Traci-- Did I miss something in these posts? You said you had between 20 and 30 ppm of nitrate? There is certainly nothing in that to cause fish death. I've also never heard of Amquel causing nitrate to go down. You may indeed have caused a mini cycle but I myself wouldn't have expected the deaths to have been only one of the kinds of fish you added. That sounds suspiciously to me like there was a problem associated with them *before* you got them. I think I'd wait a couple of weeks to let the tank settle back down before completing your stocking. (let the bacteria bed catch back up). I change about 20% or so a week in a water change by the way. It's best not to let water changes go too long and then try to play *catchup* by doing large changes because the clean water you are adding is going to be quite different from the dirty water in the tank.
high nitrates, dead tetras?? (longish)
- Thread starter Traci
- Start date
But, what about that bucket?
I think that question about the bucket is an important one. A bucket used in water changes must be a "dedicated" bucket, never used for anything else. i won't take much soap to kill fish.
I think that question about the bucket is an important one. A bucket used in water changes must be a "dedicated" bucket, never used for anything else. i won't take much soap to kill fish.
The bucket isn't used for anything else, and has been used before to change the water.
It was actually Amquel PLUS, which does say that it will bring down nitrItes, nitrAtes, and ammonia levels on top of what Amquel does.
At this point I suppose there's little hope in determining what went wrong exactly. The initial water change was minimal (less that 3 gallons from a 20 gallon tank) and after the large water change following Amquel plus treatment (about 50% of the volume) no fish died.
At this point I am going to try and make the tank as "healthy" as I can by itself and the guys living in it, before I try to bring in plants and other tetras. So....
Here's a general plan, garnered from everyone's very welcome input. Please let me know if it seems okay.
1) clean the tank every Friday, replacing about 5 or 6 gallons through gravel vacuuming and siphoning
2) treat the water to be replaced with Amquel plus and stress coat for the fishies
3) test daily and log the results - consult either this forum or the aquarium store guy for what is "normal"
4) see if the aquarium store will take back the gourami and the spotted raphael (the gourami is a bit frantic and getting kind of big, the raphael is completely inactive and I *think* way too fat to be particularly healthy) If not, keep them.
5) when testing seems to indicate a healthy level all the way around, add some appropriate plants
6) test after that until the levels all settle again
7) and fiinally, add some more fish!
So, please let me know where I have erred in my game plan, and how you would modify. Also, any idea how many weeks my overall process should take?
Every bit of advice helps!!
Thanks.
It was actually Amquel PLUS, which does say that it will bring down nitrItes, nitrAtes, and ammonia levels on top of what Amquel does.
At this point I suppose there's little hope in determining what went wrong exactly. The initial water change was minimal (less that 3 gallons from a 20 gallon tank) and after the large water change following Amquel plus treatment (about 50% of the volume) no fish died.
At this point I am going to try and make the tank as "healthy" as I can by itself and the guys living in it, before I try to bring in plants and other tetras. So....
Here's a general plan, garnered from everyone's very welcome input. Please let me know if it seems okay.
1) clean the tank every Friday, replacing about 5 or 6 gallons through gravel vacuuming and siphoning
2) treat the water to be replaced with Amquel plus and stress coat for the fishies
3) test daily and log the results - consult either this forum or the aquarium store guy for what is "normal"
4) see if the aquarium store will take back the gourami and the spotted raphael (the gourami is a bit frantic and getting kind of big, the raphael is completely inactive and I *think* way too fat to be particularly healthy) If not, keep them.
5) when testing seems to indicate a healthy level all the way around, add some appropriate plants
6) test after that until the levels all settle again
7) and fiinally, add some more fish!
So, please let me know where I have erred in my game plan, and how you would modify. Also, any idea how many weeks my overall process should take?
Every bit of advice helps!!
Thanks.
Okay, just used my handy dandy new test strips, which showed...
ph = 6.4
kh = 20
gh = 300
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 200
ammonia = .50
all ppm
the test i used yesterday for the nitrates was one i borrowed from my dad, and used drops and solutions and all that jazz, so I don't know if I did that wrong while testing, if the nitrates were lower yesterday and the Amquel + dropped them for a short period of time, or what occurred there.
ph = 6.4
kh = 20
gh = 300
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 200
ammonia = .50
all ppm
the test i used yesterday for the nitrates was one i borrowed from my dad, and used drops and solutions and all that jazz, so I don't know if I did that wrong while testing, if the nitrates were lower yesterday and the Amquel + dropped them for a short period of time, or what occurred there.
I know this is your office tank so I don't know how much time you can spend on it but you need to use water changes to lower the nitrates. If it were my tank, I'd do 20% daily until it got lower than 40ppm. Doing huge ones with the fish in the tank already might really shock them. The tank had evidently been neglected for some time to build up to that high a level. You found ammonia also which tends to indicate you did start at least a mini cycle when you added so much new stock all at once.
Alright, you stated that the pH of your tank water is 6.4 I don't know what the tap water in your area is but mine is about 8. You also said one day you did a 50% water change. Well, that's enough to kill fish. I have never done more than 20% water change at a time- even when I had an ammonia spike. A daily water change of 15-20% is a good idea, add the amquel first before adding and wait a minute- this does actually help. But please do check the pH of your tap water to see if that is the culprit. Also, I recommend you leave the tank be and not add any more fish for at least two weeks to see how everything is. Than I would add one or two fish and see if they do alright, if they don't then you know your water is not ready yet to support new fish. No sense in making daily trips to petsmart with dead fish in bags. Also, do not ever trust the PetSmart staff!! They are what killed my first four fish.. stupid woman was like, "Ah, the pH is... uh... normal? you know? like water...??" 
grrr I wanted to throw the dead fish at her but that's probably assault... mehp. Good luck to you!
grrr I wanted to throw the dead fish at her but that's probably assault... mehp. Good luck to you!Yas--- I do 50% water changes on my planted tanks *every* week and I don't have fish deaths due to it. 
A 50% water change is fine as long as the water in the tank and the water you are adding are similar. The problem Traci faces is that her tap water won't be like her tank water at all if she has 200 ppm nitrate.
A 50% water change is fine as long as the water in the tank and the water you are adding are similar. The problem Traci faces is that her tap water won't be like her tank water at all if she has 200 ppm nitrate.
All my fish survived the 50% water change. It was the first 20% water change AFTER introducing the 8 tetras that killed off the 4 Lemon tetras.
So, todays readings, drumroll please...
pH still at 6.4
kh at 0
gh at 300
nitrItes at 0
nitrAtes at 160
ammonia at .25
Thanks again! I'll keep everyone posted on how it progresses
So, todays readings, drumroll please...
pH still at 6.4
kh at 0
gh at 300
nitrItes at 0
nitrAtes at 160
ammonia at .25
Thanks again! I'll keep everyone posted on how it progresses
Success!
With everyone's help, extensive daily water changes, and contant monitoring of the set-up, the office tank is doing dandy.
I am fairly sure it is an Eclipse 18" high. Happily swimming away are:
the original Gold Gourami
the original CAE (which I have to say is getting a little aggressive!)
the original spotted Raphael - although we rarely see his face
the 4 serpae tetras, all lovely and flaring their fins
AND
3 cute head and tail light tetras that flit around the tank
2 gorgeous whiteskirt tetras (would have gotten at least 2 more, but the LFS only had two)
They make the tank much more active and fun!
My levels are good now, got the nitrates down, and learned so much that I started a new tank at home!!
Thanks everyone (especially Oriongirl)
With everyone's help, extensive daily water changes, and contant monitoring of the set-up, the office tank is doing dandy.
I am fairly sure it is an Eclipse 18" high. Happily swimming away are:
the original Gold Gourami
the original CAE (which I have to say is getting a little aggressive!)
the original spotted Raphael - although we rarely see his face
the 4 serpae tetras, all lovely and flaring their fins
AND
3 cute head and tail light tetras that flit around the tank
2 gorgeous whiteskirt tetras (would have gotten at least 2 more, but the LFS only had two)
They make the tank much more active and fun!
My levels are good now, got the nitrates down, and learned so much that I started a new tank at home!!
Thanks everyone (especially Oriongirl)
