Suddden fish deaths!!

[Deano]

A friend of mine has just lost all but 4 of his fish. They all died suddenly.

The water has turned cloudy and there seems to be some sort of scum on the surface of the water...also the ammonia levels are very high 4.0ppm

He has tried ammo-lock but it seems like it is too late as he is losing fish by the day.

Any ideas as to what is causing this ammonia spike? and the cloudy, scummmy water

 

[tstenback]

How long has your friends tank been setup it could be cycling and along with that high ammonia level (should do water changes very quickly to get that below 1) you could also have very high nitrites which would have a very bad affect on the fish at it is poisonous as well.
Is the water white cloudy or green cloudy. If white it may be a bacterial bloom which ususally occurs when the nitrite is converted to nitrate. Or you may need to change your carbon in the filter as this may be some other type of cloud. If it is greenish it is an algae bloom and the best thing for that is complete lack of light. HTH

 

[Deano]

His tank has been set up for about 5 months.

It is a white cloud in the water with some sort of scum on the surface.

His water parameters are:

Ammonia 4.0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
pH 6
Hardness 3

 

[Loveless]

something probably died or a really dirty filter media to create such an armonia spike