Need help diagnosing an aquarium disaster

[PNWaquarist]

When I went away and had someone feeding my tanks I used a pill box from the pharmacy for my weeks worth of food, this way all they had to do was open whatever day of the week it was and dump it in , also I could change the diet during the week as I normally would do. Some pharmacies will give you the pill box for free if you ask. Worked great for me

Thanks for the info. I may just not give the house-sitter feeding duties anymore. It might be easier to just fatten them up on bloodworms before leaving (provided that I won't be gone for longer than 6-7 days).

I've done one 50% WC and two 30% WCs today (good thing I work from home!) and my three remaining cories are more active now. The tank water still has about 0.15 ppm ammonia, but my nitrite is essentially zero. Double-dosing with Prime seems to help. I'll do another large WC in the morning.

 

[biondoa]

You know I looked at the pics and it seems to me that in order for that much gunk to appear from uneaten food, your sitter would have had to dump the entire jar of food in there. You said there was plenty of food left in the jar. I am not convinced it is rotting food. Can't say that I have a guess as to what it is, but if you had a lot of food left in the jar, my guess is not food.

 

[PNWaquarist]

You know I looked at the pics and it seems to me that in order for that much gunk to appear from uneaten food, your sitter would have had to dump the entire jar of food in there. You said there was plenty of food left in the jar. I am not convinced it is rotting food. Can't say that I have a guess as to what it is, but if you had a lot of food left in the jar, my guess is not food.

That was my initial thought as well, though the level of food in the (short and wide) container is a good half centimeter lower than it should've been. So while I agree that that difference may not be enough to visually account for the amount of detritus that was in the tank, the fish were still grossly over-fed. There was an ammonia and nitrite spike sometime between yesterday morning and this morning, which seems more indicative of rotting food than a bacterial or fungal bloom. It's also possible that something else was dumped into the tank along with the food, though what was in there appears to be consistent in color.

Anyway, I'll never know what happened because the sitter is still claiming that the tank looked fine on Tuesday morning. Apparently we're dumb enough to believe that a tank that's been biologically stable for over a month would spontaneously nuke itself, and do so within a period of eight hours.

 

[RedDevil83]

Probable that the sitter accidentally dumped too much and didn't know what to do and it grew into the mess lol sorry just sounds like when my daughter dumped an entire 6oz container of fish flakes in a 5 gallon when she was 2

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[RedDevil83]

Bread crumbs?

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[ImACoolguy]

That's a whole lot of food wow! Unless they spilled the container I don't know how that could happen..

Hope it all gets cleaned up


Caleb

 

[trennamw]

I've had NLS pellets decompose in a tank. It was just two pellets that sat on a leaf for a day. In one day they made a spot on the leaves that was wide and flat and a little "hazy" (not quite fuzzy like mold). They stuck a little stubbornly. I absolutely believe a half cm from the jar could cover a whole tank like that. Multiply the surface area of the jar by 4, then by how many thicknesses of 1 pellet there are in a half cm, I bet it is close to the area of the tank bottom.

Ditto that with those conditions it's best to remove the fish or do a 100% change, not worry about changing the water condition too abruptly.


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[trennamw]

Just got the photos to download. That's absolutely what NLS pellets look like. And they do appear to me to have been there a day at most.

(1 year feeding NLS, 1 toddler in the house ... I'm very certain).


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[RedDevil83]

I should explain to my daughter that its like giving you 20 bowls of macaroni and cheese and I expect her to eat it in one sitting.

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[PNWaquarist]

Probable that the sitter accidentally dumped too much and didn't know what to do and it grew into the mess lol sorry just sounds like when my daughter dumped an entire 6oz container of fish flakes in a 5 gallon when she was 2

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My theory is that she let her boyfriend or somebody else feed the fish on the last day. She's way too intelligent to do something this dumb.

 

[PassengerTN]

If you want to see what your fish food looks like decomposed, put some in a container of water and let it sit a few days then compare to your photos.

Jesse

 

[coralbandit]

Just got the photos to download. That's absolutely what NLS pellets look like. And they do appear to me to have been there a day at most.

(1 year feeding NLS, 1 toddler in the house ... I'm very certain).


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I would be cautious with the sitter and accusations!
I agree with above as a breeder who feeds as much as humanly possible without killing(intentionally) my fry!

If you want to see what your fish food looks like decomposed, put some in a container of water and let it sit a few days then compare to your photos.


This would be my suggestion also if you don't believe the sitter.
It may not have all "developed " overnight, but it may have become much(MUCH) worse overnight.
I can get the same result in bare bottom tanks with flake food in less then 3 days after a water change!
Just saying...................

 

[PNWaquarist]

I've had NLS pellets decompose in a tank. It was just two pellets that sat on a leaf for a day. In one day they made a spot on the leaves that was wide and flat and a little "hazy" (not quite fuzzy like mold). They stuck a little stubbornly. I absolutely believe a half cm from the jar could cover a whole tank like that. Multiply the surface area of the jar by 4, then by how many thicknesses of 1 pellet there are in a half cm, I bet it is close to the area of the tank bottom.

Ditto that with those conditions it's best to remove the fish or do a 100% change, not worry about changing the water condition too abruptly.


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Yep, I spent part of the morning rubbing the flat blotches of food off of my Java fern leaves. They were definitely stubborn... couldn't siphon them up.

I've changed out about 60 gallons of water since Tuesday evening (tank is 20 gallons) and the water is pretty much cleared up now. There's a substance growing on the walls of the tank, which I'm assuming is algae. The water had about 0.25 ppm ammonia this morning, and I'm assuming that at least some of that is from chloramines in the tap water. Added a triple dose of Prime after this morning's 50% WC, just in case.

Two of the three remaining corys look OK, while the third is still "gilling" but seems OK otherwise. They're still eating the remaining bits of decomposing food that I couldn't get out. I may switch up their diet and give them a small amount of bloodworms on Sunday.

 

[PNWaquarist]

For those who are still interested, my ammonia and nitrite levels were back to 0 ppm this morning and my three surviving corys are behaving normally again. I'll probably add more fish in a couple of weeks.

Thank you all for your input.

 

[PoppaRyno]

Good to hear. Hope all stays steady n stable... Go discus this time. ?

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[54seaweed]

haven't read through this post yet as I just came across it and saw the pict my reaction was
OMG who was feeding that tank by the looks of it could be a years worth of food in there
now I'm going to read through it

 

[54seaweed]

ok read through it now
have you used a siphon hose with a gravel vac yet if not I would recommend it ,
otherwise those nitrates could reappear over a few days , If this was my tank I would put what remaining fish you have in a bucket with some tank water , tear down tank flush out all the gravel be sure to keep all your decor submerged along with filter media in old tank water to preserve bb , before adding it back kind of shake it in tank water to remove any excess food particles , this should help save remaining bb from dieing off as you clean up the tank , leaving all that crud in your gravel can lead to a major algae bloom in the near future ,
my daughter over fed my gold fish tank a while back and my tank looked almost the same , I did every thing above as it was nasty only thing different I had a sand bed ,
since than I finally rehomed the goldfish and pleco as I lost intrest in freshwater , I do not alow anyone to feed or even touch my saltwater tanks , the 40b the freshwater fish were in is now becoming a saltwater predator tank ,

 

[PNWaquarist]

ok read through it now
have you used a siphon hose with a gravel vac yet if not I would recommend it ,
otherwise those nitrates could reappear over a few days , If this was my tank I would put what remaining fish you have in a bucket with some tank water , tear down tank flush out all the gravel be sure to keep all your decor submerged along with filter media in old tank water to preserve bb , before adding it back kind of shake it in tank water to remove any excess food particles , this should help save remaining bb from dieing off as you clean up the tank , leaving all that crud in your gravel can lead to a major algae bloom in the near future ,
my daughter over fed my gold fish tank a while back and my tank looked almost the same , I did every thing above as it was nasty only thing different I had a sand bed ,
since than I finally rehomed the goldfish and pleco as I lost intrest in freshwater , I do not alow anyone to feed or even touch my saltwater tanks , the 40b the freshwater fish were in is now becoming a saltwater predator tank ,

I took out the plants and wood, and did a fish-in gravel-vac cleaning of the tank a few days ago. Did the equivalent of about eight 50% WCs in the process. I got almost all of the detritus out. The BB colony should be able to handle the rest. The three 1" corys have negligible bio load, but I will still keep an eye on the nitrate every few days.

And, yes, nobody else feeds my fish again. Ever.



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[LayzorBeams]

Well what i would've done was freaked out, put the fish in a different tank, bleach everything, wait a few days, put it back together, and then have finally remembered i own a siphon and then cried.

Good job keeping a cool head in a crisis.


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[gilpi]

It's very easy for someone that doesn't know anything about fishkeeping to over feed.
I would have this person feed them just once during the week you're gone or not to feed them at all, believe me, you'll be better off.



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