Wth Just Happened!?

[PRW1988]

Alright, so my girlfriend calls me asking me an odd question "how bad can fishwater be?", I'm thinking to myself wth does that mean?! She explains that she fed her fish last night and all of the food was gone within 2 minutes, she woke up this morning and went to feed the fish again and now her 2 cardinal tetras and 3 female guppies are dead! She has no idea what's going on and neither do I!

She's at work right now (petsmart) so she tested her water several times and everytime the readings have come back the same.

Ammonia 0.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40-80
Ph 7.2
Alkalinity 80
Chlorine 0

One of her fish (rainbow fish) has ich aswell, she's at a loss as to what it is, so am I! Could anybody help solve this mystery please!!

 

[Squidman]

I think the nitrate level may be too high? I dont know though!

 

[PRW1988]

Nitrates become toxic at 80, her's is in between 40 and 80, so probably around 60 some where. She's doing a 50% water change when she gets home, that's what I recommended and I think that's the only thing that can really be done.

 

[slakey]

possibly put white spot solution in... that might of caused the other fish to die. Also put in some aquasafe and easybalance if you have some, and if possible take out the remaining, fish and put into a quarintine tank.

 

[eschaton]

By your post count, I'm assuming you're pretty experienced and have discussed this with your GF already, but the tank was properly cycled right? An ammonia level of 0.5 could just be from the five fish decaying overnight, but the cycle could be out of whack too.

 

[PRW1988]

Ok so apparently she's used a different test kit and Ph is 8.4 and nitrate is 200!? She's apparently getting different readings every time so I have no clue... and yes I discussed this with her and am still (even as we speak), her tank was fully cycled (fishless I helped) and all was well until she bought fish from walmart (dispite my better judgement and the fact that I told her not to!). God help her, she turns to me for all the help and it gets really annoying when I don't know them lol!

Well, thanks for your help so far guys, I'll keep you updated as this progresses. I don't understand how her tests have changed so much in like 3 hours...

 

[benniebru]

wow ph of 8 is way to high for those fish and nitrates of 200 im suprised anything is still alive. it could be a couple diff things IMO
the tank could be overstocked
she does not do 15% weekly water changes

what she needs to do IMO is treat here water when she does the changes with some kind of neutralizer (i use bullseye 7.0) to get the ph down, then she should do a 50% water change and 20% changes every week


not to be mean this is why i dont go to petsmart or petco

 

[Alistriwen]

If every fish in the tank died overnight youre looking at something really serious I think, not just unbalanced nitrates. If it was the chemical balance killing the fish itd be a slower process where htey got sick and died but not all together all at once. The only way the nitrates could have killed them I imagine would be if something drastic was done that sent it shooting up way higher than it had been in which case the fish died of shock. I think it's more likely that some contaminant got in the water either through accident or in the food and that's what killed the fish. Im not an authority on the subject though, just my logical analysis.

 

[kribensis12]

Do a water change, amonia should always be a zero

 

[PRW1988]

I told her to do a 50% water change when she gets home from work, also I'm assuming most (after my last reply) skipped the original post.

Tests this morning were
Ammonia 0.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40-80
Ph 7.2
Alkalinity 80
Chlorine 0

Tests at 3:20pm, from the same sample of water (she took enough from her tank for about 20 tests into work.)
Ammonia 0.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 200
Ph 8.4
Alkalinity 80
Chlorine 0

she does not do 15% weekly water changes

I'm sorry, but since when do you know what my girlfriend does?? She actually does 25% water changes weekly, so don't go jumping to assumptions.

wow ph of 8 is way to high for those fish

Clearly you didn't read the part about this being a later test and me not understanding how the Ph and Nitrates changed so drastically within 4hours.

can anybody else think of anything that could've caused the deaths of so many fish?

The tank stock originally was 4 Zebra danios, 3 Female guppies, 1 rainbow fish, 4 black skirt tetras and 1 pleco(gibby pleco, 3", going into my pond next summer).

Now the tank stock is 1 Zebra danio, 4 black skirt tetras and 1 pleco. So as you can see, the tank wasn't overstocked (25 gallon tank.)

 

[celaeno]

tell her to use unexpired api freshwater liquid test kits. with the nitrate test, you must follow the directions about shaking well.

 

[PRW1988]

It's a brand new test kit, unexpired as you said... She used the liquid test originally... same result, she tried both liquid and strips to see if any difference, there wasn't any!

 

[eschaton]

Sometimes, if you don't rinse out the tubes enough, the residue can change the PH dramatically. I'm not sure what could have caused the nitrate spike though.

 

[PRW1988]

well that explains the Ph, thanks, do you think that the water being left out for a while (standing still) would begin to turn it stagnent and that could explain the nitrate? Either way she's adding a 7.2Ph buffer, ammonia remover and doing a 50% water change.

 

[n3ont3tra]

Okay. It's either the food, or something that got into the water.

I would trash the food and buy some new stuff, better safe than sorry.
And the water being left stagnant won't cause nitrates... I think some kind of chemical got into the water... any air freshener, hairspray, perfume, cleaning stuff or anything like that being used around the tank, or where the water was stored? Is the tank covered?

What was the last fish added and when was it added?


Ohh and make sure the filter is working properly!!!