Dead fish what happned?

[Sgc1107]

First let me say I'm new to this, I'd like to learn why this happened so I can prevent it next time.

Sunday I bought two damsels, a domino & striped. I acclimated them and put them in my 10 QT. Monday they had signs of ick. I decided to use coppersafe. First added some on Monday and slowly added a bit over the next two days (was not sure if taking it right to 1.5-2 would be a shock, plus I didn't want to go over) they seemed good considering they had ick (I know I needed to continue treating for a few weeks), they were eating fine. I was checking Parameters twice a day, Tuesday I had a Ph drop to 7.8 and slight ammonia spike now quite .25 but not 0 somewhere in between. Wednesday Ph was ok, ammonia was up to .50, did a 3gl water change got it back to .25 (btw nitrate & nitrites have stayed at 0 the entire week) also by wed. I had the copper reading 2.0.

Today:

This morning test results:
Ph 8.2
Amm. .25
Rite 0
Rate 0
Temp 78 (I turned it up a bit)
SG 1.025
Copp 2.0

This is about what it's been at, when I got home found both the damsels dead, their gills were red. Current tank readings:

Ph 7.4!
Amm. .25
Rite .25!
Rate 0
Temp 82
SG 1.026
Copp 2.0

What happned in 8hr? I'm a bit disappointed because I've been working extra hard to keep everything at normal. I hope someone has an answer so I know what went wrong :-(

R.I.P. Sumpie & Douggie!

 

[obscurereef]

Did you cycle your tank or were you using the fish to cycle it? Ammonia and nitrite is very toxic to even hardy fish like damsels and the combo of the ich and the stress and toxic water killed them. I highly recommend doing a fishless cycle. It is cruel in a way to put a fish in such a horrible toxic environment.

 

[Sgc1107]

Did you cycle your tank or were you using the fish to cycle it? Ammonia and nitrite is very toxic to even hardy fish like damsels and the combo of the ich and the stress and toxic water killed them. I highly recommend doing a fishless cycle. It is cruel in a way to put a fish in such a horrible toxic environment.

Oh no it was cycled and I even waited an additional week before I put anything in. My QT has been up & running for (without looking at my book of notes) about 4-5 weeks now.

 

[NicoleIsStoked]

How did you initially cycle it? And what is currently living in it?

 

[obscurereef]

Oh no it was cycled and I even waited an additional week before I put anything in. My QT has been up & running for (without looking at my book of notes) about 4-5 weeks now.

Well if you still have ammonia and when you added the fish (an ammonia source) your bacteria was unable to handle the bio load, which if you had a strong cycle, it should have. You have some ammonia and nitrites were progressing, yet no nitrates at all shows that you had a very weak cycle and nothing really happened. Some die off from you LR probably wasn't enough. How about adding a table shrimp and cycling again? How long were you cycling your tank, what were the general readings over the period of time you did. Like did ammonia reach 4 ppm then drop down and nitrites were rising very high then dropping down and you eventually had a lot of nitrates and slowly they dropped down.

 

[Sgc1107]

How did you initially cycle it? And what is currently living in it?

I had a chromis who died in it (he was victim of my bully chromis!) and this is when I noticed the parameters going wild! The only thing that is in it now is a pc of rock, bare bottom, and some Chaeto in with the filter.

 

[Sgc1107]

Well if you still have ammonia and when you added the fish (an ammonia source) your bacteria was unable to handle the bio load, which if you had a strong cycle, it should have. You have some ammonia and nitrites were progressing, yet no nitrates at all shows that you had a very weak cycle and nothing really happened. Some die off from you LR probably wasn't enough. How about adding a table shrimp and cycling again? How long were you cycling your tank, what were the general readings over the period of time you did. Like did ammonia reach 4 ppm then drop down and nitrites were rising very high then dropping down and you eventually had a lot of nitrates and slowly they dropped down.

The ammonia never did get that high now that I look back, the nitrites & nitrates did hmm? So maybe I didn't have a big enough cycle! There is nothing in it now so I can just drop a fresh shrimp in and let it go? How long do I leave it in there?

Do you know the process of getting the copper out, or lowered? Just water changes? But if I'm going to create a cycle i don't want to do a water change right? And how does this affect putting a fish that's been in a QT with copper into DT? (For future knowledge) from what I understand there will always be a trace of copper in there, correct?