Switched from prime to safe- dead fish

[Wiksta]

Feeders are weird like that. Do a regular water change and next thing you find em dead

Wasn't just the feeders. Lost a silver dollar in my 180g and a bristle nose pleco and 2 rasboras in my 55g. Both i have had at least 2-3 years and appeared to be in fine health. Feeders were in a 20g. Water change on all. So odds are has something to do with the water change but can't pinpoint it.. first time using safe but appears i dosed the tanks properly.

 

[pops]

sorry to hear, I do suggest dosing before you fill or put any water in, I turn the water on and while its coming to temp I dose before hitting the fill valve, some fish love to hang out in the incoming water and even the few minutes before dosing can gill burn them.

 

[Wiksta]

sorry to hear, I do suggest dosing before you fill or put any water in, I turn the water on and while its coming to temp I dose before hitting the fill valve, some fish love to hang out in the incoming water and even the few minutes before dosing can gill burn them.

I notice most of my fish like the incoming stream. Does safe act that fast though? I would think even dosing the tank first, wouldn't act that fast on the incoming water stream... either way good idea to dose first and give it a few minutes to distribute before adding water. Never had a problem in the past though.

 

[pops]

it does, the effect is immediate, think of a magnet, the positive is pulled to the neg charge. soon as one is present the other pulls and binds,

 

[robham777]

Sounds like a possible case of gas bubble disease. Supersaturation of nitrogen and oxygen in the tap water would explain the cloudy water and the fish mortality. It seems unlikely that you would have an ammonia spike in 3 different tanks and safe should detoxify ammonia anyway. Some sort of contamination in your tap water seems the most likely culprit to me and using safe for the first time just a coincidence. I don't currently use safe, but was planning on switching.

 

[RD.]

Safe will only detoxify a certain level of ammonia if one has a spike, and chloramine is a combination of ammonia and chlorine, so with each water change even more free ammonia is released into the tank. Either way, I just tossed that out as a possibility due to the mini cycle comment from moving, and cloudy water.

Gas bubble disease is uber rare in the hobby, and I live in an area where in the winter our water is always on the edge of super saturation. (NW Canada)
Yet even with 90% water changes I have never once over the years seen or even heard of a documented case of gas bubble disease. So on a 40% water change, and again, in all 3 tanks - not likely.

Next .....

 

[Coryloach]

I use safe powder dosing it directly in the tank for the water volume and I haven't had any issues. But as far as I am aware it does not detoxify heavy metals unlike its liquid counterpart, e.g. copper, etc..It's possible your tap water is contaminated/high on something else rather than ammonia/chlorine/chloramnes that safe does not take care of....who knows...

 

[robham777]

All the scenarios seem unlikely to me, but something went wrong. Wiksta is it possible that you inadvertently contaminated your other tanks with a pathogen from the feeder tank in the past three weeks? It is very easy to do, especially when working on multiple tanks. I hope you get to the root of the problem before having to do more wc.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Any chance of someone messing with the tanks or the water change equipment? I have known of stuff being put in tanks to kill fish. Years ago in Lexington KY a man with a small shop had a tank of nice clown loaches killed when something was put into his tank. Not an accident.

Also well meaning people have caused problems around tanks. Any chance someone could have done something? I live alone so know which bits of equipment are for tank use only. Even so I mark the buckets "for aquarium use only".

 

[RD.]

The only heavy metals that Prime neutralizes, are normal levels found in most tap water. It does not, and cannot, detoxify or neutralize a large spike of anything, be it copper, lead, etc. That comes directly from the CEO and head chemist of Seachem. Ditto to if the tank had an ammonia spike, neither Prime nor Safe will neutralize the excess free ammonia, unless one is adding extra product to treat the extra ammonia. You guys ought to read my sticky. lol

So unless this happens again, and the OP digs deeper, and runs some tests, chances are this is going to remain an enigma.