Found out why so many fish died

[Bryan]

The LFS either didn't do a total water analysis or just lied to me to sell me some fish, but I just bought my own test kit and here's the results:

PH - 7.8
Alkaline - 60 (i think that's ppm)
Hardness - 150 (hard)
Nitrate - 1.0
Nitrate - 40
Amonia - 3.0

I have neons, zebra danios, kuhli loaches (black), white clouds and chinese algea eaters (otto???)
I just did a 50% water change 4 days ago, I'll do another 25% tomorrow.
I don't have access to things like amonia, nitrite, nitrate remover at the LFS.
Not sure what to do........

 

[enchanted]

With Ammonia that high relative to your PH you need to be doing Daily 25% water changes or more.

Chinese Algae Eaters or not Oto Catfish.

It looks like your tank isn't cycled, how long has it been setup? If it isn't the best you can do is daily water changes and pray. An uncycled tank is going to spike every level at one point and each of these spikes can hurt your fish.

 

[Bryan]

With Ammonia that high relative to your PH you need to be doing Daily 25% water changes or more.

Chinese Algae Eaters or not Oto Catfish.

It looks like your tank isn't cycled, how long has it been setup? If it isn't the best you can do is daily water changes and pray. An uncycled tank is going to spike every level at one point and each of these spikes can hurt your fish.

It's been set up over a year, but it has one of those filter that you change the pads, so it never gets a build up. I just added a filter with that sponge so that should help in time.
I can't change the water on the weekends, the tanks are in the school where my wife teaches, so all i get to do in the weekends is feeding.
I'll start doing 25% changes monday and do it every day, but there has to be a way to get away from every day changes, that's going to be a pain.

 

[enchanted]

You could think about getting a penguin filter w/ bio-wheel. You can change the filter pad all you need and not worry about it because it creates a bacterio enviroment on the wheel.

They run about $18.00 to $30.00 depending on where you get it.

 

[Bryan]

Thanx for your help

This tank is gonna be a lot of work to keep up

 

[enchanted]

Once you have it cycled and if you use a filter with a seperate biological system (such as a biowheel or bacterial sponge) it really shouldn't be. Other than you will have to watch for the kids giving stuff to the fish they shouldn't. I.E. bringing fish food from home because the fish look hungry.

 

[Bryan]

because the fish look hungry.

Yea, I've had to hide my fish food because they are always trying to feed them

 

[Dubby]

Hi BryanG:

It's been set up over a year, but it has one of those filter that you change the pads, so it never gets a build up.

Changing the pads alone should not cause so much of a fluctuation as the bacteria would have colonised not just the filter pads but also the substrate, ornaments etc. Are you overfeeding them? Have you measured the parameters on your tap water?

What type of filter do you use?

 

[Bryan]

Changing the pads alone should not cause so much of a fluctuation as the bacteria would have colonised not just the filter pads but also the substrate, ornaments etc. Are you overfeeding them? Have you measured the parameters on your tap water?

What type of filter do you use?

the filter I had was a whisper, the large 2 sided one, I just added a new one that has the sponge. There were times before where my wife was over feeding them, but it's all been rebuilt (I vacuumed the top 1/2 inch of sand to get rid of the debre). The water is good right from the tap, they don't add chlorine to the water here, I've been told by all the LFSs and some members here that the water does not need to be treated, just add it. When I go back to the school today I'll get my test kit and test it just to make sure. I had no ornaments, just plants and the sand, so by getting rid of the top layer of sand, I removed any bacteria I would think.

 

[sylvia]

You realy don't need to change the filter media. Many filters say you do but rinsing it out in old tank water (from a water change) should be enough. When you do change it, only change part at a time or leave the new media in the tank for a week before replacing the old.

I'd stop feeding on weekends altogether until the tank is cycled and feed very very little on the remaining days.

You should get rid of those chinese algae eaters. It grows to 10 inches and will kill your other fish once it develops its aggressive character as it approaches adulthood.

 

[Bryan]

You realy don't need to change the filter media. Many filters say you do but rinsing it out in old tank water (from a water change) should be enough.

You should get rid of those chinese algae eaters.

I've been rinsing off my filter pads because there hard to find here, I was worried it would be bad, but what you said makes sense.



My BIG question.....you have any idea how I can get those algea eaters out of a fully planted tank with driftwood and large rocks? Everytime I put the net in the tank they run and hide, I hate them already....

 

[enchanted]

Bryan. I remember reading this since point one and I remember you tearing down the tank because of problems before. If you read under hardware they have a pinned topic about the Bio-Wheel filters and I would seriously recommend you look into one of these. In the end it could end up saving you a lot of grief especially where this is in a school enviroment.

As for the Algae eaters. I can't remember the link but a few people have built a trap with a 2 liter bottle by cutting the top off and flipping it upside down into the bottom w/ a cucumber, etc... The algae eater goes in and can't get out?

Just a thought on that, but as long as they are still small you should be okay for the time being.

 

[Bryan]

If you read under hardware they have a pinned topic about the Bio-Wheel filters and I would seriously recommend you look into one of these.

After reading that, I'm getting one. But I will have to wait till after christmas, so till then I'll just have to do the water changes.

As for the Algae eaters. I can't remember the link but a few people have built a trap with a 2 liter bottle by cutting the top off and flipping it upside down into the bottom w/ a cucumber, etc... The algae eater goes in and can't get out?

Thats a great idea, I'll give that a try. Do you think these algea eaters, almost 2" long could have attacked my baby cardinals under 1" long?

thank you for your help/post

 

[enchanted]

To be honest I wouldn't put anything past a CAE. They can be vicious and I have seen them attack fish larger than themselves. My LFS has two at about 8" in a 240G tank. I watched as they went after one shark that was 3 times their size, although he set them in their place.

 

[Leslie]

IMO your Whisper filter is just fine... if you're worried about disturbing the bacteria you may want to clean one side out at a time instead of both. Another suggestion would be to get another Whisper or Emperor so you have a filter running on either end of the tank.

The fact that you are showing Nitrates would indicate that you are probably already cycled and something has happened such as overfeeding to cause the Ammonia spike. Do a check on your tap water and see if there are any Nitrates showing up. Unfortunately you never know who is feeding what to the fish when no one is looking.

Also it might be a good idea to only feed once every other day until you get your parameters sorted out.... underfeeding is far healthier for your fish then overfeeding.