cloudy water and fish dying, help!

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Mitchellgoosen

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 23, 2011
38
0
0
new york
First off I dont know if this is the right forum, but hope someone can help.

I have a 29 gallon thats moderatley planted. It has sand/gravel substrate and i run a aquaclear 50 on it.

A horriffic accident happened the other day in the tank. I had a pre filter on because i was adding some new substrate to the tank and had issues before with the filter sucking sand in as it gets mixed up when i add it. I took the prefilter off the intake tube and didnt notice that the attachment piece was still on and had to run to work. When i arrived home about a day and a half later, my 2 festivums had got stuck in the intake. So right away i did a water change and gave the tank a thourough cleaning.

Now since then(5 days ago) my tank has been very cloudy, had a slight foam building up in the corner and had a funk smell to it. Suspected ammonia and checked out some info online and that seemed to be the problem. Checked water paramaters and everything apperared fine. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and nitrates <10.

So i have done 3 50% water changes cleaned the bottom good and replaced the filter sponge. And its still cloudy and ive lost 2 rummynose and 2 corys since then. Also checked water paramaters again today and everything is perfect.

Can anyone have a idea to whats going on in my tank?
 
Also i should mention the tank was cycled and running for 5 months since being cycled. The corys are also very small, maybe a 1/2 inch as i purchased them as babys about a month ago.

Current stock left is: 3 platies, 2 corys, 2 rummynose, 1 keyhole and a 2 inch pleco.
 
Tank whatever fish left out and treat them in a separate tank/container. Do a full tank clean down new water, clean substrate, clean the filter thoroughly. also try adding some salt to the water just about a tablespoon or two.
 
Plus one to the above...I wouldnt add salt though unless you want to lose your plants.

It might just be the new substrate...did you wash it? What is it?
 
yes i washed it very well, it was a 5 pound pag of some type of caribsea small rock gravel. I also pretty much tore the tank down minus replacing all the water. Everything was removed and cleaned down. The filter was cleaned and replaced the sponge and took out the carbon filter and put in the ammonia one...Only thing i didnt touch was the last stage of filtration on the aquaclear that collects all the bacteria on it.
 
well i have still been doing daily water changes of about 15 percent and the tank still has a haze to it. It is less cloudy, but still there. Water paramaters appear to be fine. That foam still dissapated, but still a little bit in there. All fish seem to be doing well though so i guess il just let the tank work itself out.
 
I’m going to go out on a limb here, could you have added a live saltwater substrate to your freshwater tank? The smell is from dead organic matter i.e. tiny crustations and bacteria. The foam sounds like the protean foam build up you get in saltwater systems.

I would check the substrate to make sure it wasn't intended for saltwater use, if it was you should probibily replace it. Unfortunately after all you gone thru with the cleaning your tank will need to recycle, which it sounds like its doing. Keep up with the water changes and monitor the parameters, it will have to run its course. Check the bag the substrate came in if you still have it and see what you bought it’s easy to pick up the wrong stuff by mistake. GL, let us know what happens.
 
Test all of your levels, the two that make water cloudy are Ammonia and Nitrite which are both toxic to fish. If your levels are fine, then treat with aqua clear.
 
I bought 2 different kinds of estes sand...im almost positive that they both said safe for freshwater. I think im too paranoid to have missed that when i bought it ha. Dont have the bags anymore though as that was about 5 months ago. Next time im at the LFS il double check to make sure. Water looks a little better today and all the fish seem happy. Thanks for all the help guys.
 
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