Major problem - advice needed

[dubbya]

Hey all,

So I came home to find my entire tank population (pleccos excluded) floating including my beloved 9 inch bala shark.

I'm going to give a long description to set up my theory:

Tank population - 7 bristlenose albino pleccos ranging in size (I'm VERY aware that this is over populated but they reproduced, but it is hard to find pleccos a new home). 1 bala shark (9 inches). 3 smaller fish I inherited from my little sisters tank.

Bala Shark - His name was Dubbya. I had purchased 4 balas together. 3 obviously died at various ages and when the last one died Dubbya measured 7 inches. I read that it is not good to pair them with smaller bala's so I had been trying to find a large one but was unable to this point.

When I moved my tank from my moms house to my house (first time home owner here) I decided to switch to a sand substrate. I cleaned it all out but I soon learned that I did not clean it as well as I should have. The pleccos started playing and particles and dust would start floating. I figured what little there was would get sucked up by the filter and wouldn't harm the tank.

Fast forward a few months. There was no issues over the 3 months I've been in my house. I changed the filters on a monthly basis and did my 15% water changes on a bi-weekly basis.

I woke up Thursday to a tank so clouded that I could not see the back of the tank. It appeared to be sand dust and the filter was barely working. The room smelled burnt, like melting plastic. I quickly turned the old filter off and drove to petco and bought a new filter. I had to get to work so I set the new filter up and went to work. The water is what smelled like the burnt plastic. The water was crystal clear by the time I got home from work but the water still smelled terrible.

So I ordered a Cascade external filter and when that came in Saturday I set it up and did more of a 35-40% water change due to the smell of the water and because I wanted to move the tank(6 inches to the right). I got the cascade set up and turned it on and all seemed well, I was actually impressed with the water flow eliminating the 1 dead spot I had where waste would collect.

I went to a family party today and when I left the tank was absolutely fine. Everyone ate and acted completely normal. I returned from the party 3 hours later and all the non-pleccos were floating dead (though they are randomly surfacing for a second before returning to where they were)

I haven't done a water test yet because my kit is exhausted and petco is closed. But my question is do you guys think that the filter burning up had anything to do with the fish all dying so suddenly? I treated the water as I re-filled the tank. I made sure the temperature was correct. Everything was fine until the 3 hours that I wasn't home.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[coralbandit]

It sounds more a problem with the new filter?
Did you transfer any media or start fresh and new?
Upstate huh?
Saratoga here.

 

[dubbya]

It sounds more a problem with the new filter?
Did you transfer any media or start fresh and new?
Upstate huh?
Saratoga here.

I didn't transfer media because the old one was plugged up with the dust that had originally clouded up the tank.

Yeah. Upstate. I live in Auburn.

 

[coralbandit]

Without test I would just change a good amount of water to reduce nutrients.
The amount you change is the amount removed.So being something is at toxic level a 50% change to get rid of half the stuff seems reasonable...Done again tomorrow[another 50%] only 25% of what ever will be left besides build up if it is organic instead of contaminant.

 

[dubbya]

Without test I would just change a good amount of water to reduce nutrients.
The amount you change is the amount removed.So being something is at toxic level a 50% change to get rid of half the stuff seems reasonable...Done again tomorrow[another 50%] only 25% of what ever will be left besides build up if it is organic instead of contaminant.

Thank you! I'm going to get to it! I'll post test results tomorrow. Hopefully that sheds some light on the situation

 

[Hobgob]

More then likely ammonia poisoning but hard to tell without a test kit. Does Petco use strips to test customer water parameters? If so i wouldn't trust them if they say it's all good. You could could have rinsed the filter media out in a bucket of tank water until you had the dust out that way you would still have some beneficial bacteria in your media. Just for the future, obviously doesn't help now. But test that water it's hard to tell but wit knowing you didn't add media that's probably the issue.

 

[Coursair]

Hey all,

So I came home to find my entire tank population (pleccos excluded) floating including my beloved 9 inch bala shark.

I'm going to give a long description to set up my theory:

Tank population - 7 bristlenose albino pleccos ranging in size (I'm VERY aware that this is over populated but they reproduced, but it is hard to find pleccos a new home). 1 bala shark (9 inches). 3 smaller fish I inherited from my little sisters tank.

Bala Shark - His name was Dubbya. I had purchased 4 balas together. 3 obviously died at various ages and when the last one died Dubbya measured 7 inches. I read that it is not good to pair them with smaller bala's so I had been trying to find a large one but was unable to this point.

When I moved my tank from my moms house to my house (first time home owner here) I decided to switch to a sand substrate. I cleaned it all out but I soon learned that I did not clean it as well as I should have. The pleccos started playing and particles and dust would start floating. I figured what little there was would get sucked up by the filter and wouldn't harm the tank.

Fast forward a few months. There was no issues over the 3 months I've been in my house. I changed the filters on a monthly basis and did my 15% water changes on a bi-weekly basis.

I woke up Thursday to a tank so clouded that I could not see the back of the tank. It appeared to be sand dust and the filter was barely working. The room smelled burnt, like melting plastic. I quickly turned the old filter off and drove to petco and bought a new filter. I had to get to work so I set the new filter up and went to work. The water is what smelled like the burnt plastic. The water was crystal clear by the time I got home from work but the water still smelled terrible.

So I ordered a Cascade external filter and when that came in Saturday I set it up and did more of a 35-40% water change due to the smell of the water and because I wanted to move the tank(6 inches to the right). I got the cascade set up and turned it on and all seemed well, I was actually impressed with the water flow eliminating the 1 dead spot I had where waste would collect.

I went to a family party today and when I left the tank was absolutely fine. Everyone ate and acted completely normal. I returned from the party 3 hours later and all the non-pleccos were floating dead (though they are randomly surfacing for a second before returning to where they were)

I haven't done a water test yet because my kit is exhausted and petco is closed. But my question is do you guys think that the filter burning up had anything to do with the fish all dying so suddenly? I treated the water as I re-filled the tank. I made sure the temperature was correct. Everything was fine until the 3 hours that I wasn't home.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

What stands out to me
"I changed the filters on a monthly basis and did my 15% water changes on a bi-weekly basis. "

What do you mean, you changed the filters ?
Were you changing out the filter pads ???

Normally you rinse out the pads in used tank water until they are falling apart. And then only swap out one at a time. You may have been throwing away your BB.

15% is a tiny PWC on an overstocked tank.
Biweekly ? Every 2 weeks ?

50% every week is what I would have recommended. And Twice a week if needed.

With Sand tanks I put a sponge over my intake. It protects the filter from grabbing sand. I just rinse the intake sponge when the flow slows down.

I'm sorry you lost fish. What size tank ?

I'm wondering if a chemical got into the water ? Besides all the ammonia build up.

Plecos are poop machines.

RIP fishies [emoji25]

 

[coralbandit]

I hate to even ask what size the tank is?I know it was established and things seemed fine but fish grow and tolerances change.
Balas are kind of a no no as they get pretty big! This is why they are cheap...
If that is your style fish look into roseline sharks AKA Denison barb.
Denison Barb - Puntius denisonii
They don't get as big and do favor being in schools...If your tank is 4' [55 and up in most cases] they are an option.
If your tank is smaller I think we should work on proper stocking to re start you in the proper manner...

 

[dubbya]

So I took my water to a local fish store that isn't a big box store. They tested everything and couldn't find anything in the water that would explain such a sudden die off. Nitrates, Ammonia, PH, etc. Everything tested within normal operating parameters. The guy at the store said to break the old filter apart and see what the motor looks like, he said it is possible that something in the filter was released into the water (plastic shavings or metallic flakes).

Also, I know there is a negative stigma about bala owners. I have a 125 gal tank. I might have bought them without knowing about them but when I realized that they needed large tanks I upgraded from a 30 gallon to a 55 then a 75 then most recently the 125.

I think I am going to pull the 55 gallon out of storage and set that one back up and put the 125 in storage. The Fiance isn't huge on the big tanks. lol.

 

[dubbya]

UPDATE:

Thank you for all your responses. I believe the local media burst the case wide open about my major die off. It's been reported that our city water has extremely high levels of lead. Due to the fact that I removed roughly 50% of the water in the tank the water became toxic with lead. Explains why those fish died within 24 hours of me doing a massive water change and explains why the pleccos left in the tank are not doing so well themselves.

I am currently headed to town to grab 10 gallons of clean drinking water (since its 10pm there are no pet stores open) and getting my 10 gallon tank set up tonight so that my pleccos have safe water to be in.

 

[TMaier]

Why I use bottle water. Can't trust the water works anymore. So sad.

 

[coralbandit]

That is a shame on the water.It is not just NY but we are leading the way to finding it..We have some of the oldest infrastructure....
Way to go on the 125 for the bala.It is people NOT like you that make everyone cringe when they here people get big fish.
I get hard timed about my 12 clown loaches all the time..
Hope this all works out for you.

 

[Hobgob]

Interesting, still without changing over any media it's hard to believe you tank didn't go through a mini cycle, what did the store use to test the water just litmus strips? They are extremely inaccurate and you may have bad water parameters. I would look into getting your own test kit and and mix you tap water with r/o water and test your tds and ph until you get it to your desired level from mixing the two together.

 

[coralbandit]

Interesting, still without changing over any media it's hard to believe you tank didn't go through a mini cycle, what did the store use to test the water just litmus strips? They are extremely inaccurate and you may have bad water parameters. I would look into getting your own test kit and and mix you tap water with r/o water and test your tds and ph until you get it to your desired level from mixing the two together.

Although i agree with with ALMOST all of the above,
We here in NY may not made the National news like Chicago[ I believe] about our 'contaminated' water source but WHOLE towns have stopped using their water source ,new water is being brought in [since SUMMER] and the law suits are flying.I believe in Vermont also!
On the quick....If they say don't drink i would not mix to get anyhting with it....
The average filter is doing nothing for some of the contaminants like PFOA [teflon] and one of the law suits is even over a contractor using the WRONG filter cartridge in some of the water remediation....
Otherwise I am on the 'store' test being not so accurate.
The phrase "your water is all good" SHOULD STRIKE FEAR IN ALL OF YOUR HEARTS ! They make $ when your fish die; meds,test,conditioners,new fish....
Just saying....

 

[mambee]

You should add a canister filter to supplement the filtration. Canisters provide excellent biological filtration and don't get ruined by a little sand. I use Eheim canisters. The upfront cost is high but the long term cost is low as all of the media excluding the fine filter pads can be rinsed and reused indefinitely. Some of my canisters have been in use for over 20 years.

 

[TMaier]

Some canisters on the market are much less expensive than Eheim. I have been very happy with my Sunsun.