Fish keep dying in two tanks.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Gourami Swami said:
I did misunderstand, I thought you were asking how to clean tons of gunk from the sub each week with fish in the tank.
If there is no fish in the tank, I would fill and drain the tank a few times, completely cleaning the substrate each time. If the sand is so full of gunk that you can't get it to look like normal, clean sand after a few cleanings, it might be better to just change it out for new sand. Then once it is cleaned, you are going to have to re-cycle the tank. You can use media from an established filter to skip this process. If you don't know about the nitrogen cycle, definitely read up on that, most important thing to know.
I find that the suction of the hose is dependent on the height. If the end of the hose is much lower than the tank the suction will be stronger. If the tank is low to the ground the suction won't be as strong. A wider tube on the hose can make the water flow faster as well.
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I know a little bit about the nitrogen cycle but obviously not enough. And the height thing was something we figured out after struggling with a low tank but the hose i wasnt sure about how size would effect flow. I wasnt sure if water volume in the tube would increase the weight of the water making it pull slower or not. But thank you for your advice and i will definitely be reading up more on the nitrogen cycle and i will just continue to clean the tank like suggested and see how it goes.
 
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Some tips I have learned

In my opinion sand is by far harder to keep clean as opposed to gravel. Like others have said it's easy for it to get compacted and can be a gas breeding ground. It's due to the small size of the sand. It can make it so the gasses get trapped, then when you stir it up all these gasses are released at one time, and you get fish deaths.

When I ran with sand I got this hand started siphon so I can clean the sand without a good percent of the sand going down the drain. 20180619_112155.jpg

I would siphon into a 5gal bucket so I can reclaim the sand that gets sucked up. Keep the end just above the sand surface, and make little circles, it will cause the detritus to swirl up into the siphon. Also you need to just turn over the sand. I did 1/4 of the tank each water change. Just sink your fingers into the sand and wiggle then a bit to get any build up out. Like I said only do a 1/4 of the tank per water change so you don't over gas and kill your fish. Gravel is a lot easier due to the big gaps between the rocks. Any gas created can easily escape.

What is happening is you are getting these gas pockets. Then when you go and do your full clean you are releasing all this gas at one time.
 
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This is how I clean my sand. I stuff the gravel vac deep into the sand and let it suck up a ton of sand and then kink the hose. Keep the gravel vac on the bottom of the tank and let the sand sink back down then un kink the hose. If you do it right A black cloud of water will suck up you hose and not out free into the water column.
 
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If you are worried about sulfur just take out some of the sand so it is only like .5 - .75 inches deep and that should prevent that from happening. If you are killing Raphael catfish you have some serious problems because those things are almost indestructible.
 
I never had any problems with sand 0.45-0.55 mm or larger in size (#20 silica sand or pool filter sand) creating anaerobic pockets. I did have problems with playsand, which is much smaller than 0.4 mm, creating dark anaerobic spots.
 
You could also put some Malaysian trumpet snails in there. They will dig through the sand and prevent any sulfur gas from building up.
 
Since you wait a lot of time in between water changes, there are a number of scenarios that could be at work, individually or together.
If there is a lot of debris build up between WCs, that decomposing debris (proteins, dissolved organic carbon etc) is gradually acidifying the water, so when you do, do a water change the pH of the new water, could be a drastically different pH after a WC. Alone this probably is not a problem, but then stirring up the sand, releasing hydrogen sulfide from trapped gases, and then by a severe sand wash, reducing the needed benificial bacteria population, could be enough to create problems.
I've never had problems with sand, but I do 3 water changes per week, and vacuum off any debris with each one.
I find if you do enough frequent water changes, with vacuuming, debris never builds up and gets a chance to work its way in, and create H2S, and a smelly situation .
 
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I appreciate evrryones feedback and Jexnell Jexnell where do i get that specific one? I like the thin tube which should allow for faster flow meaning more debris pickup.

I currently have the tank cycling and im cleaning it again today. No fish in it, my bichir is making me nervous with my cichlids so i want him out of there asap. Hes not aggressive, just always hungry lol. Unfortunately the tank needs a parasite treatment.

A little background, two raphaels, a striped and a spotted, 2 spotted pictus, 1 dojo loach and a 12 inch polyp. Sen. Bichir all in a 55 tall. Thats what i showed up and found at a house that was selling a tank and their fish (rock heads probably) and their fishes water was black already, it was filled up only halfway due to a crack, but they were all kicking and still alive so we saved all of them. The only one left is the dinosaur eel. They came from the most disgusting of conditions and we had unforseen events that made it very difficult to keep up with them and had nowhere to rehome them.

So what im getting at, is that they came from filth and i feel that may have brought along parasites and other goodies. But we are in the process of getting the 75 pristine.

S Supergeorge123 as for the raphaels dying, i reeeeally feel there is something else going on that is affecting them for some reason. They ALWAYS die if they get put in the 75 we have, 1 died from being placed in a specific 20g we have and it was literally a 15 minute transfer. We moved the raphaels all to the 75 and within 2 weeks they all died. Now, it would be one thing if OTHER FISH were dying at the same time we were having issues with the raphaels, but it was literally like a raphael catfish plague and we have only managed to keep on alive and he lives with our cichlids and argues with our BN pleco lol
 
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