Hello. I have a 15 gallon Fluval Flex. I have had it up and running well since December. I do the regular maintenance and weekly water changes. Everything has been going well up until this past Sunday. I have live plants, mountain minnows and nirite snails.
On Sunday when I was doing my water change I replanted one of the plants in the gravel. This disturbed the debris underneath. On Monday I woke up to find 2 of my fish dead and the others all gasping at the top, even 4 of my snails were at the top. I tested the water and discovered that the nitrite levels were in the high stress zone. I performed an almost 50% water change, this brought it down some, but the fish were still struggling.
I did a complete break down of the tank after moving the fish and snails to a different tank. The gravel was extremely dirty, which was not a surprise. I got the tank back up and running, ran for 24 hours. Tested both tanks and the parameters were the same so moved every one back to their tank. Not sure what happened, 5 of my 7 remaining fish went belly up suddenly and the tank has a sulfur smell.
There is a bacterial bloom, which I had expected. What is causing the smell as I cleaned everything?
Is it the bacterial bloom and will it go away with that?
Will my last two fish survive? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
On Sunday when I was doing my water change I replanted one of the plants in the gravel. This disturbed the debris underneath. On Monday I woke up to find 2 of my fish dead and the others all gasping at the top, even 4 of my snails were at the top. I tested the water and discovered that the nitrite levels were in the high stress zone. I performed an almost 50% water change, this brought it down some, but the fish were still struggling.
I did a complete break down of the tank after moving the fish and snails to a different tank. The gravel was extremely dirty, which was not a surprise. I got the tank back up and running, ran for 24 hours. Tested both tanks and the parameters were the same so moved every one back to their tank. Not sure what happened, 5 of my 7 remaining fish went belly up suddenly and the tank has a sulfur smell.
There is a bacterial bloom, which I had expected. What is causing the smell as I cleaned everything?
Is it the bacterial bloom and will it go away with that?
Will my last two fish survive? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
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