my first post with question

[malcolmf]

Hi to everyone.This is my first post on the forum I am hoping someone can help.
I have had my 29 gallon tank for a year now.
with a few problems along the way at fist when cycling it but I understand this is normal.
I have not had any problems since. until now.
I have been doing regular water changes weekly and testing the water as recomended.
Amonia is 0 Nitrite is 0 Nitrates were high 80ppm but now below 20ppm Ph is 8.
Here is my problem when I cycled the tank I was told not to over clean or do too much at any one time which I have been doing.
But I have never really cleaned the gravel properly .I have a syphon with 2 changeable ends 1 shallow and one deep. I presume the shallow one is for sand and the deep one for gravel.
I have been cleaning my gravel with the wrong ( Shalow end) of the syphon.

I had a problem with high Nitrates over 80 when I tested with my new API water test kit so decied to look in to what I was doing wrong. (I was perviously using tetra test strips)
I viewed a few posts on tank cleaning on you tube to see how others cleaned their tank.
It was clear to me I was not getting down far enough with my syphon so I changed to the deeper one and cleaned my gravel.
I could not belive how much gunk was in there.
I did a 50% water change as usual and only cleaned the gravel nothing else.
Since that day I have lost 3 fish 1moonlight gouarmi, 1silver dollar and 1clown loach. all coming up to 1 year in the tank with no problems.
nothing has died for a few days now but my remaining 2 clown loaches are hiding away and were previouslty very active.
I am now worried about my weekly cleaning athough the tank looks great.
Could my fish just of got used to the poor conditions? and should I keep cleaning on a weekly basis as normal.
as I said my water is now fine. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate below 20ppm Ph 8.
The only other thing I have done is added an extra filter to the tank but the origional filter has been left in place.
No chemicals have been added to the tank except prime with the water changes.
A long post I know but thought this was fairly easy up till now.
if any one can help I would appriecate your advice.
Malcolm

 

[Jesselav1233]

I'm guessing because the substrate got so dirty that when you cleaned it some other stuff got released into the water and could have killed a couple of your fish (sorry you lost the little guys:/ ) I bet if you regularly clean the substrate well you won't run into any more problems like this since the waste won't have time to build up anymore. Fish can become adjusted to poor water conditions and a rapid change even if it's cleaner can hurt or even kill them unfortunately. My best advice is to continue cleaning your tank well hopefully the rest of your fish will hang in there well your getting the water back to normal best of luck to you.

 

[Bbarb27]

My guess is that you had what is called "OTS" or old tank syndrome, even though your tank is not that old/established. . Nitrates slowly build up and the quality of the water slowly degrades. Since it's a slow decline in water quality, the fish adapt. But a sudden, deep cleaning - even though you are introducing healthier water - shocks the fish and they die. I did it myself a long time ago when I had a tank of mollies with an undergravel filter. I realized how much gunk was at the bottom of the tank, did a massive cleaning, and lost many of the fish

Keep up your normal water changes and continue to monitor nitrates so they don't creep up again. Sorry you lost your fish and I hope the remaining ones are hardy and continue to survive.

 

[bigbanker]

Bravo for making an effort just a couple of things to help in the future.

1. The fish do get used to a certain water quality.
2. The gravel vac stirred up a lot of stuff. Next time try doing it in increments. One water change vacuum half of the tank and next time switch sides.
3. Some of your fish will need bigger tanks as they mature. Keep an eye on their growth

Good luck my dear!

 

[malcolmf]

Thank you for your quick replies.
This all makes perfect sense just thought I would ask.
Thank you again.
Malcolm

 

[malcolmf]

Ok another water change yesterday .
Not so much mess in the water this time, and so it's looking pretty clean.
I tested water this morning and the nitrate is down to 10ppm all the other water perameters are still the same.
but when I looked in the tank there was a clown loach which had lost almost all of it's colour and was shaking in the bottom of the tank.
moved him to my QT to keep an eye on, the rest of the fish seem fine though.
should I treat the QT with stress zyme or prime?
do you think there is a chance I will loose more fish while they get used to their new clean environment.?

 

[Wroberson]

Nice job on getting those nitrates lower and sorry about the fish. I also have an old tank and trying to lower the nitrates without harming the fish. Glad to read someone has an old tank with a similar problem who got the ship turned around. It gives me hope.