Tank Inhabitants Slowly Dying

[sussexgirl]

My tank has been up and running since April. I do regular maintenance, test my readings every fortnight(ish) and haven't had anything out of the safe parametres until today when I spotted my nitrate at 40 (though it could be 80 because the reds on the Aquarium Pharaceuticals master kit are SO similar). My nitrite is 0 and so is my amonia.

Anyway, since the end of last year my fish have slowly been dying. We're talking around 1-2 fish every month. I honestly agree with others on here in response to my past posts that I have NTD in the tank. I know it's untreatable but is this it? Do I have resign myself to the fact that my fish are slowly going to die off one by one and I'm powerless to stop it?

I'm off to do a water change now and know that my nitrates are up because I've been feeding twice a day instead of once for my platy fry. Too much food = higher nitrates right?

So, if my tank is incurable and they 'are' all going to die, how do I go about cleaning it thoroughly and starting again (when they've all gone) without the disease being present with new stock. Obviously I haven't bought any new fish or intend to whilst there are deaths going on.

 

[hogan53]

That nitrate level is about right for tap water in my area test your tap water.

What fish have you lost?

 

[WILDER]

Yes ntd can affect alot of fish.
Strip the tank down and sterlise everything, throw the filter sponges away and the substrate.
Live plants bin sorry, if plastic I would still bin them as well.

 

[sussexgirl]

Yes ntd can affect alot of fish.
Strip the tank down and sterlise everything, throw the filter sponges away and the substrate.
Live plants bin sorry, if plastic I would still bin them as well.

Wilder: How do I go about steralising? Prepared that some day soon I'm most likely going to have to start again but it's the cleansing down process I'm not sure of. Is there a special solution you need to buy or is it just copius amount of boiling water or steam cleaning? I'll certainly hold off buying any new plants then but my tanks kind of looking a bit sparse as I've just binned a few of the shabbier ones.

Hogan53: Over the past 12 months I have lost 2 blue rams, 2 dwarf gouramis, 5 platys, 2 dwarf neon rainbows and 3 neon tetras. I've also lost 2 amano shrimp. Now bear in mind that the tank wasn't fully stocked with this amount of fish + the remaining ones from scratch. The population of my tank has always remained at about 20 fish and my shrimp. The first few died of whitespot when I had a couple of nasty outbreaks but the last few have all had bleaching of colour (especially the neons), skinny bumpy bodies, and white parasites.

 

[WILDER]

Bleach but you will need to do alot of rinsing out and leave things to dry out for a day.
Filter run in a bucket of hot salty water rinse well, also leave to dry out for a day or two.

 

[hogan53]

I agree with Wilder its the best method although you could Microwave your gravel/substrate if it was expensive to buy. Potasium Permangenate is my choice for sterilisation but it does stain plastics pink.
Good luck.

 

[sussexgirl]

I agree with Wilder its the best method although you could Microwave your gravel/substrate if it was expensive to buy. Potasium Permangenate is my choice for sterilisation but it does stain plastics pink.
Good luck.

thanks to you both for your advice.

 

[WILDER]

Sorry I know its awful been here my neons got ntd and wiped the whole tank out.
Had to strip the tank down and start again.
Good luck.

 

[WILDER]

Wouldn't sterlise the gravel in the micorwave though, done sponges, but not gravel.