Cleaning question??

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
E

ericgreg

Feeder Fish
Apr 4, 2012
1
0
0
south carolina
Unfortunately, I had a very bad ending to a water change today. I removed some equipment, and cleaned them thoroughly (using water and brush only). Then I did a major water change. I have a 75-gallon tank with a 25-gallon sump. I probably changed out 50 gallons. When I filled the tank back up, I lost four of my africans. As I was filling the tank back up, I conditioned the water.

WHat did I do wrong, and what in the future, if I want to do another major change like this, what do I do different?
 
Did you clean all your filters at the same time? You might have killed most of your bacteria off.

Sent from my LGL45C using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
Yea, bacteria kill-off wouldn't result in the loss of fish immediately. There would of needed to be enough time for the ammonia to build back up. So really depends on time after water change the fish died, it if was a couple days later then yea it's probably safe to say you had a ammonia spike, if it was immediate you probably need to look at any kind of chemicals or what-not that could have contaminated the water going back in.
 
Bacteria kill off isnt going to kill fish, eventually with ammonia building up it can over time, u won't have the bb that converts ammonia to nitrites and nitrites to nitrates, that won't instantly kill ur fish, it will simply cycle ur tank again and the ammonia takes time to build up but even then u can do wc to keep the levels down.

Since it happened whilst refilling it was probably temp shock or u over dosed the water dechlor and it killed them. The simple absence of bacteria will not kill a fish that fast or even close......

Also since it sounds like u don't change ur water very often ph shock could happen.


Go S. Vettel #1 rb8
 
He says "as I filled the tank back up I lost the fish"

Too much dechlor, u only need a capful at the amount of water u changed, or temp was way off and it didn't buffer.


Fish live in uncycled tanks no prob unless ammonia levels are way to high


Go S. Vettel #1 rb8
 
I agree with F1Vet and stempy. Cleaning the equipment probably had nothing to do with the die-off if the fish died while you were refilling the tank. For the lack of bacteria to kill the fish (too clean) would take days or more.

You said you cleaned the equip, and then did a water change. Is it possible the tank was down long enough for lack of aeration to be a problem? Also, have there been any water or sewer line breaks in you area? Is it possible that your cleaning brush was contaminated by mistake/significant other?

If no chance of any of the above, it would probably be water temp as the problem. What water conditioner are you using? I know Prime is supposed to be 1 capful per 50 gallons. I use about 50% more than that on our crap water where I live, and I have read some posts on here where guy said he did over double the dose by adding conditioner before, during, and after filling. I think you'd have to use quite a bit for the conditioner to be at fault.

How do you fill your tank? If by hose there is always the possibility that bacteria/other bad things can grow in the hose over time, especially if you only use the hose for that one purpose once a week instead of giving it regular flushings.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom