Enitre Population Died Last Night After Moving Tank

[gaz_d]

Unfortunatly I got up this morning to come to work glanced at my new tank I set up yesterday and all the fish are dead.

I had a 60l tank with 4 neons, 3 guppies, 1 small cat fish, a tropical shrimp and 4 other small fish (can't think what they were). The tank was 6 months old and was doing well.
Anyway to cut a long story short I bought a second hand tank off ebay yesterday (http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180572717407&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT), On purchase I asked the seller how he'd cleaned it out and he told me with a small amount af washing up liquid but he'd power washed it out and given it a good rinse.

I got home the tank was bone dry and didn't appear to have any traces of soap, but I did notice the tank looked like it had been re-sealed with some kind of silicone.

Anyway I washed the stones they gave me under the hot water tap and put it in the tank, I then syphoned a bucket of water out of my old tank and put the filter in it and started it running so I wouldn't kill the filter bacteria.
Then I quickly removed about 40 ltrs of water from the old tank and put it in the new and transferred my water heater and thermometer to the new tank.

So in effect I now had 10ltrs in a bucket, 10ltrs in the old tank and 40 ltrs in the new tank.
I then transferred all the fish one at a time straight out of one and straight into the new one next to it, then got the last 10ltrs of water out the old tank and the 10ltrs from bucket and added the old filter as it's rated at 600ltrs per hr so was easily big enough imo.

I then added 30ltrs of fresh de-chrloinated water and went to bed.

Anyway this morning the tank was white and cloudy, so bad I couldn't see in without the hood light. To my horror all the fish were dead.

Gutted isn't the word, what have I done wrong

 

[the biffster]

the sealer it is sealed with was it clear or
white it is is white its probably bathroom sealer
or something along those lines which contains a fungicide
which is no good to fish but you weren't to know the clouded
water sounds like a algal bloom its common in new tank set ups
if i was you i would have washed the tank again after you got with
aquarium salt water mix to sterilize the tank and just to make sure
there was no soap left in it

 

[doresy]

Horror story!

If the tank was 'power washed' then the seal was probably compromised explaining the new silicone. As previously suggested, if the silicone was not the correct stuff then that can be a major problem. Obviously any detergent trace can also be a disaster.

Like when buying a second hand car, take the previous owners comments with a pinch of salt. ALWAYS clean a tank (new or second hand) to your own standards and where possible fill the tank and let stand for a few day before emptying and putting in your beloved stock regardless of what plan you then follow.

 

[gaz_d]

the sealer it is sealed with was it clear or
white it is is white its probably bathroom sealer
or something along those lines which contains a fungicide
which is no good to fish but you weren't to know

No, neither it's brown

the clouded water sounds like a algal bloom its common in new tank set ups
if i was you i would have washed the tank again after you got with
aquarium salt water mix to sterilize the tank and just to make sure
there was no soap left in it

So should I empty the tank when I get home and scrub it out one day next week? I don't know what to do with the filter etc again now. Shopuld I start afresh? I'll test the water tonight when I get in incase I had a spike.

 

[kizno1]

If its drown it wont be aquarium silicone. If you want to use that tank you will have to strip all the brown silicone of and resilcone it with aquarium stuff.

 

[gaz_d]

Horror story!

If the tank was 'power washed' then the seal was probably compromised explaining the new silicone. As previously suggested, if the silicone was not the correct stuff then that can be a major problem. Obviously any detergent trace can also be a disaster.

Like when buying a second hand car, take the previous owners comments with a pinch of salt. ALWAYS clean a tank (new or second hand) to your own standards and where possible fill the tank and let stand for a few day before emptying and putting in your beloved stock regardless of what plan you then follow.

true, lesson learned the hard way.

 

[the biffster]

sounds like brown mastic to me
bloody awful stuff its going to be hard to clean off
try using some meths or cellulose thinners this might get it off

 

[doresy]

ANYTHING brown in a tank to me sounds bad news

 

[gaz_d]

well i'm home now and the tank has a chemical smell to it, almost like flash or bleach but hard to tell and has white flecks of some description on the surface. My other half thinks it is fish scales. It's still as cloudy as anything though.

I've tested the water
pH 7.8
amonia 4 so their is one possible killer
nitrites 0
and nitrates ~ 10ppm

now i've removed some of the water it is trothing up with bubbles. It also smell a bit of chlorine.

It must have soap in it

will my filter need cycling again?