HELP PLEASE

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R

rojowe

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 15, 2009
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Ontario
So recently all my fish died, im assuming its because I cleaned my filters sponges with tap water...
I woke up and all of the fish were dead....except the invertebrates
I did a 90% water change and left the inverts in the tank...
Now I have 2 new Convicts in the tank the problem is they were swimming around happily together (definately paired) now only about an hour or so later the female wont leave the surface and the male is just sitting under a cave not swimming.
All of the parameters are fine and normal...
the tank is 90 gallon, temp is about 79F
Please help...I have no clue whats going on and i dont want to loose these two
 
how long ago did you do the water change? what is the temp, ph, ammonia level, etc.? if the tank isn't cycled...
 
i did the water change a few days ago, like 3 days, i figured all the bb was still in the tank so it wouldnt be so much of a problem, but then i remembered i cleaned the filter. Convicts came in yesterday. They werent looking so good, I checked the params again last night and the ph and alkalinity were kinda low so i threw in some ph up and that seemed to get them ok. This morning though I look and the female is still hanging out at the top, not nose to the surface just sort of sticking around up there, and the male is just kinda hanging out at the bottom. I opened the hood to check the temperature and params and she swam down to him and stayed with him while i was messing around. then as soon as i closed it she swam back up. The Ph was still a bit low so i put in a bit more ph up...hoping its all going to be ok.
I realize the problems ive been having are just a series of rookie mistakes..
 
How low is your pH? What was the reading when you tested it? You might want to put this thread in the fish disease area. Or ask Lupin directly to get a quick response. He always seems really good at diagnosing problems. But we need specifics to help. List out exactly what your testing kit is reading the water at so we have a better idea of whats going on. I don't think using chemicals to adjust your pH is always a good idea. If your tap water is naturally too low you might want to look into putting crushed corals in there. I think that is a more stable way to fix the problem than adding chemicals over and over. I'm not too knowledgeable with the pH stuff though. If you put down the specifics than more people might chime in.
 
i dont mean to harp or anything, when i say params are fine to my understanding that would mean
Nitrates are low, mine seems to be at like maybe 1-2
Nitrite 0-0.1
GH about 100
Chlorine 0
then the issues i pointed out
Alkalinity about 40
ph 6.6
So now the female is still hanging out in the top corner and the male is staying at the bottom, neither is swimming around, just sitting
 
i dont mean to harp or anything, when i say params are fine to my understanding that would mean
Nitrates are low, mine seems to be at like maybe 1-2
Nitrite 0-0.1
GH about 100
Chlorine 0
then the issues i pointed out
Alkalinity about 40
ph 6.6
So now the female is still hanging out in the top corner and the male is staying at the bottom, neither is swimming around, just sitting
 
Although i can't say for sure, it almost sounds like you may have wiped out your colony of BB when you did a 90% water change + cleaned out the filter sponges with tap water...

But being a bit of a rookie myself, i would wait for some of the more experienced members to help you out with a more definitive answer...
 
thats what ive also been told, im going to get some stabilize stuff by seachem today, but im just wondering why that would be affecting my cichlids right now, or maybe there is only a bit of bb so there could be some harmful stuff in the water that they detect that im not? idk honestly im just pretty stressed about this, i lost all my fish in the past week now im trying to start over and they just dont seem comfortable...just sucks right now, i wana get everything back on track
 
from the list of param's you have given it looks like you are using one of those test strip dip thingys.

Well those can never be trusted. It is said that they have a shelf life of around 3months. And then are worthless. And even during the very short window of life that they have they still are not very accurate.

And to top that off they do not test for the most common aquarium toxin AMMONIA.

I am guessing that is your problem. ammonia is high.

Since we have no test results to go off of I would go ahead and do a 75% water change now. And then do a 75% everyday until you get a trustworthy test kit. I would suggest API liquid drop master test kit.
 
This sounds like your tank very likely could be recycling and you have had an ammonia spike. You didn't test for ammonia, so we can't be sure, but the fact that you killed off your bacteria and did a major h2o change seems to point that direction. I would immediately go buy a better test kit. Make sure you at least have ammonia, nitrate, nitrite so we can get an idea where you stand on the nitrogen cycle.
 
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