Disaster HELP!!!

[Headrush]

OK I deserve the dumbass of the year award for this one. So...without abusing myself any further let me explain.

1. Monday night I added too much seachem c02 plant fertilizer to BOTH my 90 and 30 gallon tanks. I'm new to keeping plants to say the least. I read the directions a month ago and forgot the dosage and instead of reading them again I poured too much in (in a nut shell)

2. I lost 21 fish total: 14 in my 30 gallom Blue Ram tank. 6 Bosemani Rainbows, 3 rams, 2 yoyo loaches, clown pleco, bumble bee cat, and one other that hitch hiked in with the others from the store (totally wiped them out by yesterday afternoon). Lost 7 more in the 90, 5 cory cats, and 2 other small fish. My large cichlids are recovering tho. The 5-6" JD is doing ok, so's the 4" FM, but my 4 1/2" GT is really struggling. He (Reggie) has white film on his eye and is completely washed out including the black dot on his side.

He's my favorite fish and losing him and all the rest to my stupid mistake would really suck to say the least.

I took about 75 gallons out of the 90 and half out of the 30 (cause its empty now except for the plants). Cleaned all filter media too. They're not eating much which I kinda expected

So... yes its embarrasing and hard to explain to all of you but I hope others have made similar mistakes too. I added the start right/stress coat and chemical treatment during the water change last night. The JD and firemouth have cleared up the white slimy stuff that was hanging off their fins and look much better this morning. The GT was out of it tho. Kinda swinmming at an angle and VERY pale. He's usually a little slow to wake up but this morning was different. he's not acting right. I turned the lights off and will keep them off for a couple days until they start looking better and eating

Do you think he'll pull through? What else can I do to help them? add the general cure type medication? I hope I'm not labeled as a poor fish keeper, it was an honest mistake. Exeryone's help is welcome. Thanks

 

[ammerman19]

I'm assuming this is a liquid fert? If so do a lot of small water changes. You already shocked them once try not to do so again. Change like 10-15% every hour or so is what I would do.

 

[Scottfree]

This is good advice, keep doing small % water changes and hope they puul through. One thing you'll have to contend with is you;ve probably killed all your beneficial bacteria, so you'll be cycling again, so feed very sparingly.

 

[ammerman19]

This is good advice, keep doing small % water changes and hope they puul through. One thing you'll have to contend with is you;ve probably killed all your beneficial bacteria, so you'll be cycling again, so feed very sparingly.

good point about the BB. See if you can find somebody on here that can give you some established filter media or try your LFS.....good luck and don't get discouraged. You have learned a lot since I first saw you post on here and I'm sure you are a good fishkeeper. Everybody screws up sometimes

 

[windsurfer]

sorry for your problems.

I assume that you're talking about flourish excel?

I've never used it. I use real co2. seachems website says that it provides the plants a source of carbon, but it's not co2. You've got to be on the right track by doing the water change. But without knowing what is in excel, it's pretty hard to tell you what to do.

I would call seachem.

The GT swimming at an angle is a bad sign. ime, if any fish has that swimming at an angle problem, it's pretty much a down hill slide from there.

So a tough lesson to learn, but like a lot of fish keepers, I'm kind of an amatuer science geek - and you can treat this as a chance to learn something. I'm guessing seachem won't tell you what's in excel, but they may be able to give you advice about your current situation.

Also, if you could post here how much you dosed in each tank that would be good.

I know that flourish excel works, just because of people's testimonials. but the more that I keep fish, i find that i'm best off by adding as few things to the water as possible. i pretty much never use prime (i don't have chloramines) or stress coat or cycle/biospira ever. i use sodium thiosulfate for a dechlor, or for sensitive fish, I age water for 24hrs before adding it to the tank. I do dose nutrients in my planted tank. guess i'm just saying that sometimes, less is more.....

If you could call seachem, 888.732.0003 [tech support] and post back here what they say and how much you dosed, that would be good for everybody.

hth,
windsurfer

 

[KenyanSandBoa]

I'm assuming this is a liquid fert? If so do a lot of small water changes. You already shocked them once try not to do so again. Change like 10-15% every hour or so is what I would do.

Just make sure you keep treating with stress coat. Have you considered adding aquarium salt? Adding salt would replace any sodium and chloride ions that are essential to stressed fish. Any electrolytes that can be added would truly benefit the fish in their time of recovery.

 

[windsurfer]

I'm assuming this is a liquid fert? If so do a lot of small water changes. You already shocked them once try not to do so again. Change like 10-15% every hour or so is what I would do.

sheesh, in the time it took me to type my long-winded reply - like 10 other people replied.

ammerman19, assuming the new water has the same parameters as the old (except cleaner) why would a water change shock the fish? just curious, not trying to diss you.

windsurfer

 

[ammerman19]

well if his other fish are starting to get used to the water I would think there is a possibilty of this happening. I've kind of always assumed it is a two way street with this. If you have fish living in a tank where nitrates are at say 200 then you do a 80% water change and reduce the nitrates to 40 I would think that the fish would not enjoy such a drastic change. Obviously going from good to bad is not good lol. Just my theory, if I am incorrect please let me know why. IMO fish like stable conditions wether they be perfect or not so perfect, as long as they do not change rapidly.

 

[windsurfer]

well if his other fish are starting to get used to the water I would think there is a possibilty of this happening. I've kind of always assumed it is a two way street with this. If you have fish living in a tank where nitrates are at say 200 then you do a 80% water change and reduce the nitrates to 40 I would think that the fish would not enjoy such a drastic change. Obviously going from good to bad is not good lol. Just my theory, if I am incorrect please let me know why. IMO fish like stable conditions wether they be perfect or not so perfect, as long as they do not change rapidly.

yeah, not so sure about nitrates, I always thought less was always better, and I've never heard of stress from a change in nitrates. temp and pH are the two things that I would worry about most, and perhaps hardness? sometimes I think the most stress from a water change comes from all those scarey hands and hoses in the tank again, i'm just a questioner trying to learn things.

in this case, it's really hard to know what is going on without knowing whats in flourish excel? It is something with carbon in it since they do say that it supplies carbon to plants.

Headrush, it would also be interesting for you to test ammonia levels. Not sure that what happened would cause the tank to cycle again. I think that there's things that will kill fish (like CO2), but not your beneficial bacteria, but that's just me.

windsurfer

 

[ammerman19]

yeah, not so sure about nitrates, I always thought less was always better, and I've never heard of stress from a change in nitrates. temp and pH are the two things that I would worry about most, and perhaps hardness? sometimes I think the most stress from a water change comes from all those scarey hands and hoses in the tank again, i'm just a questioner trying to learn things.



windsurfer

well me too and I would rather be on the safe side pH for instance say you have a fish who thrives in low pH in the wild but is living in your tank with a pH of 7.8 then you buffer it to 6.5 too quickly ( I know you mentioned this one). The fish isn't gonna like it. Humans for example you get the cold weather then hot then cold then hot etc.... and that is when peoples immune systems are weakened and they get colds. I have no scientific proof of my theory I just don't see a large rapid change of anything in water quality being very enjoyable for fish to go through. Good to bad or bad to good.