Rate My Fish Tank

Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:09 pm GMT   Reply      

All my fiush keep seem to be dying the past week, just today 4 fish died, and 1 of them were brand new? I am really confused abouyt why this is happening? Now I have a theory but im not sure if im correct. I just a couple days ago emtied the whole fish tank and npt put any chemicals in. I think there might have been something in the water? Tell me any theories you have to wy this happening.

Sun Nov 11, 2007 2:56 pm GMT   Reply      

I think that you should use some aqua plus and then some PH up, because by takeing ALL the water out you are taking all the Ph out and put unchemicaled water. Just put some of that stuff in.

Wed Nov 14, 2007 8:13 am GMT   Reply      

mike the problem is that when you took all the water out of the tank you took all the natural bacteria/biological filtration out of the tank, and when you put the water back in the tank and didn't treat it for chlorine or chloralamines, which most of your tap water sources have in high quantities, which is very deadly to your fish, with out the natural biological filtration in the tank the levels of ph, nitrates, nitrites, are going to fluctuate while the bio filter gets set back up in the tank with time. there really isn't much you can do other than give the tank time and do not add tons of other chemicals.

hope this helps.
Brandon

Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:38 pm GMT   Reply      

I had the same problem a while back. Keep the chemical's to the minimum. The less the better. Completely cycle your tank. It may take more than 1 month. Do not add fish unless you expect some to die. Even though your levels may read perfect, your tank still has no good bacteria present and (even worse) if using tap-water your ammonia level will be sky-rocketed through the roof even if you have a zero chlorine reading.
I go to the local creek/river and bring empty Gallons. while I'm there I also pick up a few stones, rocks, peices of wood and top grass. The only thing fake in my tank's are the plant's and brown gravel for eas cleaning. Take a few minutes on the weekend and fill up a few empty gallons with natural river water, your fish will like it better and it's easy on their gills. Look for red-bleeding like gills(which is bad).

Fri Dec 14, 2007 6:54 pm GMT   Reply      

another option if you do not have a seperate hospital tank is to have a large bin in an out of way place I fill mine with water and change it once a week ( i do not have a nearby river for the fresh water unfortunately) and let it sit out for water changes. this seems to get rid of some of the chemicals and also provides me with an emergency tank for my fish if i need it.

Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:58 pm GMT   Reply      

you answered your own Q already basically
NEVER EVER EMPTY out a complete established tank, NEVER
Only do partial waterchanges of 25% weekly with a gravel siphon and replace with conditioned water
Your tank is going through another cycle, because you destroyed all the good bacteria which had established in your filter and gravel
For now, DON'T buy any new fish, let your tank finish cycling which can take anywhere from 6-8 weeks in total
Read through the following topic here, i kept track of my 55 gallon tank cycling
http://fishlesscycling.com/forum/index.php?topic=772.0



Hope this helps
eve