Dead Rummynose

[CKutz]

ok, so my little brother just came up and told me the fish ate out a rummynoses eyes, and it died.

i haven't even seen anyone bother the rummynose so i'm a litttle confused why this happened.
am i not feeding enough?
I feed once a day, occasionally twice. variety of flakes, shrimp pellets, algae pellets, freeze dried bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp, frozen mix.

the stocking is:
2 kribs (m/f)
1 lavendar gourami (same as blue)
4 yoyo loaches
1 swordtail.
2 rummynose (till 1 died, have been planning to stock up to 8, but lfs is 45 min. away, so haven't been able to make a trip for awhile).

my filter just died last week, and i haven't been able to get a new impeller yet, so i'm using 2 10 gal tank filters at opposite sides of the tank, and a large airstone also. two days maybe, after the filter died the ammonia and nitrite was still zero, using the same media from old filter. so i figured it was working out ok. will do a test later though.

any suggestions?

edit:
greattt...trace amounts of ammonia. ph, unbelievably low..6.0 possibly..nitrites 0, nitrate 10 (nitrates same as before wc)
this sucks...

i bought the tank used, and was given ph up/down/ 7.0 stabalizer..i don't use this stuff..but would this be the type of situation it could be helpful for? to get the bacteria out of a dormant state? also have API ammo lock..not sure if this is the one that detoxifies but keeps ammonia usuable or not.

 

[LauraFrog]

API ammo-lock is good, if your tank is only showing a trace try half dosing it... ammo-lock leaves it available to the filter.

What is the pH reading of your tap water and exactly what chemicals have been added to the tank? Do you have live plants? Also do you know how hard the water is? (All things that will help us work out why there's been a pH crash.)

If the tap water pH is higher, do a few water changes - 10-20% every three or four hours to bring it up a little, if you do big water changes the pH shock could kill more fish.

 

[rabbut]

pH shock does not exist though. Well, actually, that's a little unfair, it does, but is very difficult to induce intentionally, let alone accidentally Unless it's a full 5 pH points swing, it will do no harm bringing the pH up again fast What most people call pH shock is actually Carbonate Hardness shock

If you get un-expected pH readings or any trace readings for Ammonia and Nitrite, I always recommend a re-test to confirm. At the end of the day, these are hobbyist level test kits and prone to inaccuracies If the second set of readings agree with the first, run with them, otherwise, test a third time to find out which reading was correct

All the best
Rabbut

 

[CKutz]

my tap is so weird..
i did this for some other post..they told me to let it sit over night or something so the co2 evaporated..i forget exactly..but after doing that the ph of tap was like 7.2

my tank has always had a ph of about 7.2-7 for the past few months..so i'm guessing it's that these two filters aren't filtering adequately.
no live plants. no gh/kh test..i have some test strips though from when i first got into this...they test it..should i bother? haha

the tank has sand and pretty many rocks, seashells. i'd assume all hardwork is safe because it's been a consistent 7ish ph for awhile. nothing newly added.
just did a water change on thursday. at that time all levels were normal, am:0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10, ph 7.
by sunday the levels were what i posted. no chemicals added except.uhh..idk some api dechlorinator something or other....might have added a sample packet of stress zyme, but i don't think that hsould have done anythign. also melafix a week or two ago.

rabbut..i'm gathering more and more that KH is a big deal, and ph isn't, I don't really have fussy fish (except the rummynose) but do you think a KH test is worth investing in? i'm freakin broke, and need to set up another tank, and was planning on doing some stocking additions till these issues came up.