Dead snails, happy shrimp, distressed fish.

[dan2x38]

You need to be concerned with the cycle in the tank if there is nothing in there now feeding the bio-filter. Even a couple drops of pure ammonia can be enough to sustain a bio-filter but needs to be done daily. Once the beneficial bacteria dies off you are at square one for another cycle. If you have another tank you can seed the filter on the one without fish with some of the used filter media. Don't rinse it or anything keep all the grunge. Just be careful do not remove more than 1/2 the media, replace with some new stuff, don't do it on same day of a water change for that tank and feed the bio-filter with something i.e. pure ammonia - even a piece of raw shrimp will help keep the filter going but needs to be removed before adding your fish. Then test & observe...

[morrom]

Howdy guys,

So I am starting to have some success in adding fish to my tank, taking fischkopp advise. Sat morning I unplugged the CO2, later that day I did my WC and Cleaning as normal. Then added a few Siamese Algae eaters they took to the tank, I slowly turned up the CO2 with no issues (much lower then I had before). After that success I tried adding a bigger Siamese algae eater (man he was hard to catch...) later in the evening. He displayed the same behaviour as before right to the top of the tank, I removed him and waited till the morning to add him again. And oddly enough he was fine, he took to the tank and even grabbed him self a snack.
So it seems that the CO2 might be my issues there but why would the other two fish be fine with the water and the bigger one seems to struggle... Could he be used to the other tanks water being richer in O2 and when added to the other tank he panics due to the change in conditions...?
Some time this week I am going to add some more Amano Shrimp to the tank and see how things go.
I will keep you posted.

Thanks again guys for all your help.

[morrom]

Hello every one.

So the tank seems to be fine atm, all the fish are doing well and don't seem to be struggling at all. I bought more amano shrimp over the weekend and added one to see how she would take, all seems fine and was doing well as of this morning.
I started dosing very lightly and the tank exploded every thing and I do mean every thing grew out of control plants and algae a like. The tank has been having problems with green hair algae for quite a while and I am having a lot of trouble getting a handle on it. At this point I'm out of ideas on how to fix the problem, I tried h2o2, I tried backing the light cycle, I tried a black out and it still comes back. I though that there might be an imbalance in the tank allowing the algae to out compete the plants, but after dosing and seeing the results I'm not sure that was it either.....Any advice would be super helpful.

Thanks again every one for your help.

[dan2x38]

Here is a great website I used a lot: http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

It is an imbalance you just have to be patient and experiment. I kept a log until I figured it out. I also made one change at a time. The great thing about CO2 and EI dosing things happen quickly so you can small changes and see results with in a short time - usually.

Did you test the CO2 level? You mentioned a drop checker they work but only if the KH is at a certain level believe 4ppm or the solution inside the drop checker is at 4ppm KH. Your CO2 should be safe at 30ppm. I posted a down and dirty method to get a baseline CO2 reading try that.

[magnosis]

Just a quick note, I notice you're adding SAE to your tank.

Word of advise: use a lid, glass top, whatever.  These guys can jump !  Not a lot, but they do.  I've lost two SAE in the last year because they randomly decided to get a breathe of fresh air

O.o