Something horrible happened today

[BillyMaysChickenWings]

I came home today to something awful. I looked at my 20 gallon aquarium to find it incredibly cloudy. I didn't know why. I had made sure to ration out water conditioner well during my water change yesterday, and although I had fed two times today, I knew that couldn't have been the reason, because I didn't horrifically overfeed. pH, nitrites, and ammonia were all balanced last time I checked. So that's why I found it odd. I decided to change a few gallons of water in order to fix the cloudiness problem, but then I noticed something. My eel from my prior post (BTW, the 20g was just a growout for it) was completely limp. I tried to help him out, yet to no avail. I didn't know what to do. I left it there for a bit so my change could settle. I really didn't know what to do. My tank has had problems like this before that were back to normal in a day or so. But what I came back to was devastating and heartbreaking. The eel was 100% dead, along with three of my four red-eye tetras, and my favorite fish, a halfbeak who I had kept for over 14 months. I'll admit it, when I found it I cried a little. Okay, not a little. I completely broke down. It takes some to admit, but when you've kept fish that long you just get a certain connection to them. I decided to do a 100% water change (which, normally I would never recommend, I was just in a state of distress.) Afterwards, my kuhli loaches were okay, my otos were okay, and my betta was okay. However, the tetra was left without his friends, and the halfbeak and eel were gone forever. I really felt (and still feel) like throwing up. It was by far one of the worst things that's happened to me in this hobby.(Rivaled only by the 15 gallon situation, but I'd rather not elaborate on that.) It'll probably take me a few days to cope, but sharing it here so others can understand made me feel a little better. I hope some of you understand.
Edit: I think the water conditioner had something to do with it. It was very heavy duty

 

[kno4te]

Sorry for the losses. Did u check ur water when this event happened? What conditioner are u using? Any leftover food? What’s ur filtration?

 

[BillyMaysChickenWings]

Filter- Not sure the exact capacity, I just know it was Aqueon and sold with the tank. I think it was a 25g filter? Silentflow I believe as well. Filter cartridges freshly changed. A large cartridge in back, smaller spongy piece in front

Leftover food- There was some, but I don't think it was enough to tip off such cataclysm. Plus, usually when there's food on the bottom, there's just enough to create beneficial bacteria, though controlled enough to be neutralized by my (not to brag, but) all-star cleanup crew

Water conditions- It was sort of late when I discovered this, (it was too late for my situation as well) and just about everywhere around was closed. I was out of test supplies (other than digital pH monitor.) I may be able to salvage some messed-up water tomorrow and test it, but the condition could likely escalate by then, therefore making it inaccurate. However, water conditions were quite good before the incident

Water conditioner- My main culprit. I used bottled API. Which in hindsight, I think was a giant mistake. I really regret using it. Admittedly it was stupid of me. Reading and answering this response has made me think it back over as I type now, and I extremely regret using it. I'm starting to contemplate how I should have been more responsible dosing, as it is known to be heavier duty than most water conditioner. Threw the bottle of sh@t away when I had the chance. Thank you for the warm response. I was a little suspicious of it the whole time-- though not fully realized until recently.

Really all I'm doing here is digging a deeper hole- which in a way is bad, though in another, truer way is good. I have had an epiphany.

 

[HarleyK]

That sucks. Sorry to hear.

 

[Red Cichlids]

Everyone who has been in this hobby a while has had die-offs. I remember I had a beautiful pair of brown discus when I was in about 7th grade. I came home from school and found them dead. The green Supreme clip-on-rim heater had gotten stuck on and "cooked" them.

Everything else has been a little less heart-breaking than that one was.

As far as what could have gone wrong with your tank:

• municipal water might have had an extra high dose of chlorine or chloramine,
• not enough water conditioner, as you mentioned. Brand shouldn't matter, it is super low-tech: sodium thiosulfate solution,
• water company could have changed from surface water to well water or visa versa, creating a pH shock,
• water level might have been too high so there was no turbulence to break up the surface layer,
• airline might have come off, gotten kinked, or started flowing to another outlet with lower pressure,
• chain reaction where one fish dies, then starts to decompose and fouls the tank so that others start to die too, which makes the ammonia higher and kills off more fish,
• over cleaning the filter and destroying the filter bacteria,
• food remaining uneaten after 30 minutes
• getting lotion, sunscreen, or soap into the tank while reaching in to clean it.

Chances are it was a combination of two or more of these that did it this time. It's happened to all of us. You will have better fish days ahead, and this gives you the opportunity to strike off in a new direction.

 

[Matteus]

Well said R Red Cichlids im happy you illustrated that so well, now I don’t need to repeat all that. These are all evidenced that a bigger tank is always better because if something goes wrong you have more time to catch it and hopefully remedy it before a full on disaster happens.

I can however commiserate in a crappy day today.

I just smashed the glass lid for my new tank ($200 to replace it locally?)that I just had built, got super mad and went downstairs to find 2 of my fancy silver dollars dead ($100)and the rest of the group have serious ich.

 

[esoxlucius]

You say your API water conditioner is "heavy duty" and that's what's caused your problem? From what I can gather the API brand of water conditioner is no where near as heavy duty as Prime for example, the brand which most of us use for big tanks. In fact, the last time I looked at the instructions on an API bottle I think I found i'd have to dose more or less the full bottle in my big tank! Not value for money at all for those with bigger set ups.

So, that said, if you still think it's the water conditioner, and bearing in mind it's only a small tank, you would have had to have added a fair old slurp of it for it to cause issues. How much do you add? You say this has happened before but your tank settled down on those previous occasions.

If you have low chlorine/chloramine levels in your water, meaning the conditioner has little to react with, it will react with the oxygen in your tank instead. So an overdose in that situation could be fatal.

Some fish cope with lower oxygen levels better than other fish, this would explain why some survived.

I may be wrong but each avenue needs investigating.

Sorry for your loss. Keep your chin up.

 

[BillyMaysChickenWings]

Thank you for all of the advice. This will help me in the future.

 

[duanes]

OP....When you say you change out the media in your filter, do you throw part of it away? All of it away?
Do you replace it with out of the box new media?
do you squeeze out some used media in old tank water, and replace it?

 

[FJB]

I am very sorry for your loss. One suggestion for the future (regardless of whether it can be determined this was a factor on this sad accident) is to modify the insets of your filter ('cartridges'), in a manner that they can be reused. This can be done with just about every brand of filters, including those that use disposable cartridges. It takes a bit of ingenuity but one can modify the cartridges by maintaining their plastic frames (so they fit properly in the slots), or making new ones, and adding sponge or blue matting material from fabric store (forgot name), cutout to correct size/thickness. I prefer sponge by far, because they maintain the physical integrity. I have modified Penguin, Whisper (my own use currently and in the past) and Aqueon filters (for friends), and made insets for canisters.
The advantages are, 1) you will never kill much of the bacteria, as you will regularly squeeze the sponges in aquarium water, instead of replacing cartridges, 2) if using sponge, they will last for years, 3) you will save tons of money and will not support the 'disposable hope' of manufacturers, who aim solely at making money off us, not at fish (although they claim so, or the environment (they simply ignore this aspect), and 4) you will gain full control and increased efficiency of your tanks' filtration.
Better yet, another possibility (for the future) is to consider replacing your filter for one that allows more flexibility and choice of media. But even those designed for disposable cartridges can be easily modified.
All that said, it could have been something else (as pointed above), including insufficient/too much conditioner, a bad input of water (due to water company), or some external contamination that accidentally entered the tank. Again, sorry for your loss. If it serves as any consolation, just about everybody who keeps fish has had a regrettable accident, mistake, or still unexplained event which caused loss.