nitrite spike

i found something out... even though I did disturb the gravel, I did move the tank recently and did a full cleaning and it has always been fully planted. The plants probably [not definitely] use up much of the junk in the gravel. However, I did use some Seachem excel and I think I may have overdosed. Judging by a thread in a Cichlid forum, excel is toxic to fish and I probably killed them that way.

who knows what really happened but I know i'm going to be a heck of a lot more careful in my cleaning and put as little stuff in the tank as possible.
 
I'm going to favor the H2S theory but who knows for sure. What we do know is that the hydrogen sulfide is very toxic to fish and even to people for that matter. There are always anaerobic bacteria present in small numbers in anything sahort of a totally sterile aquarium. Of course totally sterile means no plants or fish which most of us would not find very appealing. If you keep it so that water moves freely through all of your gravel or sand, the population will be small enough not to cause problems because the aerobic bacteria will outcompete them for nutrients. Allowing an organics build up in the gravel can block the water flow through an area by the soft deposits filling the gaps between grains of gravel or sand. Deep frequent gravel vacuuming will keep the build up from happening and while the material is trapped in the gravel vacuum, it won't contaminate the water with any hydrogen sulfide that is present. Once released from the deposits, the H2S will quickly evaporate off the water surface so it is still safe to use the water to rinse out filter media, etc.
 
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