Just Chlorine burned my entire cichlid tank

[ericifish]

im so furious as im typing this. i did my tank cleaning just now and changed about 50% of the water in my african tank when i filled it back up and noticed all of my cichlids swimming at the top. long story short all of my convict fry that were in the tank are dead, and my africans are slowly recovering, with my jewel cichlid and mbuna sitll laying on the bottom but breathing. i immediatly dumped in some dechlorinator (twice the recommended dosage)

it looks like they are recovering slowly but im still so mad at myself for making this noob mistake



note: i have wayyyy too many convicts but it still makes me angry and sad to see all the dead babies floating around

GOD @*&!#(@!&#*!@($*(!@*&(!@$

 

[chefjamesscott]

ah man sorry to hear

I throw prime in before I pull the water and when Im adding the water so I basically do a double dose.

 

[ericifish]

so you think its safe for me now to add another dose? i've already treated about 70 gallons of water in my 55

 

[jcardona1]

thats why you add as youre filling up! lesson learned. or, it could have been temperature/ph shock

 

[q_fish]

hmm, i did 30% WC and i just add salt and stress coat to my tank and nothing happens... but good luck with ur fish, hope they are doing better

 

[gnuisance]

You could pour the whole bottle in and it wouldn't hurt the fish. I don't recommend doing that but just sayin....

 

[ericifish]

update: convict cichlids would survive swiming around in a nuclear reactor. only two of my africans are now swimming at the top. im positive its chlorine burn because the water changed only 1-2 degrees and they are gasping like their gills are burning.

jewel cichlid and mbuna still at bottom, one of my zebras seems normal but another is still swimming at the top. i have another mbuna who looks the worst swimming almost vertically at the top actually as im typing this looking better

 

[volcomstone]

Sorry to hear that...Yea I actually know people who don't throw any de-chlorinate (ie. Prime) when doing a water change and their fishes turn out fine all the time.

 

[jcardona1]

You could pour the whole bottle in and it wouldn't hurt the fish. I don't recommend doing that but just sayin....

please dont spread bad information like this. some people could believe you. per Seachem:

The recommended dose of Prime (1 ml per 10 gallons) is capable of removing up to 3 ppm of chloramine or up 4 ppm of chlorine. I suspect that the recommended dose will suffice. 3x the dose is also acceptable although may be a bit wasteful. As a general rule it is usually not harmful to slightly overdose dechlorinators as they are not very strong reducing agents. An extreme overdose could lead to problems as it could bind oxygen depending on the situation (this holds true with any dechlorinator).

 

[ericifish]

i have two oscars and a pleco that could care less about chorinated water. my dad helps me out with water changes and i found out he never added the dechlroinator so i don't even use it in their tank

african cichlids however....