A Little Worried

[jpeterson]

Down two more Halequins

My tank is 43 US gallons and had 10 harlequins(now 6), 5 black neons and 4 corys! I feed every day a few flakes. I did leave the tank as i wasn't home for abour 6 weeks without WC which I think may have cause the problem. However i have been doing WC for about 5 weeks now and all seemed to be well untill now. I tested my tap water with the conditioner and it shows 0ppm ammonia and 0ppm nitrates. I am about to do a water test from the tank now, will post the results when done.

I bought new Harlequins on Sunday and think its that batch of Harlequins that are dying!

 

[jpeterson]

Ok this morning it shows:

pH: 7.2
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates:L 60ppm

 

[fluffycabbage]

Down two more Halequins

My tank is 43 US gallons and had 10 harlequins(now 6), 5 black neons and 4 corys! I feed every day a few flakes. I did leave the tank as i wasn't home for abour 6 weeks without WC which I think may have cause the problem. However i have been doing WC for about 5 weeks now and all seemed to be well untill now. I tested my tap water with the conditioner and it shows 0ppm ammonia and 0ppm nitrates. I am about to do a water test from the tank now, will post the results when done.

I bought new Harlequins on Sunday and think its that batch of Harlequins that are dying!

Awww RIP Yeah it may be that batch, do you know if the fish shop uses reverse osmosis water? Might be worth asking. If you get zeros across the board with fresh water, then you need a tank full of it
Are the harlequins showing any signs of illness, anything unusual compared to your other fish?

ETA Much better results!!! Could still do with another 40-50% change to get nitrates into order, but thats much better for the remaining fish

Do you have a quarantine tank?

 

[jpeterson]

I get the fish from P@H and have rang them and they offered a full refund or replacement and any other damage that get caused. I'll do another water change in an hour or so. No signs of disease in the fish at all. I may be over feeding a little but not much so I'll keep an eye on that.

 

[Athena]

Yes, 6 weeks without a water change would definitely have pumped up your nitrates.

So, when you got back after 6 weeks, what volume of water change did you do? And after that initial water change, were you doing changes weekly/fortnightly and how much?

Athena

 

[jpeterson]

Yes, 6 weeks without a water change would definitely have pumped up your nitrates.

So, when you got back after 6 weeks, what volume of water change did you do? And after that initial water change, were you doing changes weekly/fortnightly and how much?

Athena

I did a big clean out the week i got back with about 30% water change, then after that i did 20% every week till now and i put it down to 10%. All was going great till i got this new batch of fish from P@H!

 

[Athena]

Ok, I think I can see maybe where the problem has arisen. If you left the tank for 6 weeks, then doing a 30% change would only have removed 30% of the high nitrates present. Then leaving it another week would mean that nitrates would have climbed from whatever level they were at and doing 20% would only have reduced that amount down by 20%... basically what it needed after that 6 week break was small (15-20%) daily water changes for about a week, or until the nitrates returned to an acceptable level.

Some people panic in this situation and think that changing 50-90% of the water in one go is going to resolve the problem but that only creates other problems for the fish such as PH shock, temp shock, and general shock due to the sudden change in their chemical environment. So little and often is a better way to go until things are back on track.

Adding new fish to a tank that has high levels of any toxins will surely shock them and either make them ill or die.

The fish that were already in the tank would have had time to slowly adjust to all these chemical changes going on and although they may not have been happy with it, they were less likely to die from shock than new fish being added.

Here's some info that I found really useful in helping me to understand the whole process. It's quite lengthy (I had to read through it several times to digest it all) but worth spending a while on it, I think.

http/www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html

Best regards - Athena

 

[jpeterson]

Well this is now 8weeks in from when I left it for 6 weeks, If any problem was to occur because of me leaving it so long of would have happened a lot sooner. I have come to a conclusion to as why the harlequins are dying. The harlequins are from P@H and I gave rang ten today confirming a dodgy bath and a refund or replacement for the fish that die and and charges to other stick that gets damaged. As for the ammonia, who knows? But leaving it for 6 weeks wasn't the cause to it I know that. The fish have always been healthy and happy in the tank as apart from high nitrate levels which have always been a problem the water has been spot on. I have plants in order which will be a great help for the water as they love nitrates! Done another 25% water change today to be on the safe side and test show the water is now fine. Will keep checking and posting here. Thanks for all your help in my panic guys and gals!