What went wrong?

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midgiepooh

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 26, 2012
Messages
37
Sorry I've been out of pocket for a couple of weeks!

Unfortunately, I have returned with bad news. I woke up this morning to find our "Fishy" had passed away overnight.

(refresher - I'm a complete and total ignorant newbie at this! My daughter received a baby fantail goldfish for her birthday last month. I came here to have my hand held while going through the cycling process - and by the way, thanks again for THAT! I thought everything was going great.....until this morning)

I know what went wrong, but I'm not sure as to the "why" it went wrong. I'd been testing Fishy's water regularly, doing regular changes, he was doing great, I was feeling confident, everything was utterly normal and up to what I expected.

However, when I ran my normal tests the day before yesterday, the ammonia went up to 0.5ppm for the first time - I never got a higher reading than 0.25 on my API kit. So I did a really good water change (50%), said "night night" to Fishy, and went on my merry way. (nothing else was "weird" - just the ammonia went up a bit)

He wasn't swimming a lot yesterday - I did notice that. But that was all - nothing seemed "off."

I found him dead this morning. :(

So I ran all the tests again, STILL nothing out of the ordinary until I did the pH reading and it came out...well, as yellow as that smiley above. I assume that the level was too low to be detectable with the kit.

So I had a pH crash? How the heck did that happen, and what did I do wrong? Is this something I should have seen coming? Something to prepare for? Argh, I am blaming myself on this one!!!

The only other info I think could possibly be useful is that I recently installed a new bubble decoration (rinsed it before putting it in). That was about two weeks ago, give or take.

Well, anyway, I feel awful. I really tried my best.

We are definitely getting another fish - but for now we're waiting until everything goes back to normal....and STAYS normal before getting a new member of the family.

Anything I should do in the meantime? I've changed nearly 100% of the water, cleaned everything well (scrubbing, vaccuming, etc.), got everything still running...I'm just a little clueless what to do now to get everything stabilized and make sure it stays that way.

OH, one more thing!!! I tested the pH of my regular tap water and got the same Big Bird yellow reading. However, upon testing the water in the tank AFTER I'd done the 90+% change and let it run through the filter and everything for a while, it came out a nice, perfect 7. I wasn't sure if that little residual water I had at the very bottom, mixed with the fresh water, had anything to do with that - why my tap water is reading 6.0 is beyond me. But would that 50% change I did a couple of days ago have anything to do with Fishy's passing? I don't know - I just figured I can't give out TOO much info here to figure out what happened. I just don't want to make the same mistake twice.

Poor little guy. I really did mean well!!!
 
I am very sorry :( His demise was likely a combination of ammonia and a drastic ph drop but he also may have sick as well to further complicate things.

Ok, lets start with your ph. You tested straight from the tap and its 6 (or lower). Take a container of tap water & set it out with a bubbler or airstone. Test it in 24hrs and let us know this looks. This will be your 'actual' ph after it gasses off. Do you have a water softener or any type of similar filtration system at your home? Next, although I know most stores use strips, bring a sample of your tap water to your lfs and have them test it for ph, kh & gh- this will give us a ballpark idea of your numbers beyond what your standard tests show.

Next, I would seriously consider doing a fishless cycle so your tank is ready for new fish. I dont recall the size of your tank but while your tank is cycling, you can research and ask questions about fish that are appropriate for your tank size and conditions. Ill poat the fishless link for you, too. Please ask any questions you may have!! :)

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html
 
Thank you so much!

I have a 20 gallon tank. We don't use anything on our water at home - it just comes out of the tap the way it is! As far as kh and gh, is this something I can test for at home? Rather, is that something I should have been monitoring all along?

I don't wish anything on Fishy, but I do sort of hope he was sick too. I'm rather irritated that people who don't really care can have fish live longer than this - I actually CARED to know and do it right and still lost him at 1 month.

But it appears a fishless cycle is what we'll be doing! Is it safe to assume that I've lost all the progress I made establishing my tank in the first place? Ugh...oh well! It'll be all the better for the next little guy we get!
 
Thank you so much!

I have a 20 gallon tank. We don't use anything on our water at home - it just comes out of the tap the way it is! As far as kh and gh, is this something I can test for at home? Rather, is that something I should have been monitoring all along?

I don't wish anything on Fishy, but I do sort of hope he was sick too. I'm rather irritated that people who don't really care can have fish live longer than this - I actually CARED to know and do it right and still lost him at 1 month.

But it appears a fishless cycle is what we'll be doing! Is it safe to assume that I've lost all the progress I made establishing my tank in the first place? Ugh...oh well! It'll be all the better for the next little guy we get!


I'm sorry. :(

As for the tank and progress it depends on how you cleaned the tank. Did you do anything to the filter/media? How exactly did you clean everything? Most of your bacteria lives in your filter media and then some on your decor and in your gravel. Depending on how you cleaned the decor you may have wiped out the bacteria in there. If you left the media alone, or rinsed it in old tank water it should still fine so long as it didn't dry out. If there is any bacteria left it's important to keep feeding them so you'll want to get into the fishless cycle and adding ammonia sooner rather than later because it will starve the bacteria. It's the same process either way but if there is bacteria left you should have a shorter cycle. :)

the kh and gh are other tests that give you more info about the hardness of your water. Where you seem to be having some PH issues this can be really helpful information. If your PH is this low out of the tap it will drop even lower when it gases out. Amount depends but the good news is there are ways to naturally up your PH level and fix these problems if it is at a level that is a problem.
 
As Tamtam mentioned, it depends on how you cleaned your tank/stuff inside it (filter media?) on whether you still have some good bacteria or not. Based on the numbers you gave in your first post, it sounds like you were still in the early stages of cycling so if you did clean everything very well, its not a big deal. A very low ph in the tank as well would have had a signifigant impact on your good bacteria, too. KH & GH tests are available (same as the other API tests) but you will likely have to purchase them online unless you have a decent lfs near you (chain stores will not have them). Once we know where your ph gasses off (it may be higher or lower depending on the dissolved gasses it contains) with the 24hr test I mentioned, it can give us a starting point for your tank. I suspect your GH/KH may also be quite low (which leads to an unstable/low ph) and we can address this as well so your ph will not be issue for you.

I am truly sorry about Fishy- I lost a beautiful fish this past Friday despite my best efforts. Sometimes, even when you do everything right, things still do go wrong that are beyond our control (thank you for reminding me, Joe!). We will help you get your tank healthy and happy so your next fish will be, too! :)
 
I'm sorry to hear about your fish. I don't have much to add other than a few notes about my experience with the API pH tester. I have done 3 pH tests back to back on the same tank water and received 3 different results. On this test you really have to make sure you are holding the bottle straight up and down as you dispense the drops into the test tube and the water level needs to be exactly on the line in the tube.
 
Sorry! ha! When I "cleaned," I just meant like normal - scrubbing the sides with tank water, vacumming the gravel, stuff like that. The only difference between this and my normal routine of "cleaning" was that I simply did a much larger water change to go with it.

Thank you all so much for the encouragement!!!
 
Sorry! ha! When I "cleaned," I just meant like normal - scrubbing the sides with tank water, vacumming the gravel, stuff like that. The only difference between this and my normal routine of "cleaning" was that I simply did a much larger water change to go with it.

Thank you all so much for the encouragement!!!

this is great news
 
Sorry about your fish. :( You shouldn't lose any progress inthe cycle as long as you dont replace or clean the filter media. Start dosing with ammonia though to keep the bacteria fed (just follow the fishless cycling guide linked above). I hope this second time around is better luck for you.
 
Upon reading it again, it did kind of sound like I burst out the 409! haha!

But nah, I just figured I'm changing practically all of the water...I'm already here, why not just do it all like normal anyway?
 
On that last water change, could you have forgotten to add the declorineator (sp?) before adding the new water? Now, that said - would that have killed him? I dunno.

What I do know is that almost everyone has fish die sooner or later. Don't beat yourself up too bad over it. :)
 
I did remember to use dechlorinator! That was something I always worried about forgetting, somehow I got myself so paranoid about it, I always remembered!
 
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