Rebuilding After A Tradegy

[metalcherry]

This week i sadly lost all my fish
(3 plecos, 2 convics, 1 oscar and 1 black shark) to an ammonia poisoning which i was told was because the thermostat had broke down during the time we were asleep and they sadly died within a few hours

I have cleaned out my tank, threw away all the pebbles,cleaned the items and began a new thermostat to heat the water and began running the filter to try and clear some, i will be doing this quite a few times to help remove all the toxins from the water. i have been told to do this 3-4 times to try and clear as much as i can out the tank before i begin rebuilding it again with new pebbles, new media for the filter, etc etc and then slowly beginning to add fish.

is there any more advice anyone can give me if they have experienced this that can help save my new fish and help rebuild my new aquarium.

i renewed the water nearly every week (2 wks tops), fed the regularly, syphoned fortnightly and cleaned algie from the sides etc so its not like they were living in dirty conditions, they were looked after very well and lasted a couple of years but ive been so shakened from this experience that im very scared about it happening again, i stayed up watching them all morning until they all died because i felt so helpless that all i could do was be there for them in their final moments (god that makes me sound so sad) but i was absolutely heartbroken after this.

Fish are my love and i have never experienced anything like this before so of course its knocked me back a bit.

any advice would be very much appreciated

 

[idlefingers]

I'm confused.. You say a thermostat broke? So it was due to temperature? I don't think that would cause an ammonia spike. Was your filter cycled? If it was, ammonia would be broken down into nitrite, then into nitrate by the filter so the spike would've been smoothed out by the filter. It definitely doesn't require closing the tank down.

 

[GuppyDude]

By thermostat im assumeing you mean heater, correct me if im wrong.

Im unsure how your heater crapping out could raise the ammonia levels to the extent that it killed all of your fish in such a short ammount of time. I apologize if i dont completely understand the situation, my definition of thermostat and yours may be a bit differant. But in any case, it just doesnt make sense to me.

I wish you luck on starting anew.

 

[metalcherry]

i took a log of what happened over the two days to an aquarium shop

basically wednesday i cleaned the filter - i stagger clean this i replaced the carbon last week and this week i replaced the filter foam.

thursday 11pm fish were fine, no problems with eyes, no blood in fins etc - i check this every night just to make sure that everything is ok. the heater was working and the water was usual warm which is usually is.
3am (fiance woke up to hang up some washing he forgot to do) he saw that a pleco and my black shark had died (black shark had actually turned white), the oscar was curled up in an arch and the other 2 plecos were on their sides but still alive, the convics seemed unaffected. when i tested the water, it was ice cold.
5.30am oscar stopped making occasional movements and seems to have given up, big pleco frailing about the tank, little pleco is lying at the bottom like before but still alive, convics are still unaffected. but all fishes eyes were white, as if it was from the inside out.
7.30am oscar is dead in arch shape, both plecos on backs, convics unaffected (they later died that day)

i took this log to the fish specialist, told him of events, he thought that it was a filter problem because i had just replaced the filter pads but as soon as i told him that the heater had broken down that night and by 3 the water was ice cold he told me that this sounds like the problem and that it was an ammonia or nitrates poisoning.

i dont really know much about this sort of subject as its never affected any of my other fish in the past and the man has always been right on other problems i have experienced,

p.s. sorry i did mean heater, i keep calling it thermostat lol

 

[GuppyDude]

The filter might have been the problem. While temp can affect ammonia and nitrate, that affect is very minimal, not nearly enough to harm the fish like that. And im unsure how cold ice cold is, you'd probably have to live in an igloo before the water would be cold enough to kill the fish, esspecial plecos, the common species can withstand temp changes very well. I would point the finger at the filter perhaps. It's definately got to be somthing chemicle that did this to your fish, few other things would kill the fish that quickly.

 

[metalcherry]

i had an inklin that it could have been this since i had just replaced the foam the night before but they all seemed healthy

im re-doing my tank, cleared it out etc and replacing the media and foam in stages, but is it worth it, would it be safer replacing it with a new filter or would mines be able to be salvaged by replacing everything? its a fluval 204

 

[orange shark]

why did your fiance wake up at 3AM! to hang up some washing?

 

[metalcherry]

typical man! leaving everything till the last moment and just barely having it dry before he needs it lol

minds like goldfish!

 

[GuppyDude]

minds like goldfish!

Ouch..

I would just scrub everything down and begin from scratch, esspecially if your not positive on whats caused your fish to kill off like that. I dont think you'll need a new filter, but you should replace the cartridge that was in there to ensure that what ever it was it doesn't interfear with your new set-up. Again, good luck

 

[Fish2u]

"i replaced the filter foam" - I think this was your biggest mistake .... You should never replace foam without cycling ... nitrifying bacterias live here .... since it a new foam so your tank started cycling ... losing the heater is probably the secondary cause ...

 

[ArauraDiscus]

typical man! leaving everything till the last moment and just barely having it dry before he needs it lol

minds like goldfish!

Hey now, at least we don't find the need to complain about everything. We find ways to shut our mouths from time to time and take life as it comes.

And I'm tired of hearing females bash guys. Always calling us stupid or something. It's a proven fact that males tend to have more intelligence on avergae due to the parts of our brains that are developing udner the influence of testosterone rather than estrogen. I'm tired of females thinking it's cute or funny to call guys mindless all the time. I don't know where they get off thinking that.

 

[Yetti]

Another important factor might be the tank size, what was the volume?

 

[murphyk32]

WOW GUYS... i dont think whether or not its true,, that she posted this to find out what happened or to hear that she made a bad joke,, she wants advice on what she asked for, rebuilding. It still hasnt been givin.. abd few are trying. I would but i have no problem being honest, i dont have any advice because im a noob still, but when i first saw her post i didnt ramble on needlessly.. i just left. I only say somethig because i understand what its like to spend hours trying to get a proper answer to a simple question and get BS instead so common guys dont post if u dont have any positive advice or comments.

P.S.
Sorry to hear about the fish loss... R.I.P little fishies

 

[ArauraDiscus]

WOW GUYS... i dont think whether or not its true,, that she posted this to find out what happened or to hear that she made a bad joke,, she wants advice on what she asked for, rebuilding. It still hasnt been givin.. abd few are trying. I would but i have no problem being honest, i dont have any advice because im a noob still, but when i first saw her post i didnt ramble on needlessly.. i just left. I only say somethig because i understand what its like to spend hours trying to get a proper answer to a simple question and get BS instead so common guys dont post if u dont have any positive advice or comments.

P.S.
Sorry to hear about the fish loss... R.I.P little fishies

I'm i'm offended I tend to tell someone that. I'm not a fan of biting my tongue. And if you alienate and insult half of your possible fish experts, ie. all males in general by calling them stupid, with the mind of a goldfish, how can you expect to get an answer from someone you've just insulted? Seriously?

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

t's a proven fact that males tend to have more intelligence on avergae due to the parts of our brains that are developing udner the influence of testosterone rather than estrogen.

Since I majored in psychology in college I'd really love to see your source on that....

Sorry about your loss metalcherry... good luck cycling your tank again. There are some really helpful sticked threads on that posted around here.