Ember Tetra Deaths

[Mostlydave]

Well, I set up a new Fluval 306 this weekend and it's great! It's Silent and water is crystal clear. The spray bar kit on the other hand left me with some questions,

I have a standard 55g tank, I put the intake on the back panel near the left hand corner and the spray bar on the right hand short side of the tank about 4 inches under the surface with the spray pretty much horizontal left to right. Is this the proper placement? The spray bar kit did not come with any instructions at all.

I've had several ember tetras die over the weekend, the only thing I did was install the 306 on Friday night and do my usual 20% water change and tank cleaning on sunday. I also did the initial big dose of seachem excel on Sunday to start my tank on it.

could the higher flow rate be harming my ember tetras? I dosed the tank with the seachem per the isnstructions, could that have harmed them? all my other fish seem ok. I'm thinking about aiming the spray bar upward toward the surface to try to reduce the current a little, will this work or should the current not bother the fish?

 

[fluttermoth]

Did you put the mature media from your old filter into the new one?

 

[Mostlydave]

I did, I removed the paper from the biowheels on my old HOB and cut it in half and placed it in one of the compartments of the new filter.

 

[fluttermoth]

Well, that's good, but as most fish deaths and illness can be traced to poor water quality, I'd still bet that your bacterial colony has died back a bit from being moved; it's quite common. You should do a large water change (at least 50 or 60%) and get your water tested to check up on the levels.

High flow from filters will not kill fish; if they don't like it they'll just look unhappy and start hanging round in the quietest spot they can find.

 

[Mostlydave]

Thanks for the heads up, since I've been cycled for a while checking the water didn't even occur to me, I'll Check it out as soon as I can and let you know what happened

 

[fluttermoth]

Best of luck, hope you don't lose any more fish; it's so upsetting, isn't it?

 

[Mostlydave]

It sucks, I haven't lost any for a long time, and if it's a water quality issue that I should have prevented I'm going to feel even worse.

 

[fluttermoth]

Don't beat yourself up about it. We all make mistakes. Anyway, it might turn out to be something else entirely, you never know.

 

[Mostlydave]

Well, I don't know what happened, I lost 5 of six ember tetras that I have had since November. My water tested ok, so I'm thinking it was the seachem excel. I once added an anti algae treatment and all of my glofish went to the bottom and acted like they couldn't breathe, after doing an immediate large water change they were all ok. I guess some chemicals just have different effects on different fish. I've kind of lost my faith in all chemical treatment and will be sticking to salt in the future.