Losing Fish

I lost some fish when I cleaned my tank yesterday. The water is all testing fine, 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrates, pH at Neutral. The tank was the same before the cleaning and after. I have had my tank since August and it cycled about 2 months ago. I did everything I was suppose to do. The water temp is at 78 degrees (no different there either). Do you have any idea what happened. The fish were fine until I cleaned the tank and then they got stressed. I took out 5 gal of the 20 gal tank. I clean the tank every two weeks. This is the first time this has happened. Thanks for the help

[MyraVan]

What exactly do you mean by "cleaning the tank"?

Cleaning the tank for me would consist of:
* getting algae off the glass with a magfloat
* doing water change with dechlorinated water
* gravel vaccuming
* rinsing out filter and pads in used tank water
and if I really felt ambitious
* rinsing off the bogwood to get some algae off it

Did you do something that wasn't in the list above? Did you clean anything with detergent? Did you omit the dechlorinator?

If you lost some of your barbs, then something's really wrong, as they are quite tough.

[Cichlid Man]

Put it this way. If the tank had no ammonia and nitrate dissolved in the water (which I doubt it), then it was pretty pointless doing a water change in the firstplace. The fish probably died due to stress from one of many reasons.

I did all the things listed in the "cleaning list" except wash off the decorations. It was 2 of my rosey barbs - yes. I usually do a water change every two weeks just to keep everything clean. Should I do my water changes less than that? I did NOT use detergent!

[Damon]

Your tank had 0 ammonia (NH4), 0 NitrAtes (No3) but what about nitrItes (No2)? If you meant 0 nitrItes and you have 0 nitrAtes something is wrong. Is the tank planted? That would be the only reason a cycled tank has 0 nitrAtes.

The tank had 0 Nitrates and Nitrites. I do have one plant in the tank.

[ron v]

Sounds like you may need a new test kit. You can't have had a tank set up for several months and have "0" everything. If the tank is cycled, you may have 0 ammonia and nitrite, but you will have some nitrate. If the tank is not cycled, or has lost bacteria and is going through a new cycle, you will have ammonia and/ or nitrite.

I have two test kits and they both tell me the same thing. I only have one test kit for the NitrAtes and the test tube comes up Yellow when I put the chemicals in. Not sure why it's so low, but it is.

[ron v]

If your tank is cycled, it MUST have nitrates. Unless the one plant you have is so big it fills the whole tank. Some water conditioners will mask tests for ammonia, but I don't think it will affect nitrate tests. ( someone check me on that, please ). The other possibility is that something has happened to your bacteria. In that case you would have ammonia/ nitrite. Some fish shops will test your water. Is this an option?

Both my test kits say 0 Ammonia and 0 NitrItes. pH Neutral. My fish were doing fine before I changed the water. I'm thinking they must have gotten stressed. As far as the NitrAtes go, I can go and have it tested, but I'm sure it will be low too. I tested before the water change and after, and the water tested exactly the same. I'll let you guys know what the lfs says. Thanks.

[Georgia Peach]

which test kit do you have?? Are you sure you are following the nitrtAte test correctly?? I have Aquarium Pharmeceuticals -Mine starts out as yellow and you have to shake it for 1 minute and wait 5 minuntes to get the proper results

Georgia Peach - I use Freshwater and Laborett Tetratest. Both tests read the same for Ammonia and NitrItes. The Laborett doesn't have a test kit for NitrAtes.

[Georgia Peach]

Originally Posted by nitamtn

Georgia Peach - I use Freshwater and Laborett Tetratest. Both tests read the same for Ammonia and NitrItes. The Laborett doesn't have a test kit for NitrAtes.

there could possibly be something wrong with them. there is just NO way that all three will test zero.

[garfieldnfish]

Where these the fish you cycled the tank with? Did you add all the fish at once or slowly one by one?
If you added all the fish at once then your tank was overloaded during the cycling phase possibly causing stress and long term effects on the fish used for cycling. That by itself would be a reason for you loosing some of them now.
If your tank is finished cycling which I would assume considering the time it has been up and running, your ammonia and nitrite should be 0, but you should have some nitrates.
For the stocking level of your 20 gal tank I would recommend you do a gravel vac and weekly water change of 25% but do not clean your filter or pad every time. That is were the majority of the biobugs live that keep your tank healthy. By cleaning the filter and pad you destroyed them and their home and that may well have caused a problem for your tank. I never clean the filter housing and piping at the same time I change the pad and I only do that every 6 months or so, when the pad falls apart.

[garfieldnfish]

Forgot, sry, add more plants, lol. One is not enough. If you do not want to learn to be an underwater gardener and do not want to invest in CO2 injection and high power lighting, get the following, they worked great for me and I do not have a green tumb:
anubias (nana is great), java moss (five inches from the light source), lucky bamboo (straight not curled, Lowes sells 25-30 plants in a little planter for $9 bucks, same as I used for 1 1/2 years and the plants hardly changed in appearance, they do not use up a lot of nutrients, so they are just for looks really) valisnaria, Walmart bulbs, lilies and aponts (those need to be replaced about every 5 months but at the price they cost it's worth it and they look good.

[MyraVan]

Originally Posted by garfieldnfish

For the stocking level of your 20 gal tank I would recommend you do a gravel vac and weekly water change of 25% but do not clean your filter or pad every time. That is were the majority of the biobugs live that keep your tank healthy. By cleaning the filter and pad you destroyed them

I though that if you simply rinsed the filter pads in used tank water to get the junk out you didn't lose much of your bacteria. Now if you rinsed them out in tap water that would probably kill them!

I agree than in a tank with only one plant, you're not going to see ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate all 0. This doesn't make sense.

[ron v]

OK, so we all agree that the tests are wrong for some reason and if we had accurate test we might discover the prolem. Since we don't, let's go to plan "B". Nitamtn, you have done this water change/ clean several times in the past successfully. You sound like you know what you're doing. Was "ANYTHING" different this time? It may have not been your fault. It may be as simple as your local water company putting some sort of additive in the water supply. How are your remaining fish doing now? Maybe check with your water Co. If that's what happened and the water is OK now, do another water change. Maybe everything will be OK then.

[TheOldSalt]

*whew!*

I've been reading this thread all the way down, wondering when someone would finally figure out the obvious. Way to go, Ron v.

Think about it folks. This tank gets a 1/4 water change every two weeks.

Water changes can of course cause major disruption to the nitrification/denitrification system, but to kill the fish in one day as a result, especially tough ones like Rosy barbs?
Nope, I don't think so.
It's a possibility, of course, especially if the zero nitrate reading was actually accurate, but what are the odds?

There is something wonky with the new water.
My personal guess is that the city megadosed it with something in preparation of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, knowing that a bunch of water workers would be off duty for a few extra days.

Another possibility is that nitamtn has the flu, which then infected the fish, or that some of the tank cleaning equipment got contaminated with something while it was sitting around in it's storage area. Actually, that's a pretty likely possibility, come to think of it.

[ron v]

Salt, check the "disease" forum. someone else is having a similar problem!!!!

Sorry it's been awhile since I could get back online. I didn't rinse out the filter. I did pull out one fake plant and wash it off. The reason I only have one live plant is because a friend gave it to me when I was cycling to speed things up. On Monday, I did a gravel vacume, cleaned the fake plant, changed 25% of water with the added chemicals for the new water. Nothing really else. Lost 2 Rosy Barbs and can't find one of the Cherry Barbs. I looked last night. It may have jumped out when my daughter retrieved the Rosey's. They were all sure jumping on Monday night. When I got home last night, the tank was cloudy and the NitrItes were up just a tad. The NitrAtes were up just a tad too. The NitrAtes are at a safe level. So...maybe it was the water company. I have not had any problems changing the water and cleaning the tank in the past. The other fish seem just fine except my cherry barbs look lost without their partner