Contamination?

[mikev]

Hi,

I wonder if anyone here may have a clue.

I've had a series of deaths in the last month, occurring in multiple tanks, and without any pattern as to the affected species. A professional necropsy revealed no cause (no parasites present, no bacteria either) except for a liver damage in one of the fishes. Tanks are well-established, no ammonia/nitrites, and low nitrates; some of the fish that died lived in the tank for a year.

No symptoms, but some of the fish that died seemed weakened prior to death.

To make it even stranger, it seems that the plants in the most affected tank are dying as well (Java Fern, which was growing fine for more than a year).

This makes me suspect a contaminant, likely from the tap water....water in this area can be pretty bad in early spring, when snow is melting.

Did you hear about anything like this or perhaps have an idea what this might be?
(Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate/Chlorine are clearly not it, but some metal ions?)

(I guess in the absence of any info I should be stepping up water changes ... hoping that it is no longer in the tap.)

 

[WILDER]

The meds could of damaged the liver what have you used on the fish.

 

[mikev]

The meds could of damaged the liver what have you used on the fish.

Quite possible, but that tank was not treated. I did treat other tanks, but only after these random deaths.

 

[WILDER]

The only thing to do is add more declorinator double it in the melting season.

 

[Tolak]

Use a dechlorinator such as Prime or AquaSafe that contains EDTA, this will bind up any metals that may be present. As Wilder suggested, double up on dechlor during periods of poor water quality, I do it all the time in the winter.

 

[mikev]

Hmm....I wonder if this is the key indeed.

I do use routinely Prime in larger tanks and no problems occurred there. In the affected tanks the conditioner was Aqua+ (no fancy stuff).

Darn.

Just to make sure: is it possible for metal ions to damage plants?

 

[Kairi]

double decholorinator helps w/ poor water? didn't know that.

 

[Tolak]

double decholorinator helps w/ poor water? didn't know that.

This has to do with your water supply, not poor maintenance. Some folks water supply varies in quality, this can be seasonal, weather related, or any of a number of circumstances. Often with a storm runoff or snowmelt they will increase chlorine, chloramine, and buffering agents. This is to insure it is safe for human consumption; they could care less about tanks of fish.

In my situation the water is very good during the summer, as long as there isn’t a strong storm or heavy rain. During the winter I double or even triple dose with Prime, and often put off water changes for a few days if possible. Your water can also vary by time of day & day of the week. You also have to remember that often a municipal water company job is a patronage job, linked to politics. Some local politician’s flunky nephew may be on the weekend shift, and is instructed that more chlorine & chloramines is safer than less. Sunday afternoon & evening he increases the additives, knowing that water is going to mainly sit in the pipes overnight, then come Monday morning everyone is getting ready for work, taking their morning shower & such. Sunday night is usually the worst time for anyone with a municipal supply to change water.

The key is learning as much as you can about your water company. Find out where your water originates from, how it is treated, how many pumping stations it goes through before it reaches your house, and what material your supply lines are made of. So many times I ask a person who I suspect is having a water supply problem where they are located & where their water originates from & I get “I live in the US, & I have tap waterâ€￾. This gives me or anyone else nothing to go on.

 

[Kairi]

wow. i didn't know that. i do remember when we switched to the city reservoir (from a creek) i had a major catastrophe in my tanks...

how do you go about finding that out? will they just tell you?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah just get in touch with your water company and start harassing them.

it's also good to use double dechlor if you've been tinkering with your plumbing at all, the brand new copper pipes can leech a lot of heavy metals into the water so you need to remove them. we did some plumbing stuff and all Ian's shrimp died at the next water change, using double dechlor for the next few months to give them a fighting chance!

 

[mikev]

Back to the original question:

After some checking I found out that the phosphate level is high, both in tap water (0.5) and in the affected tank (1.0).

Accordingly to the lfs guy this is enough to kill some fish and is likely the cause; but the instructions on the test kit state that elevated phosphates are not dangerous.

What is the truth here, does anyone know?