heemskn
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I had a 10 gallon with a HOB filter, no substrate where I kept fish and plants before they go into one of the other tanks. It was set up about 5 weeks ago with filter material from another tank and seemed cycled. It had 2 mollies, 2 little platies and 3 ghost shrimp and 6 bunches of simple low light plants. Everybody had been in there for a couple of weeks and seemed healthy, no algae but the plants were actually growing, mainly the roots.
On Sunday I did the weekly 30% water change. Rinsed the filter material in the tank water as usual. Normally I put some Dr F&S Neutralize (removes Chlorine and Cloramine) in the fresh tap water. I had run out of that so I used Stabilize (removes Chlorine, Chloramine and Ammonia). Monday morning my daughter dumped way to much flake food in the tank. I scooped most of it out with a net. Monday night one of the platies was hanging by itself at the top of the tank, everyone else was OK. I did not feed because there was still some food on the bottom from the morning.
Tuesday morning all fish and shrimp were dead! The skin was already flaking of the fish and they were looking very white, almost like they were cooked... Even the ghost shrimp were solid white.
That evening I cleaned the tank up and tested the water: Nitrites 0.0 Ammonia 1.0.
What happened? Is it possible that the Neutralize removed all ammonia and that my ammonia converting bacteria all starved overnight, causing an ammonia spike from the overfeeding the next day? Or could it be something else?
And lastly would it be safe to rinse the plants and use them in another tank, or will that bring whatever killed the fish (if not ammonia) into the other tanks?
On Sunday I did the weekly 30% water change. Rinsed the filter material in the tank water as usual. Normally I put some Dr F&S Neutralize (removes Chlorine and Cloramine) in the fresh tap water. I had run out of that so I used Stabilize (removes Chlorine, Chloramine and Ammonia). Monday morning my daughter dumped way to much flake food in the tank. I scooped most of it out with a net. Monday night one of the platies was hanging by itself at the top of the tank, everyone else was OK. I did not feed because there was still some food on the bottom from the morning.
Tuesday morning all fish and shrimp were dead! The skin was already flaking of the fish and they were looking very white, almost like they were cooked... Even the ghost shrimp were solid white.
That evening I cleaned the tank up and tested the water: Nitrites 0.0 Ammonia 1.0.
What happened? Is it possible that the Neutralize removed all ammonia and that my ammonia converting bacteria all starved overnight, causing an ammonia spike from the overfeeding the next day? Or could it be something else?
And lastly would it be safe to rinse the plants and use them in another tank, or will that bring whatever killed the fish (if not ammonia) into the other tanks?
