Hey gang - I have to post because I'm baffled and upset. Well, sort of. I know WHY this hapened but I took steps to fix it immediately.
So I woke up this morning and found my beautiful Threadfin Acara was dead, then I saw my Jurupari a few inches away also had passed, then my Firemouth in the back of the tank... all perished.
I immediately moved two of my other *important* fish into my 36 gallon as I had to run out the door for work and didn't have time to do a water change.
Anyhow, my tank is going through some sort of mini-cycle. Ammonia is at .25 and nitrites were off the charts, well above 1.0, so I know that water quality was the problem and caused this.
However, I've been doing daily 20-25% water changes, and last night I had done a 50% water change and I have been dosing the tank with Prime in the meantime to convert the Ammonia and Nitrite to non-toxic form while the water issues resolve themselves.
To this point, it had been ok. I'm not really entirely sure why the tank has a bacterial crash/recycle process occurring. I had added a few fish last week, and perhaps the bio-load was too much? I added about 6 or 7 Swordtails to provide live food (when they breed) for the Cichlids... there was a day that I lost power and my filter was off too, so perhaps I lost some bacteria there.
Anyhow, I'm upset because it wasn't negligence. I've been testing water everyday, and as soon as I saw the issue I responded immediately as best I could with frequent water changes, and Prime to condition the water. I don't understand why the fish died given the fact that I used Prime... I thought that was supposed to lock up Ammonia and Nitrite? I totally understand that Ammonia and Nitrite are deadly to the fish, so I understand that the presence of these in my tank are potentially fatal, I just don't understand... why my measures didn't save the fish. I did what I could as soon as I saw danger and I thought I had taken the correct course of action. I'm so bummed out right now.
Advice?
Also - Oddly... my Julii Cories and Ags Cories which were both wild caught, seemed completely fine. Not breathing heavily or anything. Perhaps this is because they can dive to the top and gulp air if necessary? They weren't doing this at all though. Additionally, temporarily, my 36 is now way overstocked while I resolve this issue. I'm afriad to put anything back in the other tank until it finishes cycling again.
So I woke up this morning and found my beautiful Threadfin Acara was dead, then I saw my Jurupari a few inches away also had passed, then my Firemouth in the back of the tank... all perished.
I immediately moved two of my other *important* fish into my 36 gallon as I had to run out the door for work and didn't have time to do a water change.
Anyhow, my tank is going through some sort of mini-cycle. Ammonia is at .25 and nitrites were off the charts, well above 1.0, so I know that water quality was the problem and caused this.
However, I've been doing daily 20-25% water changes, and last night I had done a 50% water change and I have been dosing the tank with Prime in the meantime to convert the Ammonia and Nitrite to non-toxic form while the water issues resolve themselves.
To this point, it had been ok. I'm not really entirely sure why the tank has a bacterial crash/recycle process occurring. I had added a few fish last week, and perhaps the bio-load was too much? I added about 6 or 7 Swordtails to provide live food (when they breed) for the Cichlids... there was a day that I lost power and my filter was off too, so perhaps I lost some bacteria there.
Anyhow, I'm upset because it wasn't negligence. I've been testing water everyday, and as soon as I saw the issue I responded immediately as best I could with frequent water changes, and Prime to condition the water. I don't understand why the fish died given the fact that I used Prime... I thought that was supposed to lock up Ammonia and Nitrite? I totally understand that Ammonia and Nitrite are deadly to the fish, so I understand that the presence of these in my tank are potentially fatal, I just don't understand... why my measures didn't save the fish. I did what I could as soon as I saw danger and I thought I had taken the correct course of action. I'm so bummed out right now.
Advice?
Also - Oddly... my Julii Cories and Ags Cories which were both wild caught, seemed completely fine. Not breathing heavily or anything. Perhaps this is because they can dive to the top and gulp air if necessary? They weren't doing this at all though. Additionally, temporarily, my 36 is now way overstocked while I resolve this issue. I'm afriad to put anything back in the other tank until it finishes cycling again.