Blasted Phosphates
I just wanted to let everyone know about the “situation” that I had been experiencing. I started losing a fish a week but the water was testing fine. I had my tap water tested and found that there are high levels of phosphates in it. We never had issues before so I think the water company must have changed the levels in the water. I also know that they are using Chloramines instead/in addition to Chlorine, so make sure your water conditioners take care of both.
I used a phosphate remover (little white pellets) in my extra media baskets in both filters for about 6 days and the phosphates are down to .05 ppm so I can relax for now. I think I am going to keep Phosban in the filters as extra media from now on to prevent this from happening again. It also explains why I had a sudden out break of the cyanobacteria. It disappeared after a few days of water changes and treatments.
On a sad note, I lost both of my Parkinson’s rainbows, a Praecox, an Axelrod’s and my female Red Iriam. On a weird level, it didn’t affect my loaches and botias at all.
How long do you think I should wait to start replacing my poor dead fish?
Category: AquaticLife
