mystery chemistry - killing fish

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bwg

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Mar 8, 2003
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changed water on my 55gal tank yesterday when after a couple hours the water became very cloudy and fish began to cling to surface

i did another water change before bed but to no avail

by morning my j dempsey was dead and platys are barely hanging on

can't figure out what the mystery in the chemistry is and i don't think it's the tap because it had no effect on another tank
 
sorry for your loss. I had the same thing happen a couple weeks ago except no fish died. I went and got an under gravel filter and did a 50% water change and it helped alot. Also even though it doesn't effect one tank doesn't mean it wont effect the other. what kind of declor. are you using??????????? I use Pro Aquatics and it's works great for me..
 
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The same tapwater treated with Aquarium Pharmaceuticals' Ammo-Lock 2 in another aquarium at the same time had no effect? Okay, then the problem was a reaction in your first tank. I'd suspect that ionized ammonia, NH4, was converted to toxic ammonia NH3 when your tapwater (pH over 7.0?) restored the depleted carbonate buffer.

Had cleaning and maintenance and water changes slipped recently?

Could pH have dropped below, say, pH 6.5?

Does your tapwater have sa pH over 7.0?

What other "conditioners" and "buffers" and "water clearers" etc. have gone into the affected tank in the last month or so?
 
my PH is high (8-8.5) but never had a problem before, however i had used an anti-fungal treatment a week earlier which seemed fine and also had no problem with before
 
they worked out just fine for the couple years that i had them for they were all adults with know aggression and the platys spawned a number of times

besides JDs and platys come from the same basic region anyway
 
In hard water (you report a pH over 8.0, which is similar to the pH of seawater, or soda lakes like Tanganyika), phosphates from a pH buffer react with the calcium and magnesium ions to form a haze.

Could phosphate levels be high? There's no PO4 buffer being used, or you would have mentioned it.
 
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