Newbie

[bettyandrudy]

we cleaned and changed the water in our tank 30%. ther was a lot of algea on the walls . when we came back the filter was blocked and about 4 fish died. mostly african chiclids. one was a peakcock blue ice barb and jewel. this was about 5hours after the change. my wife did put the wrong stress coat in ,it was ment for fishponds any suggestions why they died we never had a problem before and change the water every ten days. the temp was 78.4

 

[CruX]

we cleaned and changed the water in our tank 30%. ther was a lot of algea on the walls . when we came back the filter was blocked and about 4 fish died. mostly african chiclids. one was a peakcock blue ice barb and jewel. this was about 5hours after the change. my wife did put the wrong stress coat in ,it was ment for fishponds any suggestions why they died we never had a problem before and change the water every ten days. the temp was 78.4

Have you checked your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings?

 

[LukeFishwalker]

I'm not sure - I wouldnt think 5 hours without a filter would kill 4 fish. I'm interested in seeing what everyone else thinks.

 

[bettyandrudy]

we cleaned and changed the water in our tank 30%. ther was a lot of algea on the walls . when we came back the filter was blocked and about 4 fish died. mostly african chiclids. one was a peakcock blue ice barb and jewel. this was about 5hours after the change. my wife did put the wrong stress coat in ,it was ment for fishponds any suggestions why they died we never had a problem before and change the water every ten days. the temp was 78.4

Have you checked your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings?

no we never had a issue before

 

[bettyandrudy]

I'm not sure - I wouldnt think 5 hours without a filter would kill 4 fish. I'm interested in seeing what everyone else thinks.

just to add it is a 75 gallon tank with a eheim 2028 pro 11 filter system

 

[CruX]

we cleaned and changed the water in our tank 30%. ther was a lot of algea on the walls . when we came back the filter was blocked and about 4 fish died. mostly african chiclids. one was a peakcock blue ice barb and jewel. this was about 5hours after the change. my wife did put the wrong stress coat in ,it was ment for fishponds any suggestions why they died we never had a problem before and change the water every ten days. the temp was 78.4

Have you checked your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings?

no we never had a issue before

How long was the filter clogged for? If it was a good long while then the bacteria might have died off causing ammonia and nitrite to spike. Checking your stats could indicate what the problem is, as said before it is unlikely the bacteria would die off in 5 hours. When you say you used the wrong dechlor did you use the correct amount even though it was pond dechlor or did you use it as if it was your normal dechlor, it could be possible that massive overdose of dechlor could have killed the bacteria colony off, it would have to be grossly massively overdosed mind.

 

[bettyandrudy]

we cleaned and changed the water in our tank 30%. ther was a lot of algea on the walls . when we came back the filter was blocked and about 4 fish died. mostly african chiclids. one was a peakcock blue ice barb and jewel. this was about 5hours after the change. my wife did put the wrong stress coat in ,it was ment for fishponds any suggestions why they died we never had a problem before and change the water every ten days. the temp was 78.4

Have you checked your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings?

no we never had a issue before

How long was the filter clogged for? If it was a good long while then the bacteria might have died off causing ammonia and nitrite to spike. Checking your stats could indicate what the problem is, as said before it is unlikely the bacteria would die off in 5 hours. When you say you used the wrong dechlor did you use the correct amount even though it was pond dechlor or did you use it as if it was your normal dechlor, it could be possible that massive overdose of dechlor could have killed the bacteria colony off, it would have to be grossly massively overdosed mind.

the filter was blocked only after we came home it was working fine before we left . my wife added the same amount as usual be she did not realize she bought the pond dechlor

 

[CruX]

we cleaned and changed the water in our tank 30%. ther was a lot of algea on the walls . when we came back the filter was blocked and about 4 fish died. mostly african chiclids. one was a peakcock blue ice barb and jewel. this was about 5hours after the change. my wife did put the wrong stress coat in ,it was ment for fishponds any suggestions why they died we never had a problem before and change the water every ten days. the temp was 78.4

Have you checked your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings?

no we never had a issue before

How long was the filter clogged for? If it was a good long while then the bacteria might have died off causing ammonia and nitrite to spike. Checking your stats could indicate what the problem is, as said before it is unlikely the bacteria would die off in 5 hours. When you say you used the wrong dechlor did you use the correct amount even though it was pond dechlor or did you use it as if it was your normal dechlor, it could be possible that massive overdose of dechlor could have killed the bacteria colony off, it would have to be grossly massively overdosed mind.

the filter was blocked only after we came home it was working fine before we left . my wife added the same amount as usual be she did not realize she bought the pond dechlor

What I mean is 5ml of tapsafe will do 10 litres, whereas I believe pond dechlor is more concentrated, so 5ml might do a much higher amount. For example say pond dechlor 5ml did 100 litres and you normally put 75ml in to cover a 150L water change but you put 75ml of pond dechlor in you will have put enough in to dechlor 1500L of water. Of course I don't know the exact concentrate of your pond dechlor compared to your normal stuff but it is worth checking the values if you did put the same amount of pond dechlor in you would have put in with tapsafe.

 

[LukeFishwalker]

I thought I read a thread where the topic was pond dechlor vs. something like tapsafe. I believe the consensus was that it is VERY difficult to overdose your fish on dechlor. Though, if she used enough I'm sure its possible.

 

[andywg]

At least one of the dechlorinator manufacturers (I think Tetra) tested at up to 50x overdosing with no ill effects.

It has been proposed before (but I don't recall any scientific backing) that sdoium thiosulphate (a common salt used in de-chlors) will bind to oxygen when no chlorine is available. The likelihood of such an event I am unsure of.

 

[CruX]

At least one of the dechlorinator manufacturers (I think Tetra) tested at up to 50x overdosing with no ill effects.

It has been proposed before (but I don't recall any scientific backing) that sdoium thiosulphate (a common salt used in de-chlors) will bind to oxygen when no chlorine is available. The likelihood of such an event I am unsure of.

Indeed. Although when I was in hospital recently I found out that an entire bottle of aquasafe was knocked into the tank by accidentally. I can't say this is what killed the fish that died as to be frank it could have been a lack of a water change for a few weeks, or possibly over or under feeding. However it is apparent that the fish died during the night following the accident. Just how potent is pond dechlor?

 

[andywg]

Just how potent is pond dechlor?

The pond dechlor I use does 80 imperial gallons with 10ml.

 

[CruX]

I am not good at converting imperial to metric and I am on my phone so I will have to guess that 80 gallons is about 350 to 400 litres. So what your pond dechlor does in 10ml it would take 175ml of my tapsafe to do. Potentially if you mix the measurements you could end up putting enough in to declhor 6125 litres. An overdose of only about 17 times, so if it is true that ovedrdoses of 50 times are safe then this would obviously discount this being the culprit. Actually it is worth checking my maths as I have got a bunch of kids shouting at me.

 

[bettyandrudy]

I am not good at converting imperial to metric and I am on my phone so I will have to guess that 80 gallons is about 350 to 400 litres. So what your pond dechlor does in 10ml it would take 175ml of my tapsafe to do. Potentially if you mix the measurements you could end up putting enough in to declhor 6125 litres. An overdose of only about 17 times, so if it is true that ovedrdoses of 50 times are safe then this would obviously discount this being the culprit. Actually it is worth checking my maths as I have got a bunch of kids shouting at me.

after changing the water by 30% again right after the discovery the remaining fish recovered and since then we added 4 more . they all seemed to be doing ok
after two days.