u/Southern-Aquarius

Hi all, saw some fish stress yesterday in my 20gal long and woke this morning realizing I’m missing lots of my rasboras :( tested my water and it’s sitting at 8.2-8.4 and the only recent changes were I added some new/different root tabs and did a large water change (~50%) but that was almost 2 weeks ago. I do have a rock scape, and this tank was setup 2/25 of this year. I have two other tanks going strong for almost 2 years now, use the same RO water, and remineralizers etc. the only change was the root tabs (ThriveTabs) but I used them in my 40 gal as well with no problems? Very disappointed as I stay on top of water testing but got lax since everything had been stable for so long :’( Really at a loss as for what could be causing the pH imbalance as the tank has a lid, the stone was from Petsmart and made for aquariums but is it possible that it’s leaching this far down the road? It just hasn’t been a slow pH creep, it’s stayed 7.4-7.8 and now it’s purple af. Thanks in advance

I’ve literally never seen anything like this, in my 20gal ~3 month old setup, appears to be eating biofilm. I tried to video but couldn’t get it to focus.

I have significantly underestimated the need of crypts for root tabs 🤣😩 to be fair, my substrate is inert (sand, planted the crypts about 2 months ago) with soil underneath but I made the sand cap too thick and the little guys haven’t reached it yet. That being said I’ve started feeding them every month and am seeing significant growth. I think the idea that they are slow growing translated to me thinking they needed more time and so I lowkey starved my little guys. (Photos of our my local pet stores crypts, because goals). I knew they were heavy root feeders but online most folks/sources say every 3-6months for ferts but I have learned my little guys need more.

Feel free to post your crypts below👍