Ok, so here's a chronological rundown of events.
1. Saturday night I cleaned 15% of my water, everything was fine.
2. I discovered some water nymphs in my tank on Sunday, and then one on Monday.
3. After discovering the second nymph I removed the 2 plants that it could have come from as that's where it was discovered, and I vacuumed up some of the gravel and did a 25% water change.
4. I added some chlorine remover, tbh maybe more than I should have as I was rushing a bit.
5. I washed the plants off under the shower and put them back into the tank.
6. I woke up on Tuesday and like 6 fish were dead and 1 shrimp. What's weird is that some of the new fish I bought on Monday didn't die, but fish that have been there for 2 weeks did. Some shrimp have survived as well.
Now, here is a little info about my setup:
1. 150 gallon tank
2. Eheim G160 filter
3. Haven't cleaned the filter in a while as I was told/read online that it doesn't have to be cleaned for like 4-6 months at a time.
4. My danios were eating like 3 times a day so maybe I overfed them and the tank accumulated some dirt.
5. My eheim filter smells like garbage truck juice and when I rinsed out the white spongy filter media, the water running off from it had the color of raw sewage.
6. My ammonia is low, next to nil. My nitrates are at 5.0 ppm
7. My ph is around 6, but when I tested it earlier today it was definitely below 6, maybe 5.5 or even 5. I did a quick water change today, 20% maybe to raise the PH a bit very quickly, it worked.
8. My GH is through the roof, it's so high that my testing kit(solution based)doesn't even have a corresponding number for it, but it's like at 18 on their "scale". My tap water is at 16 on its own.
9. My KH is like 1.
10. My LFS said that my fish are dying off because my GH is high and my KH is so low.
11. I added in some live bacteria from a bottle that I bought at my LFS after I did this water change(I also added them in on Saturday at that time).
My tank is also heavily planted and I had like 30 fish in it, all small sized, up to 2 inches.
11. My water temperature is a constant 78.
12. There is a weird "film" floating at the water surface, I have no idea what it is.
13. Why did only some of my fish(and shrimp)die, but not the others?
I have a theory that my fish were used to the "less than optimal" water conditions(even though the **** ammonia is almost nil, and nitrites are 0)that the water changes I did shocked the fish.
I'm new to this hobby, so whatever I messed up I will fix, I'm in this for the long run.
Cheers,
MM
Addendum: The tank has been running for 3 months now and everything was fine, other than a few disappearing shrimp/small fish which might have been caused by the nymphs. I also have 5 good-sized pieces of Malaysian driftwood that have been there from the start, along with some other wood.
Also the water was very cloudy when I checked it today, I mean seriously cloudy. It's still cloudy now but not as much as it was earlier.
*lights up the Bat-signal* Help me, fish-Batman(or Aquaman), you're my only hope.
1. Saturday night I cleaned 15% of my water, everything was fine.
2. I discovered some water nymphs in my tank on Sunday, and then one on Monday.
3. After discovering the second nymph I removed the 2 plants that it could have come from as that's where it was discovered, and I vacuumed up some of the gravel and did a 25% water change.
4. I added some chlorine remover, tbh maybe more than I should have as I was rushing a bit.
5. I washed the plants off under the shower and put them back into the tank.
6. I woke up on Tuesday and like 6 fish were dead and 1 shrimp. What's weird is that some of the new fish I bought on Monday didn't die, but fish that have been there for 2 weeks did. Some shrimp have survived as well.
Now, here is a little info about my setup:
1. 150 gallon tank
2. Eheim G160 filter
3. Haven't cleaned the filter in a while as I was told/read online that it doesn't have to be cleaned for like 4-6 months at a time.
4. My danios were eating like 3 times a day so maybe I overfed them and the tank accumulated some dirt.
5. My eheim filter smells like garbage truck juice and when I rinsed out the white spongy filter media, the water running off from it had the color of raw sewage.
6. My ammonia is low, next to nil. My nitrates are at 5.0 ppm
7. My ph is around 6, but when I tested it earlier today it was definitely below 6, maybe 5.5 or even 5. I did a quick water change today, 20% maybe to raise the PH a bit very quickly, it worked.
8. My GH is through the roof, it's so high that my testing kit(solution based)doesn't even have a corresponding number for it, but it's like at 18 on their "scale". My tap water is at 16 on its own.
9. My KH is like 1.
10. My LFS said that my fish are dying off because my GH is high and my KH is so low.
11. I added in some live bacteria from a bottle that I bought at my LFS after I did this water change(I also added them in on Saturday at that time).
My tank is also heavily planted and I had like 30 fish in it, all small sized, up to 2 inches.
11. My water temperature is a constant 78.
12. There is a weird "film" floating at the water surface, I have no idea what it is.
13. Why did only some of my fish(and shrimp)die, but not the others?
I have a theory that my fish were used to the "less than optimal" water conditions(even though the **** ammonia is almost nil, and nitrites are 0)that the water changes I did shocked the fish.
I'm new to this hobby, so whatever I messed up I will fix, I'm in this for the long run.
Cheers,
MM
Addendum: The tank has been running for 3 months now and everything was fine, other than a few disappearing shrimp/small fish which might have been caused by the nymphs. I also have 5 good-sized pieces of Malaysian driftwood that have been there from the start, along with some other wood.
Also the water was very cloudy when I checked it today, I mean seriously cloudy. It's still cloudy now but not as much as it was earlier.
*lights up the Bat-signal* Help me, fish-Batman(or Aquaman), you're my only hope.
