Could It Be The Filter?

[Fintastic!]

Long story short. I've lost a lot of fish over the past few months. I do weekly water changes of at least 30%. Some showed signs of disease, white patches, one had a swollen eye and some just died. I've tested the water several times but all looks normal. I've added some meds last Wednesday, as the last death was then. It's Tetra General Tonic, for disease, parasites etc.
 
I've read here of people not knowing why fish might be dying and then checking their filters. How do I do this? I clean the sponges every few weeks in tank water. What else can I do? It's a Juwel Rio with the internal filter they come with.
 
All my favourites are gone.

  Any help would be appreciated.  

 

[Fintastic!]

Also I have an old Fluval 2 filter. Would it help if I get new sponges and run that in the tank along with the other one? 

 

[fluttermoth]

The internal Juwel filters should be perfectly adequate, unless your stocking's particularly heavy.

What were the actual numbers from your most recent tests?

 

[Fintastic!]

 Hi Fluttermoth, my stocking wasn't heavy, it's very light now unfortunately.. My PH is 8.2, Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0 and Nitrate is 20 ppm.  Water change is at least 30% each week ( though usually I empty closer to 40%). Any thoughts?

 

[fluttermoth]

It's tricky when there's no obvious symptoms; the ones you've described aren't really specific to any particular disease; they just denote a sick fish

My 'go to' medication in these sorts of situations of Myxazin, so you could try a course of that.

Sorry I can't be more positive; I think we all go through times where we lose fish for no reason we can ever put our finger on, it's very difficult

 

[MBOU]

I have to agree with Flutter, the water is fine then its got to be a disease, the trouble is... with few exceptions of really obvious symptoms like dropsy or whitespot etc... its incredibly difficult to 100% identify what is exactly wrong with the fish.
 
And part of the problem is that once fish start showing all these symptoms, its generally a fairly well advanced problem.
 
I admit I really don't think much of the General Tonic, its seems to do very little... its not worth adding as a preventative as that might cause more problems and immunities to medications and its not really strong enough/got right ingredients to treat any one specific thing.
 
I also use Myxazin as a failsafe, with Formaldehyde, Acriflavin and Malachite Green, its got the basic ingredients in most of the fungal/bacterial etc treatments. And so is a general medication that is more likely to work if not over used.
 
But white patches are generally fungal or bacterial infections (or wounds) and swollen eyes is usually a bacterial problem (of a different kind) as well.. so a treatment like Myxazin may well do you better...
 
Sorry you have lost fish but sadly... it happens to us all like Flutter said and unfortunately, without vets at our disposal like for other pets, it makes it an incredibly difficult hobby sometimes. All you can do is be patient and pick it all up again.
 
For me, I would medicate tank even without said fish in there, do a good water change and gravel clean just in case its harbouring anything, do a deep clean under the décor like rocks and wood etc... and leave in a couple of weeks before putting more fish back in. Better to be patient than to be really sorry!

 

[fm1978]

Hi there, sorry for your recent losses, that's pretty horrible.

I'm a beginner, so I'm nowhere near as qualified as flutter or mbou, however, a couple of comments I'd like to add is that I think 8.2 for pH is a little high. If you ever get ammonia spikes it will be at it's most toxic at higher pHs.

I may wrong on this one, but, I have read in a few places that a carbon sponge will render your treatments useless - I have a Juwel tank and filter and it came with a carbon sponge - someone may have to confirm but I don't know if any of the medications will be effective.

Lastly, and again, maybe someone could double check, the addition of some salt could help recovery.

Hope you get all your fish all better and healthy!

 

[MBOU]

^^ Some great points there actually
 
Unfortunately for some of us, high ph is inevitable (have tested water out the tap with a ph of 9 here before!!) and really, most fish are a lot more tolerant of ph values than people assume they are, so long as it doesn't keep fluctuating. That said, you have a point about the high ph making ammonia more toxic!
 
And again, you are right on with the carbon, that would strip the medication right back out the tank if it wasn't removed prior to treating!
 
As for salt.. that's rather hit and miss, to be honest, I don't recommend people use it unless they know 100% that their species are tolerant of salt because most people have plecs and catfish like corydoras etc that really don't do well with salt. Certainly discus and ghost glass catfish do really badly with salt! So unless you are 100% certain or only have livebearers/goldfish.. I wouldn't bother with salt.

 

[Fintastic!]

Hi guys, thanks a million for all your replies!! The ph has always been 8.2. I've read on here that sometimes to tamper with it can be worse so best to leave it be. I haven't had this problem in 2 years until the past few months.
I don't have carbon in the filter, I only use it when removing meds.
I have sand substrate so unless it's harbouring something. I'll do as you suggest and give it a superclean, stir up the sand nicely and hope for the best. I'll run  the fluval filter also as the top of the tank doesn't have much flow.
I've noticed greeny-blue patches in the sand at the front edge of the tank. I assume it's cyanobacteria (hope that's spelled correctly). How do I get rid of that stuff?
I have 3 cories left and a clown plec so salt is a no-go I'm afraid.
Thanks again for your help guys!    

 

[Elrohirthehasty]

I always just kinda assumed for most "beginner" and easier species the fish are tolerant of a pretty big range of pH.  It's only the wild caught and pickier/harder to keep fish that require specific pH ranges.  And for breeding.  I've never tested pH and never really had troubles I don't think.  However, I don't really actively attempt to breed (tho it does happen! hooray!) and I keep pretty straightforward stuff (tetras, loaches, rasboras).  Obviously extreme cases would be bad any time, but yea, I don't often attribute large, sudden fish losses to pH (except maybe a dramatic, sudden shift in pH or so).

 

[SamB]

Hm. I presume if it was an air bubble in the sand with toxic gasses that would show in the tests..?

 

[Fintastic!]

I assume so too, to both of your posts. I run a fork through the sand at water changes (one I keep specifically for the task) though admittedly I don't cover it all. I must be doing something wrong.  

 

[BrianMcC]

I use a gravel cleaner/syphon and saves times and with good results, good luck!