How Do I Cure My Tank? (Fish Dying Every Day, Need Help Asap)

[NorthEastFisherman]

Recently i added river sand and ive come to believe the sand caried some sort of disease into my tank. I washed the sand very very well so im puzzled why this happened. The fish that die have a vertical pale white scaleless area on their body, the rest of their body is fine. This disease has wiped out 5 galaxy rasboras, 3 neon tetras (one of the two remaining is sick), a bolivian ram, a julii corydoras, and possibly others in the near future. Im currently treating Maracyn-Oxy with no filter cartridge in. The final neon that isnt sick right now has some fungus looking white stuff growing on its head. Im not sure on what to do someone help.

 

[techen]

Okay, Let's not panic. The sand you added, It's made for fish tanks or was it recommended?
 
I kicked up sand in my tank which caused a huge ammonia spike, The time I found out and fixed it, The damage was done and the ammonia damage to there gills killed them.
 
Did you remove the fish while changing to sand, Waiting to it to settle etc as well after it?
 
Also the fungus your speaking about may be the cause and not the sand.

 

[NorthEastFisherman]

Okay, Let's not panic. The sand you added, It's made for fish tanks or was it recommended?
 
I kicked up sand in my tank which caused a huge ammonia spike, The time I found out and fixed it, The damage was done and the ammonia damage to there gills killed them.
 
Did you remove the fish while changing to sand, Waiting to it to settle etc as well after it?
 
Also the fungus your speaking about may be the cause and not the sand.

The sand was from a local river that i wanted to add because the first time i added sand from a lake all the fish did fine, it only brought the pH up .2 but we think the sand is silt that came from runoff from the roads. When i added the sand i put it in a big 5 gallon bucket and put a little hole in the top of a water bottle and cut off the end and added the sand and any big rocks or big clumps of sand were unable to go through. Then when i got a decent amount of sand i kept washing that sand until when i mixed the sand with my hand it wouldnt cloud the water. Then i added it into the tank by the same bottle but slowly poured it in and when the sand was added it didnt cloud the water that much, just a little discolorization but nothing thats bad. The fish were in the tank the whole time and i did a water change before and after adding the sand (a day before and a day after). The fungus kinda looks like when you have dead skin it turns white, its like that but very tiny probably the size of a grain of sand. The man at my lfs said the sand probably carried in some disease or infection that my fish arent used to since they are tank bred and not wild. He said the best thing to do was add the stuff he suggested. Today is the third day of treatment and ive only seen improvement in one of my cories who hid alot but the neons are still looking like theyre getting sick.

He also said its not parasitic and he said that the bacteria or whatever goes under the scales and pops them out and then it gets infected and the fish have no protection because they have no scales and no slimecoat in that area so they are in critical condition.

 

[NorthEastFisherman]

Okay, Let's not panic. The sand you added, It's made for fish tanks or was it recommended?
 
I kicked up sand in my tank which caused a huge ammonia spike, The time I found out and fixed it, The damage was done and the ammonia damage to there gills killed them.
 
Did you remove the fish while changing to sand, Waiting to it to settle etc as well after it?
 
Also the fungus your speaking about may be the cause and not the sand.

Techen, i just checked my water just to see if theres any change plus i was bored and i came out with something strange. My ph is the same at 7.4 but my ammonia is at .50ppm, when its usually .25ppm or below, my nitrite is .25-.50ppm its hard to tell but it looks closer to .50ppm, and my nitrate is 20-40ppm. Normally my nitrite is 0ppm and my nitrate is 20ppm or below. Im still going to treat for the bacteria but im going to do a 50% water change after dinner just to fix my water. This might be why my neons died but that doesnt explain the white vertical stripe on them everytime they die..?

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Techen, i just checked my water just to see if theres any change plus i was bored and i came out with something strange. My ph is the same at 7.4 but my ammonia is at .50ppm, when its usually .25ppm or below, my nitrite is .25-.50ppm its hard to tell but it looks closer to .50ppm, and my nitrate is 20-40ppm. Normally my nitrite is 0ppm and my nitrate is 20ppm or below. Im still going to treat for the bacteria but im going to do a 50% water change after dinner just to fix my water. This might be why my neons died but that doesnt explain the white vertical stripe on them everytime they die..?

As well as your Nitrite being 0 you really want your Ammonia to be 0 too, not .5 or .25ppm. It's very possible putting the sand straight in the tank may have caused the Ammonia and Nitrite spikes which could easily have weakened the fish, exposing them to risk of illness.

You want to carry out daily water changes until the levels of Ammonia and Nitrites are down to 0 and keep monitoring them.

 

[mark4785]

Fish illness and water quality issues are nearly always caused by disturbance of the substrate. You need to ensure that your ammonia and nitrite level is at 0ppm before treating the fish as you will not be able to tell whether it is your water quality or a pathogen causing the problems/deaths you have described.

 

[techen]

Pretty much sounds like what happen to my fish, Cause you did a substrate change with the fish in the tank you'll have exposed them to ammonia which would have killed them off.
 
Always change substrate with the fish out of the tank, Let it settle. Water change then add fish.

 

[NorthEastFisherman]

Pretty much sounds like what happen to my fish, Cause you did a substrate change with the fish in the tank you'll have exposed them to ammonia which would have killed them off.
 
Always change substrate with the fish out of the tank, Let it settle. Water change then add fish.

Alright ill definitaly keep that in mind, dont want the fish to suffer again. Anyone know why the pale stripes were present though?

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Alright ill definitaly keep that in mind, dont want the fish to suffer again. Anyone know why the pale stripes were present though?

Most probably because your fish were ill due to the water quality.