Carnage

[laurasmithuk]

woke this morning to fing 3 neons dead and ALL fish gasping for air. tested water and ammonia has gone up to 20!! nitrIte and nitrAte are also slightly high but not too high compared to ammonia. what can i do? i changed 25% of the water yesterday and fed fish some water fleas but it has never gone like that before!
when i noticed probs i changed another 10% and added ammo lock this morning..... is that the right thing to do?

 

[Aylana]

I'm not an expert but doing the water change was the right thing. Keep an eye on the ammonia levels and keep doing water changes if it stays up. When you did your change yesterday did you clean the filter? Did you add de-chlorinator?

 

[Sky042]

Was this tank previously cycled?
How long has it been running.

Ammo that high can kill basically everything.

I'd be doing twice daily water changes and would hold off feeding anything for at least 3 days.

 

[laurasmithuk]

i really only feed fish once week but gave them water fleas last night! fish has been set up for 7 months and was cycled..... everything was going ok til last night! am so pissed off really hate seeing fish ill! will keep up water changes, i always add de-chlorinater when adding new water.... really cant see what has made it go so bloody wrong!
i did clean out the juwel filter yesterday and hardware.

 

[Aylana]

How did you clean the filter? Did you use old tank water or tap water? Just trying to establish a cause of this so you know for future reference.

Edited for bad spelling.

 

[laurasmithuk]

used water from tank to wash out sponges, then did a 20% water change. last night fed them water fleas and today they're all dying. really cant pin point whats going on

 

[Aylana]

It sounds as though something as affected the bacteria in your filter to cause an ammonia spike. If you used old tank water to wash the filter that should be ok, unless you were a bit over vigorous in your cleaning. Maybe someone else might have some ideas??

 

[laurasmithuk]

cheers for your help, am truly devastated. hate seeing any animal suffer

 

[laurasmithuk]

sorry ammonia was at 2.0 not 20 that would be stupid although its still to bloody high

 

[@ombomb]

Were the water fleas in a bag of water or dried?

Could they have been in a bag too long, and filled it with Amonia from their waste / decomposing remains of ones that died?

 

[laurasmithuk]

do u know i never thought of that! they have been in bag in fridge for 5 days now. thanks mate i owe you one

 

[tttnjfttt]

when you did your water change, did you remember dechlorinator? I know it sounds stupid, but i know even the best of us have forgotten it at times. Chlorine would kill off your bacteria as well as kill fish. If I were you, I would go ahead and re-dose with dechlor, just to make sure. Also, tons of water changes until this is back at zero.

 

[laurasmithuk]

yeah did remember........... am pretty convinced that the water fleas are prob as they had been in bag for about 3 days