I have 3 40-70 gallon planted tanks with all kinds of Mikrogeophagus ramirezi in them and all have been doing fine until about the third month ive had them they all are gasping for air as well as slowly dying one by one over the past few weeks. I have air stones in all of them and also have home made co2 systems attached to powerheads set on low as not to create too much current. i purchased a co2 tester to see if i was putting too much into the water, but it reads low levels. I have used fertilizers in the past even though i do a water change about once every 2 or 3 weeks and my nitrate levels are above 200 ppm!?!?!? obviously this is a huge issue that i believe can be fixed with water changes but should i purchase a denitrate solution of some kind? and looking online said rams prefer ph of around 5.5 while mine is at a high 9. i tried lowering the ph but reading these threads shows that my hard water is not allowing me to drop the ph which i have already discovered after wasting API ph down... is the ph a problem? or am i worrying for the wrong reasons? help all my rams are dying!
ammonia levels are all below .5 and nitrites are at about .5-1.0.... maybe just not enough water changes? the biggest tank has an adult german ram, 3 bolivian rams, 2 adult angels as well as an adult featherfin syndonitis catfish, 2 4inch bichirs, 2 red tailed sharks, 4 dwarf gouramis and 5 small tiger barbs... overstocked? shouldnt be too much for a 70 gallon bowfront with 2 50 gallon rated filters chock full of biomax. In this tank the community is doing fine, the bolivian rams look healthy, but the german ram is sitting on the bottom gasping for air hardly moving at all and then briefly swimming to the top for air for a second before returning to sit on the bottom...
the 30 gallon has 3 german rams, 2 balloon longfin rams, 1 gold ram (used to be 2 but larger male died 2 days ago), 1 gold balloon ram, as well as 2 bolivian rams. one 50 gallon rated filer with biomax as well as airstone and powerhead are installed. nitrate levels in this tank are still in high hundreds and ammonia is a little high because i had a half inch plecco in the tank that i recently removed due to high ammonia levels. i do frequent water changes as well as gravel vac the sand and under rocks. all of the rams are breathing rapidly and have very dull colors and one by one have been dying of some kind of suffocation... what is happening in my tank? i have 4 medium swords in this tank with a few anubias and other small plants (about 12 plants total)... i had a co2 system attached even though my co2 meter was still reading zero(?) i removed it just in case but no result. leaving the airstone on at night brings no result.. will just more water changes solve all of these problems?
ammonia levels are all below .5 and nitrites are at about .5-1.0.... maybe just not enough water changes? the biggest tank has an adult german ram, 3 bolivian rams, 2 adult angels as well as an adult featherfin syndonitis catfish, 2 4inch bichirs, 2 red tailed sharks, 4 dwarf gouramis and 5 small tiger barbs... overstocked? shouldnt be too much for a 70 gallon bowfront with 2 50 gallon rated filters chock full of biomax. In this tank the community is doing fine, the bolivian rams look healthy, but the german ram is sitting on the bottom gasping for air hardly moving at all and then briefly swimming to the top for air for a second before returning to sit on the bottom...
the 30 gallon has 3 german rams, 2 balloon longfin rams, 1 gold ram (used to be 2 but larger male died 2 days ago), 1 gold balloon ram, as well as 2 bolivian rams. one 50 gallon rated filer with biomax as well as airstone and powerhead are installed. nitrate levels in this tank are still in high hundreds and ammonia is a little high because i had a half inch plecco in the tank that i recently removed due to high ammonia levels. i do frequent water changes as well as gravel vac the sand and under rocks. all of the rams are breathing rapidly and have very dull colors and one by one have been dying of some kind of suffocation... what is happening in my tank? i have 4 medium swords in this tank with a few anubias and other small plants (about 12 plants total)... i had a co2 system attached even though my co2 meter was still reading zero(?) i removed it just in case but no result. leaving the airstone on at night brings no result.. will just more water changes solve all of these problems?
