which is high for my Seattle water. Would a high pH take a month or two to kill fish that had been acclimated to it, or could there be metals that are poisoning everything?
Either way, I pulled out the rocks and now hoping fish will stop dying in that tank. Anyone know where to get cool, safe rocks on the cheap?
Fish in the tank are guppies and a female betta (corys all died)
The tank: right after it was set up. It's now overgrown with plants.
About a month ago, fish started dying, some with no symptoms, others with popeye and dropsy. Water changes didn't seem to help. Every day there would be another dead fish. Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates were at 0. I even went out and got a copper test kit, which also showed zero. The only strange thing was the pH was up around 7.6-7.8, which is high for my Seattle water. Would a high pH take a month or two to kill fish that had been acclimated to it, or could there be metals that are poisoning everything?
Either way, I pulled out the rocks and now hoping fish will stop dying in that tank. Anyone know where to get cool, safe rocks on the cheap?
Fish in the tank are guppies and a female betta (corys all died)
The tank: right after it was set up. It's now overgrown with plants.