Help On Water Quality

[riksworld]

Hi all,

Ive had my tank running perfectly for the last 2 years, a 200 ltr tropical commuminty tank setup

came home yesterday, everything was fine, went out for a couple of hours came back and all my fish a dead!, I changed the water just a few days ago, Ammonia, Nitrate and nitrites are all ok, checked them yesterday and water treatment was added for chlorine, does not expire until another 2 years.

Pump is working fine, as far as I can see, temp is fine, I decided to get a cheap test kit which tests for other things incase mine was faulty and it picked up chlorine in the water, so I thought id check the water quality on severn trent water, this is what I got:


Hardness Level Soft No Standard Applies
Hardness Clark 3.45 No Standard Applies Degrees Clark
Hardness French 4.92 No Standard Applies French Degrees
Hardness German 2.76 No Standard Applies German Degrees
Aluminium 51.54 200 μgAl/l
Chloride 24.00 250 mgCl/l
Chlorine 0.19 No Standard Applies mg/l
Coliform bacteria 0 0 no./100ml
Colour 0.48 20 mg/l Pt/Co
Conductivity 128.38 2500 μS/cm at 20°C
E.coli bacteria 0 0 no./100ml
Fluoride 0.03 1.5 mgF/l
Iron 16.08 200 μgFe/l
Manganese 1.86 50 μgMn/l
Nitrate 7.29 50 mgNO3/l
Odour 0 Acceptable to customers and no abnormal change Dilution Number
Pesticides 0 0.5 μg/l
pH 8.01 6.5 - 9.5 pH Value
Sodium 7.65 200 mgNa/l
Taste 0 Acceptable to customers and no abnormal change Dilution Number
Plumbing Metals
Copper 0.01 2.0 mgCu/l
Lead 1.16 25 μgPb/l
Nickel 1.08 20 μgNi/l



There is a new faq about changing over to Chloramination, can someone please just check these fiqures above and see if they sound about right?

Im wanting to restart my tank at some point in the next few weeks, I know a new cycle is needed etc, but now unsure what treatments to use to make sure this does not happen ever again as ive lost some good fish, maybe a RO unit or somthing simular, any reccomendations?

My other tank is currently working fine, but this has not yet had a water change and im not keen on performing a water change incase this happens to my oscar tank

Hopefully someone could lend a helping hand and thanks to anyone who responds or helps

 

[kaivalagi]

2 hours from fine to dead, doesn't sound like any cycle based problem to me...just too darn quick, and you wouldn't expect all fish to die at the same time

Could it have been a faulty heater or something? i.e. electrocution?

This is really strange...and those figures don't highlight anything out of the ordinary to me.

 

[spectrum]

I live pretty close to you in Derbyshire (Looked at your profile) and my water is fine. I think it may have been something like a faulty heater as already suggested because 2 hours is just way to sudden to be something like Ammonia or Nitrates. Have you added any medications or anything?

 

[Truck]

It isn't the water that has caused the deaths, firstly I'm in Derby and have had no problems, and if it was then the deaths would have been after a water change and not out of the blue. Which test kits are you using?

 

[riksworld]

Many thanks for the repsonses

Ive been using the Nutrafin test mini as a test kit and another one Tetra tec 6 in 1 as a back up, I got a positive reading for chlorine on this test

The heater seems fine, the temp is still steady, if it was the heater would it not goto 0 or jump through the roof?

Just got in from work, looks like theres a bloom in the tank, wounder if somthing has cause it to cycle, but then why didnt the test kit pick anything up as i usually check it

there not been anything added to the water since ive had it, apart from water treatment, could this have gone off maybe and the tap water wiped out the filter?

Most of the dead fish seem to be grouped together around the water outlet to the pump at the bottom of the tank, then I saw one yesterday have a small like fit then died, very odd

 

[drobbyb]

Just a long shot here, but is it possible that you may have had some chemicals on your hands? If your hands had a chemical on them when you maintained the tank, it could cause deaths within a few hours. Like I said though, it's a longshot.