Help! can uprooted fert root tabs kill fish ? or freshly cured Manzanita wood

[nuimom]

nuimomNew Member
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I feel horrible, I added some new Manzanita wood to my planted 20L. I had to move a few plants and push the wood into the gravel some. I am afraid a few fish may have ingested some partially dissolved tabs, as well as making the water unsafe for all. My poor young Borellis are moving slow and lost a few neons, a cory and a fancy guppy.

As soon as I noticed odd behavior I saw the guppy swimming weird and cory and neon all swam disoriented and sank...............I hurried and did water change, put charcoal in filter and removed wood. Hoping all will be ok in a few hours, Apistos are moving better, but not normal yet. Sure don't want to loose them :O

ALL water chem is normal, O ammonia, nitrates, nitrites PH the same, everything looks good but the fish Temp still at same 77.

Has anyone had trouble with the SeaChem tabs, my bad for maybe making them be exposed. Or how about freshly boiled/rinsed Manzanita wood???

Thank you in advance,
nuimom

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Sorry to hear that. I don't think it is the wood, unless you boiled/soaked it in something toxic. Wood like Manzanita doesn't need any sort of treatment before you use it. It comes from <"a clean environment">.

You've may have released some ammonia into the water column, from the substrate, when you've moved the plants and wood. I would keep up the water changes. If you have a water conditioner like "Prime"? I would add that to the tank water, it will bind some of the ammonia (and any chlorine if you have a very heavily chlorinated tap supply or used bleach on the wood).

If you have any floating plants (on another tank?) I would add them, and dependent upon your water pH and general water circulation an air stone. Aerial plants aren't O2/CO2 limited, so can make use of any additional fixed nitrogen.

Microbial biological filtration can be oxygen limited (as well as ammonia) limited, the problem is that once you get above pH7 the relatively non-toxic ammonium ion (NH4+) becomes the much more toxic ammonia (NH3).

cheers Darrel

 

[nuimom]

Thanks Darrel. I did an ammonia test right away, O ammonia, did all my water chem tests, all good, my pH7.5 is always like that, and I have lots of plants in and on tank. Tank is newly cycled, so no real build up and not a deep substrate. Have been fish keeping since 1990, but I have just started using these tabs. I put them in three weeks ago and forgot about them when moving plants, I did see a few and they were dissolving and I quickly pushed them back in the gravel. I am afraid some of the particles may have been ingested and some more loose in the water. I did my w/c and charcoal and within an hour A. borelli seemed a little better. Will keep fingers crossed. Will post as soon as I see them this am, still before sunrise here, and don't light them up til after dawn.
Thank you again for all your info .

 

[nuimom]

Oh I forgot to mention, the wood was bought at an aquarium shop locally, looks like maybe sandblasted, no bark, I boiled it for a few hours, then soaked it, looked so pretty, water was looking good, then after moving plants I did have slight cloudiness, thought it was just from disturbing the gravel, had started to clear, but didn't think of the fert that may be in the water at that time.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Thanks Darrel. I did an ammonia test right away, O ammonia, did all my water chem tests, all good, my pH7.5 is always like that, and I have lots of plants in and on tank. Tank is newly cycled, so no real build up and not a deep substrate. Have been fish keeping since 1990, but I have just started using these tabs. I put them in three weeks ago and forgot about them when moving plants, I did see a few and they were dissolving and I quickly pushed them back in the gravel. I am afraid some of the particles may have been ingested and some more loose in the water. I did my w/c and charcoal and within an hour A. borelli seemed a little better. Will keep fingers crossed. Will post as soon as I see them this am, still before sunrise here, and don't light them up til after dawn..

You've probably done all you can, sounds like the fertiliser tabs were the issue.

I'm not a great fan of test kits and I wouldn't rely on their results.

cheers Darrel

 

[nuimom]

Thanks so much for your helpful comments. Lights up on sunrise mode, all looks better. Male is back to courting her, she is still slow and not eating yet, but has color and is moving more normal. Will do more water change this am. I use the drops for the test kits, but I am with you, observation and gut feelings seem to always pay off
Aloha, nuimom

 

[nuimom]

Darrel, female is eating well now and all look back to normal, so happy they are doing well. Thank you for in put.