very weird death for my plec

[sharkman]

hi i had 2 plecs now only have 1 because 1 of them was dead when i woke up thismorning it was very healthy, it was suking the glass normaly then just died plz help
my filter is a ehiem professional with charcoal is this a good idea to have charcoal for a long time?

 

[FroggyFox]

sorry to hear about your loss

Charcoal starts leeching stuff back into your water after a few weeks...so most people (around here anyway) don't leave the charcoal in the filter for longer than a few weeks depending on why its in there.

As for why your pleco died its hard for anyone to tell. Did your water temperature change drastically in the past couple of days? How big of a tank? How old was it? What are your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels? How many other fish do you have in the tank?

If you answer those questions for everyone, maybe someone will have an idea of what happened to him?

 

[sharkman]

well i did a test for ph it turned out ph7, then nitrate 0.25,
then ammonia
0.5, my tank is 100gallons, it was about3 inches, and i have 50 fish
all community, but my other plec is fine!

 

[wayne]

How long had you had him, how big was he?

It's not true carbon starts leaching stuff out, it just stops absorbing

 

[Gomer]

Sorry to hear about the pleco Sudden deaths have happened before. Did you test for nitrIte?

Wayne
Have you ever done any tests or know of any that will prove one way or another that the carbon will or will not leach? I use carbon as an ozone trap in the lab. It also absorbs other chemicals in the system. Under particular situations where there is static flow over the carbon, I CAN measure stuff leaching out of the carbon.

 

[uncutbulldog]

Carbon does LEAK out impurities. But it takes a very long time. So long that you shouldn't worry. As with any mineral with water flowing over it it will erode over time. I don't understand why there is always a discussion over this topic.

 

[wayne]

No I haven't done any testing. The only testing I had seen anyone mention previously said it didn't leak stuff out, but if you're testing it in a lab and it is leaking, that's good enough for me. What do you have to do to get stuff out?

 

[sharkman]

yes iam taking my carbon out

 

[mandi0808]

Did he have enough algae to eat or were you supplementing his diet? Did his stomach appear caved in?