Most Fish Died?

[proton]

Well this is the story, I redecorated the tank, I pulled out all the old plants and installed new plants to give it a natural look. I also installed new rocks and slate, I also installed a pressurised CO2 system. And everything seemed fine when I went to work this morning, I did this all yesterday. When I got home my tank was motionless. A few fish were gasping for air. I rescued the remaining fish and placed them in my smaller tank 54L which is full of guppies and endler cross fry, it's now my overcrouded hospital tank. I also cleaned out my eheim filter but just the part that suckes the water, not the actualy filter parts in the body of the filter.

I am about to test the water. does anyone know what could have happned. I lost allot of my favorite fish. I am devestated. I feel like crying. I haven't even started to cook dinner. could the slate have killed them, could there have been too much co2? I only have the usual tests, no oxygen, no kh and no co2 tests eather.

The odd thing is that all the clown loaches survived and are very poorly (unable to swim properly) but are breathing and all the cory's also the same and most of my khulie loaches are the same (only one died out of 8 ). I found some fry in the tank, and I have no idea how they got there. Most of my 25 tetras died, my two Angel fish, my ghost knife fish, 6 green barbs, my two plecs. Anyone?

 

[Puffdaddy]

WOW most unfortunate I feel for you.

The slate is not the problem. What other kind of rocks did you add. But to be honest I think the co2 was the problem. I'm not to familiar with using co2(try post in the planted tank section) maybe it starved the water of oxygen and suffocated the fish. If you could post the water readings (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, etc.) this would greatly help with a proper diagnosis.

 

[K.J.]

The only problem I could think of is sometimes Co2 screws up and adds a huge PH change. PH changes could kill your fish, so that's probably what happened.

 

[ICEEGRL]

Did you remove the fish from the tank while making all of the changes? If so, how long were they out and what were they in?
Also, that is alot to do all at once. Did you reacclimate them? Did you clean everything really well before adding them to the tank? How much co2 are you injecting? Do you keep it running at night when the lights are off?
It could have been so many things. I would start with checking the water quality and the amount of co2. Then work from there. If the fish are having trouble breathing you can add an air stone for now. That may help if you don't have anywhere to move them to.
Hopefully someone that knows more will reply soon.

 

[proton]

just done the tests,

PH 6.4 (not typical London hard water)
Nitrite is showing zero
Ammonia is showing pale yello/green which is between 0 - 0.25ppm
Nitrate is bad, that is ULTRA RED which on my charts shows 160 ppm

Well most the rocks are slate, there are two which are reddish and some pieces flake off if you rub it. The rest (three round ones) look like slate also. I didn't move the fish out. I also did a major waterchange while adding teh rocks and new plants. Well I rinsed the rocks but didn't soak them overnight. Should I have done that?

I have no other tests to do. I will get a CO2 test and an O2 test tomorrow.

The good news is that the Clown Loaches are up and about, and the 5 remaining tetras are swimming fine, the cory's are starting to look OK too? My two Ottos are also showing signs of revival. I put in some aquarium salt in my "hospital" tank to help them.

Is it the Nitrate?

 

[K.J.]

just done the tests,

PH 6.4 (not typical London hard water)
Nitrite is showing zero
Ammonia is showing pale yello/green which is between 0 - 0.25ppm
Nitrate is bad, that is ULTRA RED which on my charts shows 160 ppm

Well most the rocks are slate, there are two which are reddish and some pieces flake off if you rub it. The rest (three round ones) look like slate also. I didn't move the fish out. I also did a major waterchange while adding teh rocks and new plants. Well I rinsed the rocks but didn't soak them overnight. Should I have done that?

I have no other tests to do. I will get a CO2 test and an O2 test tomorrow.

The good news is that the Clown Loaches are up and about, and the 5 remaining tetras are swimming fine, the cory's are starting to look OK too? My two Ottos are also showing signs of revival. I put in some aquarium salt in my "hospital" tank to help them.

Is it the Nitrate?

.25 is bordering on deadly, that could have caused it, but so is the nitrate. Do about an 80% water change ASAP and read the readings again.

 

[proton]

Did a major water change last night, checked the stats now,

PH = 8
Amonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 40-80 (can't tell the difference between the two reds) they almost look alike
O2 = 8mg/l

I blew my heater, I was removing the water and then as I started to add in the new water, cold and hot = reaction and then boom . Bought a new one today.

All remaining fish are now fine. Hope my dead fish forgive me. I gave them bloodworms every night... Don't want to buy fish for a while

 

[marcan]

Your PH jumped from 6.4 to 8?

 

[proton]

Yes I changed the water or most of the water, about 70% I did it twice first on the lower PH and the reading was too high, then on the Higher PH and that was what I got. Is it normal? This is a new area that I moved to.

 

[TammyLiz]

How big was this tank? And how often did you do water changes on it before you did all this work to it?

There is something we call "old tank syndrome" that might be an explanation for your low pH and the deaths (from osmotic shock) when you made a large change to the tank. This is a great read, and I realized when I read it that I did this with my first tank (over a decade ago) without ever even knowing it. I lost a lot of tetras when I did a large water change moving the tank to the next room, and couldn't figure out why. But this is it, and it was because I had been given the terrible advice to clean the tank once every two months.

http/www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html

 

[tetraqueen]

I do feel for you it is tradgic when this happens.
It will not help this time but little changes are all one can do.
I wonder if its because fish would move on to better water and escape until things got better.

Fish can and do die even if the tank is moved around it changes their environment from safe to unsafe.

 

[proton]

Well i do 10-30% water change every week, all I did was change the landscape and installed a gas CO2 bottle, i put it down to the huge drop in PH and lack of oxygen.

although good news I have moved all the fish back (all the water has tested fine) and they seem happy, and now I have eggs all on my back wall and some on the side, read this post

 

[tetraqueen]

yes that's great news.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Well i do 10-30% water change every week, all I did was change the landscape and installed a gas CO2 bottle, i put it down to the huge drop in PH and lack of oxygen.

i think you're correct in that assumption, not that it matters too much now as everything is sorted but just for future reference or anyone reading this if you're going to add Co2 then you should find a temporary home for your fish for a day or two, let the pH drop (remember to add some ammonia or fish food to keep your filter cycled) then drip acclimitise the fish to the new water slowly.

 

[tetraqueen]

Sorry to be so naive but is it just for the plants one adds C02??