I left for 2 months and now reaping it all...

[dingogirl66]

I have a 100gal aquarium that has ran beautifully for several years now... I had 2 4 in Angelfish,6 serpae tetras,12 neons...and a whole lot of snails...I left for 2 months and I left my aquarium under the care of someone..everting was fine except the tank was so dirty that I had to clean it...I think that I cleaned to much or released anaerobic bacteria while I was vacuuming....I woke up and my favorite Angel is dead..the other is ok for now..1 of my neons and 1 of my serpae is dead...I checked the water I have high nitrites and I did a water change like 2 gallons added stress coat and put in a airstone...What else can I do to save my little guys? I cant believe I did this to them..

 

[Guest]

You can try changing more water. It's a 100g tank and 2 gals of new water just isn't alot for that size tank. I'd do at least a 50% WC and change the filter medum.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

Best to do another large water change 50% with heavy gravel vacs. Ensure to use a dechlor like prime, and after a few hours check your ammonia and nitrites. Its possible that if the "care taker" was over feeding and there wasn't enough nitrates in the tank to break down the additional "bio-load".... you could have ammonia or nitrite poisoning gonig on. Post back with those results if you can.

 

[dingogirl66]

Well I did the 50% wc and used stress zyme to dechlorinate the water... I waited for a little while and checked my water perimeters to find that my Nitrite level has gone down tremendously but the Ammonia is still a little high..I left the airstone in so I can aerate the water...I definitely think my boyfriend was overfeeding because he overfeed everything...lol...I am upset That I lost my favorite bright yellow and orange Sunburst Angel...He was a cool fish....What can I do now? Should I keep doing daily water changes? how can I fix this problem? i have never had to deal with this before in my years of having aquariums.

 

[joannde]

yes, keep doing water changes and gravel vacs until things are back to normal.
I'm sorry about your angel

 

[RoK]

Well I did the 50% wc and used stress zyme to dechlorinate the water

Did you mean Stress Coat? Stress Zyme is not a dechlorinater.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Stress Zyme is bacteria and not a dechlorinator. It helps cycle a new tank. I think you might be talking about Stress Coat.

My recommendation, daily 50% PWC's for the next 3 days then see where you stand. Also don't do full gravel vacs with them, just vac one half of the tank, then the other half the next day, then a light gravel vac of the whole tank on the 3rd day.

 

[IceH2O]

I'm going against the flow here but 50% pwcs when the nitrates were so high is dangerous to the fish. They've become accustomed to the high nitrates and a huge change can be detrimental. I'd do 25% pwc twice a day instead at least 6 hrs apart for a couple of days then switch up to 50% daily until nitrates are back under 20 ppm.

 

[Ferret_Friend]

I'm going against the flow here but 50% pwcs when the nitrates were so high is dangerous to the fish. They've become accustomed to the high nitrates and a huge change can be detrimental. I'd do 25% pwc twice a day instead at least 6 hrs apart for a couple of days then switch up to 50% daily until nitrates are back under 20 ppm.

I like this advice the best.

 

[physicsdude]

That is a good idea ice. I agree.