Fish Kill, High Nitrates, Ich

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marthared

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I need to know what to do next: OK, all my fish have died over the past 4 days... angel fish, 2 gouramis, 2 pleccos, 1 catfish. Sumo loach is only one remaining. Here are stats:

36 gal fresh water aquarium
nitrates 40-80
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
ph normal

Bio Wheel filter system

About 6 days ago I washed the bio wheel, cause it wasn't turning, and this is what the local aquarium store said to do. But I washed it in chlorinated water, not thinking it would do anything. I also replace one of the 2 carbon fiber filters.
About 3 days later fish started acting sick... angel fish first, then others quickly died, with gouramis the last ones last night. Sumo loach is left. Gouramis had white spots/ich. I did a 50% water change 2 days ago, and nitrate was still high last night. Put de-nitrate rocks in the filter box last night.

What should my next steps be? Should I go ahead and put ich treatment in the water as if there were sick fish? Do water changes every day (how much?), and just wait for the nitrate to go down. I can't start from 0 again, as I still have the loach.
Many thanks for any advice you can give!
 
So you have one loach left in the tank.
You usually have to half dose the whitespot med with scaless fish.
Have you raised temp and increased aeration in the tank.
Also have you removed black carbon from the tank.
 
Basicly by cleaning with chlorinated water you are likely to have killed off the good bacteria in the tank needed for the fish to survive, In which case your tank will likely be going through a mini cycle, keep an eye on the water stats and start small regular water changes if you notice they are starting to rise, and as wilder said increase aeration and the temp to about 80F and treat with a half dose of something like ws3
 
It seems to me you let your nitrates go up by not changing the water. You could've put your tank through a cycle again.
 
Basicly by cleaning with chlorinated water you are likely to have killed off the good bacteria in the tank needed for the fish to survive, In which case your tank will likely be going through a mini cycle, keep an eye on the water stats and start small regular water changes if you notice they are starting to rise, and as wilder said increase aeration and the temp to about 80F and treat with a half dose of something like ws3

Question: Why do you suggest small water changes when Marthared reports nitrates of 40-80 (not sure why the huge range)? My first reaction would be to as large a water change as possible using pretreated water to quickly get the nitrates down. Why would doing that be wrong?

Cheers.
 
Basicly by cleaning with chlorinated water you are likely to have killed off the good bacteria in the tank needed for the fish to survive, In which case your tank will likely be going through a mini cycle, keep an eye on the water stats and start small regular water changes if you notice they are starting to rise, and as wilder said increase aeration and the temp to about 80F and treat with a half dose of something like ws3

Question: Why do you suggest small water changes when Marthared reports nitrates of 40-80 (not sure why the huge range)? My first reaction would be to as large a water change as possible using pretreated water to quickly get the nitrates down. Why would doing that be wrong?

Cheers.

The largest water change you want to do is 50% at a time.
 
Question: Why do you suggest small water changes when Marthared reports nitrates of 40-80 (not sure why the huge range)? My first reaction would be to as large a water change as possible using pretreated water to quickly get the nitrates down. Why would doing that be wrong?

Cheers.


My reason for saying do regular small water changes is that due to the fish being sick a single large water change may be too stressful for the one remaining fish as the parameters will change quite dramatically.

Although in a tank with fit and healthy fish a single water change would be fine.
 
Question: Why do you suggest small water changes when Marthared reports nitrates of 40-80 (not sure why the huge range)? My first reaction would be to as large a water change as possible using pretreated water to quickly get the nitrates down. Why would doing that be wrong?

Cheers.


My reason for saying do regular small water changes is that due to the fish being sick a single large water change may be too stressful for the one remaining fish as the parameters will change quite dramatically.

Although in a tank with fit and healthy fish a single water change would be fine.

I understand that, but wouldn't you want to get the nitrate out asap? I would have thought that the high nitrate is worse than a 50% water change. Or am I over reacting?

Thanks.
 
Provided there is no nitrite or ammonia present a nitrate level of between 40-80 is pretty harmless to the fish short term.
 

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