Uh Oh... Some fish died!

H

homerr

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Mar 29, 2004
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I think my tank finally started cycling. The water is crystal clear, the PH, ammonia and Nitrate levels are good.

My Beta died last night, and when I got home from work today, I had a small Tetra floating.

What did I do wrong?

My only guess is... The high ammonia levels I had a week or so ago must have had something to do with it?

The rest of the fish in the tank seem healty and happy.

I did quite a few water changes to get the ammonia down and added a bio filter last week when I noticed the high ammonia.
Did I act to late? Did I stress the fish?

I can't imagine it's the water quality now, as the readings are well within tolerances.

Thanks,

H.



:confused:
 
What do you mean your water is within tolerance? As far as I'm concerned, the tolerance range for ammonia and nitrite is zero. You didn't give us any numbers in terms of ammonia or nitrites.... however, if you do detect any, that means your tank hasn't finished cycling yet, and thats probably why your fish died.

If this is the case, do daily 40-50% water changes until both your ammonia and nitrite consistantly read zero over a few days.

Crystal clear water doesn't mean that the water is good to live in. I can dump half a bottle of ammonia into a fish tank, and the water will still be crystal clear... will the fish live? nope. In contrast, a tank can have green pea soup colored water, but if ammonia and nitrite levels are zero, then that water is definately better than water with detectable levels of ammonia and nitrites in it... and its far from being crystal clear.

HTH
-Richer
 
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Sorry for being unclear...

The readings are 0 or near zero.

The PH is 6.5 to 7.

EDIT:

I just checked the ammonia... It's zero.
The Nitrate is between zero and .5.


H.
 
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Huh, well, I'll be. If that's what it says it's for, those readings just look very low for nitrate in a cycled/established tank. Looks more along the lines of NO2, hence my guess. You need a NO2 test kit.

NO2 should be 0 as well, NO3 in a cycled tank is an indicator of oraganic waste, i.e. if it's getting above 10, you should be changing water. Of course, it all goes to pot in a planted tank...
 
The effects of ammonia or nitrite poisoning are not always seen right away. It can often takes weeks or months for the fish to succumb to them. This is very true of bettas (unfortuantly I speak through experience). So I don't doubt that high levels weeks ago lead to these fish' deaths. By keeping all your levels at zero from this point on (except nitrate) you will help the other fish to hopefully live a longer life.
 
I found a few more dead ones when I got home from work today... I don't know what is wrong. Good thing the fish were cheap starters!

I did a 50% water change. Hoepfully it will help until I cen get to the store and get a NO2 test kit.

I'm trying to back track what I did, and the only significant thing was to add a couple of wisteria plants. I don't believe they are toxic to fish... Or are they?

The ammonia level is absolutely zero. The NO3 was a little higher this evening (5.0), so I did the water change to be safe.

I have no idea what the NO2 level is.

H.
 
If you are in the second stage of cycling you most likely have high nitrites that are killing your fish. In a cycling tank, ammonia spikes are followed by nitrite spikes. The fact that your nitrates are now starting to come up is a good sign, but you'll probably have to do daily water changes for a while to keep the nitrites low enough. Anything about 0 can be dangerous, but you'll definetely want to keep them below 0.25-0.5ppm. The lower the better.
 
Ok, I picked up a nitrite test kit today.

As you expected, the nitrite is high, around 2 to 3.

The best I can do is the water changes I guess. I'll keep on top of a 25% to 50% daily changes.

I'm running a penguin 125 filter as well as 2 Penguin 660r power-heads in the reverse flow (RFUG) configuration.
I've never used the power-heads in reverse flow, and I thought I might give it a try. I don't think the reverse flow has anything to do with the nitrite problem.. or does it?

I think you're right... The ammonia is gone, and the nitrites are appearing, so maybe I'm on the right track.


Thanks,

H.
 
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