PLEASE HELP! fish dying

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elfster86

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 25, 2010
10
0
0
hunting beach CA
Ok so i have had a 55g tank for almost 4 months now. it had a fluval 404 filter about 3 inches of gravel/crushed coral at the bottom a 200watt heater set at 79, and a whisper 1000.

over the past couple months i have addes african cichlids, a chocalate pleco, tiger oscar. the 10 cichlids have grown to about 4-5 inch the oscar is about 11inch then the pleco is about 9inch

now the other day i noticed my filter has been getting really weak even though i have cleaned it about 3 times. i mean i could barly feel the flow. so i decided to upgrade anyways as i have some dirty fish. i went down to the local fish store and got a fluval fx5 with 3 boxes of biomax and 2 boxes of carbon. i put all 3 boxes of biomax in the bottom 2 trays and about 4 carbon bags in the top tray and WOW my tank looked a 100 times better within a couple hours.

i felt since i had spent all this money i might as well do a full cleaning and took everything out of the tank (decor.) and cleaned the crap out of the gravel. with about a 60% water change. and man when i got everything put back together the tank was looking amazing (last night).

now i get up this morning and all my fish are dead!!! except the smallest cichlid, tiger pscar, and pleco. 9 fish total dead.

i did realize somehow my tanks air supply got pinched for the new filter line and there was no air in the tank for probally 10 hours. i also checked my water levels and HOLLY CRAP! the nirate is 140ppm the nitrite is at 1.0 but the ph is at 7.6 and there is no ammonia.

what can i do to save the rest of my fish! and get my tank back to livable conditions???
 
you probably cleaned them with tap water and cleaning out ur filter made it so it had none of the right bacteria to help get rid of nitrites combine this with 60% of the waters bacteria gone and same with the substrate, you basically just restarted your whole ecosystem you cant really do much except go down to the store and buy the bacteria needed
 
oh yeah to save the fish you have to put it in a tank that has been running good for a while turn up the heat and turn off the lights, then pray. sorry for your loss bro
 
do you have another tank to keep the fish in? and I know how you feel, this happened to me before too, it sucks =/
 
at this point a bucket of warm filtered water would be better for them than your tank
 
also is there somthing i could pick up at walmart (only thing open with fish supply) that would at least drop my nitrite and nitrate levels temporarily? i am scared that when i wake up tomorrow the rest will be dead.
 
Lost 4 disthicodus the same way u man...we both and many others learned it the hard way. wish u luck wit the remaining fish bro.
 
well i dont have another tank yet. i can take a 5 gallon bucket and put the fluval 404 and air supply in it? maybe even the heater? but that seems a lil small for a 9inch pleco, 11inch oscar, and small cichlid?
 
Try amquel+ it could help i use it when i do water changes, its fairly common so wal-mart should have it. heres a picture
Photo on 2010-03-06 at 23.04.jpg
if they dont have it buy anything that says "removes nitrates nitrites ammonia chlorine and chloramines.
 
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