Crushed Coral

[mdm0475]

I recently added crushed coral to a new freshwater aquarium. I put in 20 gold fish and all died in about a week for reasons unknown. I thought it was the fish so I bought new tropical fish after draining and refilling the tank. Now my neon tetras, LONGFIN SERPAE TETRAs, and red glass barbs are dying. My african knife 5" also just died. I thought he was killing the others! Other fish are still there, 3 rainbow sharks. 10 green tiger barbs, 3 GOLD DOJO LOACHes, but it may be a matter of time. ammonia, nitrite, nitrate temp is fine. 66 gal tank. clear water, added ich control no help. Just noticed that the Ph is really high >8 wonder if the coral is causing that problem. Fish are also not eating.

 

[Truck]

the coral shouldnt be a problem there is one big problem 20 GOLD FISH ADDED ALL AT ONCE! a gold fish counts for 2 freshwater fish as the amount of ammonia given from them is enormous. so gold fish are 0.5 cm of gold fish per litre. i will post how much your tank is over stocked by in a few minutes. with 20 gold fish that is. and it is not recomendable that you mix gold fish and community fish

 

[Truck]

when the gold fish were in there you were about 8 fish more than you should of had and it is only advisable you add them about 6 at a time. you filter has not had time to aclimatise so your probably best of cycling the tanks again. and it is not recomended that you have any type of tetra until the tank is atleast 4 - 6 months old. did you boil the coral first? please could you post your water stats

 

[andywg]

Just noticed that the Ph is really high >8 wonder if the coral is causing that problem.

The crushed coral will push the pH up towards 8 and is the most likely cause of your pH being that level.

 

[Davo86]

what is the ph of your tap water?

 

[Truck]

british tap water tends to be very alkaline. so it could be your alkinilenty but i live in england and ive never had any problems

 

[Corleone]

Define, "Fine," in parts per million. Several times a week, I see a post like this - "Water stats are fine but 2/3 of my fish died in a short time," and learn that "Fine" was defined as some number other than 0. No value above 0 for ammonia or nitrite is fine, so it is important to get this part squared away and sweep out any poor information pet stores and some books give out.

All of your problems sound like they come from an uncycled tank or severe minicycle from adding 20 goldfish to the tank at once - if they're fancy goldfish, that's about 200 gallons of stocking, if they're commons, that's a pretty big pond worth of stocking. Adding the crushed coral and pushing up the pH can also be to blame, as a stable pH of just about any level from 6 to 8 is fine for most fish, but a change in pH is bad for any fish.

Not to mention that I'm going to guess these were cheap $1 goldfish? Those come from notoriously poor stock and aren't cared for well at the store. There's a very real chance you brought in any manner of bacteria or parasites with them.

The 4-6 month rule for tetras only applies to certain species - neons, rummynose. The bigger species like your serpaes are much more hardy and at least some are suitable for controlled fish-in cycling.

You really need to research your remaining fish and any new additions. You had some bad compatibility problems, and still have a few left - three rainbowsharks in a single tank is a time bomb, for example.

 

[mdm0475]

Define, "Fine," in parts per million. Several times a week, I see a post like this - "Water stats are fine but 2/3 of my fish died in a short time," and learn that "Fine" was defined as some number other than 0. No value above 0 for ammonia or nitrite is fine, so it is important to get this part squared away and sweep out any poor information pet stores and some books give out.

All of your problems sound like they come from an uncycled tank or severe minicycle from adding 20 goldfish to the tank at once - if they're fancy goldfish, that's about 200 gallons of stocking, if they're commons, that's a pretty big pond worth of stocking. Adding the crushed coral and pushing up the pH can also be to blame, as a stable pH of just about any level from 6 to 8 is fine for most fish, but a change in pH is bad for any fish.

Not to mention that I'm going to guess these were cheap $1 goldfish? Those come from notoriously poor stock and aren't cared for well at the store. There's a very real chance you brought in any manner of bacteria or parasites with them.

The 4-6 month rule for tetras only applies to certain species - neons, rummynose. The bigger species like your serpaes are much more hardy and at least some are suitable for controlled fish-in cycling.

You really need to research your remaining fish and any new additions. You had some bad compatibility problems, and still have a few left - three rainbowsharks in a single tank is a time bomb, for example.

 

[rdd1952]

I recently added crushed coral to a new freshwater aquarium. I put in 20 gold fish and all died in about a week for reasons unknown. I thought it was the fish so I bought new tropical fish after draining and refilling the tank. Now my neon tetras, LONGFIN SERPAE TETRAs, and red glass barbs are dying. My african knife 5" also just died. I thought he was killing the others! Other fish are still there, 3 rainbow sharks. 10 green tiger barbs, 3 GOLD DOJO LOACHes, but it may be a matter of time. ammonia, nitrite, nitrate temp is fine. 66 gal tank. clear water, added ich control no help. Just noticed that the Ph is really high >8 wonder if the coral is causing that problem. Fish are also not eating.

The 2 highlighted items, inconjunction with each other, are most likely the problem. You have a new tank that is not cycled and with 20 GF (not to mention the other fish you have), your ammonia would be off the chart almost immediately. Even if the tank were fully cycled, adding that many fish at once would still put your tank bck in a cycling mode as you significant'y increased the bio-load. Based on normal stocking guidelines, a 66 gallon tank would be pretty much fully stocked with 5 or 6 goldfish and nothing else. You need to get the tank cycled and until then, start doing water changes as needed to keep th ammonia and nitrite levels low. Don't get any more fish until you get things sorted out.

As andy mentioned, the crushed coral will definitely push the pH up. I can add a table spoonful to my 75 gallon tank and push the pH up considerably. If you are using it for a substrate, I would seriously consider changing it to something that is inert and won't have an effect on the pH. The fish you are keeping defintely don't need a pH tht high and most would refer slightly acidic.

Edit: I would move this to the TD or Emergency section so it would get more attention but the OP hasn't validated yet and would not be able to post to it there.