Safe dosage caused fish loss- what went wrong?

[Wiksta]

I have been using prime for years. Switched to Safe last night and did a water change on all 3 of my tanks. This morning my 20 gallon lost all its fish. Roughly 15 feeder fish. When i got home from work today i found a dead silver dollar in my 180 gallon and a pleco and rasbora in my 55 gallon. I tested the water and levels are fine. Ph is roughly 8. The tanks also look cloudy, when yesterday they were clear. The other fish don't seem distressed. I put Prime in the tanks about an hour ago. I have had these fish for years and haven't had one die in quite some time. Nothing has changed recently with the tanks. Ill post my measurements below. I mixed the powder in roughly 1/4 cup of water to dissolve before putting in the tank. I have scoops that measure a gram and under. I weighed the gram scoop and it came out to be 1.2 grams so it's pretty close.

What are your thoughts? I want to use safe in the future but this has me extremely worried. At this point though, i can't be sure this is even the problem, but what else could it be?

.1gram = 25 gallon- used for 20 gallon tank
.25gram = 62.5 gallon- used for 55 gallon tank
1gram = 250 gallon -used heavy scoop for 180 gallon tank

 

[HarleyK]

Seachem says "Use 1.25 g (1/4 tsp.) for every 1,250 L (300 US gallons) as needed to reduce chlorine and chloramine"

That means use 0.08 g for the 20 gal if you have no decor or substrate, change 100% of the water and fill it up to the rim. 0.23 g for the 55 gal, and 1g for the large tank (as you did). But did you really do a 100% water change? Having said that, double-dosing shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Lastly, we've had members here (including myself) who used water conditioner appropriately and still lost fish. The reason is "shocking" of tap water by water suppliers after pipe repairs. Their use of disinfectant is too much to be handled by water conditioners, and it kills fish. You may have been so unlucky that you got the hyperchlorinated water...

Sorry about your losses

 

[Wiksta]

Seachem says "Use 1.25 g (1/4 tsp.) for every 1,250 L (300 US gallons) as needed to reduce chlorine and chloramine"

That means use 0.08 g for the 20 gal if you have no decor or substrate, change 100% of the water and fill it up to the rim. 0.23 g for the 55 gal, and 1g for the large tank (as you did). But did you really do a 100% water change? Having said that, double-dosing shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Lastly, we've had members here (including myself) who used water conditioner appropriately and still lost fish. The reason is "shocking" of tap water by water suppliers after pipe repairs. Their use of disinfectant is too much to be handled by water conditioners, and it kills fish. You may have been so unlucky that you got the hyperchlorinated water...

Sorry about your losses

Thanks for the info. It's looking like the dosage i used was fine. I'm calling around now trying to find chloramine levels in the water and if any repairs recently to the pipes.

 

[RD.]

Seachem's advice is based on a fantasy base line number (1 ppm), and as I mentioned in the other thread you need to know the disinfectant values in your tap water in order to know how much water conditioner you need to neutralize the chlorine/chloramine in your local tap water. Don't let Seachem or their reps do the math for you.

There's a sticky in this folder that I wrote several years ago, some of the info in it might help.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/cost-effective-water-conditioners.309623/

 

[Wiksta]

Seachem's advice is based on a fantasy base line number, and as I mentioned in the other thread you need to know the disinfectant values in your tap water in order to know how much water conditioner you need to neutralize the chlorine/chloramine in your local tap water. Don't let Seachem or their reps do the math for you.

There's a sticky in this folder that I wrote several years ago, some of the info in it might help.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/cost-effective-water-conditioners.309623/

The report shows 3.7 chloramine in my water. So the dose i used should have been fine... 1 gram safe for an aquarium with less than 200 gallons and 35% water change. I emailed them asking if any repairs or something that would cause a spike. If there is nothing then I'm at a loss for what happened. What else could affect all 3 tanks after water change?

 

[Wiksta]

Seachem's advice is based on a fantasy base line number (1 ppm), and as I mentioned in the other thread you need to know the disinfectant values in your tap water in order to know how much water conditioner you need to neutralize the chlorine/chloramine in your local tap water. Don't let Seachem or their reps do the math for you.

There's a sticky in this folder that I wrote several years ago, some of the info in it might help.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/cost-effective-water-conditioners.309623/

Just heard back. No repairs recently that would affect me. So I'm baffled. What went wrong that it affected all tanks?

 

[Def Leppard Hysteria]

Seachem says "Use 1.25 g (1/4 tsp.) for every 1,250 L (300 US gallons) as needed to reduce chlorine and chloramine"

That means use 0.08 g for the 20 gal if you have no decor or substrate, change 100% of the water and fill it up to the rim. 0.23 g for the 55 gal, and 1g for the large tank (as you did). But did you really do a 100% water change? Having said that, double-dosing shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Lastly, we've had members here (including myself) who used water conditioner appropriately and still lost fish. The reason is "shocking" of tap water by water suppliers after pipe repairs. Their use of disinfectant is too much to be handled by water conditioners, and it kills fish. You may have been so unlucky that you got the hyperchlorinated water...

Sorry about your losses

This happened to me this summer. Of course the water municipality engineer was worthless to talk to...

 

[CarpCharacin]

For my 40 gallon tanks, I just measure out a quarter teaspoon and then tap most of it out until there is a little pinch left and I use that.