Help! Lots Of Dead Fish After Water Change :(

Breeding net £4 from LFS for the babies.

What Tolak meant was are you using a de-chlorinator? Which one and how much?

No the only thing I use is that stress coat. It says that its designed to de-chlorinate also.

What you might have is your water supplier adding more disinfectants (chlorine, chloramine) than normal. They will do this for a variety of reasons, as their main concern is supplying a safe product for human consumption. Unfortunately this isn't good for fish, especially if you are unaware of them doing this.

The product you're using to treat the water is a good one, converting the ammonia that comes from splitting chloramine into its components to ammonium, but perhaps your bio filtration is taking a bit of time to convert this from nitrite to nitrate, thus the spike.

The biggest problem is often getting the correct information from your water supplier as to when they plan on doing this, if they do plan it. The best thing you can do s learn about your water supply, and what they may do in certain instances, this is often weather or demand related. Once you figure this out you can adjust the amount of dechlorinator accordingly. I'll usually double dose my tanks, though at other times a regular dose is often more than enough.


i guess its possible my water supplier has added chlorine. Is there a way to test for this?

Also, is it possible that the nitrite might not be a spike? I haven't tested it in a while - it might have been high for ages. Either way it seems high, but could the cause be something else?
 
I imagine a swimming pool supplier would have tests for chlorine, I just err on the side of caution, and can usually go by smell as to when they add extra chlorine. I've also got a pretty good handle on when & why as well, and adjust when needed.

While the sponges you removes are carbon, they may. and probably have, built up some nitrifying bacteria over a few weeks time. Removing these may have caused a slight spike. If you've had nitrite all along I would think you would see some issues over two years due to this. It may be a combination of these things, just happening to occur at the same time.
 
Nitrite down to 0.1/0.2 after a few water changes.

Fish actually seem happier.

Will I actually notice the nitrite levels go down over 24 hours due to the filter doings its job without doing water changes or does it take days/weeks?
 
You could try leaving it now until tomorrow and test again. If its going higher then more water changes. You will from testing when your filtration has caught up!
 
And a round of applause for all the hard work your doing mate :clap:

Lets hope the nitrites stay low.
 

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