Depressed about mystery deaths.

[Masha]

I'm not sure anyone can really help me, this is more of an attempt to figure out what I should do next. Trying to figure out what might be causing my fish deaths and how to proceed from here.

The thing is, we've been having regular "load shedding" which means they turn off our power for about 2.5 hours once or twice a week. I suspect that the deaths are related to this, even though I don't know why. The temperature didn't fluctuate much during that time, it looked like the tank might lose about one degree centigrade, if that, before the power came on again. Possibly the filter stopping causes tiny and temporary spikes of nitrites or ammonia which are sorted out by the time I get around to testing the water? Enough to kill the fish over time?

Whenever I do test, things seem fine. No ammonia or nitrites, and nitrates in the 12.5 range. I can't honestly remember now how close to the power failures I did the tests.


Tank is about 25 gallons, Aquaclear 70 filter, 50% waterchanges once a week.

I lost 4 little silvertips and 3 sword tails. I still have some black widow tetras and khuli loaches.

Load shedding isn't happening for the foreseeable future, and I'd like to get some fish to replace the ones that died but I'm worried that maybe there's some other reason.

The only other variable that I can think of is that I'm adding plant fertiliser - Seachem Excel, Potassium, and Nitrogen. I'm using the recommended dosing amount and timing but maybe I'm doing that wrong.

Anyway, just needed to vent. I'm feeling very sad about my poor sword tails especially.

 

[Brookster123]

Thats obnoxious.. load shedding?? Have the fish been in there awhile? The change in the system may be enough to stress them?? Be like someone turning off the air circulation to your windowless office room..

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[Masha]

Brookster, yes, I've had the tank setup for about two years before this started happening.

It's a country wide thing (the people who manage our electricity system ****ed up royally). Luckily our city has figured out ways so that the load shedding happens less often.


Maybe I should see if I can find a local aquarium forum to see how people are dealing with this over here.

 

[Brookster123]

I would atleast add a battery powered airstone, not sure if it will be convenient if no one s there to turn it on.. changing batteries may get old but keeping circulation going should help. Are you measuring a noticable.drop in temp? Are lights flickering on and off. On and off?

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[Masha]

Brookster, I measured temperature and didn't find any significant drop - maybe 1 degree Celsius? Although I couldn't always measure so it's possible that on a chilly day there was more of a difference. We don't have central heating so weather makes quite a difference to the room temperature. The lights don't flicker.

I've been doing a bit of googling and apparently some people use UPS's or invertors to keep their tanks running despite the power drops. I guess I'll have to investigate that. Although the stuff they mention is way out of my price range and seem to be intended for way bigger / more complex tanks than mine.

I've not been able to find battery run air pumps anywhere around here so far but I've not looked everywhere yet. Amazon doesn't ship that kind of thing here.

 

[Ricky 1]

You can buy a battery operated pump to keep the water moving Marsha, it could be lack of oxygen, in a larger tank it would be ok, it's just a thought, sorry for your loss........Oops you beat me to it.......

 

[Brookster123]

I have one I'll send you!!! It was left at a jobsite.

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[Masha]

I have one I'll send you!!! It was left at a jobsite.

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Wow! That's incredibly generous of you
But postage all the way over here in South Africa would be a killer. Let me first check some more places - I've had some ideas where I might buy one over here.

Thanks again, though. You're a star.

 

[Brookster123]

Wow! That's incredibly generous of you
But postage all the way over here in South Africa would be a killer. Let me first check some more places - I've had some ideas where I might buy one over here.

Thanks again, though. You're a star.

It'd be my pleasure. Shipping would be a bit on the high side though.. they're designed to keep servers running? Those fans must draw a good deal.of current. Is think it'd keep a filter going no problem.. i bought me a generator not practical but I'm not leaving it to chance

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[Masha]

It'd be my pleasure. Shipping would be a bit on the high side though.. they're designed to keep servers running? Those fans must draw a good deal.of current. Is think it'd keep a filter going no problem.. i bought me a generator not practical but I'm not leaving it to chance

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Shipping will be a killer indeed!

Well, if things keep going as they are in the near future we'll have to find solutions to power the entire house, never mind the tank.

I'm feeling all inspired now. I have a UPS to keep my computer safe, I'm sure I can find something similar for my tank.

I'm still not absolutely sure it was the load shedding that led to the deaths but since it's really the only thing that's changed I guess it's the most likely.

 

[gilpi]

I'm not sure anyone can really help me, this is more of an attempt to figure out what I should do next. Trying to figure out what might be causing my fish deaths and how to proceed from here.



The thing is, we've been having regular "load shedding" which means they turn off our power for about 2.5 hours once or twice a week. I suspect that the deaths are related to this, even though I don't know why. The temperature didn't fluctuate much during that time, it looked like the tank might lose about one degree centigrade, if that, before the power came on again. Possibly the filter stopping causes tiny and temporary spikes of nitrites or ammonia which are sorted out by the time I get around to testing the water? Enough to kill the fish over time?



Whenever I do test, things seem fine. No ammonia or nitrites, and nitrates in the 12.5 range. I can't honestly remember now how close to the power failures I did the tests.





Tank is about 25 gallons, Aquaclear 70 filter, 50% waterchanges once a week.



I lost 4 little silvertips and 3 sword tails. I still have some black widow tetras and khuli loaches.



Load shedding isn't happening for the foreseeable future, and I'd like to get some fish to replace the ones that died but I'm worried that maybe there's some other reason.



The only other variable that I can think of is that I'm adding plant fertiliser - Seachem Excel, Potassium, and Nitrogen. I'm using the recommended dosing amount and timing but maybe I'm doing that wrong.



Anyway, just needed to vent. I'm feeling very sad about my poor sword tails especially.

In relation to your loss of fish, I would say you have issues going on other than the power going off for a couple of hours a week.
If your tank is well balanced, meaning not overstocked, not over fed, kept up with your water changes, I can assure you that the couple of hours powered down a week will not cause any harm to your fish and especially when you mention the temperature doesn't change.
Your tank is not very big, sword tails can be aggressive towards each other especially with not a lot of real estate to get away from each other.
I'm thinking more in the terms of one or more of your fish being aggressive or even having a disease in your tank?


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[ImACoolguy]

In relation to your loss of fish, I would say you have issues going on other than the power going off for a couple of hours a week.
If your tank is well balanced, meaning not overstocked, not over fed, kept up with your water changes, I can assure you that the couple of hours powered down a week will not cause any harm to your fish and especially when you mention the temperature doesn't change.
Your tank is not very big, sword tails can be aggressive towards each other especially with not a lot of real estate to get away from each other.
I'm thinking more in the terms of one or more of your fish being aggressive or even having a disease in your tank?


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I'm close to agreeing with this. Agree hours shouldn't make a big difference...

Any sudden changes in tap water? Readings can vary throughout the year.


Caleb

 

[Masha]

In relation to your loss of fish, I would say you have issues going on other than the power going off for a couple of hours a week.
If your tank is well balanced, meaning not overstocked, not over fed, kept up with your water changes, I can assure you that the couple of hours powered down a week will not cause any harm to your fish and especially when you mention the temperature doesn't change.
Your tank is not very big, sword tails can be aggressive towards each other especially with not a lot of real estate to get away from each other.
I'm thinking more in the terms of one or more of your fish being aggressive or even having a disease in your tank?


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Gilpi, I'm worried you are right there is something else going on here, but it's not fish aggression. There have been no signs of that. I'm pretty careful to keep the numbers low and I watch them carefully.

I suppose it's possible it's a disease, but I've not seen any of the obvious symptoms. The bodies show nothing I can spot, and the fish that died all lived in my tank for a year before they died without me adding anything except water and plant fertiliser (no new fish that could bring in a disease)

Not saying it's impossible that it's a disease of course, just that I have no idea what it could be.

Caleb - I guess there could be changes in the water - but nothing I could pick up with the test kits I have.

One thing I've not been tracking closely is PH. Maybe I should have a look at that again.

 

[gilpi]

A sudden pH drop in your water source....city water in my case, can cause problems. I'm lucky my tap water is consistently around neutral but there was once an exception where the town water's pH dropped and after a routine water change I noticed my African cichlids all go down to the bottom, had I not reacted quickly, I would have lost the whole tank.
So yes, the pH might be a good idea to keep a tab on occasionally.
Good luck, let us know.


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[Gillie]

A sudden pH drop in your water source....city water in my case, can cause problems. I'm lucky my tap water is consistently around neutral but there was once an exception where the town water's pH dropped and after a routine water change I noticed my African cichlids all go down to the bottom, had I not reacted quickly, I would have lost the whole tank.
So yes, the pH might be a good idea to keep a tab on occasionally.
Good luck, let us know.


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Not just ph, a lot of stuff goes awry with the water system's pumps start back up and the filtration system isn't ready to handle the load. Years back I had a mass die off when the community's pump house was shut down for maintenance. In short a steep rise in tds, ph and heavy metals among other things.