New Member - Fish dying after tank cleaning.

[bambam692]

Just saying hi, my name is Mike. I have had a 55-gal tank for about 6-7years now. It has been running great up to the last 3 months. Right now, I'm using API 5 in 1 test strips for Fresh & Saltwater Aquariums.

My levels are:
NO3 - 20ppm
NO2 - 0ppm
6.5 - pH
KH - 40ppm
GH - 60ppm.

The last 2 months I have been losing fish every time I do a cleaning of the tank; I have had 1 fish live through all of those cleanings. This last time I cleaned the tank, I let it sit for about 1 week before adding more fish. Then I add 4 Galaxy Rasboras and 3 Red Minor Tetras. The reason that I only add 3 Red Minors is because I had only 1 in my fish tank. I'm planning get a Liquid Test Kit. I have been using plastic plants because I don't how cleaning the tank would go with live plants. Or for even that matter what plants are the better plants to use in a community fish tank. I have had black algae in my tank, I have found out that if I keep temp a little on the higher side it keeps it away. Right now, I'm running my tank at 82 degrees. I do get green algae on the rocks in my tank.

 

[Aiken Drum]

What precisely are you doing when you "clean the tank"? Go through it step by step, don't leave anything out.

What water conditioner are you using?

Are your fish showing any symptoms before they die? Gasping at the surface? Erratic behaviour? Any discolouration?

Might anything be getting into the water, like any aerosols, soap or detergent?

Are you dosing anything other than water conditioner when you do a water change? Maybe an algae treatment?

Might your water company have done some work on the water supply in your area? Might they have recently changed from chlorine to chloramine as a treatment? Might they have done some maintenance work and overdosed on chlorine/ chloramine?

I noticed an airstone/ volcano. Has that been functioning properly? Warmer water can't hold as much O2 as cooler water, so you need plenty of aeration. Your water is very warm.

Is your filter functioning properly?

 

[Andy Sager]

Just an FYI: Algae, black and green, need 2 things to grow: Light and Nutrients. Black beard Algae is also comes when there is an increase in phosphates in the water. Phosphates are typically found in fish foods, fish poo, water buffers and even your tap water so you need to be doing water changes or adding phosphate absorbents to your filter to help keep them down. If you check your water company's website and they show low or no phosphates in your tap water, doing larger volume water changes or changing water more often can help remove the excess of all the nutrients. Do not overfeed your fish. You can feed the fish multiple times per day but only as much as they will eat in 1-2 minutes at each feeding. This too will help reduce phosphates and excess nutrients in the water.

 

[bambam692]

What precisely are you doing when you "clean the tank"? Go through it step by step, don't leave anything out.

What water conditioner are you using?

Are your fish showing any symptoms before they die? Gasping at the surface? Erratic behaviour? Any discolouration?

Might anything be getting into the water, like any aerosols, soap or detergent?

Are you dosing anything other than water conditioner when you do a water change? Maybe an algae treatment?

Might your water company have done some work on the water supply in your area? Might they have recently changed from chlorine to chloramine as a treatment? Might they have done some maintenance work and overdosed on chlorine/ chloramine?

I noticed an airstone/ volcano. Has that been functioning properly? Warmer water can't hold as much O2 as cooler water, so you need plenty of aeration. Your water is very warm.

Is your filter functioning properly?

I have a syphon hose that attaches to a sink faucet for syphoning out the dirt out of the river rocks that I have in the bottom of my tank. As I am syphoning the dirt out, I am removing the plastic plants out to be washed with just water (I don't use soap on them). When the tank gets too low on water I make sure that there is no more dirty water left in the hose and then return some water back into the tank (about the temp of the tanks water). Once I have returned some of the water I continue syphoning the rest of the rocks plus removing the plants and any decorations that I might have in the tank. Once I'm done with that, again I make sure all the dirty water is out of the hose and start refilling the tank with about the same temp as the tank.

I use Tetra EasyBalance Plus (reduces Nitrates with Nitraban). I also put in API Stress Coat+ and API Accu-Clear.

The funny thing about the way the fish show symptoms is, they sit on the bottom of the tank looking like they are gasping for air and lying on their sides. But I have had a bunch of fish do that but once I get the conditioner and stress coat in the tank and it gets mixed in with the water, they usually come back to swimming around like there was no problems.

I don't use any aerosols, soap or detergent in my tank or to clean my filtration system.

I do use API Algaefix in the tank to help control the algae from forming.

As for the water company doing work on the water supply in my area, I really don't know I haven't seen them boing any work on the water supply in my area. I don't know if they have done any changes in the water treatment. I don't know how to go about finding out about the content of water supply.

The airstone/volcano are working just like when I bought it, plus I have an airstone strip that go about halfway a crossed the back of the tank and they are working properly as I bought a bigger air pump (one size bigger than I needed) to be able to handle the air load.

As for the warmer water, I did not know that it doesn't hold as much O2 as cooler water does. That is good to know, I'll be turning my temp down then.

My filtration system is working properly, I have a RENA Filstar XP2. It does keep the tank clean for a month, but that is the longest time that I have let it go. I usually clean my tank about every 2 weeks. whether it needs it or not. It is classified for up to 75-gallon tank.

 

[Aiken Drum]

As this is happening after water changes i would say its probably something in the water. Either something coming in with your tap water or something being disturbed by your substrate cleaning.

Your substrate isn't a good substrate as there will be a lot of voids between the individual stones. Those river rocks will trap a lot of detritus that will decompose. When you disturb the rocks with your syphoning, ammonia might be being released. A sand or gravel substrate is easier to maintain, and then you create features with the river stones, like rock piles or scatter them about on the substrate.

You don't have a good test kit to test. Strips are notoriously unreliable, and ammonia strips have to be bought separately. I would get a good test kit, like the API Freshwater Master Test Kit, and test the water a few hours after your tank maintenance. If there is ammonia in your test then you may need to change water to keep water quality good.

Or get an Seachem Ammonia Alert Patch and leave it in the aquarium. This will give you a clear, easy to read and understand indication of ammonia issues.

You may want to consider changing your water conditioner to one that detoxifies ammonia as a safety net. Seachem Prime or API AquaEssential. If ammonia is present then still change water, but Prime or AquaEssential is a safety net. I don't like Stresscoat as a water conditioner, but its probably not the cause of your issues, but Prime and AquaEssential are both much cheaper and better water conditioners.

At what stage are you adding your water conditioner?

The easy balance stuff isn't doing anything useful. That's one chemical you can stop adding.

With all the airstones etc, I don't think oxygen depletion should be a factor, but lowering the temperature is a good idea regardless. The aloe vera additive in stresscoat coats gills and makes them less able to transfer O2. The chemical reaction that algaecides go through to kill algae also uses a lot of O2. All these combined might be an issue, but your airstones should be able to overcome them.

I would contact your water company and ask them for their latest water quality report for your area, or they should have it online. That will tell you if your water is chlorine or chloramine treated. If you contact them, ask if they did any work on your supply recently.

You might not be using aerosols in the aquarium, but anything sprayed in the vicinity might get into the water.

A few things to look at there, but I definitely think its something in the water.

 

[Airborne 82nd]

I have the same substrate as you and was also warned about the same things that Aiken mentioned (after I had it in the tank). It was 3 to 4 inches thick in the rear and sloped down to 1 to 2 inches in the front. When I vaccumed the rear there was a lot more crap at the bottom but I wanted to keep the look for my tank so what I did was remove enough rock to make it level at about 1 inch. Now I don't see the heavy build up that I did before. My Oscar will pile it up when he digs a hole but I just level it out every week to 10 days when I vacc. If you have been doing the same thing for 6 to 7 years and the only new thing your putting in the tank is water then I would look at the water from your tap. You could get 5gal jugs of water for a couple of months to see what happens Plus the only thing I use is prime none of the other things you use I've never needed them.I have no live plants but do have plastic and silk but I leave them in the tank before I do a wc I pull them up and give them a good shake then move everything to one end of the tank and clean the other end. Granted my tank isonly14 months old so things may change in 6 to 7 years. I would not keep buying fish until you figure this out Please keep us posted as to what you find.