New Member With A Mystery

[Bossco7775]

Hi Everyone,

Im glad I found this site. I have enjoyed going through some of threads and photos. I have a bit of a mystery on my hands. All my fish in my community tank recently died over the course of three days. I cant figure out what happened. I did recently add new fish, so when the deaths started, I assumed there was an ammonia spike. I tested the water, and the readings were as follows:
Ammonia-Nil
ÑO3 - 20
NO2 - Less than 0.5
GH - 150
Chlorine - 0
KH - 180
PH - 8.4
The water temperature was OK

The PH is a little high, for some of the species in the tank. My Angelfish should have thrived in that PH, but they were the first to die. I dont think this was the problem. Maybe Im wrong about this.

There is no metal in the tank.

I dont know what to do. I lost all of my Aquatic freinds, and I dont know why. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might have happened? Comments on my readings?

 

[Delapool]

Bit odd, the readings don't seem to bad to me. A couple of questions: How did they die, any odd behavior, was it straight away after the new fish were added, were dead fish removed pretty quick, did any species die first, did you add many new fish compared to existing fish, did you do anything else when you added the fish? Off-hand I cant think of anything but have never had an entire tank go.

 

[GodFan]

Hi Everyone,

Im glad I found this site. I have enjoyed going through some of threads and photos. I have a bit of a mystery on my hands. All my fish in my community tank recently died over the course of three days. I cant figure out what happened. I did recently add new fish, so when the deaths started, I assumed there was an ammonia spike. I tested the water, and the readings were as follows:
Ammonia-Nil
ÑO3 - 20
NO2 - Less than 0.5
GH - 150
Chlorine - 0
KH - 180
PH - 8.4
The water temperature was OK

The PH is a little high, for some of the species in the tank. My Angelfish should have thrived in that PH, but they were the first to die. I dont think this was the problem. Maybe Im wrong about this.

There is no metal in the tank.

I dont know what to do. I lost all of my Aquatic freinds, and I dont know why. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might have happened? Comments on my readings?

We need to know symptoms and if anything was added besides the new fish. Angels are more sensitive than alot of fish so them going first is not suprising.
I would say you had some typenof contaminent enter the tank. Soap, oil something. Couod have come of your hands even.

 

[AngelFishGirl]

How large is the tank?

 

[Bossco7775]

I think you might be right

We need to know symptoms and if anything was added besides the new fish. Angels are more sensitive than alot of fish so them going first is not suprising.
I would say you had some typenof contaminent enter the tank. Soap, oil something. Could have come of your hands even.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.
Something was added. Water. I think there might have been a snafu with buckets at my house, and some soap may have been introduced to the water. I don't know this for certain, but I was cleaning out my garage for winter yesterday, and noticed how many of the identical blue buckets I had, and decided this must have been it. I have feared that buckets were contaminated before, which is why I have so many I suppose. Always buying new ones. Rookie mistake. I had changed about 20 gallons of water. I was worried about an ammonia spike from the new fish. I still dont know for certain though. The new fish were healthy, and from a reputable dealer. The fish died in this order:

First - Angelfish (New)
Second - Catfish (New)
Third - Black Skirt Tetra (Existing)
Fourth - Platy (Existing)
Fifth - Rainbow Fish (Existing)
Sixth - Zebra Danios (Existing)
Last - Dwarf Gourami (New)

That Gourami may have held out a bit longer, but was clearly suffering, so I had to euthanize.

Symptoms were all over the place. Some floated, some sank and lay on their sides. The catfish went vertical and spun. It was pretty awful. I have a 100% water change planned along with a 100% filter media change.

Any thoughts on if I can salvage the gravel?

Thankyou in any event to everyone that has replied.

 

[Bossco7775]

How large is the tank?

I have a 90 Gallon tank. I'm a big fan of Angelfish as well. I think the mystery is solved in my tank (I Hope). I plan on more Angelfish. They are entertaining, and grow fast.

 

[GodFan]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.
Something was added. Water. I think there might have been a snafu with buckets at my house, and some soap may have been introduced to the water. I don't know this for certain, but I was cleaning out my garage for winter yesterday, and noticed how many of the identical blue buckets I had, and decided this must have been it. I have feared that buckets were contaminated before, which is why I have so many I suppose. Always buying new ones. Rookie mistake. I had changed about 20 gallons of water. I was worried about an ammonia spike from the new fish. I still dont know for certain though. The new fish were healthy, and from a reputable dealer. The fish died in this order:

First - Angelfish (New)
Second - Catfish (New)
Third - Black Skirt Tetra (Existing)
Fourth - Platy (Existing)
Fifth - Rainbow Fish (Existing)
Sixth - Zebra Danios (Existing)
Last - Dwarf Gourami (New)

That Gourami may have held out a bit longer, but was clearly suffering, so I had to euthanize.

Symptoms were all over the place. Some floated, some sank and lay on their sides. The catfish went vertical and spun. It was pretty awful. I have a 100% water change planned along with a 100% filter media change.

Any thoughts on if I can salvage the gravel?

Thankyou in any event to everyone that has replied.

Thats it! You changed 100% of the filter media. In so doing you basically uncycled your tank! The fish died from ammonia most likely!

 

[Delapool]

Wow, so sad. Very unlucky. I have separate buckets but just last week the whole shed almost got sprayed for spiders. That sounds a lot of gravel. I don't know, if I could see the soap (to know when it is flushed out) and maybe a carbon filter(?) in a fish less cycle at startup (that would give a few weeks for anything to degrade and I could see if bb were ok) but it sounds so catastrophic and gravel being a fairly cheap cost here that I would be inclined to ditch it and any driftwood I had, just personal opinion though.

 

[jlk]

The wide array of symptoms and demise of all the fish after doing a wc with potentially contaminated buckets sounds like it may have been the culprit. A toxin of some sort entered the tank. Even if ammonia had spiked (your numbers do not reflect this though), it still should not have killed fish this quickly but a contaminant/poison would. I honestly would be wary of reusing anything in the tank such as gravel without knowing what the contaminant was.

 

[Bossco7775]

Thats it! You changed 100% of the filter media. In so doing you basically uncycled your tank! The fish died from ammonia most likely!

I plan on removing all of the filter media. I did not do this previously. It would appear that the biological filter was working based on the numbers. Ammonia was what I tested for at first sign of trouble. I usually do a 20% water change after new fish have settled in. I try not to mess with my biological filter once its established.

 

[GodFan]

I plan on removing all of the filter media. I did not do this previously. It would appear that the biological filter was working based on the numbers. Ammonia was what I tested for at first sign of trouble. I usually do a 20% water change after new fish have settled in. I try not to mess with my biological filter once its established.

Oops my bad. Then I would say contamination is likely he issue.

 

[Bossco7775]

Wow, so sad. Very unlucky. I have separate buckets but just last week the whole shed almost got sprayed for spiders. That sounds a lot of gravel. I don't know, if I could see the soap (to know when it is flushed out) and maybe a carbon filter(?) in a fish less cycle at startup (that would give a few weeks for anything to degrade and I could see if bb were ok) but it sounds so catastrophic and gravel being a fairly cheap cost here that I would be inclined to ditch it and any driftwood I had, just personal opinion though.

Im inclined to agree with you. The suspect bucket is going to become the bucket that holds the old gravel...which will become traction on ice on the sidewalk. Ive used old gravel for winter traction before. Works well. LOL.

 

[Bossco7775]

The wide array of symptoms and demise of all the fish after doing a wc with potentially contaminated buckets sounds like it may have been the culprit. A toxin of some sort entered the tank. Even if ammonia had spiked (your numbers do not reflect this though), it still should not have killed fish this quickly but a contaminant/poison would. I honestly would be wary of reusing anything in the tank such as gravel without knowing what the contaminant was.

The contamination took some time to get through the system too as immediately after the water change, everything seemed OK. I hope that bucket contamination was in fact the problem....otherwise, there is still a mystery. Im going to replace the gravel as well. I hope that my decorations can be salvaged. Some of them were pretty expensive.

 

[Delapool]

Im inclined to agree with you. The suspect bucket is going to become the bucket that holds the old gravel...which will become traction on ice on the sidewalk. Ive used old gravel for winter traction before. Works well. LOL.

Good luck with it.