I've been unexpectedly hit by an onslaught of fish deaths. Yesterday alone I was forced to bury 5 fish. I'm afraid my guppies won't make it and it's really taking a toll on my self-esteem. I introduced a powerhead to help circulate the water in my 55 gallon tank (which I've decided to go low-light low-tech on) and the powerhead sucked up and killed 2 of my neon tetras. (I knew I should have added a sponge prefilter to block the intake!)
More on my 55 gallon though...it is fully planted and therefore I've decided to cut the filter and let nature work its magic. So far so good. The reasoning is this: I cover the top of the tank at night so when fish & plants respire and emit CO2 that gets trapped inside the tank during the night. Then, during daytime when I turn on the lights, the plants will use the CO2 they emitted throughout the night to support growth. So far, it's working. My pH has lowered to 6.2 due to the CO2 and my fish are doing fine. (pH is down to 7.0 due to the Florabase, and CO2 lowers pH further). The good news is that ammonia is not toxic at all since the pH is low..even if I had a lot of it, it is in its non-toxic form, and plus plants love that stuff! No more yeast and sugar DIY CO2 for me! (It was a hassle anyways...bleck)
My only concern is that there are many suspended dirt/dust particles in the tank that's making the water unattractively cloudy. I tried introducing a powerhead but that turned out terribly...the idea is that it will eventually sink to the bottom of the tank to create "mulm" or fertilizer for the plants.
My hope is that the plants will thrive off the nutrient rich FloraBase layer and I won't get too bad of an algae problem because hopefully there won't be too many nutrients floating about in the water column.
--I read an interesting idea which was that to reduce algae, add floating plants such as duckweed or salvinia..their roots will absorb excess nutrients in the water, thus depriving the algae...hmm. Since my lighting is technically considered "low" for a 55 gallon tank, I'm praying I won't get large ugly brown patches of algae. I do have slight dots of brown algae on the leaves and small hair algae strands, but hopefully that will go away eventually.
My lighting is thus: 2x 32 watt Philips aquarium bulbs (8400 k total) and a Coralife Colormax light bulb (28 watts, 6700 k) This total of 92 watts for a 55 gallon tank is pretty low, but the effect is quite pleasing and still looks pretty bright to me. (I SHOULD be opting for around 110 watts in case you're interested)
I will keep you posted and hopefully take photos soon!!
I highly suggest reading this article for anyone interested in doing a low-light no filter (natural) setup...
http://www.malloftheworld.com/aquarium/part1.htm
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