I believe I have discovered what caused the recent disaster in the 150. Since the aquarium tested fine (cycled, low NO3) throughout this event, I had to believe that a toxin had gotten into the tank, and I was blaming Melafix, even though I could not imagine how that stuff would become toxic.
What I failed to recall was that I had dosed the tank with Flourish Excel and in hindsight, I must have just "glugged" it into the tank straight, not diluted , and the rainbows got a toxic dose of it, coming over to see if it was feeding time. How could I do such a thing? I did not double dose the Excel, like some do to treat algae, but was giving it a regular dose. I have read many accounts of accidental overdosing of Excel, with the delightful result of eradication of algae problems, so I know it is done, and double-dosing is a widely accepted method of treating all kinds of algae. Well, I believe this is the culprit, on further study of the nature of this aquarium product. I have installed my pressurized CO2 equipment now and will not use Excel in this tank, though I may use it in my other tanks, carefully, diluted, if algae is an issue, and to help plant growth.
I have no more rainbows - they all succumbed. Now the tank is a happy collection of many, many Endler's livebearers (several females have dropped fry - the tank is loaded up with babies), a couple of male guppies, three white cloud minnows, the cardinals and the cory cats. We will leave things alone for the time being.
I will await the maturation of the wee tiny fry in the 40 gallon (still no idea what they are) and hopefully they will be of a type appropriate to put in the 150, then I will begin using the 40 as my quarantine tank, and begin completing the stocking of the 150.
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