New home, pwc killed fish

[bman]

So I recently moved and just now decided to do a pwc. Going from city water to mountain well water, I thought the water would be ok. (I had thrown out my old test kit in the move, and thought I would not need it anymore) Well, the next day all my fish were dead. I found out by my wife calling me at work, and I did not get to scoop them out until late that night. The next day the tank was very cloudy. I went out and bought a new test kit, and checked the water. Ammonia level was slightly elevated, and nitrite level was also up, ph was at 6.5. Tested well water and it was below 5!

Guess the shock killed the fish, although the snails and the plants seem unaffected. I am saddened to see my Yoyo and five others gone. But need to get things back to normal and restock.

I did another pwc due to the elevated levels of NH4 and Nitrite, this time, adding 12ml of ph increaser (which seemed to get the 6.5 range in the tank).

What need to be done now? Since there is almost NO bioload on the tank, I don't know what to do. Long ago when I visited this site regularly, I read threads about fish-less cycling, but I am wondering if that is the route I need to take now, adding ammonia to keep the bioload going, or just wait until the NH4 and nitrite levels drop again to reintroduce new fish?

Current stats:
20 gal long
Moderately planted
fishless for 4-5 days

 

[mfdrookie516]

just keep adding ammonia, the bacteria needs something to feed off of.. youve got the concept right. the only suggestion i would have is to work on the ph of that water. the ph up is definately not a good idea. It will bring the ph up, for a little while, then crash again. A better idea would be to look at some sort of buffer. Is the well water going through any sort of filtration system?

 

[joy13]

I have 2 empty planted tanks that I test regular all I do is a couple of times a week throw in a pinch of food. The bacteria needs something to feed on and fish food is a lot safer in a planted tank than ammonia.

 

[bman]

No filtration on the well water. I have not been adding NH4 and do not know what or how much to add?

I will have to wait until Monday night to test for the alkalinity of the water to see if I can hold my 6.5 pH. I do not have a test kit for that, ,but have one at work.

 

[dkpate]

Sorry to hear about your fish!

 

[cabezon]

Sorry about your fish, especially the yoyo. mine managed to survive a chlorine issue when I moved.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Sorry for your loss. You gotta know your water, sorry that you had to find out the hard way. A rapid pH swing will cause death in some if not most fish. My swordtails survived a drop from 7.6 to below 6 but my guppies did not.

Watch your tank for a mini-cycle (which is probably what is happening) because pH below 6.0 will stall out your nitrogen cycle, if you even were able to keep your bio-colony alive during the move in the first place.

You might consider having your tap water tested professionally just to see what else could be in it, so you know for sure what you're dealing with. it's a wise move with well water, that's what I grew up on, and I always had to run a diatom filter after PWCs or I'd get a huge green water bloom within days.