400L Aquarium wiped out *sob*

[daisycat]

Lightbulb went on aquarium so we ordered a new one as couldn't buy the size locally. Whilst waiting for delivery went away for a couple of days. Came back to all fish bar a couple of gouramis dead. Turtle is ok. Water is murky and stinks and I suspect ammonia spike as our plants went out of action due to lack of light - no lights for about 6 days now. We can move turtle and gouramis to quarantine tank as a very temp measure - it's far too small for the turtle so I need to get the 400L up and running again ASAP. I have the lightbulbs now and presume our two filters are still full of ok bacteria...

Pls advise how to proceed? Full water change on 400L and then put fish/turtle back in or will I need to cycle somehow?

Thanks

 

[rdd1952]

I wouldn't think the lack of lights would have any real adverse effect on the tank as far as ammonia is concerned. Did you test the water when you came back? I would think the more likely problem is one of the following:

If you use CO2 for your plants, the pH crashed since the plants weren't using the CO2 fast enough.

If it is indeed an ammonia problem, did you had a power outage which could cause part of the bacteria in your filter to die off creating a mini cycle? What type of filter do you use? Power wheels are the most susceptible to power outage problems.

The lack of a running filter could also lead to oxygen problems since you wouldn't be getting any surface disturbance. This one would really be a problem if you use CO2.

 

[daisycat]

I wouldn't think the lack of lights would have any real adverse effect on the tank as far as ammonia is concerned. Did you test the water when you came back? I would think the more likely problem is one of the following:

If you use CO2 for your plants, the pH crashed since the plants weren't using the CO2 fast enough.

If it is indeed an ammonia problem, did you had a power outage which could cause part of the bacteria in your filter to die off creating a mini cycle? What type of filter do you use? Power wheels are the most susceptible to power outage problems.

The lack of a running filter could also lead to oxygen problems since you wouldn't be getting any surface disturbance. This one would really be a problem if you use CO2.

[snapback]874862[/snapback]​

It's definitely ammonia - off the scale. Don't use CO2. No power outage, filters still running as normal. Filters - one eheim 2028 and the Juwel that is part of the tank (as described in sig).

I must get the 400L sorted urgently as the turtle cannot stay in the quarentine tank - he is far too big the the leporinus' have a taste for nibbling off the back of his shell (which is why we originally moved them back out of the main tank some months ago).

 

[rdd1952]

I really think the high ammonia you found when you returned was from the decaying fish that had died and not the actual cause of their death. Maybe not but I don't understand how you could have had such a huge ammonia spike on a cycled tank simply because the lights were off. Lots of people use the 3 day black out method (turn the lights out and cover the tank so it gets absolutely no light for 3 full days) to get rid of dreaded blue green algae and have no problems and that is even with the algae dying, decaying and creating it's own ammonia. The plants don't have much effect on the processing of ammonia. The do absorb some but not enough to have that effect. What was the pH when you returned?

 

[daisycat]

I really think the high ammonia you found when you returned was from the decaying fish that had died and not the actual cause of their death. Maybe not but I don't understand how you could have had such a huge ammonia spike on a cycled tank simply because the lights were off. Lots of people use the 3 day black out method (turn the lights out and cover the tank so it gets absolutely no light for 3 full days) to get rid of dreaded blue green algae and have no problems and that is even with the algae dying, decaying and creating it's own ammonia. The plants don't have much effect on the processing of ammonia. The do absorb some but not enough to have that effect. What was the pH when you returned?

[snapback]875238[/snapback]​

Oh well, it's all academic now anyway as the remaining fish and our turtle unfortunately died in the night so there is no rush to reinstate the 400L tank after all. Will just run a fishless cycle again and hope for better luck next time.

 

[rdd1952]

Sorry for your loss. It would be nice if you could figure out what caused it though. I believe I would do a good scrubbing and cleaning before starting over just in case it was some type of bacteria or disease that may still be present in the tank. Or at least treat the tank with a strong antibiotic to kill anythig off.

 

[playfulalliecat]

I would definitely clean the tank well before restarting it. That is really strange. When we went on vacation this past spring, we ended up leaving the lights off for 10 days. We were only planning to be gone for 5 but had car problems and got stuck out of state.

I haven't kept plants with lights out but I wouldn't think it would have made that drastic a difference in only a couple of days. Something had to have caused an ammonia spike, possibly some type of illness killed the fish and they caused it.