BIG Disaster

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DANthirty
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BIG Disaster

Post by DANthirty »

Hi everyone hope you are all well,

I had a bit off a disaster last night i woke to find a lot off my fish around 20 or so, and most off my shrimp were dead around 30 or so,in my 4 foot communitytank , i had done my regular water change off 25%every 1 or 2 weeks i had tested the water before the water change and everything was fine.
but when i did the change with my ro water i filled the tank up this time right to the top so it was touching my cover glass, as i only had a little bit more water left in the bottle i thought i would put it in,and just thought oh that will evaporate soon enough, but i think this might have been the problem am i right in thinking that there was no air in the tank for them to breath?? i use co2 for my plants but that was off in the night and it was at a safe level but when i woke the surving fish were gasping at the top so i ammideitly put 2 airstones in and done another 40%water change as the nitrite levels had gone up high dew to the dead fish i think. were did i go wrong..


I didnt test the ro water just added the right ammount off ro right to it, but the water had been standing in a water butt for around 4 or 5 days with no aeration just a heater , i wonder if this was the problem?

I was gutted this morning to think the fish and shrimp had died dew to my mistake, the shrimps had just had a load off babys aswell of which a few have survived luckily.
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Post by Des »

Hi DANthirty,
Sorry to hear of your disaster.
It is very likely due to not enough gas exchange on the waters surface, due to the water touching the cover glasses.(Imagine a fish in a plastic bag of water without any air in the bag, it wouldnt last very long.)
I too, run CO2 in my 40gal planted tank (without cover glasses) without a night shutoff valve and find a lot of fish at the surface in the morning .
Were your zebras in a seperate tank?.
Regards,
Des. :(
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Post by Barbie »

Plants are also uptaking oxygen after dark, so yes, overfilling the tank and reducing the surface exchange could have heavily stressed the tank. I'm sorry to hear about your loss :(

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Post by Adam »

Sorry to hear of your disaster Dan. :(

I am almost certain that it was caused by the lack of O2 brought about by the water level in your tank being too high ie touching the cover glass.
When I first started fishkeeping I made a similar mistake, I over filled my tank and covered the spray bar. The tank was heavily populated with fish and plants, the following morning I found all the fish gasping at the surface and 20+ cardinals had died.

If you have a heavily planted tank and CO2 is injected a low number of fish should be kept so as not to upset the balance.

Alternatively you can do what I did when I had a heavily planted tank that was CO2 injected. I would aerate the tank at night using an air pump, like Des I was also finding fish gasping at the surface in the morning. I found that providing aeration at night had no adverse effects on the plants. During the day the water surface should not be agitated as it will counter the effects of CO2 injection.

Remember plant photosynthesis requires sunlight and CO2 amongst other things, one of the by products of this is O2. However in the absence of sunlight plants can not photosynthesise and will utilise O2 instead. Plants are able to compete for the available O2 in the water far more efficiently than the fish which is why the delecate balance can be easily disturbed at night.

I achieved my best plant growth by observing the following: substrate heating element, light provided in the red and blue spectrum(Triton and blue acitinic), layer of laterite in the substrate, Flourite substrate, regular use of both liquid and tablet plant fertilisers, nitrate and phosphate removal media in canister filter, day time CO2 injection and regular water changes because plants need them too.

Just my thoughts and experiences on the subject.
Last edited by Adam on Wed Oct 27, 2004 1:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
DANthirty
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Post by DANthirty »

Thanks guys and girls for all your comments, i wont be making that costly mistake again, Adam thats not a bad idea about putting an airstone in over night i might try that,also as for set up i didnt hold back on money and bought all dennerle stuff I.E heating cable ,fertileser mix substrate ,dennerle co2 kit ,dennerle tubes and all the ferts cost an absolute bomb!!!!
and Des the zebbys are fine as they were in another tank thank god!!!!
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Post by Adam »

No problem Dan,

There's a hell of lot of experience to be had and shared on this forum. You can almost bet that someone has had the very same problem that you've had and can offer some advice. So let's all keep talking and sharing. :D

Dan if you do go for the air stone make sure it's off during the day as it will counter the effects of CO2 injection. I had my lights and air pump on seperate timer switches, lights on pump off. :D
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Post by Tristan »

I have done the same thing, sorry to hear about the losses. My tank has a 3 inch lip all the way round and i have to keep the water below this. If i dont, i will have the fish gasping at the surface within hours. Just goes to show how finely balanced the tanks are.
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urchysj

Water level

Post by urchysj »

I have high water level in my tanks and have not had any problem.
But excuse me for sounding like a dum dum, but I have no plants, bare bottom tanks, and use air stones and sponge filters. I assumed that I was bringing outside air into my tanks and did not have to be concerned about too high level? Am I right? My water only touches the glass only in spots it is bubbling up.
On a different note, I too had a major disaster last night. My fault (isn't it always our fault?) I put in a block of frozen food. I noticed the liquid was milky. I realize now I should have rinsed it. I put it in at 10pm and went to bed. My beau said he was sitting at the table at 1am and notice my plecos thumping on the glass. He doesn't know anything about fish so he did not wake me. They were dying at this point. (All within 3 hours!) In the morning, all my plecos (6 big L91 Three Beacons) were dead and most of my other community fish. (My cheap common pleco survived though) I did an emergency 80% water change. The survivors were gasping. I had to rush to work. When I came home, the survivors were frisking about like nothing happened...even displaying to each other. Anyway, I think fish people call this a WIPE OUT? Well, my first and hopefully my last. I had no Zebras in this tank luckily. So here we go with another recipe for disaster. I know it's a bit off topic from air exchange, but I want to let people know not to get complacent or play with fire. It will bite you in the ass some day. I swear to never over-feed and rinse all frozen food from now on. BTW, has anyone else done the same thing I did?
DANthirty
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Post by DANthirty »

What exactly killed the fish? was it over feeding ? or not thawed out food?
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Post by Rob »

Hi Dan

How are the rest of the fish doing now? Have the parameters settled down as yet?

Urchysj, what kind of frozen food id youput in the tank?


rob
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Post by Adam »

I would also like to know as I'm getting worried again, about 70% of my fishes diet is made up of various frozen foods. What was the frozen food you gave them?
DANthirty
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Post by DANthirty »

Hi Rob

Yes all the other fish are fine thankgod, i tested the water yesterday and today, and to my surprise everything was spot on nitrites 0 , nitrates 0 ph was 7.2 phosphate was 0, kh was 4 degrees i was surprised the nitrites was back down to 0 so quickly , i know i did the 40% water change straight away after the disaster but it was still reading some traces off nitrites then but the next day they was back down to 0 very surprising i was expecting to do another big water change yesterday but all seems well, i will still keep a close eye on it .
As for the cover glass i have done away with it for now as i only realy used it when i kept marine fish in the tank, am i right in thinking that without the cover glass the water will evaporate more quickly? not that this will cause too much trouble as i do regular water changes.


P.S Adam did you say that you stopped giving your zebs frozen bloodworm if so why was that , as i often feed mine around twice a week.
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Post by Adam »

Hi Dan,

Yes I've completely stopped feeding my zebras frozen blood worms. I'm probably being over protective again but I've heard of at least 3 people who have lost zebras to blood worms. I'm not sure if they were live or frozen, I just don't want to chance it as zebras are pricey and hard to come by these days.

Their frozen food diet now consists of Mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, cockle and occassionally black mosquito larvae. If anyone wants them I have 10 blister packs of blood worms lying around in my freezer.
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Post by Rob »

This worries me also, as i feed my zebras bloodw orm at least twice a week.!!!

Hmmm time for a new post I feel!!

rob
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Post by urchysj »

Hi. About that frozen food..
I had thawed it out. It was a couple of things that mounted to disaster. I put these beautiful pleco in this tank and I wanted to make sure they got a chance to eat. It was a community tank with lots of Rainbowfish. Rainbows are pigs. What was happening, was that if I put a normal amount of food in, they would eat it before it reached the bottom. I tried all kinds of sinking stuff...shrimp pellets, etc. The Rainbows always ate it all before it touched the gravel. (Only tank I have that has gravel in it) So that night I put in extra food. I used "Sally's" Freshwater Multi-pack. I think I used a shrimp dominant block. These Rainbows could easily eat a block themselves, so I put two in. I noticed that there was a brownish liquid emitting from the food when I put it in...just juice I think. I have 2 canister filters. Lots of current so I turned one canister off so the food would settle. Each canister is rated for 75 gal and I only have a 55 gal tank. So one canister was still running. And like I said, within hours...WIPE OUT! So I think it was;
1 Overfeeding to make sure my plecos got some. I think I'll stick to species-only tanks unless the fish can eat equally.
2 I didn't rinse the food.

Any other speculations? I had no problems until I fed them. Did the huge water change and disaster went away.
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