New tank and major loss of fish.

[Metalhead88]

I was starting to think the same as Byron. A little bit of windex or other cleaning supplies can really do some damage.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

 

[ctmcquoid2016]

Before we begin:
All water parameters are within a good range. We’ve been testing the water daily, and the temp is 75-78.

Ok! So we have two 20gallons and with our recent decision to move, we decided to consolidate to a 40. We set up the 40, treated the water, put the filter in, let it cycle... all was well. Then, we did a water change and added one tank of fish... over night we lost all 6 of our glass catfish. We assumed that with how sensitive they are, it was stress. Huge bummer but safe to assume stress.
Now we are losing our long finned tetras.. one by one. We have a bristlenose Pleco and a rope fish. Along with nerites, one apple snail and Assassin snails.

again. The water is great! So any thoughts? I’m thinking a bacterial issue. Which means a water change is happening again today..

However. We have another tank to add! I believe my husband may have added some gravel from that tank, the other one. (he had good intentions..) but I think that’s what caused the issues.

how can we avoid losing any other fish!!?? They are going into quarantine this week, and then will be added.

Update.
We did unfortunately lose every fish except the rope fish. HOWEVER. We figured out what it was. For some reason or another... it was a massive ammonia spike. Even though the test was showing 0.. it’s hard to read 100% accurately when it’s the liquid/api with the colors. When I saw it, the color was as close to the 0 as possible.. so my guess is it was probably a 1 or a little less. That being said. With our ph at 7.6, and our temp at around 72... that means our unionized ammonia, ppm.. was way too high for the fish. Finally learned that term from some research. Using the calculation they taught, it makes sense. If anyone is interested the video is from Prime Time Aquatics. Video below. Super informative, at least for us. It explains why the fish, plants, & snails died.
We have done multiple water changes, and worked hard to help get this managed. We are getting our ph level down a bit and hoping that will help. Our rope fish is still alive.. But stressed. Thankfully I think she will be alright.
Thanks for all the input on this. Fingers crossed it doesn’t happen again. Not sure why it happened in the first place as the filter wasn’t deep cleaned, it was simply transferred. I think maybe with the increase in tank size and ratio of new water to old, coupled with the hard water we live with... it was a recipe for disaster. Next time, we know what to prepare for.

 

[ctmcquoid2016]

If you brought over the old filter and kept media alive by not rinsing it with tap water or allowing the media to dry out, the tank should not have needed to cycle. As long as there was an ammonia source, the tank would stay cycled.

This is also considering that the filter was powerful enough to handle the tank it was on.

I can say with confidence that when there is massive fish loss at the same time, ammonia is the culprit. There's always exceptions of course.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

I posted the update to my original post. It absolutely was an ammonia spike. Not sure how or why... but it was. Either way... the tank is managed now and getting better every day. Unfortunately we lost all the fish, except the rope fish, but she’ll be alright. What a crazy and horrible way to learn more about this part of fish keeping! I thought we had done everything as correctly as we had researched and planned. Lesson learned.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

I'm still confused how you knew it was an ammonia spike when your ammonia readings continued to read zero. Even 1.0 ppm is not much of an ammonia spike. I have two tanks with ammonium levels between 4.0 and 8.0 if I didn't add prime every 48 hours they would convert back to ammonia and my tank would die. Problem is there is NO ammonia in my tank but the test kits still measure ammonium as ammonia so I still see readings of 4.0 to 8.0 daily - drives me nuts. The bacteria are failing to convert ammonium to NItrites and until they do I'll see these abnormally high values and have to treat with Prime every 48 hours. Did you add prime or any other conditioner that converts ammonia to harmless ammonium?

 

[Essjay]

At the quoted pH and temperature (7.6 and 72) a total ammonia reading of 1.0 is not enough to kill fish. The ammonia component of that 1 ppm is just 0.018 ppm and anything under 0.02 can be tolerated by fish.

However, if the total ammonia reading was higher than this at some point when you didn't test, it could have harmed the fish.

 

[Metalhead88]

Maybe it's just me and the types of fish I keep but if I see anything other than a zero on ammonia reading, I'd expect fish loss. Luckily, that has not happened.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

 

[Essjay]

Fish can tolerate an ammonia level of 0.02 for several days without harm, though not for much longer than that. At the temperature and pH of the tank in question, this amount of ammonia is part of a total ammonia reading very slightly above 1.0. The reported maximum ammonia reading is

my guess is it was probably a 1 or a little less

so this should not have harmed the fish as long as it was only a few days.

But if the ammonia reading was higher than this, and not noticed, it could have harmed the fish.



However, if I had a reading other than zero I would do a water change to keep the fish safe.

 

[Metalhead88]

Fish can tolerate an ammonia level of 0.02 for several days without harm, though not for much longer than that. At the temperature and pH of the tank in question, this amount of ammonia is part of a total ammonia reading very slightly above 1.0. The reported maximum ammonia reading is

so this should not have harmed the fish as long as it was only a few days.

But if the ammonia reading was higher than this, and not noticed, it could have harmed the fish.



However, if I had a reading other than zero I would do a water change to keep the fish safe.

Ah, yes that makes more sense. With the tank in question I'm assuming that it was over a period of time.

I don't think that this was an ammonia spike, more or less a tank that isn't fully established since it is still new.