Long-Term Tetras Dying Rapidly - Please Help

[Penny Farthing]

Tank size:110 ltrs Aquatropic T80 kit
pH:unsure - lost book with colour chart. Colour tested was dark green. Live in Cardiff.
ammonia:zero
nitrite:no colour
nitrate:no colour
kH:
gH:
tank temp:28

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): Seemed fine at 4pm, though not as interested in feeding as the others.8pm 2 neon tets 1 glowlight dead. 60 ltr water change. 10.30.pm 1 neon dead 1 missing 1 neon alive 2 glowlights alive.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 110 ltrs. 30 ltrs weekly. 3 days (Wed) ago 60 ltr change when a congo tetra found dead.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: chlorine disperser. Occasional 3 drops Ferropol 24

Tank inhabitants:1 male congo tetra 3 females - bought in last few weeks. 1 male died on Wednesday. 1 male mollie - long term survivor. 1 pair dwarf gourami bought a week or so before the congo tetras. 2 apple snails 1 added with gourami's and 1 with second pair of congo tetras. The male congo who died was one of the second pair - a week at least between adding 3 congos then 2. Rehomed 2 female mollies last weekend.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): 3 female mollies 1 died 2 rehomed
1 pair dwarf gourami
3 congo tetras
2 congo tetras
2 apple snails
these added gradually since last week in September. Tank set up in last week in September. 3 glowlights, 5 neons, 1 male mollie transferred from smaller tank when existing 110 ltr tank had sat for a fortnight with gunk from the old filter.

Exposure to chemicals:fertiliser as above, chorine disperser with water changes, Melafix for 2 weeks at least a month ago when a tetra had a white lump on mouth. Shop said as the spot didn't go away, it was probably an ulcer. No white on anyone else.

On eve of 6th Oct the new pump failed. I got the old one out of the shed for overnight but Maidenhead Aquatics told me the next day when they gave me a replacement that I should have left the sponge from the broken pump in the tank. I used Filter Start but not enough maybe?

I've had these tetras for several years now and it's very upsetting to be losing them. I don't know why they're all dying now and I'm so worried for my other fish. Should I put Melafix in? I can see nothing fungal. Now there are air bubbles on the plants in the tank. Lots of plants in the tank

Please help

 

[RustedKnight]

Well I would have thought nitrate or ammonia spike, but your results clear that up straight away..

Baffled i'm afraid, hopefully someone more clued up will be along to help shortly.

sorry for the loss of your fish, losing your fish can be a real hit emotionally, and this must be a tough time for you.

 

[Penny Farthing]

Thanks Rusted Knight. I'm usually ok and see some loss as inevitable but I don't know why I get so upset when any Neons die.

 

[elisew]

I`m sorry you`re having problems and losing your fish, it`s pretty upsetting when that happens

I`m no expert but it sounds to me like your cycle has crashed, resulting in an unstable environment for your fish. I think, although I`m sure others will be able to advise better, that you need to be doing water changes and testing on a daily basis in the hope that you can build up the bacteria that you`ve lost.
For once the guy at the lfs was correct, you`d have been better off keeping the media from your old filter wet and then transferring it into the new filter, this would have allowed the beneficial bacteria to continue.

I wouldn`t advise adding any treatments, you may do more harm than good. It may take a little while to get things up to speed again but don`t lose heart and stick with it

 

[RustedKnight]

People just get emotionally attached to some species more than others.

Ie if i lose a guppy i'm a bit bummed.. If I lose a corydora I feel really down.

my suggestion, go make a nice cup of tea, and wait for some assistance
Hope they can help solve your problem.

 

[Penny Farthing]

Yes Elsiew, I was a bit panicked when I saw the filter had stopped as I didn't know how long the fish could do without it. The shops were shut and all my old kit was in the back of my garage in the dark. I also had visitors of the kind who have never had fish but were trying to make lots of helpful suggestions at once and I couldn't think straight. I just thought about getting the old filter and air pump clean enough to use and forgot all about bacteria in the rush for oxygen in the water. The only good thing is the tetras had a few months in a nice big tank after being in the little starter tank a friend kindly gave us for a few years.

 

[elisew]

Can you get yourself an API master test kit? If so I`d strongly suggest using that to test your water, anything above 0 with your ammonia and nitrite and anything above
40-50 with your nitrates and you then need to be doing water changes, depending on what your levels are) higher readings for ammonia, nitrite or nitrates means bigger percentage of water to be changed.
If you`d feel better then please feel free to post your test results on the forum and we can help you as you go along and hopefully get the tank back to the way it should be.

Sh*t happens sometimes and as much as it`s horrible to see your fish die, a lot of us have been through the learning curve (or still are) and will help as much as we can

 

[Penny Farthing]

I will do that, thanks. I have the Nutrafin test kit for ammonia,Nitrite, Nitrate and PH but I've lost the book that comes with the ph test so I can't judge that one accurately. Is the API kit better?

 

[elisew]

The ph isn't so much of a concern to be honest but I would say yes it's better, a lot of members use the API test kit.

Anyway, I'm away to get some sleep now but I'll check back in the morning (well later on lol). Get yourself some sleep, try not to worry too much, we'll get it all sorted between us lot

 

[Penny Farthing]

All fish are ok this morning. Thanks very much for your support last night, everyone. I think I'll just monitor things carefully for the next few weeks. I have some questions, though.

1 Of my 110 ltrs, how much should I change at a time if I do a weekly change?
2 I'm going to test the water every day for a while. Is once a day enough?
3 Would doing daily water changes be beneficial if all the tests show good readings?
4 Will daily changes do harm to my filter bacteria?

In the calmer light of day(!)I think I may not have accounted properly for the loss of my filter bacteria when the filter packed up in October. The gravel, rocks and plants all came across from the old tank when I set the new tank up and I assumed the new filter would be picking up from those. But the test readings were fine so I'm puzzled.

The only other thing could be with the feeding. Yesterday afternoon I decided to feed as much as would be eaten over 2 minutes. It was considerably more than I would normally feed. I only feed once a day. That was about 5pm and the dead ones were noticed at about 8pm. The tetras weren't very interested in feeding, though and hung about the bottom third of the tank, which is strange.

Or the last option may be that the last pair of Congos I got last weekeng (1 died on Wed) brought something to the tank. It would have killed the others too though?

Any ideas would be useful.
Thanks again.

 

[RustedKnight]

All fish are ok this morning. Thanks very much for your support last night, everyone. I think I'll just monitor things carefully for the next few weeks. I have some questions, though.

1 Of my 110 ltrs, how much should I change at a time if I do a weekly change?
2 I'm going to test the water every day for a while. Is once a day enough?
3 Would doing daily water changes be beneficial if all the tests show good readings?
4 Will daily changes do harm to my filter bacteria?

In the calmer light of day(!)I think I may not have accounted properly for the loss of my filter bacteria when the filter packed up in October. The gravel, rocks and plants all came across from the old tank when I set the new tank up and I assumed the new filter would be picking up from those. But the test readings were fine so I'm puzzled.

The only other thing could be with the feeding. Yesterday afternoon I decided to feed as much as would be eaten over 2 minutes. It was considerably more than I would normally feed. I only feed once a day. That was about 5pm and the dead ones were noticed at about 8pm. The tetras weren't very interested in feeding, though and hung about the bottom third of the tank, which is strange.

Or the last option may be that the last pair of Congos I got last weekeng (1 died on Wed) brought something to the tank. It would have killed the others too though?

Any ideas would be useful.
Thanks again.

If the congo's weren't quarantined then yes it is possible that they brought something into the tank.

My tank is roughly the same size, and I do a 35-40% change once a week, I do with with a siphon tube with a nozzle at the end, so I can gravel vac at the same time.

Do some daily water changes until the tanks readings are fine again, at which point you could probably drop back to once a week.

And as far as I know, aslong as the filter isn't out of the water, or doesn't have water running through/over it for more than an hour, then the bacteria should be fine no matter how large the water change.

Just be careful not to rinse your filter media in tap water, and don't rinse them too vigorously.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Have you cleaned the impeller cavity in your filter recently? Perhaps the water turnover has dropped considerably and so the bacteria colony took a hit.

 

[Penny Farthing]

I use a tube like that Rusted Knight. Also, the readings were all zero before the water change yesterday but I'll monitor. I don't rinse in tap water but probably do rinse too vigorously. Point noted for next time.

The filter unit was new on 7th Oct but I will certainly do this today. The flow looks really strong though.

Thanks both

 

[RustedKnight]

Then you should be fine to do a water change once every week.

I forgot to re-read the first post with your stats in, it was early and I was still slightly drowsy. My apologies.

And glad to help any way I can.

 

[Harlequins]

It sounds like a mixture of filter failure and not adding your original media to the new filter,which has barely been in a month and its still cycling...
Adding fish during the past month hasn't helped and possible overfeeding may have put you into a spike

When you say no colour on your nitrite & nitrate what do you mean?

I would test every day and do waterchanges where neccessary,any ammonia or nitrate above zero then do a waterchange.

Good luck