neely Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 (edited) i have a 90 gal with 1 xp-3, 1 AC500 and 1 Eheim 2250 providing the filtration. stock list would be 9 elec yellows, 7 met. estherae, 9 sc fryeri, 3 demansoni's and 4 red empress all between 2.5 in to 5 in. that was before the deaths. in the last few days i have lost 2 iceberg blues and 1 met estherae- starting to panic a little. i checked my nitrates when my 1 iceberg was acting different- they were off the scale. did a large water change and cleaned out the prefilters on my 2 802 powerheads. The one iceberg then died. checked the nitrates the next day and they were really bad again- took apart to clean my ehiem which was a mess! (clean every 3 months my @$$!!!!) so did another large water change and put the eheim back on. no nitrates tonight but 2 very sudden deaths. everything seems fine, blink and then dead fish. im guessing nitrate poisoning- any one else chime in? how long can i expect fish deaths? Edited November 21, 2005 by neely Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 What were your nitrates measuring? Did you also measure your ammonia and nitrIte? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neely Posted November 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 ammonia and nitirites were zip. The first time i checked the nitrates they were probably 100-160ppm +, second time was 60 ppm (that was after 50% w/c and 2 days after the first- now 24 hours later after another 25% w/c they are back to low levels (5ppm perhaps). all this and i do weekly 20% w/c's and vacuum everytime.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 I've moved to putting a few terrestrial plants in my AC for my Africans. Peace Lily or Amazon Sword (2 names for the same plant) are working great. Keep nitrates minimal. They do suck up some water, so I have to top up the tank a bit more often; but, it keeps the fish healthy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neely Posted November 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 checked all water parameters last night and everything was fine (no nitrites, no ammonia and 5-10 nitrates) and still i had 2 more deaths this morning. Anyone have ANY thoughts on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted November 22, 2005 Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 I dont' think it was nitrate poisoning. Everything i've heard says that fish(africans) can withstand fairly high nitrate levels, especially if they are raised slowly over time. I'm not sure if levels of 100-160ppm is deadly, its not good long term to keep your fish at these levels but i'm not sure its high enough to start killing off lots of your stock. I checked my Baensch Atlas and it says this "For ammonia the fatal dosage is 0.2mg/liter; for nitrite 1mg/liter; for nitrate 200-300mg/liter." Then i checked my fish health book and it says this " Nitrate has lowest limits of lethal toxicity of 50-300mg/liter, and this is for with extremely sensitive fish." So, I'm not sure that a level of 100ppm would be enough to kill off so many of your fish. HAve you recently changed anything in the tank? Added any new fish? what are the symptoms they are dying from? Sorry i'm by far an expert but since no one else seems to be posting i'd thought i'd try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neatfreak Posted November 22, 2005 Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 how much do you feed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanker Posted November 22, 2005 Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 I had a similar experience a few weeks ago... every day I was losing one fish for apparently no reason (without the related nitrate peak, however... mine has never been over 40). Out of six species in the tank only one was affected and nearly wiped them all out over the course. All I could do was water changes and prayer... lots and lots of both even though neither seemed to help, much. After 10 days, I finally stopped finding floating fish and all has been well, since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neely Posted November 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 found some more dead afterwork. there are no symptoms, everyone is eating well (which they get fed lightly twice a day- i will switch it to once now as per recommended from Dennis today), a few seem slightly stressed, nothing crazy then hours later they are colorful ornaments laying in the sand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 And you can think of nothing else that has changed? No new fish, no new plants? Nothing could have contaminated the tank(nobody could have done somethign to it without you knowing)? Did you check the ph? Temp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neely Posted November 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 no new plants, no new fish. the temp dropped one day more than normal, with a w/c i did. i can normally get away with a w/c and see a 1 degree variation- this day it changed 4-5 degrees. this was 2 weeks ago i believe though. unless there was something on my arms from work when i dove into the tank for a cleaning i cant think of anything. i wash my hands pretty good when i go into the tank and never thought my arms to be a prob when i wear mainly long sleeves at work. i dont know- this is not making me to happy- i feel so bad for my fish, and i am doubting my fish keeping skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronrca Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 Are you doing wc's from tap? Im wondering if the tap parameters change like chlorine or something. Just a thought! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cichlidkid Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 (edited) only one explination..... or ronrca could be right... Edited November 23, 2005 by cichlidkid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 BUt did the deaths occur after a water change? or did they die, and then you checked the nitrates and started doing water changes? ps: cichlidkid, that cracked me up -roll- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wandj Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 You are a Calgary member? So you are on city water? Did the city do anything? You might not know. Sometimes they add more chemical if something happens with the weather. Do you happen to have a water softener? If so, I'll tell you why I ask. And you didn't have an over-feeding accident? I wonder if something happened 2 weeks ago. If it did, it takes that long for the effect of "new tank syndrome" to show. If something happened 2 weeks ago, the effects would show now. Like the Nitrates. Bacteria have a certain temp they live in best, and if it goes out a lot, they may die off. Unless you work with chemicals, I doubt anything on your hands came off in the tank. You won't believe the crap I am exposed to in my work place, and I do wash my arms/hands, but the odd time I forgot and never had a problem. (Well, sometimes I wash and the gook won't come off) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.