Dead Fish

[gobies et al]

Thanks for the reminder about Old Tank Syndrome. :shock: I have a large Anubias barteri to cut back that has outgrown it's space. I'll pay more attention to the substrate around it when I'm working with it.

Thanks again for the heads up! :thumbs:

Sorry for your losses Darkangel.

[BettaFishMommy]

going back to the issue of having something contaminate the tank. i almost always do a warm water rinse on my hands and forearms prior to working on a tank. i don't use soap just in case i don't get it all rinsed off, and i don't use lotions or anything on my hands, ever.

[darkangel]

I pulled out the entire meth lab as my son calls it. I did 4 tests with 2 different test kits and this is what I came up with.

Amonia-0, Nitrite-0, Nitrate-10ppm, ph 6.5, gh 161ppm, kh 145ppm, free iron 0.0mg/l, chelated iron 0.25mg/l Co2 30ppm.

Recapping W/C day, I do remember one thing I did on that tank. After draining it I hooked up the hose to the sink, ran the water to within 2 degrees of tank temp. I gave it the double shot of prime, turned on the hose and stuck in between a piece of driftwood and the glass, and went to work on the other tanks for a few minutes. Now this may have been the dumb move that caused this. The hose was running directly into the intake of one of the canisters. It might be possible that the clorinated water from the hose may have killed the bioload in that filter even with the double shot of prime causing a micro crash, (I call it a micro crash because it only lasted 24 hrs). You can all tell me if I'm out to lunch on this theory, or if it may actually be possible. That's the only thing I can think of at this point.

[Qattarra]

I think you are dead on the money .

[Ruadh]

With N'Ates at 10ppm I think you've hit the nail on the head.

Tough way to learn but a good lesson to us all.

[darkangel]

With my theory and two replies, that makes 3 nails hit on the head. Guess where this boy is not sticking the hose again.

The only thing that ticks me off now is some of those fish (true SAE's, P. taeneatis dehane, P. pulcher true albino kribs, and F-1 S. petricola) will be almost impossible to find, I have'nt seen any zebra loaches around lately either. The rest of them are as common as the sunrise every day.

[Ruadh]

With my theory and two replies, that makes 3 nails hit on the head. Guess where this boy is not sticking the hose again.

The only thing that ticks me off now is some of those fish (true SAE's, P. taeneatis dehane, P. pulcher true albino kribs, and F-1 S. petricola) will be almost impossible to find, I have'nt seen any zebra loaches around lately either. The rest of them are as common as the sunrise every day.

Henry at Natures corner gets the true SAE's in every so often.

He got stung a while ago so he's pretty careful about them now.

Talk to him about the rest, he might know someone locally, ya never know, he's been around a long time.

[bottomdweller_fan]

I have seen the zebra loaches at both Big Als and Family Pet Supercentre in Sherwood Park. I think they are a bit cheaper at Family Pet Supercentre.

Sorry to hear about all your losses.

[T Dawg]

2 large canister filters, one was cleaned a month and half ago and the other was cleaned 3 months ago.

Is that often enough to avoid the canister creating nitrates? One of the warnings I see over and over is that many aquarists will not clean canister filters often enough as they are still running well, but in reality are have a large build up of organic sludge turning them into "nitrate factories". My Rena manual prompts me to clean every 4 weeks, but that is also how often they say I should do a 1/4 water change so I only put so much stock in their guidance.

[darkangel]

2 large canister filters, one was cleaned a month and half ago and the other was cleaned 3 months ago.

Is that often enough to avoid the canister creating nitrates? One of the warnings I see over and over is that many aquarists will not clean canister filters often enough as they are still running well, but in reality are have a large build up of organic sludge turning them into "nitrate factories". My Rena manual prompts me to clean every 4 weeks, but that is also how often they say I should do a 1/4 water change so I only put so much stock in their guidance.

I usually give them a good cleaning every 3 months, except the bio-balls and ceramic rings just get a couple quick dips in a bucket of water from the tank. I will clean 1 and then a month later clean the other. I do water changes once a week, and gravel sweeps monthly, I do have an abundance of MTS in the tanks but I don't put to much faith in them.