Good Tank Suddenly Turned Bad...

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stuuk1

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Hi all,

Haven't posted here in quite a while as all has been just great in the last 8 months or so since I finished my mini-cycle after swapping out a 90ltr tank to a new 240ltr.

My tank is heavily planted with a sand substrate (My signature links to a thread about my tank).

My tank has always been over populated but its never been a problem since I regularly do my water changes, changing around 10 - 20% of water each week with de-chloinator without fail.

My stats have always been perfect but I must be honest I do not test the water anymore but whenever I have done, they have been perfect. Nothing has changed in the tank in the way of no new plants, no new fish etc etc etc. so no need to really test water regularly.

About 2 months ago however I did have one of my glass catfish die, he seemed to fall apart from his belly and then his barbells broke and I had to 'do the deed' as he was very distressed and kept getting stuck on the filter.

All was fine apart from I noticed small dark hairs on the reeds which wasnt a problem as 5t wasnt spreading and seemed normal.

Last week one of my rainbow fish unexpectedly died, there was no reason, I checked him over and nothing looked bad. I looked at the other fish and noticed that the shark had a small amount of what seemed like fin-rot... none of the others have this so I went to my LFS and got some fin-rot medication. I did the doses as per the instructions provided with the bottle.

Since then I obviously havent carried out a water change and its due either today or tomorrow.

BUT.... and its a big one to...

I have come home today after being away for 2 days and there are these little hairs everywhere, the plants all seem to be dying, there is some kind of moss everywhere, all over the two moss balls I have. The worst thing is I found a 1 molly dead, the other molly is missing and the baby molly to! What is going on?!

The filter has been running, and was last cleaned out about 2 weeks ago in the tank water as I always have done.

My tank lighting consists of a T5 and a T8 (supplied with a Juwel Rio 240) and is on between 3:30pm - 10:30pm daily with a strip of blue LED's from 10:30 - 11:30pm (which has always been there and no problems).

I will test the water tomorrow (I have an API Master Test Kit) and will post the results.

The only thing I can guess is that they have been over fed. I went away to Barbados for 10 nights and had a neighbour feed them every other day (I feed them the same) but perhaps she put too much in, I dont know.

Tomorrow I plan to do a 50% change, clean filters and chuck some carbon in the filter to remove the meds I put in.

Any other advise would be great, thanks!!
 
I'm no expert but I think your neighbour has overfed your fish. When I got my first tank I overfed my tetras and excess flakes fall and rot, but if it is due to overfeeding she must of used way to much feed for moss to grow. I'm off for a week to Spain in Feb and am going to invest in an auto feeder, don't trust my neighbours lol. Good luck hope you sort it because your signature link of the tank is amAzing :D
 
I must point out now that the tank is now much more heavily planted as those reeds grow like crazy...! But thanks for the compliment!
 
The water now has suddenly turned a murky green as if its a brand new cycle going on... This is odd!
 
Ok done the test and ammonia showed up as 1.0....

Opened the filter and it was completely blocked! Putting this down to the neighbour overfeeding and possibly me over feeding a little. Im going to change the feeding pattern to every 3 days rather than every 2 days.

Did a 40% change this morning and just done another 40% change and its looking much better. Such a shame about the plants, they have pretty much had it and ive ripped out a fair few. Still kept quite a bit to see if it can regrow..
 
Any dying plants will contribute to the filter overload so it's good you've remove them.

Cleaning the filter to get the flow going will also help, but depending on how long the bacteria have been compromised you may have lost some of your colony.

Now you've done a couple of changes though and the filter is clean plus the rotting plants have been removed you should hopefully see the ammonia come down.

Only advice I can give is keep testing, but make sure you test for nitrites aswell. And also don't feed the fish for the next few days. Daily feeding is fine... (You said feeding every 3 days instead?), just don't feed them at all until the ammonia and nitrites are back at a safe level.
 
Thats what im worried about but I always keep extra media in there so hopefully if some did die, there is perhaps some backup... lol

I did test for Nitrites and thats 0 which is a plus in this moment of doom and gloom..!

Im expecting some more deaths as they are still acting quite strangely. The only good thing to come of this is that my stocking levels are perhaps levelling out a bit!

Absolutely no way have I added water without the de-chlorinator, I always no so its def not that.
 

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