4 dead

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RDFISHGUY

RDFISHGUY

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MFK Member
Nov 24, 2006
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Red Deer, AB.
Fri evening I did a 50% water change and moved some rockwork around in my 230 gal. SAt at around 10 am I netted my fusco as he was dominating the tank. I took him to the LFS. Noticed my livingstoni was breathing a bit heavy but thought it was due to chasing the fusco around and ignored it. Came home at noon and he was still breathing heavy. No other fish seemed to be affected so I thought he'd come around. Big mistake! Came home at 5pm and found livingstoni , polystigma , otterpoint and lemon jake dead on the bottom and all other fish gasping for air. Nitrites:eek:! Several small water changes later all seems to be well again but if you notice something a little off ... investigate immediately. Don't let this happen to you. The likely cause- stirred up an ammonia pocket when changing rockwork-that coupled with the 50% water change (water contains chloramine) added ammonia which was neutralized by water conditioners but not removed by filtration. Lead to nitrite spike/ mini cycle. Makes me wonder how this happens with 2 FX5's on the tank. I changed out 95% of the water in my 50G (had to move it) and never had a problem. Same water conditioner and same tap water. But that tank is filtered by 2 AC 70's. I also did 50% on my 125 same day and cleaned out 1 of the 3 AC110's. No problems with these tanks. Not the first time I've had problems in the 230 either. A few months ago I had a similar problem but reacted immediately and never lost a fish. Why all of these problems with the 230G? Only difference is the type of filter. If this happens again I will get rid of the FX5's unless someone can shed some light on this situation.
 
I bet your FX5's saved you from the ammonia spike. Don't blame a product when the bacteria colonies arn't ready for a barage of nitrites.
 
You can't have a nitrite spike without an ammonia spike. The water treatment turned the ammonia into a non-toxic form but the filter still has to remove it . The by-product of this is nitrite. Nitrites are then broken down and turned into nitrates. The ammonia would not register on a test kit because it has , for a lack of a better term, been neutralized. The filter still has to deal with ammonia from fish waste,ammonia from water change ,plus any that may have been stirred up from the substrate. The ammonia has to be there before nitrite can even exist. I believe the problem is that there was too much ammonia, too fast. From now on I will not stir the substrate and do large water changes. I believe whatever got stirred up in the substrate , when coupled with a 50% water change was a jolt to the system but I did the same thing to 2 other tanks with AC filters with totally different results. The only difference being that the substrate never got stirred up as much. These are facts. In the past 2 yrs I've only had problems with one tank-my 230 gal with FX5's. All the other tanaks are on the same schedule so why don't they have the same problems? After talking to a friend of mine I may have some better insight. He pointed out that no other filter on the market has a flowrate as high as an FX5. Therefore the water flowing through it doesn't come into contact with the bacteria long enough to remove the contaminants when a there is an upset to the system. One other thing I have done is to partially close the returns on the FX5 and lower the water level to maintain surface agitation. I don't think this is a long term solution as the noise will drive me nuts. I keep trying these new-fangled filters but I think the FX5 is going to go the way of the diatom filter and the penguin filter and the whisper filter and the XP3 filter--- for sale! Unless someone can tell me how to make them as efficient as an AC filter.
 
When i clean my sand and do a water change i shut off my filters and lightly distrurb the exposed sand (I admit i dont move rockpiles). I stir the sand up with the net . I figure i dont want stuff to form pockets of gas in the thicker areas of sand. I wonder if you have too thick of sand. I understand that mine is a bit thick, they say one to two inches of sand is plenty. I wonder if you kept the sand thickness to that level if it would prevent that from happening or if you stir it up like i do when doing the water changes.
 
Thank you for sharing with everyone.. very good advice but so sorry for your loss..
 
I did remove a 5 gallon pail full of sand so that might help.
 
Updates?
 
Things have gone from bad to worse. I have a dimidiochromis kiwinge that got some kind of ulcers on his sides so I removed him about a month ago and tried treating it with salt for a week /antibacterial meds/parasite clear, nothing seems to work and now other fish are showing early signs of this mystery disease so now I am treating the whole 230 gal tank with parasite clear(upped the dosage) and I've installed a uv sterilyzer to try and slow the spread of this flesh eating disease. I'd like to know if anyone has experienced this before or if they know how to treat it. I've seen a lot of different stuff over the last 17 years in the hobby but this is a new one. It starts out like a little lump then turns into a bite mark-only a few scales missing- no big deal then turns into this:
weirddisease034.jpg
 
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