Confirming diagnosis - Nitrate Shock?

[DanR]

Well, I've managed to have my first small disaster in my display tank, 100% my fault. We were getting ready for a 2 week vacation out of town and I planned to pick up an automatic feeder well in advance to keep an eye on the feeding amount to make sure it was right before I left. Well, I completely forgot about it with the stress of getting everything ready until the day before leaving... ARG! And what's worse is the only thing I could find was a Nutramatic 2X from Nutrafin that is HORRIBLE to program and you can only test it by taking the batteries in and out and then adding the batteries at the hour you want the feeding to be, then the second feeding 12 hours later.

Anyhow, I tested it as best I could the night before leaving by seeing how much it was doling out and then set it for 7PM in the evening, thus 7AM in the morning.



10 days later we came back to town for 24 hours for an appointment I had to keep... we come home and first thing I do is check my tank. Disaster.

First... my beautiful 4 inch Leopard Gourami has completely vanished from the tank. I checked everywhere around the tank in case he jumped but nothing, it's clear he died and the two plecos cleaned up the body. Second, one of my golden rams is curled and swimming/struggling upside down and breathing hard. I check my parameters right away and everything is normal except blood red return on the nitrates, I'm well over 160PPM and the fish are all staying near the bottom - not coming up in anticipation of food whatsoever.

I immediately do a big water change, and look up the symptoms of the ram and the symptoms of nitrate shock describes exactly what I am seeing. I pump up the aerator and treat the tank with some meth blue but I have to leave again so I can't even watch the poor guy. I isolate him to a birthing holder so he's not grinding against the bottom, have fish pecking at him and maybe relieve some water pressure from being at the bottom. Next morning he isn't worse, but no better either - I suspect the damage to organs is done and there's nothing I can do.

At this point I have to leave again (It's a Wednesday) and won't be back until Sunday. I reduce the feeder by half and do another small water change and leave, rather upset that I can't monitor anything and I know this is my screw up and I just lost one of my favorite fish.

We get back Sunday night and the ram is still alive, but breathing slower and a lot of color is lost. I go back outside to unpack the truck and get everyone settled in... I check back on the fish a few hours later and he's passed on.

No other fish seem to be affected, it's been 4 days since I got home and a week since the big water change and everyone is normal, including the other golden ram. Water params are all good now and the auto feeder ripped off the aquarium.

Anyhow, long rambling story aside, I've read that while nitrate shock is real, it's a slow process and takes a long time to affect the fish.. I saw in some places it takes WEEKS, not 1 week. But I still think the feeder was dumping way too much food and the nitrates just went through the roof.

Would you guys agree with my diagnostic with this info?

I'm not trying to source a place for Leopard Gouramis, I really loved that guy, he was a beautiful and unique fish.

Thanks for following along.

Dan

 

[dalto]

My guess would be that a ton of extra food caused a temporary ammonia spike.

Also, too late now but most automatic feeders are terrible. I think you luck is better just not feeding with most fish.

 

[DanR]

My guess would be that a ton of extra food caused a temporary ammonia spike.

Also, too late now but most automatic feeders are terrible. I think you luck is better just not feeding with most fish.

Yeah what I did when I left the second time was set the opening on it so it would drop in very minimal amounts of food... better than nothing but at least it wouldn't overfeed. What I hated was the lack of being able to actually program it, especially considering it cost $50 CDN. For that price it should have a programmable clock and intervals. Overpriced junk 100%

 

[mimiheart]

Ammonia spike, like dalto said. Also maybe if there was a ton of mulm or not enough circulation maybe not enough oxygen.

 

[DanR]

Ammonia spike, like dalto said. Also maybe if there was a ton of mulm or not enough circulation maybe not enough oxygen.

Would it make sense that Ammonia tests are 0 and Nitrates are 200PPM? Not sure how quick the cycle is with Ammonia to Nitrites to Nitrates is to be honest... is 10 days fast enough for all Ammonia to convert? I don't know enough about the cycle but for sure the ammonia test came back next to nothing, Nitrites next to nothing, Nitrates through the roof.

Everything is back to normal now, all params where they should be and no other fish seem to be affected.

Dan

 

[dalto]

Would it make sense that Ammonia tests are 0 and Nitrates are 200PPM? Not sure how quick the cycle is with Ammonia to Nitrites to Nitrates is to be honest... is 10 days fast enough for all Ammonia to convert? I don't know enough about the cycle but for sure the ammonia test came back next to nothing, Nitrites next to nothing, Nitrates through the roof.

Yes, the biofilter in an established tank can typically catch up pretty fast. You had tons of extra waste which spiked ammonia up. There would have been a giant bacteria bloom and it would have consumed all the ammonia. The same thing, to a lesser extent probably happened with the nitrites. It could have happened in the space of a few days on an established tank.

It is not the only possible explanation but it is probably the most common.

 

[DanR]

Yes, the biofilter in an established tank can typically catch up pretty fast. You had tons of extra waste which spiked ammonia up. There would have been a giant bacteria bloom and it would have consumed all the ammonia. The same thing, to a lesser extent probably happened with the nitrites. It could have happened in the space of a few days on an established tank.

It is not the only possible explanation but it is probably the most common.

OK thanks, that makes complete sense then, I feel good that I was able to nail down the cause easily with the water test but feel like a complete idiot that this was 100% due to my lack of planning. I miss my Leopard Gourami