Please help! What's wrong with my tank?

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ljes68

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Jul 9, 2005
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I have a 30 gallon long that has been set up for about 12 years. The last fish that I had in the tank died about a month ago (it was very old though), so I was getting ready to start slowly restocking it again with some new fish. I have had a Rena Filstar XP2 Canister filter on there for the last year, and before that I was using a Emperor 400. I've had problems with the Filstar not restarting after a power surge (which happens all the time around here). I got tired of constantly having to empty and reprime the cansiter, so I switched back to the Emperor 400 that I had in storage.

I got 2 fish and the lfs gave me some Malaysian Trumpet Snails. I was horrified when the 2 fish died within 24 hours. Then I started looking for the MTS and found them dead also. I thought that maybe my biological filter was not intact, since there hadn't been any fish in the tank for about a month, so I immediately checked the water, but the Ammonia and Nitrites both tested 0, just minites after I removed the dead fish.

Please help! What do I do now? Since the deaths were not caused by an ammonia spike, I'm concerned that there may be some other toxin that caused this. I'm afraid to put even one more fish because I don't want to cause any more deaths. What should I do to find out if there is something wrong with my tank. There are live plants in there too, so I don't want anything to hurt them either. Is there any way to find out what is wrong or fix this, other than completely breaking down the tank and starting over?
 

RTR

AC Members
Oct 5, 1998
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Braddock Heights, MD
At least check the nitrate, pH, and KH and compare those to tap water aged 24 hours in a bowl. You may have old tank syndrome: http://www.aquasource.org/CMS/modul...ons&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=7&page=1


Testing for minerals such as iron, phosphate, etc will not tell you much, I would not bother.

You are likely corect that you biofilters are dead, but two fish, unless large, in a 30 will not die quickly from ammonia toxicity.
 

ljes68

AC Members
Jul 9, 2005
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The PH is 7.2 and KH is 3 degrees. I cannot find my nitrate test kit - I know I had one, but it's not with the other test kits. The 2 fish were very small rainbows, and since there was 0 ammonia, I don't think the biofilter was the cause.

I was thinking about how I cleaned the Emperor 400 that had been in storage. I know better than to use any type of cleaners, I just used hot water to clean it. But I remember using an old toothbrush to clean those media containers because I couldn't reach the grooves with the filter brush. I must be out of my mind. I know better than that - what if something was on that toothbrush? I didn't think at the time, I just pulled it out of the drawer and went to scrubbing. There could have been some kind of cleaner residue left on there from something else that was cleaned with this brush. Now I think that this has to be the cause and it is totally my fault!!! I am so mad at myself for doing something so stupid!!! I feel so guilty about those 2 beautiful little fish and the poor little snails. :(

Is there any way to completely remove any residue that might be on the filter or have I completely trashed this filter along with my tank?
 

TKOS

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Feb 6, 2003
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tkos.unsta.com
I don't knwo what killed the fish but your biofilter is definatley dead. A month or even a few days without a food source is all that needs to happen to kill it off. So ammonia zero and nitrite zero would be likely as 2 small fish wouldn't have caused any change in such a short period of time.

How did you acclimate the new fish and snails? And is your water very different from the fish store water?

The fact that the snails died as well seems to say some sort of poison might be in the tank as snails are great at surviving most things except copper.
 

ljes68

AC Members
Jul 9, 2005
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I acclimated them by floating the bag unopened in the tank for 10 minutes, then opened the bag and added a cup of tank water to the bag and flotated it for another 15 minutes, and repeated that process twice before releasing them to my tank. I did test the ph of the lfs water before adding any of my tank water to the bag, and their water tested 7.4, whereas my tank water tested 7.2.

I am going to do a fishless cycle before adding any more fish, in case my biofilter is gone. I am really concerned that there may be some other toxin present though (possibly some kind of cleaner residue). I need to eliminate that possiblity before starting the fishless cycle.

How can I remove any toxic residue from the filter and the tank? Is it possible to remove something like this, without even knowing what it is that I'm trying to remove?
 
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