31 replies to this topic

[Mr_docfish]

Check for any dead fish and don't feed either tank for a while until you find out what is going on. The blindness could be slime covering the eyes due to ammonia or low pH, or just general damage - coincidental.

The odour could be ammonia, but either way, water changes are a good thing if there is something going wrong, and you don't know why and haven't got time or equipment to find out.

Make sure your water conditioner/purifier for the tap water will remove heavy metals as well as chlorine, and does not have a bad smell or weird colour to it.


If you want to use ADA soils, my recommendation is to use 1/3 on the bottom layer with normal gravel (or other stuff) on top. This stops the ADA soil from coming in contact with the water directly. Only problem is you can't really gravel clean your tank if you have to, if you do (if you have lots of fish) then only suck the top layer of the gravel.

[Brett]

Hello Donna,

Sorry to hear about your losses, but I think you have done a great job to salvage any of them. When you get a dramatic event like this, it's not unusual to have total fish loss.

I would still put my money on a toxic substance that somehow got introduced to your tank. If you are still worried about your filter coping in the little tank, then daily partial water changes using a dechlorinator should keep them healthy till your new tank is set up.

Good Luck

Brett

[fourdapostle]

Hey Donna I am in rockingham and have some test kits if i can help give me a call I will come around and test some water off your tanks for you, then you can go from there...
Let me know

Regards,

David..

[fourdapostle]

Me again, my mobile number is 0407959330 if you give me a call computer doesn't go on till later in the arvo...
David

[Donna]

Hi David,

Great to see fellow southerners on the forum. Thank you so much for your generous offer. I have actually emptied the bigger tank now, and I will probably never find out exactly what happened. I would never make it on CSI as my priority was looking after the living, did try, but that window closed. Anyway, I am determined to get a handle on this stuff myself and I have ordered a master kit off the web. I want to learn about the significance and the relationship between all these scales of measurement for water, and how they impact on my fish.
At the moment, I have three tanks on the go with no losses apart from the original poor old clown loach and some tetra. I think I am very, very fortunate to have saved so many in what was certainly some kind of crisis in my tank.
Good news, juvenile kribs eye has cleared up and I think Oliver may have been right about it just being mucous that built up in response to the "event".

Thanks to everyone for all your responses. I can't tell you how helpful they have been in what has been a sometimes lonely and worrying time.
My problem solving skills are definitely improving

Regards,

Donna

[Fishy]

Really happy to hear that all is going well Donna.

I brought my master test kit 2 years ago and the only thing I probably need to replace is the ammonia test, not a bad investment considering the amount of use it gets. Well worth it!

Thankyou for sharing your tank saga, I reckon there are alot of people that learned a thing or two about problem elimination from what you have had to endure the past week.

Take care,
Bon

[Donna]

Hi Everyone,

Just an update on my tank crash. I ended up losing one clown loach and three tetra which is unacceptable, however, it could have been far worse. State of the nation atm, still looks like a scene off Duece Bigolo as I have decided to put some new substrate in my community tank, so waiting for the order so I can start again. Meanwhile, everyone is rehoused and waiting.

Luckily I had an established two foot tank with some fry in it. This has become the home of all my community pairs. I put my pairs in that tank because it is established and has less chance of cycling.

I had to set up my two and a half foot tank again from scratch.

I had another two foot empty with a small crack at the top and it has my plants in it. I have raised the temp in there and have added blood worms everyday in an attempt to "seed" the filter quicker should the 2.5 foot tank start to cycle. I took some gravel from the crashed tank and added it to the 2.5 tank in little flower pots in an attempt to avoid the cycle, so far, so good. In this tank is my butterflies, tetra and clown loaches. I am running a light and a good airstone in there hoping to encourage bacteria growth in the filter as it is new. I also have temp at 26C to encourage bacteria.

I have eco complete in my established fry tank and the kribs have dug a huge hole and have set up their lair. They can't get up to their usual battering ram speed, so intruders are nudged rather than torpedoed out of the way....the flags are colouring up, and the firemouths are their usual playful selves. The BN fry in the tank don't seem to mind much either way. I am performing small water changes every other day in both tanks and all seems to be well.

I still don't know what happened to cause the crash, however, I changed more water than usual and used up the last of my water conditioner which was cheap rubbish...so that could have been a factor. I also did some mass planting and shifted a lot of the gravel, so perhaps released some H2SO4. There was a definite odour that I won't forget in a hurry.

Recommendations to others.....don't change more water than usual, use a proper water conditioner (have purchased one now), don't disturb masses of gravel, and purchase a reputilbe master testing kit to keep an eye on what is going on, keep a small tank somewhere established with an extra "seeded" filter that you can in case of emergencies.

I could have avoided a lot of heartache, sleepless nights and days off work if I had taken some relatively simple steps.

Regards,

Donna

[FishGal]

Donna, I'm glad to hear that you suffered so few losses, yes 4 is still to many but it could have been ALOT worse!

Recommendations to others.....don't change more water than usual, use a proper water conditioner (have purchased one now), don't disturb masses of gravel

I move all my gravel while water changing my tanks, every single bit gets moved while I'm gravel vacc'ing......doesn't yours? Or do you only partial gravel vac and do different parts of your tank each water change? Or not gravel vac at all?

[Donna]

Hi FishGal,

Yep, I should have done all the gravel you are right, but I was doing only partial for the whole year that the tank was set up. I had a couple of big bits of driftwood, heavy rocks and quite a lot of plants so I tended to just vac around those. Recently, I moved a couple of things after partial vac to plant new plants, that may well have been when the trouble started. I have learned from that.

I spose I should ask a really silly newbie question from those who have experience with planted tanks with eco complete or similar substrate. If it is fairly heavily planted, do you still have to vac that kind of substrate?

I am setting up again with a mix of eco complete and ADA amazonia, so I am wondering will that need to be vacced?

Thanks,

Donna

[Brett]

I will stick my neck out here and say that gravel vacuuming is unnecessary in planted tanks, and may in fact be detrimental to plant growth.

Let the flames begin

Brett

[golden_dase]

I concur with Brett...

My theory/experience with this is that fish-waste will be broken down and become fertilizer for the plants. I've had a 4ft Discus/planted tank (in Vietnam) which is going strong after a year with no gravel vacuuming. Plants are still doing great last time I saw them (2 weeks ago).

[Donna]

Thanks for the replies,

I was not really intending vacuuming the substrate (eco complete and ADA amazonia) because I plan to plant heavily, but after the informed remarks from experienced aquarists whose opinions I respect, I thought I should check. I think they were referring to gravel however.

I doubt I will ever use gravel again.

Just waiting now for my bag of Amazonia and my bag of Eco Complete to come in at Aquatic Rocks and I will go again.

Thanks again for replies, no flames yet....pity

Regards,

Donna