Experienced Fish Keeper... Major Problems

[dan15daman]

hi everybody,
Well I've had this planted 30g tank set up for a few years now with rare casualties and death. The only problem recently was my pictus was eating everybody, but he's in QT now. Here's the deal... I have ammonia reading less then .25 now and nitrite is 0. No idea what the source is bc I do 25% water changes weekly. No decayed plant matter. I've had fish dying left in right with seemingly no cause. I walked in from work one day and a lemon tetra was going crazy running into things and died within a minute. He was schooling with the others that morning and ate. Next day was the same story with a zebra danio. Today same story with another tetra. They give no indication that they're going to die. Eat right, no body abrasions or signs of illness. No rapid breathing or slow breathing or changes in behavior. they just die. I added 2 zebra danios about a week ago and that was the only change. Please help me!
Dan

 

[Spooky76]

Pretty much any ammonia is toxic to your fish, and if you only caught it at < 0.25 then it was probably higher than that.
Ammonia isnt caused by old plant etc either, that usually causes Nitrite I think
If you have any ammonia or nitrite readings then water change until they are 0 and keep an eye on them for the next few days ?
Could you filter have stalled for any reason ? Did you clean it a bit too much or replace all the filter pads at once ?

 

[soulm8salways]

Hi, We are somewhat new to fishkeeping and had problems with ammonia in our tank as well. Could not figure out what was going on until someone suggested we test our tap water for ammonia. We did and it came out of the tap at .25 ammonia. Until our biological filter was advanced enough to take care of it quickly following water changes, we had some problems. We started using prime as our water conditioner because it is supposed to bind the ammonia making it harmless. Not sure if this would help you but it's worth suggesting. Test your tap for ammonia and try using prime as a water conditioner if you can get it. Really helped us. Good luck!

 

[dan15daman]

Thanks for the advice both of you. I've done water changes, filter pads are 3 weeks old, tap doesn't have ammonia. its not as prominent as it used to be. There's jsut the slightest ammonia tint in the test tube. Anyways, i don't know if this would be a help to you all in helpign me but I've had a major algae bloom where the plants are now black and still a dead fish or two every day. I'm going to just take out the fish I absolutely love and have my stomach be wrenched out while everything dies. they all seem frantic and extra aggressive in there too.
Dan

 

[wodesorel]

Have you tested the Nitrate levels? Usually harmless unless it's in high quantities. I had a few nitrate spikes in my old tank (well over 100ppm) and I knew there was a problem because the fish acted "blind" and would be frantically slamming head-first into everything. Never did figure out why the nitrate would spike so high because it had just been after water changes, and the tank had been fully cycled for about four months. Happened three times during the course of about a month, and then never happened again.

 

[dan15daman]

nitrate= .25

 

[messy]

Thanks for the advice both of you. I've done water changes, filter pads are 3 weeks old, tap doesn't have ammonia. its not as prominent as it used to be. There's jsut the slightest ammonia tint in the test tube. Anyways, i don't know if this would be a help to you all in helpign me but I've had a major algae bloom where the plants are now black and still a dead fish or two every day. I'm going to just take out the fish I absolutely love and have my stomach be wrenched out while everything dies. they all seem frantic and extra aggressive in there too.
Dan

You say the plants are now black? Are they rotting down and causing the Ammonia? Or could they be releasing the Ammonia due to bad health?

Tom

 

[Arimus]

With my wifes planted tank which had been running fine for about 9 months the plants for some reason decided to up and die - they started to go black and rot - as they did the ammonia shot through the roof...

This was just after introducing a new plant so I suspect the new plant had some disease (I can't for the life of me remember what it was).

 

[Dave Spencer]

Anyways, i don't know if this would be a help to you all in helpign me but I've had a major algae bloom where the plants are now black and still a dead fish or two every day.
Dan

Dan, your dying plants will be leaching ammonia in to the water. The algae present on the dead and dying plant matter is a great indicator of this process, IMO. You will need to remove all the dead plants and, as a guide, carry out 50% water changes until the ammonia disappears. Getting the ammonia to unreadable amounts is your priority for sure, and removing the unhealthy plant mass will be a major step foreward.

As an aside, are your plants going black at the base of the stem? Over a period of time, the lower light levels down there will eventually adversely affect this part of the plant, with die off as a possible consequence. What I do to maintain health, is to periodically cut off the healthy part, uproot the lower part, and replant the healthy cutting.

Dave.

 

[dan15daman]

Anyways, i don't know if this would be a help to you all in helpign me but I've had a major algae bloom where the plants are now black and still a dead fish or two every day.
Dan

Dan, your dying plants will be leaching ammonia in to the water. The algae present on the dead and dying plant matter is a great indicator of this process, IMO. You will need to remove all the dead plants and, as a guide, carry out 50% water changes until the ammonia disappears. Getting the ammonia to unreadable amounts is your priority for sure, and removing the unhealthy plant mass will be a major step foreward.

As an aside, are your plants going black at the base of the stem? Over a period of time, the lower light levels down there will eventually adversely affect this part of the plant, with die off as a possible consequence. What I do to maintain health, is to periodically cut off the healthy part, uproot the lower part, and replant the healthy cutting.

Dave.

ok took out most of the plants since they were rapidly decaying. Its amazing how much they've changed since Monday. 2 more died today but hopefully thigsn will start to shape up. The larger fish seem to be more resiliant to it. thanks for the help,
Dan

 

[dan15daman]

Everythings back to normal and thriving! I started to add more of the schooling fish do the ones who lived through it don't get too stressed out. Thaanks for all of your help,
Dan