Please Help!

[sharky&george]

I am so worried the other day I changed my old internal filter for an external tetratec 700 and now I am losing my fish yesterday 1 died now i see a tetra thats dead and both my clown loaches are dying I can see no signs on the fish apart from on the loaches there body seems to be like gone a bit marbled looking Please help what do i do i kept the same water gravel literally just changed the filter. Although the water is alot cleaner could it be shock?

 

[sharky&george]

please can any1 help?

 

[BigIan]

did you swap the filter media over aswell?? or atleast leave the filters running in tandem, for a while


if not you`ve dumped all the benificial bacteria that was turning your fish waste to nitrates.


have you done a water test as this would give you an idea

 

[sharky&george]

I did take the internal filter with media out and cleaned it all thinking that the gravel and existing water would hold all the beneficial bacteria I tested my water but only have tetratest 5 in 1 but the results are
NO3-25
NO2-0
GH-16
GH-16
GH-16
KH-6
PH-7.6

I am not sure if these are ok

 

[sharky&george]

Any one sorry to go on but my clown loach is now dead and one is seriousley struggling he is gasping and on his back its so sad 2 see

 

[xJake]

I did take the internal filter with media out and cleaned it all thinking that the gravel and existing water would hold all the beneficial bacteria I tested my water but only have tetratest 5 in 1 but the results are
NO3-25
NO2-0
GH-16
GH-16
GH-16
KH-6
PH-7.6

I am not sure if these are ok

None of those are ammonia. Look for NH3/NH4.

From the symptoms it seems to be a case of ammonia poisoning. (Check for purple/locked-up gills as well) Sometimes nitrifying bacteria grow mainly on the filter and little else in the tank, and removing it abruptly can cause this sort of thing to happen.

Do a large (50%+) water change to get the ammonia levels down and put your old filter back in for now if at all possible. Also, evacuating a few of your fish to another established tank if possible would be good as well. Also, you can find chemical treatments in the stores that temporarily lower ammonia levels to give your fish immediate relief, however, loaches are usually extremely sensitive to these types of chemicals as they absorb chemicals directly through their skin.

 

[sharky&george]

I have cleaned my old filter and media will this still b ok to put back in
I can go and get some treatment to lower amonia do you think this is a gd idea? i havent gt a test kit for amonia should i get this 2?

 

[sharky&george]

Please help any 1 sorry to be pain!
And thank you for the help you have already given but can someone just answer some of my questions thanks

 

[Tolak]

I would get the test for ammonia. If the media hasn't dried out, and hasn't been unused for more than 12 hours it should be ok. If you suspect ammonia, daily 50% water changes are needed. Some ammo-lock would help, it converts ammonia to ammonium. Ammonium is harmless to fish, but can stuill be used by your bio filtration.