Hi guys. I have a 90g Tall bow-front tropical community tank moderately planted. I change 40 - 50% of water every week, sometimes missing a week. I've been doing that for 35 years without issue. In the past 2 months I have had 3 times when several fish died immediately (like within 15 mins) of a water change. Not all fish. I have lost predominantly angels and clown loaches. The same happened today. I lost 7 grown up angels, 1 SAE and 1 clown loach. They looked like they were in some other liquid than water, frantically darting around, even trying to jump out and within 15 mins, they were dead. I have seen this kind of action only once in my lifetime early days when I forgot to put water conditioner and added tap water directly. This time not only have I not forgotten the conditioner, I have put slightly above the dosage. I use JBL water conditioner. Previously I used locally made conditioner that I have been using for year. I changed recently after the previous series of death.
I strongly suspect something wrong with my tap water. The water was not cloudy but was full of tiny air bubbles. I took a sample (see picture) and the bottle is also filled with bubbles clinging to the walls, same as my tank. I want to have the water tested. But my question is what should I test for? Surely Nitrate cannot cause that kind of reaction so fast. I am drinking the same water too so I really want to know what is causing it. Water here has traditionally been of excellent quality but there has been several flash floods this year and things may have gone wrong. So what tests should I do? Also, my brother has a chlorine tester for his swimming pool. Is that accurate enough for aquarium purposes, if I want to know the level of chlorine in the tap water?
I strongly suspect something wrong with my tap water. The water was not cloudy but was full of tiny air bubbles. I took a sample (see picture) and the bottle is also filled with bubbles clinging to the walls, same as my tank. I want to have the water tested. But my question is what should I test for? Surely Nitrate cannot cause that kind of reaction so fast. I am drinking the same water too so I really want to know what is causing it. Water here has traditionally been of excellent quality but there has been several flash floods this year and things may have gone wrong. So what tests should I do? Also, my brother has a chlorine tester for his swimming pool. Is that accurate enough for aquarium purposes, if I want to know the level of chlorine in the tap water?
